Railroaders' Nostalgia > Mad Dog Chronicles # 50: Snuffy Smith and the Kaiser Lo

Snuffy Smith and the locals at Kaiser.

Most of the good ideas on the railroad originate with the men doing the work. If there is an easier or a better way to get the job at hand done, they will figure it out.

The job of the Trainmaster is to synthesize these ideas and to find a way to facilitate positive changes. That way, almost everyone wins in the last analysis

IIRC there were four local freight assignments, which worked at Kaiser. These jobs actually covered all of the main line territory between Colton and Ontario. All of these jobs were on duty at Colton. Some took their power and train from Colton; some were transported to the small yard adjacent to the main line opposite the siding at Kaiser. This yard could be switched on either end. On the east end of the lead was a link to the siding at South Fontana. There was no yardmaster here, since there were no yard engines, only locals. There were yard clerks and Carmen, as there was a pair of cleaning tracks and a small car repair facility. This was the normal location for repair of the ore gons used in the Kaiser Ore trains.

The normal procedure was to inspect the ore gons up in the Kaiser Ore yard. Bad orders were to be switched out prior to calling for a crew to handle the empty trains back to Ferrum. Once in a while the eastbound road crew would switch out the bad order cars themselves before they departed, but only if the local crews had not already thrown these cars out of the empty trains. One of the local crews might actually double the ore empties together and pull the entire train down into South Fontana if they had the time. This was a good move for it kept the Road Crew handling the eastbound empty train from showing up just when the local wanted to switch the yard at Kaiser. A departing ore empty train could really get in the way of the locals.

With all of the activity at Kaiser, we were quite pressed to get all of the work done and the customers happy. There was just too much going on in too small a space. Frequently one local crew would be on spot for as much as two or even three hours, waiting for an empty train to leave, a road train to set out and or pick up, and another of the Kaiser locals to finish its switching. At the time we were trying to have the road trains on the Alhambra Sub set out and pickup at Kaiser so as to keep from having to back haul both inbound and outbound cars between Kaiser and Colton.

After watching all of this little ballet for several hours and watching Snuffy and his crew sit in the locker room for about three hours one afternoon, Snuffy came over to me at the clerk’s desk and made a simple suggestion. Why not do some of this switching over at Colton? That was a very good question.

Snuffy went on, all of the locals are bulletined for at least two roundtrips between Colton and Kaiser, even though, frequently the trips were made in a carryall. Each of the jobs had enough power to handle a fair sized train. So what if we backhaul some cars. There was a real beauty to Snuffy’s suggestion too. If the road trains did not have to stop at Kaiser, they would be less likely to have to run a pickup at Colton. And, in addition, Kaiser cars were in a separate block from Colton cars in both the trains coming west from Indio and the trains coming east from Taylor Yard in LA.

My next conversations were with a couple of my yardmasters at Old Colton. What would happen if we started to do some of the switching now done at Kaiser here at Colton? I asked. The immediate answer was we don’t have enough room to hold all of the cars. But then my daylight yardmaster, Bob Jansen got to thinking, and began to see what I had seen. One of the biggest problems around Old Colton was road crews not having enough time to make pickups at both Colton and Kaiser. This frequently caused the dispatcher to tell the crew to run westbound and eastbound pickups at Colton, so that they would have enough time to make their Kaiser setout and pickup. If they only had one stop to make, we could keep Colton fluid. It was only when we did not get pickups every day that Old Colton did not have room. Besides, with the Locals doing the hauling between Colton and Kaiser, we always had the option of hauling both Kaiser cars and West (or even East) cars out to Kaiser, if it looked like Colton would plug up.

At this time we were working a yard side engine and a P (FE) side engine on the daylight and the afternoon shifts but only worked a yard side engine on the midnight shift. By calling that second engine on a regular basis for the midnight shift we could absorb the switching that was presently being performed at Kaiser.

Next step was a call to the Chief Dispatcher to get his thoughts on the proposed change. Ellis Nightswonger liked the idea of only one pickup instead of two on the Colton District. MY ducks now in a row, I now called A G (Arnold) Bays. I told him that I planned to add one eight-hour engine shift at Colton but to eliminate one 12-hour Local freight assignment at Kaiser. I also told Arnold about reducing the number of main line pickups. “Just how do you expect this to work? I want some details,” said Arnold. Details were forthcoming. I added that for this to work we would have to keep Colton cleaned out, something that AGB always was hammering me with anyway. “ Lets try it for thirty days and see how it works. Go for it, son” Now with the Assistant Supt’s permission we were off to the races.

Here I was, tinkering with the locals again. Only this time I had an Assistant Trainmaster, working the night shift and a Yardmaster around the clock at Old Colton to help make it happen. Also I was only changing one local and one new Yard engine assignment. This time I spent a whole week getting everyone prepared. I was going to work some extra hours, but never again would I change every assignment and try to implement everything all by myself.

It worked even better than Snuffy thought it would. Even with one less local at Kaiser to do the work, and with the locals hauling cars back and fourth between Colton and Kaiser, the remaining three jobs were getting their work done in less time than before. And there was an additional benefit, for the local crews now got freshly serviced power each day, right out of the round house at Colton.

After the first month, Arnold, EAN, and I decided this was the way to go. The new Division Budget Officer had been asked by AGB to keep track of the overtime and the costs of this new operation. The new PACE (planning and control of expenditures) reports, clearly showed we were saving operating money. The TMIS reports showed the car flows were faster, too.

This was the way the Kaiser jobs worked, right up to the time that West Colton was opened for Business. But, that is another story

mdo

I remember having to call 610 South Main for something and it was EANs last day. He was one happy camper. Is the Bays you are talking about the one that used to be Terminal Superintendent in the City?

Nudge

spnudge Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I remember having to call 610 South Main for
> something and it was EANs last day. He was one
> happy camper. Is the Bays you are talking about
> the one that used to be Terminal Superintendent in
> the City?
>
> Nudge

No.

You are thinking of his brother. Jim Bays.
actually JF Bays hired me as a switchman in San Francisco.

Arnold Bays was later premoted to Division Superintendent at Tucson.

mdo:

Wasn’t the second trick P (FE) side job called the 400? There was an engineer by the name of Roy Barton worked it in the late 60s early 70s, nice man. Also, around this time a young college student was working the 3rd trick operators job at Colton. I don’t recall his name but his father was supposedly a Trainmaster in New Mexico. Ring any bells? This guy was a running comedy routine.

MacBeau Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> mdo:
>
> Wasn’t the second trick P (FE) side job called the
> 400? There was an engineer by the name of Roy
> Barton worked it in the late 60s early 70s, nice
> man. Also, around this time a young college
> student was working the 3rd trick operators job at
> Colton. I don’t recall his name but his father was
> supposedly a Trainmaster in New Mexico. Ring any
> bells? This guy was a running comedy routine.

MacBeau,

Sorry, neither one rings a bell.

mdo

Back in the day I recall seeing TOPS generated printouts with the name Snuffy programed to show on the actual daily report for the Kaiser local or other nearby local.  Mike???

Snuffy was a one of a kind. If more of the young train masters of today listened more to the old heads the railroads would run much smoother. Most of these whiz kids think that they know everything.

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A fine tribute to a splendid railroader!