| --- In BRHSlist@y..., "Mike Decker" <mdecker@g...> wrote:
> Hi Pete and folks:
> 
> > 
> Anyway....there was one investigation that had the classic 
Fireman's excuse,
> I still use it to screw with officials. One Monday morning, the
> Fisherman's Special was coming back into Denver from the Platte 
Canyon.
> They were running late, and got on the outbound passenger's time. 
The two
> of them met on the little trestle over Clear Creek (under the US6 
overpass),
> causing damage to both locomotives. The location is on a reverse 
curve, and
> apparently the Engineers didn't see each other in time to avoid a 
slow speed
> collision. When testifying, the Fireman on the Extra 
explained: "I was down
> on the deck attending to my fire, and when I heard the Engineer 
put the
> train in Emergency, I looked out my front cab window and saw the 
other train
> coming. I jumped out of the gangway into the Creek, which was 
dry, and
> broke both my ankles." "I was down on the deck putting in a fire, 
and I
> didn't see a thing". 
>
in steam days "on the deck puttin' in fire" i believe was the normal 
excuse. as a matter of fact on the accident report on the des moines 
branch in 1927, a turnover, that is where my dad was, "on the 
deck..........
Nowadays....it's like the Belle Ayr Helper Engineer
> said when they "T-boned" the loading train: "I was down in the 
nose
> (toilet)." Which, of course leads one to wonder why the motor was 
moving in
> the first place:>)
>
in the 70's, 80's and would imagine still true now, if you got hurt 
anywhere doing anything think the cause was the slack when trying to 
get into/out of the nose.
know, even today, when i hear that someone got hurt in the nose the 
first thing i wonder is what was he really doing and where.
>
> 
> Mike Decker
> 
warren
 |