One thing this thread about the danger of hanging banding,chains,etc hasn't
mentioned is the human side.
Imagine what some of those things would do to you standing along side the
train switching or inspecting !
I might add shifted poles,lumber,steel plates,tractors,etc to the list of
flat car load dangers.
Back in history I believe there was an incident at Eola where two men were
very seriously injured or killed when standing between two yard tracks at night
when a shifted load of steel plate caught them in the darkness.
I think we're all aware of the wreck at Downers Grove caused by an unloading
piece of heavy equipment off a flat.
And of course here comes the "rest of the story".
We're coming down Sugar Grove hill eastbound with an endless #82 or #98
(80-90 loads of lumber and a couple mtys). It's a sunny winter day and for
only
the second or third time today we're at track speed(going downhill of course).
The trip has been slow but uneventful til now. As I peer ahead out the w/c
window I observe what appears to be a 1"x 8" about 20' long headed for my seat
!
As I prepare to unload for the floor it gets caught up in the trains slip
stream and is blown off to the side of the right of way. Turning to Lew I
advise a
1" X 8" just unloaded up there and flew past. In his ever present unexcited
way he ponders for a few seconds; casually grabs the radio handset and tells
"Blinky" to "stop the train". The reply is "what?" and again Lew calmly states
"stop the train". The air is set,our legs are braced against the front wall
expecting the worst to come as we slow down. We come to a gentle stop,climb
down
out of the cupola and look out the back door. Sure enough there's new wheel
marks in the ties !? We've got one or more off up there and that's why that
load
of lumber started unloading from the shaking it was getting is our assumption.
After putting on our winter weather protection Lew and I each take a side of
the train and start walking forward.
What we find less than 20 cars ahead of our riding spot is an mty Q bulkhead
flat with one truck riding the ties at 50 or 60 MPH ! Remember we're about to
enter the Aurora complex with all those switches,frogs and the elevation. Just
imagine the mess we we're about to make when that pair of wheels strayed down
an adjacent tangent track; not to mention where the w/c with us in it would
have landed !
Up ahead we did find the load of 1" bys that were shifted and starting to
unload but it was on the track.
So now we've got everyones attention in Aurora and the Supt,trnmstrs,road
foreman,etc appear on the scene. So we've got lots of help. They ask if we felt
anything farther back and both of us advise no. So a couple of them hike back
and indeed find a broken rail that we went over at speed and didn't feel a
thing but that flat found it.
We cut on the shifted load of lumber,take it to Eola,where we set it out in
the yard and leave the train; return to east of the Blackberry Creek area
where the wheel truck is rerailing our Q flat. We then take the balance to
train
to Eola,set out the flat and with the aid of one of the yard engines put train
back together and head for Cicero with only less than 2 hours total delay.
Moral of the story is that shifted load saved us that day.
Leo
P.S. I mentioned Blacberry Creek specifically because the car made it over
that bridge and over the dragging equipment detector located there. When we
went
past the detector light was still flashing us the OK sign !
Oh almost forgot; Lew did turn in a 25 mile lap back and it was promptly paid.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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