My grandfather was E.B. Smith,seniority date of 1917 (yes I have the roster).
He spent 43 years in the Eolal/Aurora Terminal of the Q. I learned to switch
cars at the age of 5 or 6 on his living room carpet. He was retired but
working as the night watchman/pallet maker (a seperate future story) at a
nearby
injection moulding plastics factory. They made (of all things) plastic toy
boxcars. I used to sit on the carpet and switch them out by the colors. He
would
sit in the recliner and point out where I made an unnecessary extra move !
Based on many interviews with family(uncles,aunts,mom) and fellow workers
Smitty was a true character.
Here is just one of the stories:
According to Al Spencer(seniority date of 1934), think about that, getting
hired in the middle of the great depression when everyone on the Q has taken a
10% wage cut(if you doubt my facts check Overlands" Burlington Route" history).
Smitty was working midnights when he(Al) was a greenhorn (think about that,17
years seniority and still on midnights). One night they had the usual dose to
x/o over with from West to East (Eola was a 26 classification trk yard
divided by a three trk main and the running trk. ). That means they had a block
of
cars from the west yard that needed to go to the east yard for further
classification for eastward or Aurora destinations(another seperate story).
This night,as typical, they were to x/o west to east the west way, that meant
pulling west onto the triple track main out over Farnsworth Ave and then
shove back uphill into the east yard. In order to make this move the air would
have to "be made" on the cars as they were going onto the mainline and besides
once you started them rolling west if all you had was the engine brakes you
might get them stopped by Montgomery(another seperate strory for another
night).
So Smitty and Al worked out an arrangement whereby Smitty rode the rear car
in the cut out over Farnsworth and back into the east yard. Meanwhile the
foreman dropped off the cut as it went by the west yard,yard office, walked
across
the mainlines and lined the inbound move into the appropriate track in the
east yard.
Meanwhile Al rode the cut somewhere near the middle to pass signs.
Here's Al story more or less verbatim, once we got over Farnsworth Smitty
flagged down and when we got the signal he gave the big pinwheel to back up, I
passed the signs, I could see his latern as it went off the main and up the
east
yard lead and into the yard trk. The arrangement was once we shoved into the
clear on the west end of the trk and cut away I would walk east and Smitty
west until we met,each bleeding the brakes as we went. So we shoved into the
clear, I cut the engine off,backed him up and stopped him and started walking
and
bleeding eastward. I walked and bled and walked and bled until finally I
reached the east end of the cut. But no Smitty ?!
So I crossed over the cut and walked west looking for his latern but no sign
of him ? Now I was worried,did he fall off the top of that lead box car and
get run over ? Finally I climbed the ladder on what had been the lead car in
the shove and looked across the top to find Smitty with his arms linked
together
under the crosswalk sound asleep.
Leo
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