Helpers and DP's how the railroad has evolved in Tales of the Jointed Track

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 Santa Fe out of Denver, December 13th, 1973. Track side in the Diesel age, during this time period. Helpers, we didn’t have them. Why? The Railroad did not have the engineers to supply the need.

Coal and Grain Joint-Line 1972-1989:
Heavy freights, southbound to Pueblo, were 6000 tons max. The BN had trackage right, but not crew rights. We ran BN and Santa Fe Freights, and we to be cognizant, and proficient, for what you were called for.

Enter the Coal from the Powder River. The Public Service Utility ( Now XCell Energy), built a power plant for Pueblo and the surrounding area. Damn, how many have those have I brought up, or called to unload. These are heavy, for this time period. 13,000 to 14,000 tons..LOL. Last one I ran was 18,500 on the tons.

Enter the RCE controlled trains:
The Pueblo, Comanche Coal trains… and later on Hibbing MN, Ore trains to Minnequa, at the CF&I, were RCE’s. You had 4 or 5 on the head-end, and a 3 or 4 swing helper cut in about 75 cars. There was success, or not. We had failures and break in two, due to radio failure, or swing helper power failure. Nature of the beast, happens to this day, with the DP’s.

A Comanche (Public Service) Coal empty head end, RCE

Swing helper, same train, with an RCE control car, which accepted throttle/dynamic brake and air brake commands. It relayed via train line and locomotive MU. It provided no power.

Manned helpers 1979:
There was a 3 turn pool of manned helpers, 0001 to 0800, 0800 to 1400, 1400 to 2359. They showed up at the Littleton Depot. As they got close to needing fuel, the crew brought them into Denver for fuel. Hours of service permitting, they brought them back to Littleton. They primarily helped, Coal and Grain, but if needed they did a poor in need freight. The usual consist was 3 BN U-33-C’s.

Manned Helper at Palmer Lake, CO . Still Double track ABS, and it is a Rio Grande helper.

Three SD-40-2’s Drift lite, thru Castle Rock, CO, northbound, circa 1980

I was one of the recipients of this. Santa Fe 444/434, an assigned pool. We had 5600 tons, 2 GP-39-2’s and a U-28-CG, lol The U-28 wasn’t feeling well. We were throttle 6 to 8 just getting out of the UP yard to Kalamath Ave. I let Rice yard know, this isn’t going to make it. We were on duty at 500 pm ( 1700 ) and it is now 1100 pm. A call that the midnight helper will come an get you. Yes they met us at Kalamath and tied in on the head end. 9000hp, plus our two GP-39-2’s (2300 hp each)..well we did pretty good. We cut off, still picked up and set-out Colorado Springs. Made Bragdon Siding and we fit. The switch crew, will bring it in..We were picked up via crew van. side note .. Elvin Bethurum was the 0001-0800 helper engineer. He had seniority out the yazoo, but preferred the night end of the equation. His son Jerry Bethurum, was my Conductor on the 444/434 assigned
run.

Helper pool 1980 thru 2000:
The guarantee Engineer extra board filled this . There was a Trainmen’s guarantee pool, which filled this. If depleted, the Conductors extra board or Brakeman’s extra board filled in. The Brakeman’s extra board was on it’s last legs, so in a year or two, all was off the Conductors extra board as needed. (As of this writing there is a Helper pool 1 engr and 1 condr force assigned. They don’t get the “Primo rate” we got, so it goes pretty low on the seniority rosters)

DP’s 1999-to-present:
Well DP’s reign king, till they take a dump. This is the newer and improved RCE operation. Most of the BNSF roster, is interchangeable, if DP equipped. With RCE’s, you needed a RCE control car or a BN rostered 5800 series or 6800 series head end, or a 5900 series or 6900 series equipped consist, for the RCE control. Yes Sir, technology has passed me by, from the RC’s and when I retired, the DP’s. I was qualified on both.