First a disclaimer this is a BN time period story.
It was sometime in the later 1/2 of the 70s that management and the local
grievers agreed to put all the "garbage jobs" into the C&I pool. Why,
because the extra list was always exhausted and therefore the jobs couldn't be
run. The C&I pool was supposed to be a semi preferred job but the gods had
spoken.You guys that thought you were going to ride between Cicero and
Savanna are now going to do wayfreight,work train and dog catch duty and
whatever else we deem necessary.
So one fine day we're ordered for an extra east out of Savanna,not a make
up, clean out Savanna yard train,oh no,its 18-20 cars of ballast for the tie
gang. Go east you men and meet the tie gang and spread ballast.
Power was one SD7 or 9 (I dont remember which, other than it was 6 axles) .
Needless to say the old girl couldn't pull the tonnage over Burke and we
had to double with only 1/2 of the 20 cars into Burke siding.That gives you
some idea of the steep grade eastbound out of Savanna on the C&I. And this
is after all the line improvements to reduce grades and curvatures ! And
yes I have a picture of Lew Peshia and Scott Shaw riding the rear car into
Burke siding.
I also have some neat pictures of a wreck on South Ottawa Hill before
Tunnell made me put the camera away. Talk about harmonic rock ! You could see
Connies imprint in the w/c desk window(it was a NE11). Harmonic rock comes
about when your crawling up a hill so slow that the high cube hoppers and box
cars that are top heavy start swaying to an extreme amount. Check your
special instructions if you doubt what I'm saying. Of course the crew was
responsible to either reduce speed below the speed range that caused this
phenomenon or stop and start all over.
Leo
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
------------------------------------
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CBQ/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CBQ/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
CBQ-digest@yahoogroups.com
CBQ-fullfeatured@yahoogroups.com
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
CBQ-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
|