Re: [CBQ] Train order delivery

["John D. Mitchell, Jr." <cbqrr47@yahoo.com>]

My best missed train order story concerns one of my favorite and most colorful engineers, Joel "Poopsey" Guthrie. One afternoon in early '58, he was running number 14, the "hotshot" when he blew the train order board at Christopher and missed the orders. He didn't stop. In fact, he didn't even slow up. The hind end caught their orders. Among them were a run two hours late order and a meet order for the Metropolis local at Herrin Junction.  Both orders restricted 14's authority to occupy the main track south of Herrin Junction. When the train got to Herrin Junction, the conductor noticed they were not slowing for the meet and pulled the air. Both the conductor and the Christopher operator (a really no non-sense guy named Carl Perry) wrote up the incident as required by the rules and Ass't Superintendent Joe Turner restricted Poopsey to yard service. After about six months, Poopsey convinced Turner to restore him to road service (as a matter of "managerial leniency"). The very next night, Poopsey was running extra 238 south, when it collided with a cut of empty coal hoppers in the South Yard at Christopher, resulting in "The Million Dollar Wreck". This time, Poopsey got set out. He worked in a Centralia hardware store and lived off of his "fire insurance" for two years until he was restored, again as a matter of "managerial leniency".

 

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