If you’re interested. The October issue of the Friends of the Burlington Northern society will include an article entitled “Working the C&I Pool in the 1970s”. I am the author. Currently the article is 12 pages and I don’t think the final, final proof will change the total count. There are real employee, insider photos from the Karl Rethwisch collection. Taken on the property from vantage points that rail fans didn’t have. Some in both issues are really at unique locations that you had to be on a train to take.
If you want to learn what it was like to work that pool between Cicero and Savanna from an employees standpoint point I recommend you invest the $5 plus postage and order via the link. My caption to one of my time books was about what our circadian clocks must have felt like given all the variation in work times.
The October issue covers going on duty at Cicero, working westbound to Savanna and laying over there. The January issue will cover the return trip with discussion of going “around the horn” via Denrock and Mendota. There’s a brief discussion of how the pool operated in Q days and I even discuss some operational problems in the early BN days.
I have no financial interest in the number of issues sold.
If you’re thinking about it, don’t wait. The FOBNR prints a grand total of about 10 extra copies per issue. But you cant order a back issue until the next quarters publication is
Mailed. So if you don’t order via the link it’s closed as of Sept 29th until January.(that’s a typo on the link that shows Oct. 29th)
There will be a future link for the January issue.
Thanks and enjoy learning the inside story.
Leo Phillipp