Storytime with Charlie

Fog and "Aurora Racetrack" are almost synonymous. The city of Aurora itself is in the Fox
River Valley and much of the line is in sort of a syncline(depression). In winter and spring, fog is sometimes a daily occurence. Fortunately the "Racetrack" is CTC, but some of the blocks are pretty short. Freight train speed is 50 mph over most of it. Passenger trains are
70mph. Its much rougher in the yard(Eola) since you cant see cars moving too well and even
though you hear draft gear making contact, it is difficult to tell if a joint has been made, and
Eola has a bad "table roll" from east to west. Switchmen must be extra cautious and make
sure there is not a rollout before they begin another kick or shove. You're liable to have a
car or cut of cars roll right into the side of another move. I had that happen, it wasnt foggy
but it was raining lightly; peeled the plastic shielding off the whole side of an open auto rack!

But fog... I was still qualifying as an engineer and it was near the end of my qualifying trip
period , late February. We were at the end of the 2MT in Savanna IL eastbound, waiting for a WB to come off the C & I. The weather was getting snarky, we had had a little rain mixed with snow but then the temperature started to rise. The time of day was late afternoon/early evening. Well doancha know we got one heckuva thunderstorm just as we started to leave Savanna and head down the C & I. I mean this lightning was something else!
And it was pouring down rain in sheets! Well we eventually got out of that mess,but the ceiling began to lower and pretty soon we were in a genuine "pea soup" fog. Couldn't see
a gol-durned thing! Couldn't see the WX markers, or mileposts or the signals until you were
right on top of them! I started missing WX posts and wasn't whistling until I was right on
top of the grade crossing. We were to meet another WB who was to take the siding(CRS where exactly). We could hear this on the radio, of course. As we were rolling on towards
the meet, the DS called the WB and asked him if he had a problem since his track lights didn't show him in the siding yet. The WB replied that he had reduced his speed due to the
fog. The DS was a bit testy and told the hogger that he was told that he was to take
the siding and why did he reduce speed. The hogger replied that he was aware of the meet
and that he was to take the siding,but nonetheless, he STILL couldn't see the signals. HE
was correct! This fog was really,really deep and I was starting to lose my cool. My mentor
had been in the brakemans seat on the LH side of the cab listening to a book and he could
see that I was getting rattled. He came over to me and told me to go relax and he would
spell me for a while. I took the brakeman's seat and relaxed a bit and we finally began to come out of the deep fog and we were nearing Chicago. I took back the controls,brought
the train into Chicago,yarded it,tied-up and went home. I never did experience a fog that
deep again and I learned from my mentor that he had experienced a fog that bad only
once before!

I still have a holiday period sequel to the Christmas Eve story I told earlier.


Charlie

 

By all means carry on when your ready.

Thanks for the fog story

 

The other story to the holiday period that I discussed above covers New Year's Eve.

New Year's Eve has little significance to me or my family other than it signals the beginning of another year. I dont drink at all and my wife and I haven't gone out on
NYE in years! So it is not a big event at home.

The turn I was assigned to was ordered out on New Year's Eve eve! My mentor had laid
off,so I was working with an extra board engineer who didn't take students, therefore I became just a passenger on that trip. We arrived LaCrosse just after daybreak on New Year's Eve day. I grabbed a bite to eat at the hotel, checked the status of the board to
see when we might get back out(not until late that evening,if even then),watched a bit
of the AM shows on TV, telephoned my wife to let her know I was in and then decided to get some shut-eye. I wasn't in the arms of Morpheus very long when the damn telephone scared me awake. I answered with a sleepy "Hello"! It was the crew caller,she
said "Charles, you're deadheading home on AMTRAK, get your tickets at the ticket agent, your transportation has already been ordered and the rest of the crew has been
notified,you have about 1/2 hour to get ready". I told her that I was a student and that
I was not supposed to deadhead. She told me she was aware of that but she said the hotel wants all of us out ASAP, so I was to deadhead home. OK with me!!!!

We took the limo to the LaCrosse depot and waited the arrival of #28(eastbound Empire Builder). One of the stops on the train was Wisconsin Dells,WI. When I was a kid, our family vacations used to be taken in Wisconsin Dells. We started going there even before
Tommy Bartlett's Water Show started summering there! We would take one of the Milwaukee Road Hiawathas to the Dells,all except for the first time which was by bus and I was 3y/o and I remember that trip!!! The Milwaukee Road was still mostly in steam
then. Wisconsin Dells was mostly a fishing resort, not the garish theme-park nightmare it
has become. In the evenings my dad and I would go over to the depot to train-watch.
There wasn't a lot to do back then,especially for a small kid, except to rest and relax,take a hike along the river or go fishing or sightseeing.(Upper Dells/Lower Dells boat trips). Well, let me tell you, I tried to get some sleep from LaCrosse to the Dells,but once
we reached the Dells,and I saw the "new" depot, it was one great,long trip down memory
lane for me,including the view from under the trainshed in Milwaukee. It brought back many fond,happy memories of my childhood and help make my New Year's celebration a
quite happy one.

CT

 

Charlie:

Do engineers/train crew keep a log book like airline pilots? Engine numbers, other crew members, time worked, notes, etc.? Do you save the paperwork from the trip? Thanks.

I do see some parallels for work rules of train crews and airline crews. It's probably because company management, union management, and government oversight all have similar goals.

I am enjoying the stories very much. Some of them are instructive for layout operations; I am learning a lot.

Thanks again.

 

We did have time books. Some guys kept them religiously, I could never get into it. The union would send them to us each year. We could keep a copy of the "Delay Report" which
actually was not so much a "delay" report as it was a log of signal stops, work enroute,and
any other actions to indicate any deviation from steady,forward running. I usually kept those
for about a month, unless there was an incident. I still have the one from the time we had
the suicide when I was conductor on a stack train. There was no reason to keep them very
long since,by agreement, if there were to be any charges(investigation)brought against a
crew or crewperson,charges had to be brought within 21 days after the incident. I would keep my copy of my tie-up sheet. I would then compare it with my itemized timeslip of my
paycheck to ensure that I was being paid for the jobs I worked. I still have some time claims
outstanding,(along with most of the guys in suburban service). These particular claims were
a matter under litigation,but the last time I spoke with my union griever,he assured me that
I(we) would be paid for these claims. He said, "Keep checking(your mail)for a check"!

When we worked an industry switch job,we had to keep an activity report for billing purposes
and those had to be sent to Ft. Worth when the job was tied up. Now the crews use a "hammerhead" hand-held computer to do this work. The hammerhead is then downloaded
at the end of the shift. I never was trained in using it, I was working suburban service regularly then, I had enough seniority to hold a job in suburban service. I made more money in suburban service than I could in any freight job I could hold. I decided to stay in suburban
service and then I went into the engineers training program. After I was promoted, I was "set back" since I didn't have enough seniority to hold ANY engineers lines. I went back
into suburban service as a trainman and remained there until just before I retired.I worked a couple of times as an engineer in an "emergency" situation. I was "set-up" very briefly on the passenger engineers extra list shortly before retirement. My card had expired and I was in the process of re-qualifying(I had a temp.permit)when I took an extended sick leave and retired at the end of the sick leave. I had already made the decision to retire,but had intended to work up until my retirement eligibility, however the medical problems ruled that out!

CT

 

op/ed letter

If anyone subscribes or buys "Classic Trains" magazine, you can read another "Storytime
with Charlie" story in a letter to the editor which they published in the current issue.
It is about a trip I took on the "Midnite Special" on the former G.M. & O.

Charlie

 

IMO if any operating dept.railroader tells you he/she has never been involved in a derailment
or "flopped" a switch, either is lying or only worked 1 day on the RR.!! LOL

It was in mid-winter, working a 3rd shift switch engine in West Yard at Eola. I was the
foreman and had a fairly new guy as the helper. We had a light snow but it had stopped and was just COLD. We were kicking and shoving some cars on the back lead
in W.Yard , the helper was manning the x-over switch from the back lead to front lead
and I was on the front lead waiting for him to turn a cut of cars back to me so I could shove them on their assigned track. Well enehay he threw the switch and started to send
the movement back to me when suddenly he gave a "washout" with his lantern and gave
a shout on the radio to stop the movement. I saw the car bounce once or twice. What had happened was that the lead truck of a lumber rack "picked" the switch point, probably because snow had built up between the stock rail and the point rail. You dont need a lot of
snow or sand or whatever to build up and mis-align the points. It was not a big deal, we only put one truck on the ground,there was no damage to contents. We did fill out an incident report, we didn't have to give a specimen or "blow" and there never was a formal
investigation. The kid knew what he did and what he should have done,so basically he got
his hands slapped.

I've flopped switches a couple of times, but most switches are made so that the mechanism
will "flop" without activating the throw levers. It's still against the rules,but if there is no
damage and the switch still functions when it's hand-thrown, why bother ?

I've been part of a "re-railing" team in Cicero Yard when it was still a hump yard. We re-railed a loco that had put an axel on the ground on the ladder track to the hump lead.
We had some mechanical guys come over from the car shop to actually do the job. the switch crew was there mostly as "gophers" and to protect the movement of the engine.
We just got some scrap tie plates and some wooden shims that the car guys brought over
and we popped that baby right back on the rails.

Another time when I was still working in the yard, I was on my usual 2nd shift East Yard job. The West Yard crew had a student working with them. We heard some commotion over
the radio and discovered that they had put some cars on the ground. Their crew was given
a "whiz quiz" and it seems that the student blew "dirty" on the breath-a-lyzer. This guy(and he wasn't a kid,he was in his 30s)hadn't even made his 60 day derail yet. Seems he
had a couple of beers with his lunch before he came to work. The union griever happened to be there and he told the student that he should forget about working for the BNSF.
The trainmaster asked the student to surrender his company "jewelry" and ordered him off
the property. Never saw him again. Probably a good thing, since he wasn't smart enough to
lay off the sauce as a student, what would he be like when he was marked up?

Just a word of caution to those who would aspire to a railroad job... if you do booze or
recreational drugs, better give them up well before you hire out, you will be caught eventually! I personally know two guys, old heads too, who got caught on "Rule G" and were fired,never to be seen again. Both of them had "Rule G" infractions within 10 years of
each occurrence. I know personally an engineer who was held out of service for an extended period for a "Rule G" but was rehired after his discipline period since the incidents
were more than 10 years apart. If he is ever caught again,it is "goodbye forever". The railroads AND the government are serious about that stuff. Nowadays they are getting ever more strict, not only will they take a specimen and a breath,but they will take a cutting of your hair too!


Charlie

 

They work pretty well unless a lot of water gets in the moving parts of the mechanism and
re-freezes. That happens in the specialwork at CUS sometimes when the weather is EXTREMELY COLD. My firsthand experience with "fouled out" switches is actually from high
water during heavy rain. I was ordered as a conductor on a Saturday evening "dinkie" in late summer/early fall. We were having one BEAST of a T-storm along with VERY HEAVY rain. We started to notice rising water on the R.O.W. Then we got a call from the DS telling us that his screen was indicating a "reversed" switch in the Clarendon Hills plant and to be on the lookout. I had a good hogger and he immediately reduced speed and was able
to stop well short of the mis-aligned switch. We notified the DS and he told us that the maintainer was already out on the line and he would send him to us ASAP. Where we were
stopped was just short of a grade crossing and the DS wanted me to flag the traffic over the crossing. Fortunately I had rain gear with me so I got out there with a flashlight and flagged the vehicle traffic across the tracks. Man o Man was it ever storming out there!!!
Brilliant,frequent lightning and heavy rain. We were there about 1 1/2 hours before the maintainer got to us and was able to crank the switch to normal. They are the only ones who have the tool to do that, plus they have to examine and test the mechanism and electronics in the signal bungalow. We had water approaching the head of the rail. If it went higher than railhead, then we would have a BIG problem.
Mostly the winter problems are caused by snow-packed switches. Then to compound it, the carrier has this jet engine snow blower which does a great job of getting the snow away from the switches, but it also melts the snow and the water refreezes causing a different set of problems!!!! The regular day job I worked as a trainman had a 5 hour layover after the first trip. I normally yarded the train in the A.M. Our train also was about
the 3rd or 4th train to be yarded in the A.M. so in periods of heavy snow, it was quite likely
that I would have to sweep out about 4 to 6 switches in order to yard the train and then get the loco to the service track. It was quite a time consuming workout!!!
Railroads operate in all sorts of weather!At least that is the idea! LOL

Charlie

 

I have a foamer video series, and one of the features is entitled "This is My Railroad". It is a documentary of the SP done in the "transition era". There are snowfighting scenes in it
and also some cab-forward shots as well as the Lima 4-8-4's I wonder if it's the same video you are talking about.

Re: high water, it will shunt the signals and also soften and/or wash out the ballast. It could also wreck the track geometry and throw the tracks out of line. If it gets too high,then it could possibly short out the traction motors. Of course, I also told you about
the switch problems.

CT

 

I have a DVD named "Donner" that may have that scene on it. I remember an SD40T-2 that went on the ground in all that snow. They placed a 4 x 8 inch timber under the truck, after digging it out, and the engine just crushed the timber during the rerail effort. It didn't rerail that time. It was snowing like mad all the time. After this, they got the rotary snow plows out.

Also, they stated that all the snow crews there were volunteers and most lasted 4-5 years before they no longer volunteered. I presume it was a lot of extra money.

 

This is a sidebar to the discussion on the "Strange experience" thread.

I have mentioned before about commuter trainmen flagging the public crossings along the
"Aurora Racetrack" when the crossing gates are disabled or malfunctioning. Well here's one about "having what it takes".

One of our favorite "money-making" grade crossings was the VERY busy La Grange Rd.
crossing in the village of the same name. This is a 3 lane highway in both directions at that point. There is lot of truck traffic on this highway too(U.S.45). You could count on
at least once a week for some truck or motorist to try and beat the crossing gates and
wind up disabling one. Well this particular time, I was my turn to be set-out to flag the
crossing, we were EB and the time of day was mid-afternoon,weather bright and sunny,
roads dry and clear,IIRC late winter/early spring season. The gate for the SB lanes of La
Grange road had been broken by a passing semi trying to race the gates. Witnesses were
unable to provide a company name. The La Grange police were protecting the crossing until I showed up and the dispatcher had summoned the maintainers. I had my grip and
secured a red flag from the train, I had my own radio,timetable and safety orange vest.
I took up my position on the north side of the tracks to flag the SB lanes. I cleared some
of the debris from the road and the immediate area. Well at any rate, I had control of
the situation and things were going well. The dispatcher calls all trains going both directions and tells them that there is a flagman with a radio in place to protect the crossing. The trains call the flagman and ask for instructions from him(her). The flagman
then instructs the train(s)how to proceed,or not. Enehay, there is a WB coming on MT1, the closest to the disabled gate and I venture into the middle of the lanes with my flag
to stop the approaching traffic. The undamaged gate for the NB lanes has already dropped, when I see that I have the traffic stopped in the lanes, I take a step or two to my left(west) while still holding the flag in my right hand out at arms length. When I do this, this joker in a luxury sedan in the center lane starts to proceed into the crossing!!!
I step back in front of him and yell at him(use your own imagination as to what I said).
Well... I guess he was not too happy that I insulted his parentage so he starts to get out of his car. At that point I take a step or two toward him, and tell him in so many words that he is welcome to try whatever it is he has on his mind(again use your imagination to write my script). After scrutinizing my "full figured body" he decided that
he needn't challenge me any longer, but what also convinced him was the express train
travelling at 70mph, which I had already issued clearance at track speed and was going thru the crossing as I was issuing my invitation to him. Whether his wife screaming at him too had any affect, I know not. That is not the first time I have used my size to
"intimidate" the customers and/or motorists. That will be another "Storytime" edition.

Charlie

 

Charlie, tell us the one about your 'size' matters!

It reminds me of my Uncle Bus, as in (he was as big as...) 6'-7" at 318lb farm boy in Oklahoma.

(I remember seeing him pick up the front of Uncle Jack's Model 'A' Ford, and held it up while they changed a flat tire, back in 1936. Uncle Bus raised what they called 'Lumber Mules' used in the logging camps.)

 

Thanks C another fine story :shade:

 

"C&I dispatcher"?

C,
I got a new hand held scanner to listen to trains. I heard "C&I dispatcher" where is that office located?