Looking at a phto of a passenger train picking up orders in the most recent TRAINS...or maybe it was CLASSIC TRAINS..they both came today...I thought of the agility and bravery it must have taken to hand up to a short passenger train at high speed. You had one hoop in one hand for the engineer and the other two leaning against your body to grab as soon as the head end had his...You would have have to been "jiffy quick" to drop one and grab the other two to get one to everybody on a short train like the PZ.
Lenny or Steve...any "tales" to relate in this regard.??
Pete
-----Original Message-----
From: Kujawa's <xark@mtco.com>
To: CBQ <CBQ@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Fri, Apr 26, 2013 7:37 pm
Subject: [CBQ] Train order delivery
Hi All:
worked for the Peoria and Pekin Union for a while and was the operator at
P&PU Junction (Telegraph call NF) at the east end of the P&PU yard. We
handled train orders for the N&W and Illinois Terminal and at one time the
Pennsy. The N&W handled a lot of High Wides out of Caterpillar for the east
coast. We usually put the orders up in the Ironman holder. This was a steel
structure that held the orders in the Y shaped holders. There were at three
different heights, engineer on top, flagman in the middle and conductor low.
We only used the top and bottom.
Being new with no experience I hung the orders not thinking about the wide
load Cat D10's in the train. The engineer grabbed his orders and the Ironman
would automatically drop the Y down so it wouldn't get caught on anything or
be in the way of the conductor. We were supposed to be outside to watch for
problems when the trains went by. Luckily I was on the correct end on the
train when one of the Cat D10 dozers grabbed the conductors orders. I made a
quick grab to get them back and handed them to the conductor when he came by
and no one saw my rookie mistake.
After that I always watched for wide loads in the list. Working at Pekin
Tower on the south end of the P&PU, I used the Ironman for the engineer but
always used the hand held Y for the conductors. The Ironman was located on a
curve and you just never knew what might be hanging out on long cars. The
only exception was the C&IM coal trains which were always 50' coal cars.
Roger Kujawa
Morton, IL.
See my AGW Rwy at: