Railroaders' Nostalgia > Mad Dog Chronicle # 35: Houston Division 1971, The See

Houston Division 1971; The Seeds of the Melt Downs

One night on my every other weekend off, after dinner out with Bud Bishop, my old mentor from the Oregon Division, Bud and I got on the outside of a rather large bottle of Jack Daniels.

I told Bud how frustrated I was, trying to accomplish something meaningful and lasting on the Houston Division. Here, assistant trainmasters were no better than yardmasters. We were expected to react only to the night’s momentary crises. However, no one expected or even wanted us to implement, let alone even suggest, meaningful changes. It was too threatening to the boss. After all, if a young, prune picker of an assistant trainmaster from the Pacific Lines could reorganize the work and increase productivity, why hadn’t the old, experienced, trainmaster already done it. Not invented here was a rampant disease on the Houston Division in 1971. There was another problem, too. The assistant superintendents, the superintendent, the assistant general managers, and even the general manager apparently felt that their job descriptions required that they know, in great detail, what every local and roadswitcher operating under their jurisdiction did each and every day. If an assistant trainmaster was changing things around, it would take a lot of their energy to keep up with these changes. Better to leave well enough alone, I had been told, more than once by Nickelson.

Next there were the issues of basic crewmember safety and rule compliance. Coming off of the Pacific Lines where there was very little railroad that wasn’t on some grade, it was hard to adjust to territory that was as flat as a billiard table. The operating rules don’t provide an exception for this anyway. No one was applying handbrake one on the Galveston Sub. Initial Terminal Airbrake Tests were just not done. It was an extraordinarily conscientious crew that checked the set and release of the brakes on the caboose. Walk the set and roll the release, forgedaboutit! After all, there were all of those snakes. Too many shortcuts and liberties with other operating rules were being used to get the jobs over the road. I could see a day of reckoning coming. Yet, what I told the crews to do at night was being countermanded and belittled by Nicholsen during the day. “Nuts to that. It is not necessary out here, you are just stalling for overtime.” By the way, Nicholsen had been a division safety officer before he became a trainmaster, too.

We had no significant, man failure accidents or injuries in the seven months while I was working on the Galveston Sub. However, there were four employee deaths on the Galveston Sub in the two years after I left.

I told Bud that I had become so frustrated that I was considering resigning. (I had in fact told my wife that if we were still there at Thanksgiving, I would quit)

Bud Bishop actually was already aware of these circumstances and actually a lot more. He told me that, when he had asked that I be transferred to the Houston Division, that he thought that they just didn’t know how to reorganize locals, as I had at Springfield, Oregon in 1969. What they need were some fresh thinking young officers to show them how to do it on the T&L Lines. He had not counted on the NIH factor. Bud was the one who explained that everyone in senior operating management in Texas thought they had to know every little operating detail.

Both of us speculated on why the condition of the T&L lines track structure was as bad as it was. There was a significant and noticeable difference in investment in support track infrastructure between Pacific lines and T&L Lines. If a new industrial park went in, a new drill track, complete with run around tracks and storage tracks were part of the package at the outset on the Pacific Lines. A simple switch off of the main line to an industrial spur track was the rule on the T&L. This generally means that on the Pacific Lines, a switcher could get in the clear of the main line to switch industries and meanwhile other trains could pass by. On the T&L, the main was blocked whenever an industry was being switched. There was even an industry spur on the Galveston Sub that required occupancy at tower 86 to switch.

On the Pacific Lines a support yard consisted of multiple tracks. On the T&L Lines a yard could be a pair of tracks. At Strang it was just a wye, until the two support tracks south of the wye were constructed. Then that became the “yard”
(By the way, during this era, this was also the case on the Missouri Pacific in the gulf region.)

Bud told me what he thought was wrong with the T&L Lines. The SP’s failure to invest in infrastructure was chronic. Partly, it was just not under the nose of the senior management in San Francisco. But, this made it easy for the GM and the Superintendents of the T&L Lines to hide things. The incident surrounding the temporary fix of the surface conditions on the Bayport Loop was a prime example. However it went deeper than that. There was a macho attitude that we can do it for less, with fewer resources to begin with. After all, were from Texas. On top of this, when ever budget cuts were requested, the T&L wanted to show up the Pacific Lines by giving up more. The problem was, that when business increased, the T&L lines management either didn’t know how to ask, or was afraid to ask for new capital investment or that maintenance gangs be restored. Bud had several examples to site where they simply did not ask when there was ample justification for a request for capital investment. If the Pacific Lines is asking and the T&L Lines isn’t, guess who gets the capital investment.

Bud confided in me that he was equally frustrated, working in Houston. He told me that if only he could get transferred back to the west coast, that he would ride all the way out there on a mule. He also told me not to give up too soon. Something is in the wind for you which should work out OK was all that he would tell me.

Two months later I was transferred to the SSW at Pine Bluff. I was promoted to a new position, Assistant to the Superintendent.

mdo

Cripes, I enjoy these stories. As a refugee from two large corporations, I can certainly relate to the trials and tribulations. Inside "Corp S" we used to ask, "What's the difference between Corp X and the Boy Scouts?" The answer was that the Boy Scouts had adult leadership.

I hope this isn't too far off topic but I can relate to what you are saying when you talk about air tests and such in the Houston area.

When I was sent to Houston on a temporary assignment I was making a trip from Houston to Glidden on the Glidden Sub which goes to San Antonio. After leaving the Englewood Yard we made a left turn at West Jct. (or was it Belaire Jct.?) to head towards Glidden and onto double track. At Memorial Park there was an automatic block signal you did not pass until the dispatcher said he was able to take you onto CTC. So, in effect, this signal was a non-controlled controlled signal.

I had a young fireman with me whose name escapes me at the moment but I think it was Joe-something. He had just transferred from the clerical department as an operator to go into the operating department. At the time the T&L lines did not have a simulator agreement.

I was doing about 25 mph and I was in about run 4 or 5 coming around the junction when Joe said that I had to stop at the next signal. I told him I knew that. When I made a minimum set he jumped up out of the seat and asked me what I was doing. I told him I was setting the air to stop for the "hold" signal at Memorial Park and asked him why he questioned my train handling. He told me that the only time they used the air on the Houston Division was to keep the brakes released and make air tests when they decided to make them. He came over to watch how I used the air with the throttle to make a stop asking questions while we came to a nice and easy stop.

A few minutes later I see a train coming towards us on the opposing track with lots of grayish blue smoke coming from the engines. I ask Joe what the smoke is all about. He said that the engineer (Steve Sullivan if I remember correctly) was using the "dog" to stop his train (which was about an 70 car molton sulpher train) at the junction instead of using the automatic brake valve. I later found out that the "dog" was the Houston Division term for the independent brake valve (engine brake). I told him this is why we use the automatic. It was put on the engine so you don't have to use the "dog" to stop your train. That way you don't tear up the brake equipment either.

About the time the sulpher train stopped the dispatcher called us and told us to start moving and that he was taking us onto CTC territory.

I used the air, off and on, all the way to Glidden and back the next day.

On the return trip I had conductor Ed Faust who they called "TT" (Double T). I never did figure out why they called him Double T. Our train was like 80 or 100 empties with 3 SD45s. We were coming up to Belaire Junction to turn left and go from CTC onto double track to head for Englewood Yard. The speed goes from 55 mph to the turnout speed of either 30 or 35. I don't remember which.

Joe called out the restrictive signals, flashing yellow, yellow over green (later this would be changed to yellow over yellow), and then red over green at the junction. He saw I hadn't reduced the throttle to slow down and I did this intentionally to show him how easy it was to slow a train down by using the air.

About three quarters of a mile away and making 55 mph I made a minimum set which is about a 6 to 8 pound brake pipe reduction. When this application stopped blowing I increased this another 4 pounds for a total reduction of 10 pounds. As soon as it quit blowing I released the air and reduced the throttle and hit the turnout at exactly the correct speed, whatever the correct speed was.

One of the Houston Division engineers heard my Southern California voice over the radio and had asked my conductor if he had one of those "Grape Rapers" from California as an engineer. Double T came back and said yes he did and that he'd take us California boys over a Houston engineer any day of the week and also said that us "Prune Pickers" could show the Texas boys how to handle a train. I was embarrassed. I didn't talk on the radio for the rest of the trip.

This is just one story of my trips while on the Houston Division way back when. FEDS and Gyralite were there too. Maybe they could relate some stories about their experiences in Houston in 1979 and 1980. I don't want to be the only guy, along with mdo, who tells stories on here. Get the hint Bill, and Gary?

steamjocky

These are the stories that need to be told and recorded. It may come to pass, someday, that trains may be run just like a grown-up Lionel set, run by some guy sitting in a chair in a darkened room in Omaha, Jacksonville, Ft Worth, take your pick.

If we don't get your stories down on paper, we may never know how trains were really run.

spdetector Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Cripes, I enjoy these stories. As a refugee from
> two large corporations, I can certainly relate to
> the trials and tribulations. Inside "Corp S" we
> used to ask, "What's the difference between Corp X
> and the Boy Scouts?" The answer was that the Boy
> Scouts had adult leadership.


Where I worked, it was "What's the difference between Corp X and a cactus? The pricks are on the outside of the cactus."
C.

john1082 Wrote:
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> It may come to pass, someday, that
> trains may be run just like a grown-up Lionel set,
> run by some guy sitting in a chair in a darkened
> room in Omaha, Jacksonville, Ft Worth, take your
> pick.

OK. I pick Bombay, India.

I'm really enjoying these. The first thing I look for is the latest edition. All the additional comments, histories and stories are just icing on the cake!

Rick L.

More stories SteamJockey. Keep 'em coming. I never get tired of them.

Jack