Brakeshoe Bob ⋅ 72 ⋅
I am a retired Railroad Locomotive Engineer. I hired out with the BN in September of 72 as a machinist and went with the Santa Fe in engine service in 1973 as a Locomotive Fireman. I was promoted to Locomotive Engineer in July 1974. I retired in September 2012 after 40 years. During the period I ran the Joint-Line (Denver to Pueblo,CO) and the Interdivisional between Denver and La Junta, CO. I had almost 8 years in management with the Santa Fe and BNSF.
Entries 464
Page 8 of 19
Pisser Bill .. A related Railroad expirence, ex BN in Tales of the Jointed Track
I worked power with these guys in Ft Worth. Gary Schimdt, was a former Dispatcher, Assistant Chief with the old BN out of Laurel, Montana. I worked with Gary off an on in odd power rotation....
Pueblo Yard mid '74 to '76 Part 3 I am on a Road Job in Tales of the Jointed Track
Okay, I never condoned this, I never was pulled for Rule G, which and still is substance abuse. It is what it is, we policed ourselves, and if ya had to ya bad ordered a crew. Train 151 ...
Pueblo Yard mid '74 to '76 Part 2 in Tales of the Jointed Track
Yep, the “road guy” doing penance in the yard. I am on an afternoon goat, we did a few chores on the south lead, and now it is Rio Grande transfer time. Paul McKinnon is going to see tha...
Pueblo Yard mid '74 to '76 Part 1 in Tales of the Jointed Track
I may have written this in OD for those that remember the site. So if a repeat, bear with and old fart lol. I got forced to Pueblo Yard many times in my career, and a funny thi...
Sunday morning September 6th in Misc. Thoughts opinions, the whole trash can.
It is a cool Sunday morning. Yes like a heathen, I missed church this morning. My old left knee is swollen, why I don’t know, but its working itself out. I need to bring out a ...
What do you see or perceive in a Picture in Tales of the Jointed Track
Okay.. you’re thinking, a brakeman, giving signals to back up into the consist. This is what I see. I may give two scenarios, but what do I know. Your eyes see two locomotives, yes a Milwau...
U-30-CG Fountain, CO Don't break our Aquarium in Tales of the Jointed Track
The Train 424, which we dubbed the “Night crawler” and 800 pm on duty, wow how lucky are we? Usually the 424 was a 0001 to 200 am, beat down after the 152 was called. We had our usual ...
Santa Fe U-28 and 30-CG's Tales on the Road in Tales of the Jointed Track
I wrote a few times back on the Santa Fe 444 southbound and 434 northbound. Well our “friends” the U-28-CG’s and U-30-CG’s, managed to find their way up here. Along with a mish-mash of GP se...
Santa Fe U-28 and 30-CG's an Introduction Part 1 in Tales of the Jointed Track
The U-28-CG and the U-30-CG model series were General Electrics move into Passenger locomotives. They still, may “dabble’, with orders from AMTRAK. The U-28-CG ( U, Universal-28, 2800 horsepower...
Extra South BN U-30-C's 1976 in Tales of the Jointed Track
It is a waning late winter or an early spring. We had a good size storm, but most was due south of the Denver Metro. It was on the route I worked. I was holding a regular pool turn, I am st...
Stuff on the Railroad in Tales of the Jointed Track
Ya think of stuff. We all do White Hog: The White Hog was a tagged D&RGW Bulkhead freight car, it had a crude stick figure Pig with the words White Hog. Importance, none, but we p...
The Oxford Hotel fell on bad times, before I hired out on the rails. It was “classified” in the Larimer Street area. Bums and it was a Mediterranean or Baltic Avenue type of property. One th...
Jack Powell Hump Foreman 1130 pm Job.. Part 2 in Tales of the Jointed Track
I wrote about Jack, many entries past. We, us young ones, laughed at Jack, not to his face, because he had several bowling shirts, with “JACK” on ‘em. Jack bowled in several leagues, at the M...
This is a great event. RockyGrass is up this week in Lyons,CO This is a good line-up. KGNU is live broadcasting/web casting. Bluegrass N Beer Keystone, CO 2015: I call it Beer N Bluegras...
Crew calling at its finest March Blizzard 2003 in Tales of the Jointed Track
I always enjoyed a helper run. Yeah sometimes it was a shove or two, routine and back home. Wait the next call. Winter 2003: Mike Fitzpatrick and I got called for a set of helpers about 1000 ...
We were called on Sunday morning for 430 am. A Coal Load, and again a routine run up hill. I caught this off the extra board, and I hadn’t been to Pueblo for about 2 months. We cut-off the hel...
BN Trains 93 and 94 Part 2 in Tales of the Jointed Track
I am holding the Denver Engineers Board 8, by choice. Living out on the road, does not appeal to me, at this juncture. We are still short of qualified engineers, on this sub-division still into...
BN Trains 93 and 94 Part 1 in Tales of the Jointed Track
93 AND 94 were the BN’s attack for the “Q” trains out of Big Lift. It was intermodal TOFC and stack traffic south. East Traffic went via 100 to Chicago on the former CB&Q main. These were ...
Train J-1577 and air brake problems in Tales of the Jointed Track
We were called for a coal load about 1030 to 1100 am. Typical BN, crew change and go, add the helpers, and assault the grade. So whatever delay or late arrival into Denver, we were on our way. ...
DP locomotives Part 2 in Tales of the Jointed Track
The Hostlers have arrived at the rear end of the train. Permission from the yard master has been received to couple in and set up or “Condition” the rear DP. The train order operator ( if still...
DP locomotives Part 1 in Tales of the Jointed Track
This also may have been an Open Diary, that I forgot to include in the transfer. I may have said the term “DP” in some of my entries. DP is an acronym for Distributive Power. Depending on wher...
This will deal with the Automatic Brake Valve. No we just don’t go to release condition to a full service application position. When you brake your car or truck, you adjust your foot pedal pre...
Remember my last statement in Part 1? Air pressure opposing air pressure. There are many components in the braking system. Let’s simplify this, and I did this with my fireman. Lets make t...
A train passes by you. The locomotives blast by, and car after car passes. Is this thing ever going to end ? The the last car with an odd looking device on the draw bar ( the ETD) or a locomotive...
Pueblo, CO The DP out of Fuel, Denver Brush DS in Tales of the Jointed Track
I caught a trip south off the Denver extra board. The Inter divisional run-thru hasn’t started yet. We are called on rest at Pueblo,CO. I notice three SD-70-MAC’s on the old fuel track. Th...