My how times and technology has changed the RR !
Up until the mid '60s the Aurora Division pool crews still had their own
assigned waycars. These crews were the last division on the Q with assigned
w/c's
in pool service.They voted pool w/cs down a couple times in special votes at
the lodge meetings.
What this means is that when a Condr. won the bids on a pool turn a w/c was
assigned to his use on that turn. It was exclusively his until he vacated that
turn or was bumped. This system meant that for the C&I pool when the turn was
"in" at Cicero the w/c layed around the yard and on the caboose trk until the
turn was called for an outbound trip and the car was placed onto that train.
In the by gone eras the crew could,if they chose, stay in the w/c while in
Cicero.Crews would often sleep in their w/c until the first dinkie arrived,for
example.
Upon arrival at Savanna the w/c would be pulled off by the Savanna switch
engine and the outbound one tacked on. The inbound Aurora w/c and crew would
get
a gentle "kick" down to the w/c trks which were near the rip and Rdhse
trks.Remember Savanna was the ideal yard to kick cars in as it had the most
perfect
gentle westward grade. You could switch for hours and not run by the switch.
Just the opposite of Eola. There were three w/c tracks,one for each division
operating out of there.
Imagine trying to sleep in a w/c with enginess passing to and from the
Rdhse.,other w/cs leaving and arriving and the general crashing of cars being
switched in the yard. Not to mention the oppressive cold or heat,humidity and
bugs(shad flies) that Savanna was infamous for.
One reoccuring complaint in the BRT files was the practice of spotting cars
for the rip so that they blocked the breezes from blowing across the w/c trks
in summer. Don't recall any complaints in the file about this in the winter
months. Another was rough switching of the cars and unannounced switches.
Just think about the amount of time one of the yard jobs at Savanna spent
each shift shuffling around w/c's,and multiply that by each home and away
terminal on the system to understand why management wanted to go to pool w/cs
that
went on at the trains origin and came off at the final terminal.How much easier
it was at Cicero to just grab a trk full of clean,serviced w/cs and tack one
on each outbound train rather than making sure each one went on the right trk.
Locals had assigned w/c's until the w/c's totally disappeared. It was a
convenience to be able to leave your grip,riaincoat.lantern,etc in the w/c
rather
than drag it back and forth each trip. But this also led to many claims for
missing items,especially when "your" w/c got used in a crisis to fill in for
someone elses that went b/o,etc. By the time "your" w/c showed back up at home
you often didn't recognize it.
Also when this happened the entire train crew was entiled(under the schedule)
to an arbitrary timeslip of 2 hours for switching between w/cs.
Pete,there I go again.
Assigned w/c's often had their job name,number or some nickname chalked on
them to aid in identifying them. Look at the photos in the Q picture books of
the w/cs closely and you can pick this out.
Today the FRED gets tied on the rear end and away you go.
Leo
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