I think it was a combination of ingredients. The BN and later BNSF had been wanting to eliminate the hump-yard a Cicero for quite some time. I think it was the explosion of intermodal traffic through the Chicago rail hub that tipped the decision for the BNSF. It was just a nasty place and guys treated it that way. Cicero has a lot of "old head" rails due to the "hog board". They can pretty much work whatever job their seniority can hold and they bid each day for the next day's job. They can make good money that way if the job goes "12 & tow" and/or go on "Hours of Service" law and get a day off by default. Happens all the time. Now Eola Yard is dated,but the carrier makes an attempt to maintain it. The guys try to keep it clean and at least one shower works. The "facilities" are kept clean and neat and stocked with necessities. You can actually eat in the lunch room and there is a working fridge and microwave oven and a coffee maker with coffee that is drinkable. The old Hill Yard for METRA commuter trains was a pre-fab and it was starting to get shabby and the roof had some severe leaks, but it was kept clean. The "johns" were small and there was a tiny accomodation for female employees. A new commuter services building was built on a piece of vacant land adjacent to the old facility and it is really first-rate! But it was built by METRA with METRA money. The building and employee parking is completely fenced in and guarded. There are security cameras scanning the area. The building is spacious, there are separate men's and women's locker rooms. Almost everyone has a full size locker. There are several showers and the johns are large and modern. There is a large meeting/lunch room and a large 2 bay garage to store M.O.W equipment or to do stretching exercises. There are a couple of offices for the Trainmasters and security personnel and a spacious register room with ample computer terminals,printers,battery and cell-phone charging stations. The crews are quite happy with the new facility. The old one was still being used by the maintenance people,they now have the whole building to themselves. Charlie
Training on the C&I Charlie, You once told of people being trained to run a train based on the C&I line. Can you share some stories about this run and why it was used this way? Maybe a story from town to town along the line?
===================================================== Northern Illinois experienced a great deal of glaciation during geological history. The C & I goes right through the heart of it until it reaches Savanna IL. The track profile is quite sawtoothed and we were told that some of the simulator profiles were based on the C & I profile. It is a good test of train handling skills and controlling in-train dynamic forces(buff and draft). To be sure there is a good deal of scrap iron along the route due to broken knuckles and drawbars, not to mention a fair share of derailments. One of the favorite phrases used by my engineer mentor was "Ain't no flat track on the C & I". And it's true! Much of the qualification runs was devoted to train and brake handling and usage with all types of trains. It is NOT an easy division to control in-train forces. I am not saying it is more difficult than a mountain division, most of the grades are less than that of mountain divisions. But their are a great many peaks and valleys that require serious and attentive train handling.Some of the topography is like a small bowl where you have the potential for both run-in and run-out. The best way to handle that (not necessarily approved by the company) is to go to throttle 4, set a minimum and drag the train through the dip. Probably the biggest hill is the Oregon(IL) hill, going EB you need to use a lot of dynamic since there is a speed restriction coming up. It is also very likely that you will have WB traffic coming at you and you need to control your train coming downhill so you dont blow signals and possibly broadside while the WB is taking the siding. Oregon IL is a segue to another story. I apologize if you have read this one before. When I would be fortunate enough to work a freight, either a pool train or road switcher through Oregon IL, I would always tell the crew(if they had not already heard it) of one of my favorite childhood memories. Oregon IL is the address of a couple of "sand plants". one of them mines and grades the sand for sale. The sand is used mostly for casting molds. The other sand plant takes hopper cars full of various grades of sand and coats them with various coatings and resins with which to make casting molds. Some,but not all, of the production from the mine goes over to the coating plant. Oregon IL is also the location of a state park named "White Pines State Park". As you may guess, it is the native pine tree which gives its name to the park. Now when I was a youth member of the Boy Scouts, our district always held it's Fall campout(Fall Camp-O-Ree)at White Pines Park. So if we were told that Fall Camp-O-Ree would be such and such a date, it meant going camping at White Pines Park. Or if we were told that we would be going to White Pines on such and such a date, it meant Fall Camp-O-Ree. Now that that is clarified, let me tell you that in the mid to late 1950's our district would have a special chartered train on the C.B.& Q. to take us to White Pines Park early on Saturday A.M.(from the 26th & Cicero stop) nonstop to the northern edge of the park, which is the railroad, and bring us back from that spot on Sunday afternoon. We would hike the short distance from the railroad to our campsites. The train would be 2 or 3 of the then new bi-level commuter coaches pulled by one of the famous E-9s. Just to make life a little bit easier for us, 2 or three of the dads would drive up the night before with the equipment(tents & cooking gear). Our lunch prior to leaving on Sunday would be a huge cauldron of mulligan stew made by one of the dads. I have tried for years to replicate that stew to no avail. In my wildest childhood dreams I had no idea that someday I would be an engineer or conductor running trains through the very same spot where I spent so many happy days of camping.When I was still working, I would wave to the hikers in the state park. Little did they know why. CT
Based on the above description of run-out and run-in of slack, seems the C&I would be even more challenging than a mountain division. Let me qualify that, before anyone heaves tomatoes and other produce at me.... Based on the C&I's frequent hills,a nd lack of level running, I would assume the train would be running slack in and out almost constantly. I would also assume the train would be cresting a hill, and climbing another continually. That said, it seems a mountain division with its generally consistent grade would be easier to control the in-train slack forces. Generally speaking *not that I have any experience with this*, I would guess that the severity of curvature and grade on the mountain division would make it more challenging, (with today's sophistocated motive power and brake systems, this not so much a factor as it was in steam days) but the in-train forces changing so much on a sawtooth profile would be even more mentally taxing. Thanks for the great mental picture of what it takes to run on the C&I!
one of the simulator trips was in reality the Marias Pass. This was given us as a "gimme" practice run. The situation was downgrade with a coal train, the dynamics on all the units have failed. I dont think any of my class made it through that run successfully, I didn't. While we were given just an abbreviated portion of that run, it think the whole thing would have give one the option of "tying down" the retainers on the train prior to descent. That option was not available to us. It was a lesson learned vicariously. CT
Tying down? I have heard of "Turning down" retainers.... Likely the same procedure? As I understand it, retainers are a basic valve that prevents air from being exhausted from the train brake line? or am I way out of left field?
"tying down", "turning down", "setting" the retainers, same-o/same-o! the positions are "exhaust"(normal position), "HP"(High pressure-20lb brake cylinder pressure retained after a full brake application) "LP"(Low pressure,a 10lb brake cylinder pressure will be retained only after a 10psi reduction has been made & released. "SD"(Slow Direct-not used on BNSF). The number of valves to be set is determined by timetable, general order or rule. IF no quantity is specified, all retaining valves are to be set. In addition the engineer may request retaining valves to be set. Charlie
No. I never worked in a "mountain district" Engineers and conductors in mountain districts need to be qualified as such. At one time I was qualified as engineer and conductor all the way from Chicago to La Crosse WI. Also from Chicago to Creston IA as a conductor. This occured while I was briefly based in Galesburg IL. Creston IA is a major division point on the BNSF(former C.B.&Q)on the transcon. The historic Creston depot is a marvelous brick structure seemingly misplaced for the area it is in, which is scarcely more than a bright spot on the Iowa landscape. The building now houses municipal offices and services. It is quite an imposing structure and well worth a look see for railfans who travel that way.The CZ (AMTK #5 & #6) pass thru there. #5 normally goes by during mid evening but you travel on that train in mid-summer there should be enough ambient light to see the depot. It is somewhat of a rail "hot-spot" with freight trains of all types and the limited AMTK service. There is also a small yard in Creston. Story... Kathryn(wife) & I traveled on #5 to San Francisco(Emeryville with bus cnxn to SFO) back in 1999. I was excited about showing her the Creston depot and showing her some of the territory I had worked while station in G'burg. As luck would have it, my employer quite ungraciously put a coal train on the ground in Creston, forcing the detour of #5 over the tracks of the UP(former C & NW) to Mt. Pleasant Ia and thence to Omaha. The only thing I was able to show her was Rochelle, and she already knew about that due to my reluctance to want to work jobs at that station. We ate our dinner in the Superliner dining car while sitting on the (C & NW) main on the near north side of Chicago. #5 ran 6-8 hours late the whole trip. The one benefit of that delay is that we passed through the "Humboldt Sinks" during daylight. That area is normally traversed during the night. It is one of the most unusual and forbidding and foreboding landscapes I have ever seen. I can easily understand how difficult it was for the builders of the transcon railroad to build through that area. CT
"Humboldt Sinks" Another story? I bet by now your wishing we had never met:angel: Love your story's your doing a fine job entertaining, me any way:shade:
The NP had a serious issue building their transcon, when they hit a similar sinkhole situation: http://www.ndsu.nodak.edu/instruct/schwert/stockwd/stockwd.htm
Nope. Its just another name for the Humboldt Desert. A very.very desolate place, alkaline dust, poison springs, scorpions,snakes etc. CT
I guess I took the "Sinks" in that area name too literally! There's an area like that in the midwest states? Like the deserts out west? Shocking!
I'm very sorry, my brain was intermittent when I typed that. May I change the question to "Do you have any scary moment when you handle a commuter train?
All the time. The "Aurora Race Track", as the 3MT BNSF/METRA line between Chicago and Aurora IL is known, runs through heavily built-up territory with streets,parking lots and buildings right up to the edge of the right-of-way. It is like that most of the way except for the far western end where there is still some prairie and forest land bordering the track. The East End of the line,within the corporate city limits of Chicago and the eastern edge of Berwyn, is elevated. However people still trespass across the tracks there. Many people use the swale of the R.O.W. as a jogging path and they insist on wearing headphones to listen to their I-Pods or MP-3 players and fail to hear the train whistle warning them of its approach,thus usually with a fatal ending. There are several schools adjacent to the railroad and the kids persist on trespassing on the R.O.W. rather than use designated walkways. There are also numerous grade crossings and motorists are always trying to beat the train. I would say one near miss a day is about average. For those of us in commuter service, it is a case of "when" not "if" we will strike a trespasser,pedestrian or vehicle crossing illegally. Some engineers have multiple incidents of trespasser fatalities. I have been involved in one as a freight conductor. One of my engineer classmates was involved in a train/auto fatality while on a qualification trip and he wasn't running the train at the time. Another classmate,my pal Tommy, mortally wounded a snowmobile up in Wisconsin while on a qualifying trip. Fortunately the snowmobile was unoccupied. CT
Just a brief anecdote about when I was a trainee... this is in line with the "cornfield meet" video on another message board. I was in student status doing qualification trips on switch engines at Cicero Yard. This one particular winter Saturday afternoon, our switch crew(numbering 4 with me)was ordered to tie up our switch engine and go dogcatch a train coming in on Conrail over at the interchange at Western Ave. yard. It was late afternood just at sunset time. We had the company messenger drive us in the Suburban van over to the area where the train was parked. We boarded the engine,looked over our paperwork, knocked off the handbrakes,called the DSPR and got permission to enter the main line. We headed up the grade to the main line and were lined for MT2. We were coming up to a signal bridge heading west and staring right into that low winter sun. The hogger was having difficulty making out the signal and he was waiting for concurrence from the rest of the crew to affirm that according to his "read" the signal displayed a lunar aspect(restricting). There was difficulty among the rest of us until we could all get a valid "read" on the signal. The hogger said..."People, there are four of us in the cab of this locomotive. I am not going to go by that board until we are all in agreement as to what the aspect is". This is safe and proper railroading. When in doubt, take the safest course! You'll live longer. CT
