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Milk Carton Wire "Have you Seen Me"
OKay.. Chill I am not making fun or going against the milk carton “Have you seen me Campaign”. Locomotive Utilization BNSF South Central Desk, Ft Worth: The Power Desk, the generic unpoli...
Helpers and DP's how the railroad has evolved
WOW .. Forty years have come and gone. Where does the time go? Didn’t I just hire out. I am now retired.. Really. RCE’s Remote Control Equipment: I hired out in engine service, with the S...
The Denver Union Depot early 70's-Mid 80's
The Depot we ran through, to and from 31st yard, is not what it is today. The depot at that time was called, the Denver Union Terminal Railway Company. It owned no locomotives or rolling stock...
Roy Onstont Pueblo Yard Engineer 1974
I never fired for Roy, because I was out of Denver. I knew of some yard and engine crews, but I had to make trips, for qualification and promotion to engineer. August 1974: Guess what!!! ? I ...
Smoke 'em and other tails
Diesels that idle soup and carbon up. When ya can blow ‘em out… Take advantage … Pueblo, Co Summer 1980 Was called as the running crew on a light engine. Was 10 BN/C&S unit two ...
SD-9's a workhorse for the Railroads
The phone rings…”Terry Extra South, 845 am.” Call accepted. What is it gonna be ? I don’t know the power on this call. Hey, maybe four big Six-axle power, slough tonnage. Yeah it is slough...
Switch Transfer off the Mainline Pueblo
I was forced to Pueblo Colorado working the yard. The C&S 77 came up the main-line. No pick up at Pueblo, but had shorts . “Shorts” are cars, coming off destination ( ie; Denver ). 77 ran...
Christmas on the rails 1973-2012 part-1
How can I begin? How was traffic vs you working, vs crew base ? A few things I remember: Christmas 1975: I caught a Comanche Coal Train an AA-062 on the BN side, an J-CCE-3-24 on the Santa Fe en...
PAM the Night BNSF 31st ST Yardmaster
Pam worked the “Third Trick” or the 2300 to 0700 shift as a yardmaster. She basically did as instructed. She retired about 6 months before I did. She led a hard life, was divorced, and worked the...
Train stall NOC North Central Power Desk Joint-Line summer 1999
I was working the Southwest Power desk on a warm week day. I was on the day rotation and with the usual people I worked with. The North Central man, worked the coal fields in the Powder River Bas...
Train Stalls M-DENPUE
I have probably written this in the old OD. So again bear with me. I have looked at “what” rail buffs call stalls. Some videos are regular train meets, so they are really slow.. If ya can start ‘...
Troubleshooters diary ...what I remember
I was still on the local, was great job. I was asked to become a mentor, due to my electrical and mechanical skills, plus I was a promoted engineer. I didn’t take it? Why?, Saturday and Sunday of...
How Railroad crews were called and are now.
How did we report for work? We were either assigned or called on a first in first out basis. On the Joint-Line, we were what was called a progressive board. As engineers we were not assigned...
The P-CHLA or the Q-NYLA whats more important?
Schaumberg, IL SOC Santa Fe Railway 1995 or close: I am working Crew planning, for the Santa Fe. The night rotation, and the HOT STUFF, is coming into Barstow, CA. I looked at the crew situation ...
RCE 101 BN vs ATSF versions
I was asked to explain the RCE equipment. I will gladly do so. RCE is an acronym, for Remote Controlled Equipment. To make it easy to understand, it is a consist of locomotives, controlled by ...
Fountain Crossover 1978
Well, I am running as a regular engineer, with an established turn. I am about four or four and a half years of experience. I am comfortable, but cautious, because I still have a lot to learn. ...
CF&I ore trains
I worked many an ore train, when I was in the pool out of Denver. CF&I ( Colorado Fuel & Iron ), smelted ore, in blast furnaces in Pueblo, CO. Hence the name “Pew Town”. Depending on...
Runaway Cars, released from Colorado Springs, Vandalism
We were then, ABS, double track, from South Denver to Bragdon. There was no CTC at Palmer Lake. The Rio Grande dispatched southbound, and the Santa Fe dispatched northbound. There were crossov...
Hobo's Tune
Yep, we have found them dead on the railroad..
Air Dump M.O.W. cars
I may or may not have written this, either here or on the other site. These cars were Maintenance of Way, only cars. They were speed restricted, loaded and empty. So just having one in your tra...
Bums time on the rails
We’re out on 8 hours rest. C&S Train 77 was my call. No, it is not the 151, but could be a quick run or a 10 plus hour drag. The phone rings at 1230 am. “Terry, 200 am on 77”. Call acc...
Troubleshooters job..Spring of 2012
I was working the the “Mentor” troubleshooters job on the 730 am to 730 pm side of the equation. Spring, depending on where you live and be many things. Warming weather, the rain shower, severe w...
Orsa in Mid-1970's and Now in 2018
I posted about the Larkspur bridge. There was a BN Taconite pellet train, going over. While I was looking for that picture, I stumbled on an Taconite train at Orsa. This was on a sunny Friday ...
Larkspur Bridge Santa Fe the '70's
Larkspur, CO is about 45 miles or so out of Denver proper. How many times in my railroad career have I ran over this icon. This picture, a spring snow storm. The “orange car” A Datsun 240-Z. ...
Big Lift where We Inspected the DP's day or night
The video shows where we used to inspect the DP’s ( Distributive Power ). DP’s are a “helper” so to speak controlled by a dedicated radio frequency assigned to the railroad. The engineer contro...
Book Description
Tales of the Jointed Track
Railroading my career from September 15th,1972 thru September 5th. 2012
This is my first attempt of writing down my thoughts. I have been asked or have been suggested that I do by my Co-workers or others that know me. This will be about railroading throughout my career, first starting out in the Roundhouse and then changing railroads and going into engine service, which I finally retired from in September of 2012 forty years.
I hired out with the Burlington Northern in September of 1972. I was called by the General Roundhouse Foreman, one week before my hire date. “Do you still want this job”…”yes Sir” I told him. He said come down get physical papers , get that done see the clerk and you’ll be a Midnight Machinist helper. “Okay” I told him… I was working at a bakery for a major Grocery chain, in Denver at the time… also on midnights so not a big difference. I got up went to the Railroad physician and took my 5 minute physical. Returned to the shops and turned in the paperwork. “When can you start?”…I need to give notice and I will firm up with you. I gave my notice to the bakery and started a week later on nights ..
I introduced myself to the night Roundhouse Foreman.. Taylor Gregg....mid to late sixties …skinny as a rail…and always wore his hard hat cocked at at angle..and always started the night out at the coffee vending machine… ready to delegate the nights task. You’ll work with Sandy Ortiz .. we have a bunch of Goats that need Federal inspection and repair… ( a Goat is a slang term for a switch engine ) ..
I entered my midnight shift as a Machinist Helper, working with Sandy. He was Hispanic ..( didn’t care that he was ) and elderly, about early to mid sixties. He had terrible arthritis and shuffled when he walked… I always wondered why a man of his age, worked nights ? He had the seniority to work days, or really any shift he wanted. But as I continued to work for the railroad, there are those that prefer nights, Night Fighters they were called.
The Diesel shop had a Three stalls or tracks in the main shop… The old roundhouse stalls were west of that location but “did” join up… Line one was the running track for inbound inspection and minor maintained. After units were fueled, they came into line one, line one had another exit on the other end of the shop and the track extended out toward the depot. That track was the “Buck Main” that line one connected to. On line one units had cooling water added as needed, Lube oil, compressor oil, and someone went underneath and checked the Traction Motor suspension bearings for lubrication levels. Also the gear cases were looked at and “Crater Bags” were added as needed to provide lubrication to the gear cases. These were bags of heavy grease in a plastic casing that broke down after meshing with the pinion and spur gears. During the winter they were kept in a warm water bath to stay supple. I always said when these were hard you could kill someone with it…like a blackjack .. plus if they were like that they would jam the gearing and slide the wheels or drivers of the locomotive.
Line two was a run through track in the shop, and connected to line on about 300 feet west. this was an inspection maintenance , track…
Line three…well that where Amtrak had units that laid over and it was stubbed.. Old early FP-7 FP-9 E-8 and E-9 a and B units… They were from all railroads, and the US government bought em… some were really trash…I’ll elaborate on that later : ) … We also performed general maintenance and certain Federal inspections as needed…If heavy repairs of a big inspection was needed they went to one of the older roundhouse stalls and remained till completed.
Sandy and I were assigned a SW12 switcher for completion. The second trick, ( afternoon shift ) did the diesel engine requirements and the electricians did their electrical cabinet, auxilliary generator and main generator work. We were to complete the bottom end… Brakeshoes, truck maintaince, suspension bearings, lube the cooling fan bearings..and check or replace cooling fan belts, air compressor, lube the center bowls ( where the trucks meet the carbody of the unit ) and change out and air brake or air equipment not done and and filters not changed out or replaced.
We finished off the inspection and started on another…after lunch that was completed as well and they were “carded off” and ready for service. Sandy had me do the heavy work, and I will always be greatfull because I learned and I still remember to this day, and it served me well when I went into engine service.
