I'll make the assumption that everyone reading this understands what the title
means,though you may not have ever had the pleasure of dealing with same.
By the early to mid 70s the friction bearing truck was fading fast. While I am
not totally sure I believe they were banned from new car mfg in 1970. I know
for fact certain UTLX shipped out some brand new cars in 1969 on top of
friction bearing trucks. I also think they were totally banned from interchange
in '80 or '82 and the wonderful "converted sideframes "were banned in 1992.
So during the 70s my observation was that folks felt since the FBTs were fading
fast we don't need to pay as much attention as we once did........ How did I
determine that conclusion ?
Here's a partial list of incidents all between about 75 and 79:
1) # 97 out of Cicero,walking the head end looking for hand brakes in
departure yard and having had enough problems with hot boxes I have a packing
hook with me. About 6 or 8 back is an SP plug door box headed home to the west
coast as a load. It has friction bearings and sure enough when I lift the lid
on #1 journal there's very little oil. So I keep walking back until I find the
Carmen running the air test. These 2 guys are chatting away while waiting for
the set and when I advise them of the SP car they say they'll look at it.
I go to the head end, climb on and 91 miles later at Oregon,IL the operator
stops us account a hot box on an SP box 8 cars back. Paul Ritli,road foreman,
was riding that day and a I immediately said those so and so Carmen told me
they would look at that journal in Cicero.
He looked at me, and said "you pointed it out to them"; yes. Long story short
we set the load out on the back trk at Stratford. Paul woke me up with a phone
call when I got home the next day and asked me again.... Yes. From that day on
the Carmen in Cicero had to chalk there initials on the car when they inspected
friction bearings. Did that solve the problem? See 2 below.
2) were on a 185 at Cicero. There's a nice old wood reefer maybe 10-12 back in
great shape that catches my eye. For an old veteran she looks good. I note the
repack stencil from day or two before at Cicero for the FBTs. on the car.
We start westbound, coming into Eola I look back at the J and to my amazement
that pretty reefer has a hot box. I holler over to Art and say we've got a hot
one, he can't believe it. So he lets off the throttle and calls Eola ydmstr for
a look over of the first few cars. Sure enough,Paulie comes in on the radio and
says you've got a hot one. Art pours the air to them and we get stopped more or
less at McClure, I drop off before were stopped and make the cut, we pull over
Farnsworth and get the signal to shove back. Were routed into the west yard but
since we don't have portable radios I have no idea where the YDM wants this
car. I flag down at the new trk switch and shrug my shoulders. Art hangs out
the window and gives me a hand sign.......
The rest is in a future article of the BRHS PUBS. You'll enjoy the comic relief.
3)one night I walk out to the eastbound 10:20 ? Dinky at Aurora to climb
aboard as the rear man on the job. Walking down the platform I can't miss that
distinctive aroma of a hot box and sure enough as I look over the Fox River w/f
sitting across the platform waiting for us to go there's a nice shining red
glow coming from a bearing on a sand hopper. I go up to the head end and get
Socko and Genes attention and get back on my train. As were leaving town
there's a conference going on at the hot box with the entire train crew in
attendance.
4)were on a work extra westbound at Waterman for Rochelle and the DS says he's
lining us in the siding at Shabbona and were going to sit there until the
derailment at Lee is cleared up? News to us.
I don't recall who,but a member of mgmt comes on the radio telling the DS to
have us cut the train off in the siding and go up to Lee and help rerailing
with the engine.
Well, we get to Lee and there's the rear end of 181(the head end and crew have
gone on to complete work to Savanna. About 20 or so ahead of the Waycar there's
a Decrepite looking "J" 40 foot gon. with a load of steel plate with a friction
bearing burned off resting directly on the hot box detector. I am not
exaggerating. It burned off and dropped right onto the detector. We pulled the
rear end back to Shabbona, put it away on the back trk,went back to Lee, helped
the Eola wheel truck chain up the sideframes and set the gon on the Lee pass.
We then went back to Shabbona, got our train and went to Rochelle,where we
spent the balance of the day moving the train ever so slowly while the gandys
tossed spikes in one car,tie plates in other,angle bars in another and
bolts,washer,wts in still another from a relay project. Well more or less. The
foreman finally ended up using bailing wire from the Waycar and tieing samples
of what he wanted in each car to a ladder on each end to more or less ensure
the right product was going in the car. I even tried throwing some stuff for a
while but decided it was not my cup of tea.
5) we pick up a long string of loaded sand hoppers at Oregon on #364. After
doing the work at Rochelle of picking up and setting out on the pass; I'm
walking along the train and sure enough one the sand loads has a hot box. We
set it out.
6)were coming down Burke one night on 363 when the sky lights up on a box we
picked up at Oregon. I mean she really made a huge fire from the journal,so she
had plenty of oil. It was that fact that led Wild Bill to say "take her on
in,she'll make it to Savanna". And she did.
Just a few examples of the "way it used to be"
Leo
Sent from my iPad
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