Hi Bill....
How'ya been? After 34 years in Engine Service, I finally worked my way up to
#1 in the West Pool :>) Spaz is on the Bullet, and Arn's runnin' the switch
engine.
We've got "Ukelele Bill" now, who serenades his Conductors with his ukelele :>)
The last time I saw the guy who didn't bother to show up for his "party" he was
workin' in a hardware store up in Rapid.
One time, when I was brakin', we picked up our lunches "on the fly" goin' East
through Newcastle. The Engineer was forced down from Sheridan, afraid of not
makin' the hill, and he didn't slow down much. Burr had the lunches in a box,
and he was runnin' up the platform, tryin' to keep up with us. I was down on
the bottom motor step, and I hollared at him to stop, so I could "line up" on
the box. Well, when I caught the box of lunches, the top blew off the
Engineer's milkshake and the contents went straight up in the air. When I got
back up in the cab, I told him he was out of luck for his drink, and he said:
"Was that a little too fast?" I told him it was a "lot" too fast :>)
"Outta control Gstohl" aka, "Earl the Pearl" is runnin' the daylight switch
engine in the Donkey Creek "Velocity" Yard now. He's the one who was runnin'
earlier this year when the crew "kicked" the cars into me.
So here's a modern BNsf story.....We had just got done "bouncing" from the
train we brought into the Yard onto one, on #4, that we were going to take out
to Rojo. Somebody had been using the motors before we got there, so I wanted
my Conductor to check for handbrakes on the train. if you leave a train in the
Yard, they only want the motors "tied down" now. I untied the motors, and he
went back to check the cars.
I gave him a "set and centered" with the horn, and commenced to set out my
lunch on the "desk" in the MAC, account the switch crew was switchin' out #2,
and we weren't goin' anyplace 'til they got done. I hear "gimme a kick,
switch", then "stop switch", but I'm not looking up.......until I hear the girl
that's supposed to be the Foreman holler "STOP SWITCH". I look up and here
come those cars right at me!!!!
Fortunately, the guy before me had the seat laid back a ways, and I didn't have
time to run, so I layed back and put my feet up on the bulkhead below the desk.
BAM....the motor hopped up and moved back, my Mt. Dew went flyin', and almost
before the echo had died away the Helper was up in the cab checkin' on me. He
says he looked at the target, and "thought it was wrong". Gawd, what do (or
more correctly don't) they teach these kids these days??????? It all happened
so fast, I didn't even think to flop on the floor and holler about "ohhh my
baaack" :>)
Fortunately for my Conductor, he was out from "between" when it happened, so
nobody was hurt, and Earl escaped a "speeding ticket" account he was "only"
going 11MPH (through a 10MPH turnout) when he shut off :>) The Helper got
"Level S" out of it. And, because the trainmaster in charge of the
Yard....which for "timeslip" purposes isn't a "Yard", no matter what the big
signs say....is now a roadforeman, account I didn't let him get away with
covering it up....and he didn't get his transfer to higher office in Fort
Worthless :>) He also doesn't mess with me anymore :>)
Edgemont's a nice place to work out of, if you don't have to live
there.....we've got 30 acres over by Hot Springs, with a 7-1/2" gauge "Erskine
Tramway" on the North 20 :>)
Mike
--- In CBQ@yahoogroups.com, Rhonda <macon249@...> wrote:
>
> I will bet you knew " Big Hole Gusthol "
> He was out of Edgemont.
> Edgemont, was the only time I ever seen a guy!
> "Dismissed from Service, and he waived his right to a investigation"
> What a hole.
> Bill Jackson
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> > ***************
> > Don't forget Rumor Ray, the accordian player.
> > ***************>
> > *************************
> > Once the BN started furnishing hot meals via taxi
> > from Gillette and Newcastle we didn't "starve" very
> > often.
> > **************************
>
------------------------------------
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