Leo
First I want to tell you again how much I personally have enjoyed your work
with the BRT files...Having been on both sides of these situations...Brakeman
and Asst. TM I have particular appreciation for what you are summarizing and
reporting..keep up the good work.
As to low car ahead of w/c...As a Terminal TM at Blue Island on the RI, it
was a "given" that on any outbound train that you would always grab a PFE,
mty flat or gon off the "westbounds" (low priority cars for Silvis and west)
and stick on the rear end of any train..except the PBX (Piggyback Express)
which was normally all trailers which didn't consitute a high rear
end...During my tenure at BI (1962-64) there weren't as many high boxcars as
there are now and there were always PFE's sitting around so it wasn't a
problem...Normally the switch crews making up an outbound would automatically
take care of this without being told specifically..The engine foreman would
just tell the YM "I grabbed PFE#### for a rear end"... Once in awhile a
swtich crew would slip and the outbound conductor would yell....If it was a
hot train and a good rear end car wasn't available..they would go "under
protest".
As to doubling up on passenger trains..About 1963 the RI decided to combine
trains No. 7 (Rocky Mountain Rocket) and No. 3 (Golden State Limited)..3 was
due out of LaSalle St. at 1:00pm and 7 at 2:00pm if memory serves
correctly...The trains were combined in units ie No.3's train in its entirety
was set, including head end cars, and loaded on one track at LaSalle St...No.
7's train including head end cars, was set on another track. The engines
were held off, but lined up so that all that needed to be done at Rock Island
was to separate the units for each train.
At departure the station switcher would pull 3's train out and double it over
onto No. 7, the engines would back on and the entire "consist" would leave as
a combined train. Each train carried it's own train crew, Conductor and two
Brakemen...You couldn't physically get through the train because of No. 7's
head end cars in the middle...I believe that No. 3's conductor was designated
as the conductor in charge of the entire train....It was a horrible looking
consist...even worse than the usual RI "dog's breakfast" consists of those
days...There was only one engine crew, thus the financial savings from this
arrangement was only one engineer and one fireman...But I guess the train
mile savings looked good on paper.
I don't remember how, or if, the trains were combined for the return
trip....I escaped to the Freight Claims Department in April 1964.....If they
weren't there would have to have been some deadheading of engine crews.
I recall once, in early 1964, I was riding this combined affair to Rock
Island and something went wrong with one of the baggage cars in the middle of
the train, necessitating its being set out at Bureau....I remember going to
the vestibule and looking out and watching that monster backing around the
west leg of the Wye at Bureau, with Schroeder, one of the most cantankerous
conductors of all time hanging on the rear end of about 20 cars shoving
around that wye, with his long coatail flying in the breeze...Too bad I
didn't have a camera.
Pete
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