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Great "word picture" DAle....You are one of the few of us who actually experienced the sights and sounds of railroading which captured all of us of that vintage.
Pete
-----Original Message-----
From: Dale Reeves <drale99@roadrunner.com> To: CBQ <CBQ@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Fri, Apr 19, 2013 12:25 pm Subject: Re: [CBQ] Re: Train order delivery (was 2-10-4) A memory I have is of one night my dad, a railway telegraphher, let me
stand out with him on the platform as he was to hand up orders to a fast freight. It was a dark, clear night at Inland, NE. Inland is out on the plains where you can see for miles. We could see the headlight of the eastbound train coming out of Hastings, 10 miles west. On a reverse curve coming out of Hastings, the light moved horizontally across the horizon, then steadied to a stationary light which began to inclease in intensity. There's nothing as bright as a locomotive headlight at night, and as it intensified, it became so bright it was mesmerizing. The light became the only visible thing. It was just the the ever-increasing light and the darkness. For a while there was no sound. Then you could feel it -- the ground shaking. Then the roar, the blinding light, and when the big Northern hit the platform, there was an explosion of sound and rushing air and steam that was like nothing I have experienced before or since! Then the monster was past, followed by the clatter of the long line of cars, then the way-car, then it was gone. While I was hard against the wall of the depot, my dad had to stand three feet from the raging monster to reach up with the order, which was tied to twine stretched over a Y, the order illuminated by a flashlight on the handle of the Y. A fireman had to reach out against the cold slip-stream and snatch the twine. In those days, telegraph messages had to be handed up manually to the crews at both ends, as there was no communication other than lantern or hand-signals, except train orders. If they missed a train order, there was the likelihood of a wreck. A missed train order was an automatic firing of the telegraph operator. I was 10 or 11 at the time, very impressionable. We lived in the depot. This is how I grew up on the rairoad. I have great memories. I also have great respect for the Burlington, which was an outstanding railroad in many respects. I have written the above and other impressions in a booklet called "Hooked on Trains". Dale Reeves ----- Original Message ----- From: "Winton" <wyhog@yahoo.com> To: <CBQ@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Thursday, April 18, 2013 3:25 PM Subject: [CBQ] Re: Train order delivery (was 2-10-4) I worked in Train Order territory on the Q territory in Nebraska, Wyoming, and Montana for 14 years with diesels on BN. We routinely picked up orders on the head end at the 49 mph dark territory max or a few mph faster. Some wimpy conductors wanted you to slow to about 35 mph for them to pick em up on the caboose. They claimed the wind kicked up too much dirt in their eyes. Others had no trouble at 50. We picked up orders at least once every trip and often 2 or 3 times. Over those 14 years I think I only "missed" maybe 5 or 6 times and those were due to the operator flinching at the last second. However I had to stop and back up, or stop and wait for the operator to drive to us, or stop and wait for the brakeman to walk back and meet the operator, perhaps a couple of dozen times account the string broke when I hooked it. That usually occurred with one type of fork if the operator put the string on the the wrong side. In ABS territory I picked up orders at 60 mph on several occasions and that is about the max I'd want to do it! When I worked helpers pushing on the rear end, the conductor would pickup the orders from his caboose (or the rear helper unit if he was riding that). The bundle would have 2 sets of orders and clearances. One for him and one for me. My helper brakeman would go out on the front of the helper unit and the conductor would hand him our orders across the gap. Or my brakey would go back the catwalk along all the helper units to the trailing unit and bring our orders back up to me. AK __._,_.___
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