And guaranteed when somebody asked "Which one is Track 4?", the
answer would be "That's the one in between 3 and 5" rather than
anything more helpful!
Pete,
You exemplified most newbies. Just glad to do what the
old heads instructed. My biggest problem was a lot of old
heads just assumed that when the RR hired you that your
knowledge was sufficient to perform the work w/o them
saying a word.
Somehow they figured you knew what the "pocket" was in
Rochelle or where all the various industries were located,
what CN meant on the switch list at Rochelle(and it wasn't
Canadian National) or what 199,115,new city,etc. meant.
Or working in outlying yards an instruction might be
"go take the engine through the bad order track and come
back in on the other end of the train and wait for a
sign.?!
Some guys were very understanding and explained things
and then there were some who you could work with for hours
and they didn't say a word unless you messed up and then
you got an earful.
I could go on for many paragraphs but think the above
gives enough highlights.
Leo
Leo..I'm
aware that turning is not requred in CTC
territory, but I just neglected to put that
disclaimer in..HOWEVER...once in my first summer
as a brakeman working the Huntley local on the
Lincoln Division..On two days of our assigment we
ran over the mainline to work a couple of
branches.
One evening we came off one of the branches and
pulled down the siding and prepared to "go up
town" to eat. Just before we went out the rear
door of the waycar the old head conductor
said.."Be sure and turn your markers Jim"....I
knew it was not required, but do you think that I
a brand new brakeman was going to argue with a
Conductor who probably had 30 plus years of
seniority...I knew which side my "bread was
buttered on" and would not act in a "smart aleky"
manner..No indeed I would not..not then and not
now...
Also one night we came back into Hastings off
the Huntley branch about 2:00am. The track we
came in on was next to the main track..It was CTC
territory..Same instruction Jim turn that one
marker to show green. Just like it was dark
territory. Again I instantly complied. Whether
he was trying me out or for some other reason, I
was not, in any way going to argue with a man of
his status..
I always tried to do my best in what ever I was
asked to do...never argued and did some things
like "going high" which terrified me to the Nth
degree without any argument
.
They hired me back on for three different
summers and I got a few compliments from some old
heads. "one engineer said "For a young man you
sure know a lot about the rules.
Also on my last summer I worked the last six
weeks on a branch line local which on our
outbound trip we were "in the dark" for most of
the trip.Sometimes we didn't get tied up until
5:00am or so..Our markers were always hung and
burning after sunset and were rehung on the rear
of the w/c on our going home trip.
Well, no matter what..Those markers seemed
quite heavy when I on just a few occasions was
required to hang them on the rear of a
conventional heavyweight Pullman on Train 43.
Pete
-----Original
Message-----
From: qutlx1@aol.com
[CBQ] < CBQ@yahoogroups.com>
To: CBQ < CBQ@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tue, Jul 4, 2017 12:47 pm
Subject: Re: [CBQ] Double Drop [1 Attachment]
and hanging markers
Pete,
My markers are complete with
rings,pots,mantle,wicks,etc.
everything except Kerosene in the
pots. Also fortunate to have a
couple sets of brackets to hang them
from. However the train mistress at
this location refuses to allow
markers being mounted on shed or
steam loco. Bell to be displayed on
pole near patio.
The turning of markers when clear
of Main was for non CTC territory.
While all the Aurora Div. branches
were "dark" no body ever turned
markers to my knowledge because you
were generally the only train on the
line.
Leo
Leo,,,I
think I followed the moves
after reading a couple of
times..maybe more...Based on
what i hear about how things
are today that more than one
"officer" wold have multiple
heart attacks while pulling
the entire crew out of
service and lining them up
for the required P test
before hauling them off to
the County Jail for
endangering everyone within
1 mile of the operation and
preparing multiple lists of
each individual rule
violation.
Now back to the matter of
"Hanging Markers"..I, for
some reason, began to
think....sometimes, but
rarely, I do that..I
remembered that the actual
marker sat in a kind of ring
and said ring had a bracket
sticking out and said
bracket fit into a vertical
slot affair on the corner of
the car end..The bracket
which stuck out fit into the
slot which secured it firmly
in place..What I wondered is
whether the marker you
weighed had the ring and
bracket. If not when you
came up with the 14 lb
marker, the bracket ring
would bring the weight up
closer to my 20-25 lb
guess..
BTW that "ring" that the
marker sat in allowed the
marker to be "turned"
without having to take the
whole thing down..You and,
perhaps others, will recall
that the rules required that
markers be turned to show
green to the rear when train
was in the clear of the main
track...Also other
configurations were required
when train was moving on a
long lead along side a main
track and other more
esoteric configurations when
running against current of
traffic in double track
territory.
Pete
-----Original
Message-----
From: qutlx1@aol.com
[CBQ] < CBQ@yahoogroups.com>
To: CBQ < CBQ@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tue, Jul 4, 2017
11:00 am
Subject: [CBQ] Double Drop
[1 Attachment]
[Attachment(s)
from qutlx1@aol.com
included
below]
First a
couple
disclaimers,I
observed the
maneuver I'm
about describe
in 1973-75.
But I assure
you the same
maneuver was
done when the
equipment was
Chinese red.
Familiarize
yourself with
the sketch
below so you
can follow the
story. I drew
this from
memory so it's
not an exact
100% track
layout but
very close.
The double
drop took
place several
times a week
on the
Earlville turn
wayfreight.
The job was
kind of two
different jobs
in one. After
leaving Eola
around noon
the job
performed the
heavy
industrial
switching at
CAT of
spotting
inbound
material,
pulling
scrap,etc.
then in mid to
late afternoon
the job became
a classic
agrarian
wayfreight
deliverying
Lumber,
fertz., feed
and spotting
mtys. For
grain loading
between
Bristol and
Earlville on
the mainline.
Even
occasionally
delivered a
new tractor or
combine to a
freight dock.
Dinner was had
at a
restaraunt
along the way.
One of the
favorites was
what today is
the Bull Moose
at Sandwich, a
preserved CBQ
passenger car
that we've
discussed at
some length on
this list
previously.
Upon returning
to CAT the job
backed onto
one of the
tracks that
paralleled the
mains outside
the fence.The
mainlines were
higher than
what we called
the "main"and
"fence"',
which were in
turn higher
than the plant
tracks. In
other words
the perfect
place to make
a drop. After
shoving west
of the gate,
the loco.
angle cock was
closed, all
the air bled
from the
two-four frt
cars and
waycar.
The head man
was stationed
at the fence
trk. Switch,
the Condr
walked down to
9 trk. Switch.
The train was
run a
comfortable
distance
westward on
the long lead.
Tom positioned
himself on the
footboard of
the loco. next
to the lead
car. All is
set. Tom gives
the engr. A
sign to head
east, then
when he's
comfortable
with speed and
distance he
asks for
slack, pulls
the pin,
unloads from
the loco.,runs
in the
opposite
direction of
movement of
the rolling
cars and
boards the
lead end of
the waycar.
The engine is
lined along
the fence trk.
the head man
then lines the
fence switch
toward the
plant while
Tommy back on
the waycar
pulls the pin
and cranks
just a touch
of handbrake
to slow it
while the frt.
cars roll
eastward
around the
curve toward
the plant.
When they go
over nine
switch the
Condr. Lines
that switch
for nine and
the waycar
rolls to stop
in the clear
on nine and is
tied down. The
frt. cars stop
rolling as
there's a bit
of a bowl on
that track.
The engine
comes off the
fence trk. and
is coupled to
the frt. cars
which are then
placed on
either the "
Main" or
"fence" as the
first cars in
tonight's
train back to
Eola.
The waycar
resides on
nine until the
last move of
the night it
is tacked onto
the rear of a
24-28 car
train for
Eola. The rest
of the night
is spent
pulling loads
and spotting
empty flats on
trks. 12 and
13. The
outbound loads
are coupled to
the wayfreight
cars. Which is
then runaround
and job heads
back to Eola.
This is how
the crew of
Condr.
Shields,
brkmn. Neitzel
and Neary
(hopefully I
spelled their
names
correctly too
lazy to go dig
up a seniority
list) made the
maneuver.
On the other
hand the crew
of Condr.
Besco,brkmn.
Trumper and
Phillipp just
dropped the
entire
wayfreight
train and
waycar from
the west upon
return onto
either the
"Main" or
"fence" and
then as the
last move of
the night
doubled that
onto all the
loads coming
out of Cat and
then ran
around the
train and went
to Eola. Just
demonstrates
there's
different ways
to reach the
same result.
Things got
much more
complicated
when the
outbound train
exceeded 28 or
29 cars as we
couldn't run
around the
train to
leave. That's
when all kind
of variations
came into play
like shoving
the wayfreight
cars to the
far west end
of the spur so
as to clear
12-15 car
strings coming
out of the
plant and then
going out to
get them as
the last move,
bringing them
up to the
"Main"
switch,cutting
them off just
west of it,
then running
around the
train,
coupling the
engine on the
east end and
shoving back
to make the
joint hanging
onto 28-29
cars. We had
no radios.
Another
maneuver was
to "borrow"
mainline 1 for
a couple hours
and leave a
string of CAT
loads on the
mainline. Then
at the end of
the night
runaround the
28 or 29 cars
along the
fence line and
double the
cars on the
mainline onto
those and then
head east.
This left the
dispatcher
with a single
track railroad
from
Montgomery to
Bristol. It
also created
quite a scare
one night for
a west bound
Galesburg hot
shot which
happened to
have a high
wide load in
his train. But
that's another
story.
We did leave
CAT one night
with a 60 car
train of which
all but a few
were loads of
machinery
pulled by a
single GP7.
Leo
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Posted by: Don Brown <dbrown02@rochester.rr.com>
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