--- In CBQ@yahoogroups.com, Jpslhedgpeth@... wrote:
>
>
> Mike...LET'S HAVE THOSE STORIES.
>
> Pete
>
Ok, here's one....
First off, I do know that being "down on the deck" was a legitimate reason for
not seeing anything, I was down behind the boiler enough when I was the one-man
crew on the R&GN Ry. Atlantics at Wisconsin Dells for 15 years before I went to
the "big railroad" at Edgemont :>)
Anyway, this story requires a little background. Have any of you boys heard of
the "Clifton Pocket" coal chutes? The Q apparently used them quite a bit.
From photos I've seen, Edgemont, Newcastle and Gillette, for instance, all had
that style of coaling facility. The only actual example I've ever seen is (or
was) at Vance Junction on the RGS in Colorado.
Instead of being a vertical "tower", they were a long, horizontal bunker, with
walls dividing the interior into "pockets". There was a track inside where the
coal cars would go when they were loading the "pockets". Each pocket had its
own chute and coal gate. When you pulled the chute down, it tripped the gate,
and you got everything that was inside.
So.......the pockets were loaded with different amounts of coal, and there was
a little wooden "tag" giving the number of tons in the pocket that went in a
holder on the chute. That way, the crew could know which pocket to "spot" at
for the amount of coal they thought they'd need. On the back side of the "tag"
was "Empty", and a crew taking coal was supposed to turn the tag to "Empty"
after they had emptied the pocket. Normally, a freight train would cut the
engine off to spot for coal, but passenger trains normally didn't....account
they were easier to stop.
So, as the Investigation goes, the passenger train stopped at the chute in
Colorado Springs one day. It transpired that several crews had taken coal
there, and failed to turn the tags around. By the time the Engineer had made
three unsuccessful "spots" at empty pockets, he was starting to "rough handle"
the passenger train. The Conductor came up to remonstrate with him about the
situation, and the two of them got into a fist fight.....the Engineer won :>)
The Master Mechanic's verdict was: "While Engineer (I don't remember his name)
was unduly provoked by the actions of crews before him, it wasn't appropriate
to beat up on the Conductor." I don't remember what he got for Discipline.
Mike
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