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I started with the CB&Q at the sheep yards in Montgomery as a stock yard labor in the summer of '67 working saturday and sunday days and all the vacations and other extra work. Till started at WCC in the fall of '68 only to find I could not work and go to school at the same time so went to Uncle Sam ain't released me yet as a training NCO in the Fire Dept school at Ft. Rucker, Ala. The SCL geeps in run 8 working up the hill thru the south side of the post (just a couple blocks from the barracks) with peanuts and new Elba Trailers sounded just like the Geeps running thru Aurora. Old Tricky Dick gave me 179 day early out and I took every day of it only to get home with no CB&Q and no Passenger trains. Met Dan Holbrook in a Photo Class at WCC and he said BN was hiring and I was broke,unemployed and just got engaged and BN was the first to call me to work so I started at Congress Park in the middle of January 1973. They had just put COMPASS in and due to the traffic thru Congress Park at the time it took two guys on second trick. We had the regular shift that was off on Mon and Tue. and a Extra Operator that was seven days a week. So there was FIrst Trick Operator, Second Trick and Third Trick Operators with the ticket agent working about 4 hours in the morning. She was the wife of the B&B foreman and lived up stairs in the old depot on the south side. The regular East End Swing guy (Third Thursday nite Eola Op., Two Thirds Congress Park and Two Seconds CPK) also sold life insurance and could make more money at that then working the two seconds so he would layoff about every week so It did not matter which job you were assigned on second trick CPK you both worked 7 days a week. Poor old Frank did not know which job we were working as we both were there 7 days a week. 5 regular and 2 days OT every week. For the first two weeks I had to be at COMPASS school in Cicero (one of the old business cars by the yard office) at 8 AM till noon then rode out to the park and crawled up in a bunk in the locker room till 3 and Frank would get me to work till 11pm before riding the dinky back to Aurora and do it all over again 5 days a week. About the last of March they the union forced the issue and the extra op came off replaced by a clerk ( 5 days a week for less pay as a clerk)(Same days off Mon and Tue. ) So I got to post at Uniion Ave Tower first trick with Clay for two weeks then out to Eola post as operator (they had the IBM 2770 ((High Speed Machine)) rather then the 1050 at Congress Park.) Got to work Agent North Aurora for two weeks (It was at Eola Yard office ((the old one on the south side)) Spins Clerk job) Then post at Aurora Tower. Some where in this I had to take the Book of Rules in the basement of Aurora Depot and one of the guys was Browney the agent at Montgomery he did not pass as he fumed out "I ain't seen a rule book in 20 years" Caught third trick Aurora Tower and the very first nite alone as 11811 (Streator Fast Freight) with Fast Eddy came charging thru as I tried to hoop up the orders the fireman(Wilber S) had a flashlight in his hand and it nicked the hoop and the order fell at my feet. I snatched them up and took off down the platform as fast as I could and could keep up with the second unit and Trumper came out on the gangway and I tossed the order up on the gangway. Now I am at the west end of the platform and still have to catch the waycar. So I beat feet to the east end and just had time to catch the hoop and hand them up to the waycar. I would bounce Congress Park, Eola and Aurora Tower till the middle of June 73 when I was assigned 2nd Aurora Tower(the two previous second trickers had went into Cicero as Train Dispatchers) One nite the Train Master who took care of the Operators and Dispatchers stopped by and asked me IF I wanted to go into Cicero and try it out. I told him I had only been in the RR for what 8 or 9 months and did not feel I could handle it. Told old Jake (first trick Op at Aurora Tower) the next day and I think he went to bat for me and told me NOT to turn it down if asked again. So the next time the TM stopped by and asked me I said I would give it a try. The slacker on the East End Relief job was forced to quit an I bid the job starting Jan 1, 1974 worked it till Feb. 14, 1974 My first day posting as a Train Dispatcher at Cicero. Two moves later(Galesburg 1983, Ft. Worth 1993) retired on Friday the 13th Nov. 2009 Steve in SC On Monday, March 6, 2017 10:38 AM, "Tom Hammer hammermann1911@outlook.com [CBQ]" <CBQ@yahoogroups.com> wrote: This is real good stuff. When did you work at Congress Park Yard. We had long arm switches in 1957. Were we interchanging with the EJ&E at Westmont or Downers Grove. Do we still have operations at this places? Tom Hammer
On 3/6/2017 8:53 AM, STEVEN HOLDING
sholding@sbcglobal.net [CBQ] wrote:
__._,_.___ Posted by: STEVEN HOLDING <sholding@sbcglobal.net> __,_._,___ |