It was summer 1958....I was working the Fairmont-Hildreth local...It was the
wheat harvest season and the crop was a bit late coming in, but it was a good
one and the elevators were
loading heavy....
The normal operation was that we would be called at Fairmont for about 5:00pm
or so, depending on the arrival of No. 71 the Lincoln-Hastings local with
whom we traded engines every trip..We had one of the lightweight 400 series
SD7's
with small fuel tanks which could only make one Fairmont-Hildreth turn on a
tank of fuel...
The operation was Fairmont-Hildreth Mon, Wed Fri...Hildreth-Fairmont Tue,
Thur Sat...Going out we would peddle empties (all 40 ft boxcars then) and
coming
back we would pick up the loads.
At Fairmont we would make up our train of empties from grain boxes set out
by a westbound grain box drag who peddled the GB's west for the branch
lines....We would do whatever station switching we had to do and then wait for
71 to
arrive...
Get out your old Q map if you want the route....It was Fairmont-Geneva, West
Strang Jct, Shickley, Ong, Edgar, Deweese, Lawence, Rosemont, Blue Hill,
Bladen, Campbell, Upland , Hildreth....Obviously the eating facilities in these
small Central Nebraska towns after dark were extremely limited...ie non
existent.
Sometimes we would have been on duty 3-4 hours before we left Fairmont.
The primary goal for eating was to get to Shickley where the Owl Cafe awaited
us with its culinary delights...ie Hamburger Steak...that's what I always
had....Pork Chops, Fried Chicken, Roast beef etc..typical small town
fare....Price about 85 cents per... Said Owl Cafe closed at 8:00pm....
There wasn't much work between Fairmont and Shickley, maybe a setout once in
awhile at Geneva, and a meet with the Wymore-DeWitt-Strang-Fairmont local at
either West Strang Jct. or Geneva...
Our conductor Merle Caldwell, an old head..seniority 1928....He was only 48
years old then, having gone braking at age 18 right out of high school....could
figure our running time pretty closely...If it looked like we would get out
of Fairmont in time to make Shickley by 8:00pm so be it...If it looked like we
wouldn't get there by eight, but maybe by 8:30, Merle would get on the "city
phone" at the depot at Fairmont and call the Owl and tell them we would be
there a llittle after 8:00pm...They would then stay open for us....We had an
"in"
with the ladies who ran the place, since one of them was the wife of the agent
at Ong.
Anyhow it would be approaching dusk as we hauled into Shickley with as many
as 80 empties...We left Fairmont with 90 empties one night...that's the most I
can remember...The Owl was right across Main St. from the depot....There was a
stop just east of Shickley for the CNW Crossing....Fremont-Superior
branch....we often saw their train at Geneva where the two lines paralleled
with two FM
switchers with waycar immediately behind for engine crew bunk car service.
After crossing CNW Ernie Mack, our engineer, would drive us down to the
depot....I would drop off as we thundered across main st....We would pull the
entire train by the crossing to let the conductor and rear brakeman off at the
restaurant...The track was straight there so a signal could be seen a long
ways...When the conductor and rear man had dropped off, we would give a big
backup
sign and Ernie would "back em up"...until the engine was just east of the
crossing...It was a "blind" move, but there were no street crossings, and we
never
had a problem.
We would then all repair to the Owl for our evening vituals....As mentioned
in No. 1 the contract specificd that train crews were allowed "a reasonable
time" for a meal period after being on duty 6.5 hours...sometimes it hadn't
been
quite that long, but there were no more places to eat at that hour...
We would then partake of a leisurely meal complete with Swisher Sweet Cigar
to top it off..Probably sit around the Owl for close to an hour....
After this repast, we would switch the two elevators and then head west with
switching at every station....As I have chronicled before west of Blue Hill
the track was fast and we could make 65-70 mph down some of the hills....which
was a bit above the 35 maximum speed allowed.
The combination of an excessive "bean hour" at Schickley coupled with a fast
ride after supper and Merle's creative manipulation of the delay report, (he
once told me..."I usually carry about 45 minutes") put us into Hildreth at the
exact moment as shown on the delay report...however any resemblance between
the time shown on the DR and the actual time at any intermediate station was
non existent......
There were no OPs on duty at any of the stations, and the DS had no idea
where we were at any given time until the Hildreth Operator OS'd us and sent
the
delay report when he went on duty the next morning at 7:30am.
Those days, guys, are gone forever...I'm glad I was around to get in on some
of the good stuff...
Don't you wish you'd a been there.
Pete
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