Railroaders' Nostalgia > Mad Dog Chronicles # 34: The Bayport Turn, 1971

The Bayport Turn, 1971

The regular conductor on the Bayport turn was John Burns

John Burns was a grouchy old mule of a conductor. John Burns was lazy; his brakemen did all the work while he lounged in his caboose. John Burns was an overtime hog of the first order. He was uncooperative and resisted every suggested change in his work routines. John Burns was the epitome of a young assistant trainmaster’s nemesis

With the help of my dispatchers, particularly Junior Price, I set out to at least get Burns’ overtime down to a reasonable level.

The very first challenge was getting the Bayport Turn out of Englewood Yard, but there was not very much that I could do about that. What I could do, I decided, was to eliminate all of the things that got in the way of the Bayport, once it did break out of Englewood. This was going to involve several of the Galveston Subdivision Dispatchers. At this time, the Bayport turn gave Goodyear Rubber a night switch at Sinco, then set out cars at Strang and at the South end of the Bayport Loop. After that, they went to the next runaround to the south at Joyce, ran around their caboose, and then waited in the clear for the arrival of the Galveston hauler, train #221. Frequently, the Bayport was stuck at Joyce for several hours waiting for 221, which also had to escape the gravitational pull of Englewood Yard.

I had noticed, on the rare occasions when the Bayport was delayed at Englewood, but 221 got out in good shape, that the Dispatcher would run 221 around the Bayport Turn at either Sinco or at Link Five. On these occasions, the Bayport turn actually made up time, since it no longer had to wait for 221 to pass by. After it made it’s last set out at Bayport, it was a very short while before the Turn showed up at the north end of the Bayport Loop to pick up the shipouts and start back toward Englewood. With the help of the Galveston Dispatcher, we began to tinker with the orders that the Bayport Turn received at Strang on its southward trip toward Joyce. We tried various combinations of a work order for the Bayport and strong wait orders for #221 at Strang. The first objective was to allow the Bayport Turn to return at least as far as the North end of the Bayport Loop. For there, the Bayport Turn could make its first pickup and perform the initial airbrake test, while waiting for 221 to pass by. If 221 was quite late, an ever stronger wait at Strang would allow the Bayport Turn to return to Strang, make its pickup and get in the clear on the north leg of the wye there at Strang.

Ultimately, we were able to get the Bayport Turn all the way back to the siding at Link Five where it could get in the clear, and even go to eat, by also giving 221 a wait order at Link Five. This worked wonders on John Burns overtime on the many nights when 221 was it’s typical three plus hours escaping from Englewood. On top of all of this, the rest of Burns crew actually liked to have a chance for a meal at the icehouse at Link Five. Only John Burns himself was the unhappy camper, but, after all, he had a sour disposition to begin with.

The night that Burns finally knew that he was beaten was the night of one of Englewood yards many mini meltdowns. The hump yard was a disaster area that night. There had been some sort of a derailment on the hump lead and all of the hump process was very much delayed. Neither the Bayport Turn nor 221 were anywhere close to being set by the time they were normally set to depart. On top of all this, there was some issue with the locomotives assigned to the Bayport that night. The roundhouse truck from Hardy Street was working on it.

Train number 221 actually got out of Englewood long before the Bayport turn was ready to depart. I had been calling Bob Conner, the assistant trainmaster at the crest every hour or so trying to get a fix on when the Bayport Turn would finally get out on the Galveston Sub. No time soon was the response, more than once.

Unlike the Englewood hump yard that night, I was having an easy and smooth night out at Strang. For one thing, the Pasadena Switcher got done early switching Shell and Cyzinski had brought his Shell shipouts over to the siding at Link Five. The conductor on Strang Switcher 5 this particular night was Jack Jenkins, as it frequently was.

First, I had Jenkins bring all of the shipouts from the Bayport Loop up to Strang to the north leg of the wye. Burns still wasn’t out of Englewood. Not any time soon said Bob Conner, the night assistant trainmaster at the crest. Next I told Jenkins to take all of the Bayport and Strang shipouts over to Link Five and add them to the Pasadena’s cars. “You are cutting into my early quit” said Mr. Jenkins…..I pointed out that for once, he might put in a decent nights work. Burns still was not ready to leave Englewood.

I had Jenkins take the whole train over to the siding at Sinco. It was way past the time to give Goodyear their night switch. Switcher Five did that next. Now, at last, Burns was out of Englewood. No doubt, expecting to die on the law and make all sorts of overtime. I told Jenkins to get on the south end of his Caboose and get into the clear on the main line at Sinco. And, at last, here came the Bayport turn. I met the head end crew at the north end of Sinco. I told them that the Dispatcher was going to line them into the siding at Sinco that their train for Englewood was waiting for them there. They should just cut their engines off and go against their train in the siding. After they did this, Jenkins and Switcher Five grabbed the Bayport Turn train and pulled down to the south end of Sinco where they even placed the Caboose, with John Burns stewing in it, on the rear of their inbound train of shipouts.

“What about switching Goodyear,” whined Burns? Already taken care of I told him as I called Bob Conner at the Englewood Crest and told him that he had better have a vacant receiving track for the Bayport Turn ready. “He is just finishing his air test and is about ready to leave Sinco,” Bob Conner, could not believe that I had pulled this rabbit out of my hat. But I had, with the help of Jack Jenkins and Switcher Five.

John Burns never got out of Englewood yard any later, or got back to Englewood any earlier. He didn’t even earn any overtime that night.

mdo

Mike:

These stories are absolutely the best. I would think they would be ideal for an ongoing series in the SP Historical and Technical Society's excellent publication, TRAINLINE. Have you thought of that?

Yes, and you are the second person to suggest this.

If they are interested, i will consider it.

mdo