Railroaders' Nostalgia > Mad Dog Chronicles #71: Working the Relief Shift

Working the Relief Shift at West Colton
In October of 1973, Jerry Jansen, the Senior Assistant Terminal Superintendent reorganized the way the supervisors worked at West Colton. He established three teams. Each of these teams was to work the day shift for one month; the night shift for a month and then the relief shift for a month. The teams would rotate once each month. I started in October as the team leader of the relief shift. I was supposed to rotate to the day shift at the end of October. However, for personal reasons, I asked to remain on the relief shift. Since no one objected to this arrangement there I stayed. The rest of my team rotated on schedule. Now I had a new team. I actually stayed on the relief shift for six months. Each month I had a new group of team members. In January my original team rotated back on to the relief shift with me.

On the relief shift you were working a 48 hr week in less than 4 days. My workweek started at 11 pm Wednesday night with an 8-hour shift. If I was not careful, I would still be talking to McClanahan, Jansen and my relief at 7:30 in the morning. I learned to leave as soon as I was relieved. Otherwise, I was going to be seriously short rested. In fact, on Wednesday nights I was almost always short of rest. I just did not seem to be able to get more than a couple hours in for a nap Wednesday evenings before work. At least, Wednesday midnights were not a heavy traffic night.

After 8 hours off duty, I was due back in the Tower at West Colton at 3 pm Thursday afternoon. Unless you are a “minute man” the custom is to show up early to take your turnover. That way you can slip into the chair and grab the reins right at the time your shift starts. In this case I would be relieving the same individual who had relieved me eight hours before. It was always interesting to see how your plans had worked out at the hands of another planner. How the forecast line up of inbound trains had held up, or fallen apart. How the bowl looked after eight hours.

Working the relief shift you got to relieve both of the other planners. There was quite a difference in style and tactics between Gerald Hoops and Gary Boswell. There was a major difference in the turnovers that I received. Boswell was a minuteman. When he showed up to relieve me at 11 pm Thursday night I could almost count on him being five or ten minutes late. Then he wanted to BS and swap rumors for a few more minutes. I just wanted to head home for bed. At least, on Thursday nights I knew that I would be off for 16 hours and could catch up on my sleep. I also knew that I would be relieving Gerald when I came back in at 3 pm Friday afternoon. That is until the end of the month when Gerald and Gary would swap shift assignments.

When I headed for home and another quick 8-hour turn around at 11 pm Friday night, I already could see the handwriting on the wall. I knew what the bowl count was. I already knew what the inbound line up looked like. I knew how many clear alleys there were in the receiving yard. I knew how many trains were set, how many were called and how many more could be called with the available locomotives. I also knew that I would have to relieve Gary Boswell at 7am on Saturday morning. I could see the next melt down coming.

I had a regular routine every Saturday morning. As I arrived back at the yard driving on Interstate 10 from Redlands, I would exit the freeway at Pepper Avenue and cross over the yard. This gave me a quick check of the state of the departure yard. How many clear alleys, how many outbound trains with the power on the head end? Next I would double back to the freeway at Riverside Avenue. Here I would get my first look at the state of the classification bowl. I could also see if there were any trains doubled together thru the crossovers at the trim. Then I would again head west on I 10 exiting at Sierra Avenue. Now I got a good look at the receiving yard. Did we have any room at all in that yard and where was it? How many cabooses were still on the inbound trains and was there any road power sitting up there.

By the time that I walked into the planner’s office a few minutes before 7 am Saturday morning I already knew most of what I needed to know. Gary kept a very disorganized work sheet and chances were that he would forget to tell you one or two essential details.
This is why I did not enjoy relieving him He was famous for getting up out of the planners chair, gathering up his stuff and leaving for home, just as the interlocking operator asks you if a relief crew has been called for a set of helper engines buried in an arriving train. The helper crew will die on the hours of service before the train can clear into the receiving yard. This will tie up the main line and the crossovers at Cedar Avenue as well as several of the other potential hump cuts, depending on where in the receiving yard Gary has planned to yard this train. If the helper crew does not die on the law before 7 am You can almost bet that GEB has not planned for it. After all, its not going to happen on his watch.

When I was relieving Gerald Hoops on the other hand, the situation was entirely different. Gerald was highly organized. Everything was neatly laid out on his turnover sheet. What ever was due to happen for the next several hours that could be foreseen ahead of time would be provided for. I could almost take a nap for the first thirty minutes. Gerald knew what kind of computer inventory reports I liked to work with and he usually already had run fresh reports and had them waiting for me. Whenever Gerald relieved me I began to return the favor. The last few things that I did just before Gerald was to relieve me was to run off new inventory reports the way that Gerald liked to organize them.

GEB was impossible. Relieving him was like jumping into an ice cold shower. With Gerald however it was all on the turnover sheet. We just had to discuss the alligators.

I will tell you about them next time

By the time that I headed for home at 7 pm Saturday night I would usually have the yard mostly straightened out. The bowl would usually be full but at least the receiving yard wasn't plugged up and the dead trains were all pulled in off of the main lines. At 7am Sunday morning things were usually back to melt down and I had 12 hours to streighten things out again.

When I left for home on Sunday nights I knew that I would not be back at the West Colton mixmaster until 11 pm wednesday night, seventy six hours off was nice.

McClanahan and Jansen liked to have me on the relief shift. I had become the best team leader as far as catching up and unburying the yard was concerned. They became convinced that, if anyone could straighten out the yard when it was severely plugged, that I could. They swapped weekends; each one off every other weekend. If I was there every Saturday and Sunday they could be assured of an early quit. Over time they even stopped coming in on all but the heaviest of Sundays

We know much more about sleep/rest cycles than we did in those days. I doubt if any railroad would organize a shift rotation like this one today. In any case, I stayed on that relief shift far too long. Finally in April of 1974 I went back on the day shift. I had earned it. However, I am getting ahead of the story again.

Now about those alligators. http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,803302,803302#msg-803302

MDC #69: http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,802055,802055#msg-802055

MDC #70: http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,802469,802469#msg-802469
mdo
10/12/04

Aw Mike, don't tease us that way! I know personally, I can't hardly wait to hear about the Alco's
I've often thought that if the A/C intake on the tower was in the wrong place you'd have the intake filters plugged in no time flat from those things when they throttled up downwind! :>)

Butch,,,,,,here we go

I think Mike was referring to the ones in the swamp.

WestinAshahr Wrote:
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> I think Mike was referring to the ones in the
> swamp.

Yes, swamp alligators as in:" It is hard to remember that your original objective was to drain the swamp when you are hip deep in alligators.

We had Alco engines at West Colton as trim engines. However, they were not the type with the long noses. These engines were not called alligators.

mdo

Mike, in all of your chronicles I don't believe you ever covered the topic of your life in the San Francisco General Office on the 6th floor with more on WJL, CTB, RDB, LPM, OJP, ESJ, LFF, VKW, EEJ, WHJ, KLM to name a few and the support staff.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/20/24 23:31 by Gold_Coast.

Love seeing replies 20 years later, gives a sense of history on TO.

Oliver Barrett

Gold_Coast Wrote:
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> Mike, in all of your chronicles I don't believe
> you ever covered the topic of your life in the San
> Francisco General Office on the 6th floor with
> more on WJL, CTB, RDB, LPM, OJP, ESJ, LFF, VKW,
> EEJ, WHJ, KLM to name a few and the support staff.

I look forward to any stories from there as well. Currently the 2 or 3 Chronicles detailing the Eel River canyon derailment investigation with RDK are my favorite of the Mad Dog Chronicles. 

Desmond Praetzel, "4451 Puff"