Archie, that's it!!! It was NEVER considered a safe method of
gettin' a car on the other end of the engine but, occasionally, it
was the ONLY way to do it.
On a beautiful sunny day half way between Denrock and Mendota we
encountered a need for the infamous Dutch Drop. An FS dealer had 6
mt's to pull and expected 6 loads to replace them. Well, we were
headed east and the switch favored westward movements. We dropped
the 6 loads by the engine, grabbed them and proceeded to reach in to
pull the mt's. So far everything was goin' accordin' to plan. We
pulled the mt's out, stuck 'em on the main, east of the sw., and
went about spottin' the loads. So far so good. After the loads
were spotted and the engine returned to the main a problem
surfaced. The engine was now between the 6 mt's and the train. A
place to run around the mt's wasn't readily available so a decision
to drop (Dutch Drop) 'em was made. The Con. called a meeting to be
sure everybody knew how this was supposed to be done. We all knew
the drill and asignments were handed out. The Con., Tom N. was
gonna ride the cars, Brakeman "Rickets" was gonna protect a hwy.
xing. just east of the switch, Brakeman "Rerun" was gonna handle the
duties of linin' the sw. and I was expected to make the engine go
the right direction at the right time. All was in readiness.
Ooopps, the hwy. xing. Seems that someone, not realizin' the
potential for problems, put a 10 mph. speed restriction on it. The
speed restriction was due to the heaving of the ground in the spring
and a bit of cross level deviation in the track. Well, as it might
be expected, 10 mph. wasn't gonna get it. Across the track from the
FS dealer was an elevator. This feature will become important a bit
later.
On the first "run" to attempt the feat it was quite obvious that the
speed selected wasn't gonna get the job done. Run no. 2 was started
a little further east than run no. 1 and allowed for a slightly
greater speed to be achieved. On this run over the xing. the engine
rode a bit rough and a few pieces of xing. timber and asphalt were
displaced. After the eng. cleared the west end of the sw. and Rerun
had me lined in I pulled into the FS track to wait. This attempt
was better than the first but still fell short of the intended
goal. OK, we got it figured out now. Back to the main and go a
little further east of the xing. this time. Actually we went quite
a BIT further east this time so the subsequent "run" produced
considerably greater speed. Speed, remember, was vital to success
but speed was also supposed to be restricted to 10 over the xing. A
little compromise was needed at this point so we started run no.
3. Things looked pretty good this time, with the possible exception
of the xing. This time large amounts of xing. timber and asphalt
were displaced, the Brakeman began to run for his life and the
drivers of the automobiles stopped by the now fleeing Brakeman were
aghast at the sight of the engine plowing through the xing. AND
bein' CHASED by a bunch a grain cars. After stoppin' west of the
same sw. Rerun lined me into the FS track and I ran in the clear and
waited, again.
The cars came rollin' by just like we wanted 'em to. 1, 2, 3,
4, 5, - - - - - -. Remember there were SIX cars to be dealt
with. Number six died right on the sw. renderin' us "frogged".
Rerun is furious, the xing. guard had returned from points south and
the Con. was scratchin' his head. I immediately got off the engine
and began to look for suitable "pollin'" material. While searchin'
around for said material a most amazing thing began to happen. The
cars started rollin' west, the direction we had wanted them to go in
the first place. Soon, the reason for their sudden and mysterious
movement became known. At the elevator, right across from the FS
track, a Farmer, sittin on his tractor became aware of our need for
a little "help". He lined his tractor up alongside the reluctant
cars and gently shoved 'em outta the way. He told the
Con., "thought you guys might need a little help - - - but ya really
did a he _ _ of job".
On the way outta town we chalked it up as another successful
switchin' operation and headed for Clyde.
Karl
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