--- In CBQ@yahoogroups.com, "POOTUS2010" <bearmtnbob@...> wrote:
>
>
>
> --- In CBQ@yahoogroups.com, "POOTUS2010" <bearmtnbob@> wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> > --- In CBQ@yahoogroups.com, "POOTUS2010" <bearmtnbob@> wrote:
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > --- In CBQ@yahoogroups.com, "POOTUS2010" <bearmtnbob@> wrote:
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > --- In CBQ@yahoogroups.com, "Nelson Moyer" <ku0a@> wrote:
> > > > > One January night during a "Stock Show Weather" snowstorm, the
> > > > > laborer I was working with, mentioned that heard what had sounded
> > > > > like animals or "ghosteses" cries. I really didn't want to get out of
> > > > > the warm cab (Happened to be one of the last of the ATS&F CG-30's, I
> > > > > think it was still in red w/the famous ATSF paint job) but finally
> > > > > decided it was prudent to go and check. As soon as I climbed down
> > > > > from the cab, I began to hear sounds that were more like the bleating
> > > > > of a sheep and it seemed to be emanating from somewhere along the
> > > > > walkway beside the pit. Following the sound to its source, it only
> > > > > took seconds to see what the trouble was. On the riiver side of the
> > > > > pit was a below ground concrete oil skimmer made composed of several
> > > > > concrete caissons each lower than the other which allowed waste oil,
> > > > > water and God knows what else to drain off by steps, much like the
> > > > > lock system of a canal to a concrete collecting basin where the
> > > > > collected effluvia and oil were sucked into a tank truck sent out on
> > > > > an irregular basis to collect the stuff. Either sitting or standing
> > > > > in the deepest section was one very indignant as well as drunk,one
> > > > > very old gentleman traveler of the rails. Covered from head to foot
> > > > > in new and used diesel lube oil, old air compressor oil, governor
> > > > > oil, urine, water and who knows what else. We had left the access
> > > > > cover off the previous night so that the level of the refuse oil in
> > > > > the sump sump could be checked and reported. The first thing he said
> > > > > was "Get me the He&& out of here, this stuff tastes like sh&3! At
> > > > > that point in the conversation, I felt it best to not tell him why. I
> > > > > then reached over and opened the trainline of the unit (last in the
> > > > > consist)next to me which brought my partner running when the engines
> > > > > went into "big hole". the immediate problem was to get him out of the
> > > > > grease trap since he was in no danger of freezing, the oil/water
> > > > > mixture being quite warm. After several aborted attempts to get him
> > > > > out with broom handles and an old switcher fan drive V-belt as a tow
> > > > > rope (the laborer wanted to pull him out with the consist!) I told
> > > > > him to remain calm while I called the yardmaster on the radio. At
> > > > > this the bum let out a string of invectives, curses and insults
> > > > > directed at me, most of which I had never before heard in the army,
> > > > > church, or working as a tutor in several inner city schools. After
> > > > > the yardmaster summoned police and EMTs, I turned to go back out of
> > > > > the cab when the laborer opened the cab door and said "He's gone"
> > > > > which I took to mean that the poor fellow, much like a Titanic victim
> > > > > had succumbed to the waters of the oil skimmer and was now slowly
> > > > > drifting to his final rest on the bottom. "Let's get him out now!!!"
> > > > > I said, but the laborer kept insisting: "He's gone." I turned on the
> > > > > headlights, to see a bit better, and there about 20' in front of the
> > > > > engine was a pile of wet steaming clothes next to the tracks, and
> > > > > about another 25' beyond that was a bright pink totally naked and
> > > > > scrawny derriere disappearing into the gloom and blowing snow of Rice
> > > > > Yard. He had somehow gotten out his own, disrobed and then decided to
> > > > > head for parts unknown. When the long-suffering Denver Police and
> > > > > EMTs arrived, I related the entire story to them and they searched
> > > > > the area but were unable to locate the swimmer. One patrolman
> > > > > signaled me with his flashlight, and when i got over to him pointed
> > > > > it at the east rail of the pit, there was a small amount of blood
> > > > > smeared along the rail as well as several irregular strips of skin
> > > > > and flesh adhering to the same rail. Seems like the "victim" had sat
> > > > > on the freezing rail (it was below 20 degrees outside and had
> > > > > previously been in the teens) to take off his shoes, and when he
> > > > > stood up, had left a very personal souvenier of himself (for
> > > > > posteriority?)! My partner said this would not be the end of this
> > > > > because the bum had told him the that he was a very close friend of
> > > > > then Governor Dick La$$.By this time, the master mechanic Ira Lear
> > > > > wondered if I ought to have a special chair and desk in his office
> > > > > becuase i had to spend so much time ther writing up these "unseemly
> > > > > incidents" at Rice Yard. Whenever I left his or General Roundhouse
> > > > > foreman Larry Nelson's office, many of the denizens along the office
> > > > > corridor stop me and wanted to hear the latest "update" from Rice
> > > > > Yard. Bob Munshower
> > > > > I posted five close-up photos of the sand tower in Burlington.
> > > > > Photos of
> > > > > the whole tower are in my Burlington Depot Album. I need to know more
> > > > > about
> > > > > how the tower operated, i.e. which is the fill pipe and which is the
> > > > > delivery pipe. As the tower sits now, a hose is connected to the long
> > > > > pipe
> > > > > extending from the tower. That pipe comes out of the center of the
> > > > > tank at
> > > > > the bottom with a three-way splitter, however only one of the splits
> > > > > is
> > > > > connected. Above the connected pipe is a cradle with another pipe
> > > > > that
> > > > > isn't connected to anything. What was that pipe for? Two weights are
> > > > > on
> > > > > slide rods and markers are on one of the two rods in the earlier
> > > > > photos.
> > > > > Those markers don't appear in recent photos, so apparently they were
> > > > > removed
> > > > > when the tower was repainted. What did the markers indicate, sand
> > > > > level?
> > > > > What were the pulley cables connected to besides the weights? There
> > > > > appears
> > > > > to be a vent in the top of the tank. How was it constructed and used?
> > > > > I
> > > > > assume there was s drying house and a air pressure system to deliver
> > > > > sand to
> > > > > the tower, but I've never seen any pictures of the drying house.
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > I measured the tower, and I've drawn a preliminary set of HO scale
> > > > > plans for
> > > > > a model. Now I need to know how to make the detail parts and connect
> > > > > the
> > > > > pipes.
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > Nelson Moyer
> > > > >
> > > > I had to both use and maintain both the sand tower and sandhouse while
> > > > working at Rice Yard in Denver between 1976 and the day the yard was
> > > > closed. Sand was delivered to me in the oldest, most decrepit covered
> > > > hopper cars on the BN. Most were still in "Q" gray and much of the old
> > > > lettering showed through the badly faded paint. The slide hopper jaws
> > > > on the bottom of the car were distorted and mangled beyond belief and
> > > > nearly impossible to operate without 1" thick prybars that were about
> > > > 5' long, the sad part was that it took even more work to close them
> > > > since that was only way to stop the sanf from leaking out. No matter
> > > > where the waybill said the sand originated from, it was always damp and
> > > > caked to insides of the car. The hundreds of dents on the sides of the
> > > > car testified to the care and caresses applied lovingly with 5# sledge
> > > > hammers across the system. The sand spur ran over a steel hopper
> > > > adjacent to the sand storage house. The hopper led to a basement also
> > > > adjacent to the storage house in which a large bin which fed the 25
> > > > foot bucket elevator belt lay. At one time the bin had a functioning
> > > > air powered vibrator to help keep the sand flowing (don't remember that
> > > > ever happening!) but in the last years of operation served as an easy
> > > > way to knock yourself nearly unconscious when you walked into it in the
> > > > usually dark room. I also had two natural gas burners which were
> > > > supposed to be lit and directed at the bin to dry the sand before it
> > > > proceeded to take its last ride up the elevator to parts unknown. since
> > > > the only way to enter this room was through a 3'X3' mannhole and down
> > > > about a 12' ladder, the only way to light off what looked like two
> > > > small jet aircraft afterburners was leave the gas shut off at the
> > > > source, position the burners, go above ground, just crack the gas on a
> > > > little, then light balled up newspapers and hurl them into the basement
> > > > somewhere close to the burners. Most of the time this worked well but
> > > > as one might imagine, the gas kept building up when the newspaper
> > > > "fuse" failed to work as intended. Luckily, yours truly had served in
> > > > Vietnam as a combat MP and was well versed in hitting the dirt and
> > > > digging in even further awaiting the main explosion as well as any
> > > > secondary eruptions. More to follow in another posting.
> > > >
> > > Sand Tower Follies continued.
> > >
> > > One evening, the inevitable occurred, we had a major fire, the result of
> > > natural gas igniting when we tried to light the burners with a fusee
> > > (just goes to show you what happens when you deviate from proven methods)
> > > One Denver fire truck arrived after a call from the yardmaster Don >>>>>
> > > with some sort of portable pumping apparatus that would allow them to
> > > pump water from the adjacent Platte River (the old remaining roundhouse
> > > water outlets had been shut off years ago) unfortunately it was heavier
> > > than the two firemen had anticipated which caused them to drop it above
> > > the river bank and it then promptly rolled down the bank into the river
> > > where it lay amid considerable numbers of "Rocky Mountain" spring water
> > > potables bottles disposed of in the river by persons unknown. The fire
> > > was finally put out by one railroader and five firemen wielding scoop
> > > shovels. And the fire was put out with? You guessed it, copious amounts
> > > of Lyons, Colorado sand! Unknown to many, part of Rice yard was above and
> > > next to much of the underground works of the Denver Gas Co works. It was
> > > much like a small subterreanean city but was inhabited by many "homeless"
> > > (read as bums) one night there was a gisly murder and the Denver Police
> > > were combing the yard and poking into freight cars looking for the
> > > murderer of which they had a description. Unawares of much of this, I
> > > started filling the sand tower for use filling the sandboxes on C&S train
> > > #78 and AT&SF #424 called around 3:00 a.m. By luck, I shone my flashlight
> > > down the manhole before proceeding and was shcked to see an individual
> > > asleep on the sand, his face and hair quite blood covered. From what
> > > little i knew this was the man they were looking for. I let the 3/8"
> > > steel manhole plate fall back into position and started piling cinder
> > > blocks on top of the cover despite the yells emanating from the basement.
> > > For good measure, I turned on the bucket elevator which raised huge
> > > choking clouds of sand dust when in full (rarely) operation. It never
> > > occurred to me that he might choke or walk into the bucket elevator in
> > > the dark and be instantly be dismembered or skinned alive. When the
> > > ever-patient Denver Police arrived, they determined that my "murderer"
> > > was the simply a victim of culinary abuse. He and several others had
> > > enjoyed a repast of severly undercooked pigeons and the blood was not
> > > that of a fellow traveler. The police hustled the poor miscreant off for
> > > a short stay courtesy of the City of Denver. Ocasionally the vertical
> > > elevator bucket conveyor belt broke, and, repairing it was a major
> > > operation and required a cable run through snatchblocks and hooked to a
> > > drawbar to pull the very heavy belt back up over the head pulley, then
> > > back down so the two broken ends could be cut square and reattached to
> > > each other with 1" stainless belt clips. to give you an idea of how much
> > > that thing weighed, the belt had staggered rows of cast iron buckets
> > > clipped to the belt. To be continued Bob Munshower
> > >
> > More on sandtowers from the inside out. Once the bucket elavator had taken
> > the sand up to the top of the sand house along with assorted dead/live
> > rats, pigeons, squirrels and parairie dogs or what ever had fallen into the
> > basement under the sand car, a diverter plate and large mesh screen caught
> > or broke up most but not all of the debris or large lumps of sand off of
> > the elevator. The aforementioned sandhouse and sandtower are visible in
> > many photos of Rice Yard and the roundhouse work area on the property. At
> > ground level the sandhouse contained another large tapered bin which
> > allowed me to control the flow of sand during the process by which
> > compressed air which was supplied by an idling locomotive via the trainline
> > air hose was used to blow the sand up into the sand tower, where by
> > gravity, it would flow down one of four, a couple of years later three,
> > then finally just two hoses. the problem for me was that in 1976-79 there
> > was still quite a mixture of 1st, 2nd and 3rd gen. motive power coming into
> > and going out of Rice Yard. The Powder River coal boom had already begun
> > but I never saw that power at the diesel pit, the coal trains had all the
> > new and best motors (never heard anyone on the C&S/BN refer to them as
> > diesels)on the system. The BN mainline to South Denver followed the eastern
> > boundry of Rice Yard and one could see a uninterrupted procession of loaded
> > coal trains and helpers headed South for the D&RGW/AT&SF joint line to
> > Pueblo and the great unknown. Back to the sandboxes. With only two hoses,
> > it was difficult to reach many of the sandboxes on the oddball units so I
> > kept several funnels and different lengths of drainspout piping to use as
> > extensions. Lots of old "Q" artifacts such as oil and kerosene cans, all
> > topmarked were just lying around, the diesel pit area. Later on I will
> > relate the circumstances of how I found some of the original Union Pacific
> > surveys and track profiles from the Denver, South Park & Pacific, Colorado
> > Central, Denver, Utah & Pacific rr's as well as the original UP mainline to
> > Promentory Point.Some of the very last F units came through Rice Yard as
> > well as many exotic creatures headed for the FRA test facility at Pueblo.
> > At that time the CF&I mills were still cranking out steel day and night and
> > I think a few of those beasts were headed for their final reward there.
> >
> On occasion I tried to hurry the sand box filling process by notching the
> motors up to RUN 3 and that was all well and good until the much higher
> volume of air and sand mix being pushed through the old worn out system
> caused several "geyser" to sprout where none had existed before. Several of
> these would have been the envy of a Yellowstone National Park ranger, but I
> figured they just saved me and my family a long drive North to see the real
> ones. I had to remain close to the tower in case of a malfunction and since I
> worked the 11:00 - 7:00 a.m. shift, nodding and dozing was not all that
> difficult to accomplish. Several times I came to with a sense of forboding,
> and sure enough, when my pupils had dilated enough for me to see, there was
> often a half ton or more of sand piling up on the short nose of a GP-30 or
> SD-40 and then cascading over the walkways down into the diesel pit, which,
> when the sump pump wasn't running had about 2-4 inches of mixed diesel fuel,
> new and used lube oil and water. i would try to convince the Santa Fe
> engineers to leave the sand in place as the weight would help with adhesion
> as the engines climbed the stiff grade out of Denver to the Palmer Lake
> Divide. Despite my advice, they always chose to go without the added sand,
> and I must in all fairness add that they always helped to shovel it off. I
> also suggested on occasion that they close all the windows, put on
> respirators and take the consist out on the mainline and run to the depot
> and back several times to blow it off but they never were able to see the
> inherent wisdom of my ideas. Next - the indignant Bum that fell into the
> grease skimmer, at 20 degrees above zero as well as the story of the
> nefarious turntable builder's plate theives .
>
------------------------------------
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