Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Having worked at Industry and WC, I can certainly say which design was worse.
My experience with Taylor was when I was at WC. When WC was plugged [the result of chronic and acute lack of power], and we had to send an entire train to Taylor, NEVER ONCE did GVD refuse us. Never once. So whatever design occurred at Taylor, it worked.
Taylor and the Shops also enabled compliance with the Burke Rule about intermodal empties. “Must have space for sufficient empties to protect 2 days of loadings.” ATSF [and later BNSF] couldn’t comply with this Rule without extensive and expensive shuffling of mtys as far east as Esperanza – 50 miles east of Hobart. Even with Taylor having vanished, UP has much storage space at Dolores and Industry.
Beyond the near-fatal flaw of designing a yard on a significant grade, WC’s bowl symmetry displays a major flaw: it was designed and built without a corresponding operating plan. Indeed, that same defect is a pretty good description of SP’s entire operation.
Industry’s bowl is not symmetric. There are high and low sides, with two parallel leads at the ‘trim’ end. The redeeming virtue of the Industry operation was its regular operation to and from the South Branches. In its wisdom, the railroad and its Unions agreed that Road Switcher, Local, and Yard assignments would have bulletined start times. If the job’s cars weren’t ready then, the crew went on the clock regardless.
WC’s operation was not scheduled, but was based on maximum train lengths. Prior to its opening, the eastward main line operation between Taylor, Industry, Kaiser, Colton, and Indio was at least semi-scheduled. The same trains operated eastward from Taylor, leaving on 2nd shift. Memory fades with age, but there were trains to E. St. Louis, Houston, Phoenix, El Paso, and Ennis. [Cutler would have known the details.] The Maid Of All Work, the Colton/Kaiser, brought up the rear. So regular was this service that on Mondays [haulers returned cab hop from the South Branches], the pickups were of sufficient small size that they’s all fit in A1. The Crest simply provided a come-out number to the crew picking up.
The westward operation succeeded or failed mainly on the on-time arrival of the CI train from Eugene. If late: screwed up Night and Day programs, and much catch-up.
At some future writing, I may further discuss the operation of a yard that was designed to a specific operating plan, which was followed from the birth until the death of the yard: Rock Island’s Silvis IL hump.
As for Krebs’ comment that King’s approach to the Traffic Dept. was to “… run the department from a switch list ” — what else would one expect from a person whose entire career was spent doing just that in the Operating Dept.?
There must have been a certain insanity in moving RLK from Operations [which he knew very well] to Traffic [of which he knew very little]. RLK’s early morning call to Yardmasters were well known. Whether that is the correct way for a VPO to function can be debated elsewhere, but one shouldn’t be surprised that he’d do that in Traffic.
Mr. King died in his company car in the GOB garage. With his boots on, no doubt.
PKB: The Product Managers in Vajta’s Marketing Dept. had responsibility for the contribution of equipment. Their ranks included several who did have Operating experience: Keeney – Irvine – Fuller – Erickson – John West. WFK may remember more names. So there were at least some in the Dept. that did know the difference between a spike and a spike maul. — JGF
Some corrections to Robert’s comments. The situation wasn’t an efficiency test, but what at first glance was a Stop signal failure. Crockett Rocket got by a Stop Signal at Costa. Upon interviewing the crew, all claimed that the signal in advance of the home signal at Costa was displaying a Yellow over Yellow — Approach Diverging. Turned out the next signal was Red over Red, not Red over Green. And they got by the signal.
After handling the crew, I went to Crockett to observe the signal, and having the DS not allow passage eastward beyond Costa. The signal displayed what appeared to be a Yellow over Yellow — except it appeared that the bottom Yellow was showing because of the sun shining upon it. That lower head could only display Yellow or Dark.
I had the DS advise the next eastward train – a Capitol Corridor – to stop just west of this signal. Entering the cab, I asked the Engr and Condr what they saw ahead of them. They agreed that it appeared to show Y|Y. I took their names, advising them that they might be witnesses in an investigation – for the accused.
The next day I returned to the location, with my Sweet Bride [an artist] and the Signal Maintainer in tow. We all agreed that the signal was showing Y|Y, where it should have shown Y|Dark. I called Supt. Carl Bradley and advised him of our findings. He said, “Put the Signal man on the phone.”. The Maintainer confirmed our findings, and returned the phone to me. Supt. Bradley said, “Return that crew to service.” End of story.
Well, almost. Turned out that the Foreman on the Rocket was Local Chairman David Corazza. He also was at Crocket, in the distance, observing and, no doubt, taking notes!
In 1995 I went to Roseville as a Temporary Night Dummy, to ‘help’. The one blessing of working nights was that there was no interference from HQ. It was all yours.
So, to learn the place, I went up up the tower, introduced myself, and watched and listened.
The swing AG, Al Kamrar, asked “What are you doing in the tower?”
I said, “Watching and listening. I’m not gonna learn about RV looking at a CRT.”
Al said, “But…but…but Officers never come up into tower!”
Every test I performed was a replication of situations a crew might encounter on a reasonable trip. I always thought a signal test was the most realistic condition. During my tenure at Ozol there were three signal test failures. One Engineer accused me of ‘setting a trap’, until we discussed what would have happened had a caboose been 2 cars beyond the Stop and Proceed signal that he got by. That ended the discussion.
While at City of Industry, a favorite testing sight was between West Montclair and East Pomona. A shunt would be placed between these points, and performance observed. One tested train was the PTCIY, which performed as required at East Montclair. Two days later, another PTCIY failed to stop, and sideswiped an eastward pig train. First question Krebs asked was “What are the testing records of the officers on this division?” Jobs saved. Had we been on site on the day of the collision, we would have been eye-witnesses.
