Summer 1956 Lincoln Division
I was called as head brakeman for a troop train to Ravenna...called "waycar
and work clothes"..This meant that the train crew would have no
responsibility for tickets or passengers..I presume that one of Norm's kind
would have been on the train to handle tickets etc.
We ran as First 43...Engine 9962C was the lead unit. It was a Saturday night
as I recall, but have no idea what the movement was or where it was going
other than northwest...Could have been a National Guard move.
An interesting little sidelight here which I have to relate.
We went to work at the depot and the engines were already on the train..The
train may have come in from somewhere off the St. Joe line or even from
Chicago...I suspect that it was from St. Joe.
The conductor brought the orders up to the head end and when we saw that we
were to run as First 43, Green Signals, I opened the door into the nose and
climbed down into the morass of junk which always accumulated there..Those of
you who worked in the era of the cab units know what I mean...There were
assorted blocks, chains, knuckles, knuckle pins, rerailing frogs, tin cans of
various sorts and, what I was after, green flags. I believe that white
flags had been eliminated by that time for extra trains...only the white
class lights were required there, but the rules still required green flags in
addition to green class lights. I, at last, located two green flags, one of
which had it's staff broken off about half way down.
I put the flag with the intact staff in the bracket on the fireman's side,
under the window. After getting down on the ladder on the engineer's side
and trying to fit the broken staff into the bracket on that side, I found
that the staff was broken too far up the taper to allow the remainder to fit
into the bracket. What to do now.
I got back in the cab and told the engineer..a crusty old veteran...typical
of that era of the problem....He said..."Well, just take your knife and
whittle down the staff till it will fit".....Guess what I said....."But I
don't have a knife"..........Reply...., as he pulled his own knife out and
handed it to me....."Now I'm going to tell you somethin kid (I was 20)...If
you're goin to railroad around here, you better get yourself a knife"....Leo,
Bob, Karl and some others will know the tone with which this admonition was
rendered.
Well I got the job done and we made a record run to Ravenna that night, well
ahead of 2nd 43...the regular train.
How many men carry a knife these days...probably afraid we'll be
arrested....my dad always did and also a pen or pencil....and admonished me
to always do the same...I never paid much attention to the knife thing, but
to this day you will never find me out of the house without pen or
pencil...Guess you could say I followed 50% of my dad's advice...I suffered a
stiff rebuke for not following the other 50% on that hot July night 46 years
ago.
I've written this little account for our local railfan's newsletter, and have
waited for a chance to put it on here...now with little prompting here tis.
Pete
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