Its been unusually cold for early October and for some reason it brought back
one of those long buried memories.
I remember talking w/my grandfather( E.B. Smith) about how hard it must have
been to work in the cold outside all day.He commented that you got used to it
but sometimes the crews would add some protection against the chill but he
only recalled doing it once while on duty.He was working the Alley Job and
there had been some freeze thaw cycles so that the flangeway between the
rails and street material was solid ice.Since the crew shoved down the Allley
w/the cars for the Northwestern on the lead end they feared a wheel would
ride up on the ice and the cars head in whatever direction they felt(I saw
this once at Waterman when spotting an mty at DeKalb seeds). So in order to
prevent this event they decided to use the steam line on the engine to thaw
the ice out and after moving along at less than a snails pace they decided
some rye would keep the chill off them as they warmed the street.He didn't
relate anything unusual coming from the imbibing.I can picture the 3 of them
taking turns riding the footboard and then grabbing the w/c for a little
"warm up".
This had to occur sometime before 1953. Leo
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