This will support Doug and Pete's comments about arbitraries being no walk
in the park.
Since childhood I have been a student of history; so when I came into
possession of a copy of the "schedule" dated 5/1/28 with rates effective 12/1/52
and understood that its' terms were still in effect and the vast amount of
history inside those covers; I read the thing cover to cover with pen in hand
for future reference.
Rule 44 on page 45 talks about trainman being allowed the extra mileage
"when an engine is cut off a train to run for coal or water." Here is what
I wrote to the list back on 5/2/12:
"You are correct about needing water in a diesel. One trip eastbound in the
C&I pool the warning bells in the lead unit started ringing so we stopped
between the switches at Carter. The units cooling system was almost dry. We
cut the power off the train and ran to Oregon depot and pulled the hose out of
depot, filing the cooling system, after which we returned to the train and
continued east.
I turned in a timeslip for the miles Carter to Oregon and return
under the schedule rule "running for water" and it was turned down by the
timekeepers office, stating that if legitimate, the Condr would have turned in
the timeslip. I dutifully quoted page, chapter and verse out of the schedule and
the fact that Condr and rear man stayed at Carter on the waycar. A
couple pay periods later I received the overdue mileage. This may have been the
start of my interest in being a local chairman."
At some point in the future, I believe, there will be an article in
the BRHS Bulletin dealing with a long gone and almost forgotten service
once routine on North American RRs. The whole impetus to write the article
came from reading the schedule back in the 70s and stumbling on the rule related
to the service and saying to myself "really" ! Then I gained access to the
Aurora BRT lodge claim files and well........you'll get to read about it
yourselves.
Leo Phillipp