Another tale from the "Aurora Racetrack"... this one is somewhat bawdy but there is no profanity or explitives used.. I was working as rear collector on Job 1268 which was an afternoon job but it tied up in mid evening. It was also one of the couple of jobs to which I could commute to on my own railroad. It was a pretty decent job, not a great payer but at least I got home before the "bewitching hours". The train we used was a train which was used by a day job and the crew of that job would discharge their passengers at the Aurora Transportation Center and then shove back to Hill Yard and be relieved there. The train would normally be spotted just a few yards from the door to the crew building.We would then inspect and prepare the train for our job. This train had been cleaned and serviced during its layover and just prior to the run it had just made, so it was fairly clean and decent. There was not a great deal of time between runs so we wasted no time in inspecting and preparing the train. This particular day we were ready to pull back to the A.T.C. but the conductor was still inside the register room. I waited a couple of minutes and decided that someone should go to the register room and give the conductor a "shout". It just so happened that the conductor we had just relieved was walking toward the register room. He had just been to his car for some reason or another. I hailed him and asked him to tell S..... to "get his (synonym for derriere)out here". I turned away and started to walk to the vestibule doors when I heard someone shouting my name. I returned to the end train door. I saw the conductor I just mentioned standing there laughing, and there was S..... standing in the doorway to the register room, "mooning" the train. He took my request quite literally! CT
I am humbled and deeply appreciative of your approbation! I may ask the moderator to move this thread to the Railroad Discussions forum so as to not take up bandwidth for other hobbyists who have photos and their related messages. Charlie
Your wish is my command... Say, we could use a new story... What about something heat-related, since summer's coming!
I have a very "special" story about summertime railroading but it is not appropriate on open forum due to its very adult content. I will provide the story backchannel to anyone who would like to read it. I will also relate a "dinky" story on a following post. CT
Summertime in Chicago is a lot of things to a lot of people. One of the main events of recent times eagerly anticipated by many Chicagoans and ancillary suburbanites is the annual outdoor soiree "Taste of Chicago" . What the "Taste" is, is a food,events and music festival held in Grant Park on Chicago's magnificent lakefront. Primarily it is a foodfest to showcase a number of Chicago restaurateurs, but the top-billed performers are a draw for a lot of folks too. The biggest highlight during the taste is Chicago's annual "Fireworks Night" held the evening of July 3rd. The fireworks are detonated from barges floating just offshore of Grant Park and the fireworks display is world class. The "draw" is normally 1 to 1 1/2 million(you read that right!) folks to witness the fireworks, sample the food and listen to first-rate music on that evening. I will have one or two stories relative to Fireworks night on subsequent posts. Segue to opening night of "Taste of Chicago"... Most of the suburban service crews,especially those on afternoon/evening trains,dread working during the (approximately)two weeks of the annual "Taste of Chicago". A lot of the "old heads" will take vacation time during that period just to avoid having to work during it. My first experience in suburban service,as a trainman, during "Taste" time, occurred on opening day (IIRC) 1997. I was called to work as middle collector on #1282(now 1284)which is/was the last job of the day. It ran the last EB and WB trains of the suburban day. When I reported for work I learned that all 4 of us(engineer,conductor,2brakeman)were "extra board" , the whole regular crew had marked off. NOBODY wanted to work that job on that day. Well, 1282 was never a hard job, but it was a long one and it even had a short turn during the middle of the job. The job was really uneventful all afternoon and evening until the last run. At that time the last WB was to depart C.U.S. at 12:35AM. The TM on duty told us that he would hold the train for a few minutes to catch stragglers(BTW "Taste of Chicago" closes at 10PM during it's run). Well folks we held the train for 15 minutes and we STILL had folks running for it! I am still wondering how we managed to get the train and it's passengers to their respective stops enroute to Aurora. We had people losing their stomachs all over the train, the rear guy got in the way of one passenger who was "spewing". People were so inebriated that several of them had "soiled" their clothing. There were passengers quite literally draped over the armrests of the seats as one would drape a newspaper or a towel over the armrest. There were a couple of folks passed out like cordwood on the floor of the gallery in one car and had to be removed by their friends and the crew upon reaching their stop. I had gone back to the rear car at the request of the rear guy who had a bit of a disturbance,which was quickly quelled. While I was talking to him a couple of drunken young women who had been walking back and forth in the train, came through the vestibule where the rear guy and I were chatting and they headed toward the rear train door. We both pulled open the vestibule door to ask them where they intended to go and just about that time one of them opened the rear train door, the rear guy and I shouted at the top of our voices for them to stop. Fortunately they did although they let out a scream when they realized where they were. The train was doing 70mph and the only thing between them and death was the warning bar across the opening of the end door. You cannot begin to visualize what that train looked and smelled like when we shoved back to Hill Yard that night! Apparently this was expected since we never heard anything pro or con from anyone concerning this run. It was, you may say, a "learning experience"! LOL CT
CT If you want my email :computer: address is listed in the members section or pm me and I will send it. I don't want to miss a "Story time with C story"
And there goes another I glad it was him and not me story. Good one C :thumbs_up: :thumbs_up: :thumbs_up: :thumbs_up:
Count me in for that story as well! I worked as a fundraiser volunteer for Cheyenne Frontier Days (one of the world's largest outdoor rodeos) a couple years ago. Even though the show we cleaned up after (in the grandstands) was a day show, the mess was immense. I cannot possibly imagine the cleanup after a night concert! I can well imagine the looks of that train that night, CT! Keep the stories coming!
I was a new-guy switchman still qualifying in the bunghole of the BNSF, Cicero(IL) Yard. It was still a hump yard at the time. I was so new that I wasn't able to recognize any voices on the walkie-talkie radio set, so I expected every call to my name or position would be my foreman, or yardmaster or trainmaster or engineer or almost anyone who was in a position to tell me where to go and what to do. I was working a 2nd shift job, it was the middle of the night. It was during winter so it was cold and dark and I didn't wanna be where I was at the time I was. I hated that place. I was pounding the lead on the north side of the bowl heading towards the departure tracks. I was to get the line-up for a departure track for the shove which would shortly be coming my way. As I was beating feet towards the departure yard I heard a voice on the radio asking me by my name, where I was located. I thought it was my foreman and I replied that I was walking the north lead going to get the line-up. A few seconds later, I hear my name again on the radio asking me what my position was. I figgered that whoever was calling me was concerned that I was in the clear and ready to protect the shove into the departure track. I replied that I was walking between the "north lead" and the "house" track, xxx number of feet east of the "bus stop"(its a semi-covered,heat lighted shelter similar to a bus shelter used by switchmen doing the same job I was doing). The voice replied "works for me"! or something like that. What I didn't know was that it was an engineer sitting in the loco cab of the trimmer loco sitting on a bowl track. The crew was having some fun with me. It was funny, but for a new guy it was bewildering to me why someone needed to know my exact location every few seconds. Just a little harmless "new-guy" hazing! CT
Enjoyed the story. Can you expline the trimmer loco, bowl track to us that want to know all you know.:embarassed:
Sure! Many hump yards have their sorting tracks in a fan arrangement called a bowl. The actual topography would show that indeed the tracks were in a bowl-like depression mainly to keep the cars from rolling out the opposite ends of the track The Cicero Yard was one of those and the principal tracks from N - S were , "House Track", "North Lead", "North Bowl Lead", bowl tracks 1 - 42(no track 3), "South Bowl Lead", South Lead", "Fence Track". There were various other tracks and crossovers, but those were the main ones. The trimmer loco would go into the bowl tracks and "trim" the cuts of cars in them ie, cars that failed to couple, or had knuckles skewed, push or pull the tracks farther east if necessary. Also the trimmer would be the one to go into the bowl tracks and double up tracks, connect the airhoses and pump air into the cars and then take them to the departure yard tracks. CT
Thanks for the info, and another good story! Just why (hopefully you haven't covered this before) did you dislike Cicero? Was it due to the crime and danger of the area?
A combination of ingredients, two of which you mention. The yard itself is OLD! The former C.B.&Q/BN was loathe to spend any money to try and improve it. I was afraid to touch anything. You had to have nerves of steel to use the bathrooms. They were all nasty. only one or two shower facilities anywhere in the yard actually worked. Everything was coated with either rust or crud or both. You couldn't leave anything out in the open. I had a camera(not a very expensive one)stolen from my grip cuz I couldn't get a locker and there was no room in the engine cab, not to mention the fact that ALL the switch engines at Cicero are nasty,filthy beasts. I cant begin to tell you how many times I had to clean the cabs myself. The neighborhood itself is "high crime". gunshots and sirens all the time. When the Bulls won one of their last championships, the Western Ave. switch engine was told to stop working and come back immediately. That job works in an even higher crime area. The moment the Bulls won, heavy gunfire broke out. those of us who were outside were seeking cover between cars. Those inside moved to rooms with windows away from streetside. Things got a little better when the new loco service facility was built at the Clyde Roundhouse. A new crew building(the old one was a single wide trailer),lockers,bathrooms,shower,the whole 9 yards. Still, that only benefited the hostlers and the road crews coming in, the old register room for road trains is a holdover from the early 50's. Corwith Yard is disliked by the crews of the Santa Fe side, but the difference is night and day. Corwith is a 1000% better than Cicero, at least the buildings aren't crumbling around you. Railroads are notoriously parsimonious. That is just one of the many reasons why there is labor/management friction. That you are given some sort of shelter within which to receive and prepare your necessary paperwork to operate their trains is a greivious insult to their corporate pocketbook. And you want heat,light and running water too???? I'm starting to rant here so I'll wrap this up! CT
Charlie: I am looking at Cicero, IL on Google Earth. Is the yard east-west (north of IH55) or north-south (south of IH55)? The north-south yard is near Midway Airport. Thanks. Enjoying the stories very much. :thumbs_up:
Hi Flash, Cicero Yard is north of I-55 with an East/West alignment(mostly). 26th Street is the northern boundary, Ogden Avenue(angular street) is it's southern boundary. The yard with a north/south alignment just south of I-55 is Corwith Yard of the (former)ATSF. MOF the ATSF Transcon main runs parallel to I-55 for a short distance on the north side of the Interstate. The lead to/from the yard overpasses I-55. Corwith Yard is just to the east of Pulaski Rd., which is a mile east of Cicero Ave. You can see another east/west(more or less)aligned railroad yard paralleling I-55 on its southern edge roughly near Harlem Ave. That is Glenn Yard of the CN/IC(former G.M. & O[former Chicago & Alton])
Wow, I didn't know the facilities (lack thereof) were that bad! Is everything trashed because the facilities are so bad, or just that folks don't give a rats posterior about the equipment?
