-----Original Message-----
From: Leo Phillipp via Groups.Io <
qutlx1=aol.com@groups.io>
To: CBQ <
CBQ@groups.io>
Sent: Wed, Aug 29, 2018 9:14 pm
Subject: [CBQ] New Man
Don't ask me why these stories pop into my head as I can't explain.
It was January 1973, yes on the BN, but it's still a Q story. I was a newly minted brakeman with all the "extensive training" of time period. Three student trips, one on the Irish Mail, one at Eola yard and a third that escapes my memory or simply got eliminated.
At any rate I'm now the head brakeman on a westbound freight in the siding at Burke,IL meeting an eastbound crawling its way up the hill from Savanna. After the eastbounder clears the "DS" comes on the radio and says to us he can't get the west switch at Burke to operate. So he continues "it's OK operate the west switch at Burke on manual per Rule xyz and restore the switch to power per the rule". As a fully qualified brakeman with two, maybe three student trips and without any review or testing on the Consolidated Code of Operating Rules, I had not the slightest idea what he was talking about and so informed the very senior engineer.
This engineer, Ray, also know as "Velvet" for his train handling skills advised the "DS" that this would take a little time as he had to show the "new man" how to perform this task. In his wingtips Ray walked up in the snow with me to the switch, no I'm not exaggerating ,explained and showed me how to take the switch off power, throw that massive mainline switch and stressed how to put it back on power once the lead motor was on the switch.
I don't remember if it was this trip or others that Ray was beside himself explaining how he ran trains on this track at 100 MPH that now were covered with 40 MPH slow orders and was really beside himself as to far things had decayed. Clearly he was among many of the most senior Aurora Division employees who never thought the glory days of Zephyrs, high speed extras and specials would ever disappear.
I don't have an engineers seniority list handy but my recollection is Ray's seniority date was from from the early 1930s. He also once shared he actually started on the Q on the section gang at Streator,IL explaining to me why only a few ties were changed out at time vs several in a row.
Leo