Dawg Caught.
One fine winter evening in Cicero a train of MT ore jimmy's was waitin' for a
crew. I musta been a bad boy that day cause I caught this thing. As we all
know, ore cars are abt. 24' long. Now a "regular" freight car is 40 or more
ft. long. Heck, half as long as a boxcar, we can hook TWICE as many of 'em
together.
This is Yardmaster math, 101.
This particularly lovely evening saw temperatures in the 0 to -15 range and,
YES, 210 little ore cars all coupled together and waitin' for us.
We got the engine, called the Westbound YM, called the Retarder Op. and headed
for the train. After hookin' up to the train and cuttin' the air in we sat.
The flow of air through the brake valve was noticeable. It remained this was
for quite some time, too.
About 2 hr. into this ordeal my Con. called and asked if we were tied on yet.
Yup. Been tied on for 2-1/2 hours to be exact, why? (a truly rhetorical
question) "Well, we ain't got no air back here yet". Hmmmm, I'm sendin' it
back, wonder where it's goin" ?? A few hours later came the same ol'
statement: "we STILL ain't got no air back here" !!!??? If I remember anywhere
near correctly, we went on duty about 2000 hr. and it was now about 0100. A
call to the Westbound YM. proved only that the radio was workin'. Our
"instructions"?, "pump a little bit longer" ! OK. I was quite sure that if 5
hours had not produced results another "little bit longer" would surely do the
job. Another hour passes and I figured my rear end crew had probably given up
so I called the YM again. Same instructions as before. - - - - Six hours of
pumping and NO air in the waycar.
About 2 hr. later I call the YM and suggest that he pull a bunch a cars off the
rear end and see if that'll work. Well, the YM decides to cut 5 cars off of a
210 car train that has been pumpin' air for EIGHT HOURS with ZERO results.
Surprise !!!!!!, still no air.
After two more meaningless attempts to reduce the train to something manageable
I finally called to inform the YM that if the temp. rose to 90 deg. in the next
10 min. and the air came up I wasn't leavin'.
He asks, "why". We're outta TIME, THAT'S why.
OK, cut off and go ta the house. Real efficient railroading I'd say. Almost
11 hours on duty and I had run the engine all the way from the RH to the
Departure Yd. and BACK !!
That's sort of a Dog Catch - - - I think, but I was the "Catchee".
Karl
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