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Leo...I think that the RI transfe which r was the most...notorious...infamous of all that I knew about. Remember "my day"...is pre 14 hrs...pre 12 hours...16 hours was the limit...This was 61-62. The "Clearing Run" as it was known went to work at 3:00pm at BI....Their job was to "couple up track 13 (Cars for Wabash)...and Track 15..(cars for BRC). Thence double track 13 to track 15...get an air test and go...An important additive to this mix is the Conductor "Dizzy Wate...(you didn't call him that to his face..his given name was Ed. Well this outfit could, with no effort at all spend 2 hours making this move. The air test was conducted with great thoroughness and it was often necessary to "throw out" bad order cars...(You would have thought that they were going to get out and run 60 mph on the mainline.
Well after this preliminary "fiddling around" they would wander slowly out of the yard and onto Track 5 heading for 87th to set out the Wabash cars and thence over to Clearing Yard...I never rode this job over to Clearing, but BRHS member whose initials are PAW worked as a switchman and "regaled" me with tales of what happened at Clearing. The first move was to get in a track and get blocked...It then was "nap time"...
After a midnight or later awakening they would run around their train and tie onto the cars they were to bring back. BTW...Clearning was the only yard from which a transfer could bring cars back..alll other yards each railroad would deliver and come back "light"...
Anyhow after maximum stalling and delay they would start back just in time to make a pickup of a delivery from some eastern road around Gresham or so and finally drag into BI yard just before their time was up at 7:00am....
Everybody wanted on the "Clearing Job"...lots of OT and Nap time.
Pete
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From: qutlx1@aol.com [CBQ] <CBQ@yahoogroups.com> To: <CBQ@yahoogroups.com> <CBQ@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Fri, Feb 26, 2016 10:45 am Subject: [CBQ] Was Mainline Sidings/ now Transfers Ah Pete you gave me an opening to discuss something I've been pondering for awhile. transfers.
Yes it was Bob Janz who wrote that article in classic trains. I had the pleasure of spending hours with Bob on an couple occasions and I never ran out of questions to ask him. It was he who confirmed something for me that will be featured in a future CNW HS lines issue. I'll let our Q list know when it's published as I think many will enjoy it. Now back to transfers I often thought it was the giant terminal yards and the related transfers that caused the railroads to lose so much business to the trucks. I recall that in the BN days Cicero had 48 hours as a ceiling before questions got asked why the car was still there. And the stories I heard over the years from a relative who spent his life as a BOCT yardman on transfers were just amazing. It was a couple BRHS spring meets ago that a retired yardmaster discussed the number of transfer crews who routinely played cards in the "D" yard locker room after they had died on the hog law. 16 hours to get across Chicago ! There's some great transfer tales in Ed Derouins "The Pennsy in Chicago". But today we have mostly direct run throughs from road to road,pre blocking,unit trains,etc,etc and still the trucks continue to gain market share. Geez,even railroad ties are shipped by truck ! Leo __._,_.___ Posted by: jpslhedgpeth@aol.com __,_._,___ |