Railroaders' Nostalgia > Retirement Chronicles - The Great E8 Debacle

Retirement Chronicles – The Great E8 Debacle
 
The week of October 7, 1991 started out as a busy one at Rome Locomotive Works  in Rome, NY, and by the end of it one that TO member locoinsp and I will remember for a long time.
 
Things were going well at the shop which was a facility located in the old, and I do mean old, original New York Locomotive Works facility, later Rome Locomotive Works. The name was reconstituted by two business partners and used the former facility that most recently had been a Pettibone Krane manufacturing plant. The one partner by 1991 had bowed out, and sort of unfortunately the other remained with sole ownership and oversight. He was a nice enough guy, but likely should not have been left to his own devices. He was a brilliant mechanical guy who could figure out ways to do anything with nothing, and nothing is usually what we had to work with and sometimes nothing was what was in the payroll checking account on payday. But we had a good reputation, considerable pride and stayed busy and had some fun regardless of our feral railfan owner.
 
This particular week we had to turn out an E8 locomotive owned by the Central NY Chapter, NRHS. It was basically in operating condition, but needed inspection and tune up and I seem to recall we load boxed it. Did we paint it?  My notes are sketchy these many years later, but I do not think so. What I do remember is we had the Farr Grilles off, those shiny chrome grills along the upper side of the carbody. Other work in-shop at the time included NYSW B40-8 4002 for wreck repairs, a D&H Trustee C424m locomotive, an NYSW SD45 and a GP18. Essentially we were the contract backshop for NYS&W when they were the designated operator of the D&H. It was real crunch time, we were up to it, but we had no idea how much we would be tested.
 
My notes show that we released the locomotive from the shop on Tuesday October 8th. At some point the Conrail car shop clearance bureau came out and argued with us about the height … but hey it came in and it will go out ok too.
 
On Wednesday October 9th Larry Snow and I decided to have some fun and ride the unit back to Utica, 13 miles or so where it would interchanged with the NYS&W. From there it would be worked south and taken up the Syracuse Branch and put on a Tully to Norwich rail excursion planned for Saturday.  The Conrail local arrived towards the end of the day and Larry and I got on. Larry was our chief electrician and one of the best; he was also our primary painter. We had another guy who thought he was Larry’s equal as a painter and was assigned lesser jobs, none of which he seemed to excel at. In fact the only thing he seemed to excel at was walking around playing supervisor and getting into everyone’s business. One of the guys in the shop gave him the name “Walk’in Boss” As the big boss / owner seemed to think this guy was the best thing since sliced bread we had to bide our time until he managed to toast himself into oblivion.
 
Off we go down the rickety slow Rome Industrial Track and past Griffiss Air Base. Pretty soon we get the light to go out on the former NYC RR Water Level Main Line and off to the races at 50 mph. It is a good ride, but just about the time we come up to speed we hear a clattering racket followed by a “zinging” sound. WTF? Immediately Larry and I come to the conclusion that the noise was the Farr Grilles getting ripped off, the very grilles that Walk’in Boss had supposedly secured tightly on. We cussed and cursed him from Oriskany all the way into Utica and dared not to poke our heads out, as we were being towed backwards and figured if another grille came off it was likely to cut our heads off.  We arrived in Utica, got off and saw no damage, nothing. Whatever it was remains a mystery and was no fault of Walk’in Boss … this time. Locoinsp met us in Utica with his little red Mazda? Pickup and took us back to the shop.
 
The next day, and day after turned into the day from hell.  We had a long day at the shop when the boss came over and said he had a phone call from the CNY Chapter and for us to report to the NYS&W shop in Utica to “protect their engine”. We were to ride the E8 south to wherever it ended up the next morning. Now I had the title of VP Administration and  locoinsp had a big title VP Shop Operations or something and indeed we were upper level management, but in reality did whatever we had to do; wrench, run overhead cranes, hostel engines, go out on over the road troubleshooting calls, work wheel shop and sweep the floors.  Hence our assignment at the end of the shop day to go to Utica and look forward to the pleasure of working an all nighter. 
 
We arrive in Utica with the initial expectation of simply letting the NYS&W mechanical forces service the unit, tack it on a train and we would climb aboard and hopefully have a good night.  That expectation ended abruptly when shop manager George King yelled out to us, “I’m short of help, you boys know this locomotive, get yer a$$es up there and get it started and ready to go. Well, ok ….. we climb up, energize the battery switch, turn on the appropriate breakers, turn on the exhaust fans and prime the first engine. The sight glass clears, the start switch springs back to the neutral position and is then turned to engage the starter. WHIRR, WHIRRR BARRRROOMM… followed by the god awfullest clatter you ever heard.  I thought all the pistons, rods and gear train components had let loose. The layshaft is pulled back and the start switch released. WTF !!???  George comes striding up as we exit the carbody trying to figure what went wrong. Honestly I don’t recall who did what all these years later. I think that I was the guy on the start switch. Anyway, King is not happy at his new help who are too stupid to remove the exhaust stack covers which have blown off and hit the low roof and fan shrouds. Well, they were not there when we sent the unit over. …. were they ??
 
Shortly we have the unit with the two engines up and running, fully serviced and daileyed. I back it out, and it gets mated to an Alco Century C430, back to back, the E8 unit being in trail. Locomotive brake tests are done and now …. finally we will have to put up with literally hours of yard switching to make up our southbound train. Hey we are hungry and have a long night, so off we go to North Genesee Street to grab some sort of fast food; McDonalds, Wendy’s I don’t recall. On the road food is food. Hours later as our stomachs rumble we’ve covered what seems to be 100 miles on all five yard tracks. We get an initial terminal air test and are ready to go, to pull out of the yard, up Schuyler Street and the long hard slug up Paris Hill with what appears as we look back, every car in the yard and then some. It’s after 11 pm … hopefully we can sit back and maybe even get a little shuteye.
 
As we pull up Schuyler Street we get an alarm bell. Damn !!  We go back and the #2 engine has shut down. We poke about; it is not getting any fuel because the fuel pump is not running. We work at it for a while and realize it is futile. We are not going to fix it. So we are running at half power with the #1 engine, but the C430 seems to be digging in ok.  It’s a slow slug, very slow. We are a bit worried about the short time rating of the unit as we drag along about 12  - 16 mph, but so far so good. As we come through Sauquoit our speed drops perceptively. In the reverse curves we stall, but the engineer does not shut down the throttle. WTF ??!!
 
Remember I said we were back to back? Yup, through the engine room of the E8, up onto the C430 and along the walkway to get into the cab. The power is still hammering away at zero MPH, but so far there is no wheel slip. I open the rear engineer’s cab door of the C430 and the engineer is poised in his seat like he’s doing 90mph down the mainline. The conductor is in a more relaxed position as he sits in his seat, but exemplifies someone moving along at speed, which we certainly are not. SHUT “EM DOWN !!!!  I yell at the top of my lungs …. The engineer doesn’t respond. SHUT ‘EM DOWN !!! …. He stirs and looks bewildered, so does the Conductor, but the engineer still does not close the throttle. I yell again … SHUT ‘EM DOWN !!!!!   He finally reaches over and makes a set on the automatic and closes the throttles. Turns back with a whaa ??  look at us. “We are stalled …. we are not moving”. “Oh”, he says…….  We try to get restarted and only make it to the north side of Holman City Road crossing north of Clayville where we have to double just off a curve.
 
Locoinsp has duly noted the location where we leave our double as will be seen shortly. We haul our first cut up to the top at Paris and come back down running from the E8. The engineer has never used a 24RL brake and it shows, but he doesn’t want any pointers; for now we are light power, which is good. Down we go after our double. We swing through Clayville and start closing in on it. The crew does not seem to be too concerned as we swing into the last curve and under the Route 8 overpass. Locoinsp turns to me in the darkened cab as we stand behind the engineer and asks, “isn’t our train just off this curve?” “Yes” …. “he’s not slowing down …”  “I know “ ……  I prompt the engineer about the situation and he jumps to and says something like “whoa !!!” locoinsp starts to unload down the ladder as we approach the crossing and I am right behind him spotting for a firm place to plant my feet. We literally slide up to a point where the couplers are about 3 feet apart. Whew !!! ….. we start to relax a little. It is well past midnight and we are exhausted. We make the hitch and start the pull up to Paris Station.
 
Here is where things get foggy and maybe locoinsp can recall. We stopped at Richfield Junction and turned the power for some reason on the wye. Maybe it was because that is the way they wanted it facing for the upcoming excursion. I was trying to ascertain the degree of curvature on the tight south leg of the wye in order to protect the unit for our client. I couldn’t get any cooperation from anyone, but we didn’t derail. We do some switching of some sort and for some reason the air goes into emergency. The engineer does not know how to reset, the air blows and PCS (the pneumatic control switch) is open. At this time I am sitting on the floor against the back wall of the cab and sort of sleeping.  Somehow, according to locoinsp, I reached up and did the reset for the air and PCS switch without really opening my eyes. I don’t really have much recollection except remembering the engineer saying over and over, “how do I reset this, I can’t get it”. 
 
Well we got everything sorted out, whatever we were doing, and go put our train together at the top of the hill. Then down we go, the engineer now moving the automatic brake handle everywhere but emergency and claiming he’s got it figured out now. God help us, well we make it down safely somehow and start switching the Sangerfield feed mill, another tight curve. I tell him to take it easy, but he winds around the curve hell bent and the big E-unit jumps, bangs hard and bounces. We stay on the rail, somehow. This unit was not designed for tight feed mill spur trackage. Now it starts to rain. Locoinsp knows what will happen next and says, “watch him now” … yup he’s looking for the windshield wiper knob. It’s actually kind of amusing but he won’t ask. He grabs the wiper and manually moves it. We finally show him the switch on the panel.
 
Ok, so it is daylight and the crew has expired on time. We go to the phone box and call the shop for a ride out. The big-boss owner comes over with the shop truck. We inform him of the issues and get Larry the electrician prepared to come out later in the day as the unit will be set out at Sherburne about 20 miles south by the impending relief train crew on the way.  Then the bad news comes … “you guys will have to go back to the shop, you can’t go home, too much work to do”. Well certainly NYS&W was in a hurry to get that B40-8 out, BUT …. Damn we are played out, flat out exhausted. No go, we have to go to the shop. Locoinsp partly shames and partly threatens the boss into at least buying us breakfast. I think we stopped at a Dunk’in Donuts to go. I could tell there was no way we were going anywhere until we got some coffee and something to eat, there would have been total mutiny, Big Boss knows it too.
 
So back we go for round two, it was terrible, we were like zombies. I finally left towards the end of the day and stopped off 45 miles south on my way home at Sherburne to catch up with Larry. He’s doing fine and his word is good as gold. He’s found the issue and it will be fixed. Another 13 miles and I get home at almost 5 pm, and call the shop and NYS&W mechanical to update the situation. I’ve been virtually up 35 – ½ hours and was scared I’d fall asleep at the wheel on the way home. But now I am home. I crash on the couch in a coma. But not for long, my wife and daughter come home about 20 minutes later, a whole new list of things that need to get done. I function for a while, but soon hit the wall and go to bed for some much needed rest. The excursion is on Saturday and there was some expectation RLW would cover it mechanically. I know I didn’t, and pretty sure locoinsp didn’t either. Maybe Larry did, maybe he didn’t, I don’t remember. I just remember the exhaustion and the whole damn E8 debacle all these years later.

Image #1 - That's me posing next to E8 #808 the week we released it from RLW in October 1991. It is painted up DL&W, but was actually a Pennsy unit if I recall correctly.

Image #2 - A photo of the "Three Amigos" in the tale above taken about 2 years previous to our story. That's me at left, Larry Snow in the middle and locoinsp at right posed next to NYS&W SD45 3618 after it was released from our shop. All these 37 years later the Amigos are retired, but the 3618 is still working hard for the NYS&W.

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Thank you for sharing the story.

OH my! Great write up of our night from hell! How well I remember that night! Doug has written it up just as it happened with no embellishment! I usually didn't scare easily on the railroad but whipping down that hill knowing that our double was not too far away scared the you know what out of me! We were definitely ready to bail off! I just couldn't comprehend the level of incompetence of the crew! It was like watching amateur hour!

I don't remember why we had to turn the power that night - I think it probaly had to do with the upcoming excursion as they wanted the E's back to back. How we didn't go on the ground is still a mystery!

The boss was annoyed that he had to come out and pick us up in the morning - guess he thought we should have hitch hiked the 40 miles back to the shop! When the idea of breakfast was mentioned he was like oh, do you guys need to get something to eat? I felt like telling him "oh gosh no, that lovely happy meal we had last night at 6 PM left me too full to eat this morning! I couldn't possibly eat another bite today! Of course we want breakfast! And yes, we were both working in a fog all day! I couldn't wait to get home and get some sleep! 

Locoinsp Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> OH my! Great write up of our night from hell! How
> well I remember that night! Doug has written it up
> just as it happened with no embellishment! 

So was that a Mazda pick up you had, that little red truck? I remember the trip back from Utica to Rome with the three of us in it was pretty cramped.

train1275 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Locoinsp Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > OH my! Great write up of our night from hell!
> How
> > well I remember that night! Doug has written it
> up
> > just as it happened with no embellishment! 
>
> So was that a Mazda pick up you had, that little
> red truck? I remember the trip back from Utica to
> Rome with the three of us in it was pretty
> cramped.

Yes. It was a Mazda pickup with 2 rows of seating. The back row certainly wasn't very comfortable! My kids didn't mind it as they were little at the time but adults didn't find it comfortable at  all!

there was many a time where I was exhausted like that, and to tired to sleep. Tired, but no longer sleepy. And it never worked for me when I had to sleep fast, I'd just toss and turn, blinking at the ceiling, too pissed to settle down and relax.

LocoPilot750 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> there was many a time where I was exhausted like
> that, and to tired to sleep. Tired, but no longer
> sleepy. And it never worked for me when I had to
> sleep fast, I'd just toss and turn, blinking at
> the ceiling, too pissed to settle down and relax.

I was the same way - get over tired and then can't sleep! I never have been a "good sleeper" to begin with but being exhausted just seems to make it worse for me! 

Locoinsp Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> LocoPilot750 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > there was many a time where I was exhausted
> like
> > that, and to tired to sleep. Tired, but no
> longer
> > sleepy. And it never worked for me when I had
> to
> > sleep fast, I'd just toss and turn, blinking at
> > the ceiling, too pissed to settle down and
> relax.
>
> I was the same way - get over tired and then can't
> sleep! I never have been a "good sleeper" to begin
> with but being exhausted just seems to make it
> worse for me! 

That problem is not limited to rails!

Superior recollections.
Bob