Tales of the Jointed track part 5 AMTRAK and other tales in Tales of the Jointed Track

It was a Sunday, mid afternoon, we did inspections, or did the inbound consists, changed out air brake equipment..etc.. Serviced the inbound Amtrak power. We had lunch and it was mid afternoon. The day foreman came in Harry Troupe ( his real name ) in a PANIC. Now Harry was a good guy, an old rail, a good foreman, but had heart problems and anything could send him to the great beyond.

"Harold...Lyle !! get your kids... I fucked this up we're in real problems". I went to start one of the E's in old house stall 20. I hydrauliced, 2 cylinders on one side and 1 on the other. I have called the storehouse and they are getting the parts to repair, get started Amtrak leaves in 3 hours !!

Yep old Harry did a good job. Instead of opening the flash cock, to drain out water, he did the old "bump job" clicking the starters, and then, giving it a good cranking, but too much water leaked into the cylinders. Plus due to the gasket and seal shrinkage, when cold and liquids don't compress well , do they ? (remember physics etc...when they actually taught school...sorry I digress ). Well there were 3 split liners, a bent fork rod on one side and one broke blade rod and a bend blade rod on the other two. Yeah if ya could get the old "Mechanical HAT TRICK", Harry did it...

Harry had already started the water draining, so it was about finished as we disassembled the tops. Taking off the rockers and removing the injectors, and breaking the Crab studs free. We went to the bottom of the hatches on the diesel opened them for the crankcase and started undoing the bolts to the offended pistons. The heads were off, the bad cylinders exposed. We pulled the pistons, and took the liners out. We had to knock off the carrier bearing off the pistons.. ( a carrier bearing is and looks like a small piston on its own, but it the major support for the piston assembly...there is a snap ring that mates this together ) We then, replaced the new rods ( fork and blade ) and replaced the carrier bearing. The new cylinder liners were spotted in, and dropped the new rod and pistons in and bolted up. The head were placed back in, along with new gaskets. The engine was barred it over, by hand to see that there was no, stress and was rotating properly. Water and Borate was added, and was started. It fired off, Now new components and stuff, needs a little break in time ..LOL The Hostlers were waiting to bring this out of the stall. They would then add it to the other two waiting units.

The foreman wanted as much idle time on these newly placed parts as possible to break them in and. Yeah a pipe dream , "Who wants to stay over ? " HARRRR ... did He say that out loud?

Well Harold and Lyle wasn't and Jimmy, he probably had other things to do , but the old Dumb Kid said sure I will, and as apprentices we were not supposed to do that.

The edict was let this stay off line and till departure let it idle and break in the new parts... Harrrr..

I stayed with and helped hook up the consist, and stayed with the E-8 It idled to the depot, and I know I rode the motor to the train.

When they coupled up to the passenger cars ..( the Rio Grande had dropped off the cars and the BN was taking them over ). I placed the E-8 on line,and waited. The passengers were de trained and boarded. The Carmen did their stuff, while the baggage loaded and unloaded, along with mail. With the diesel engines on line, I waited for the departure whistle and highball.

I was told be ready and able to get off... Lawrence Blixt is the engineer, when he gets the highball and the train whistle signal he's gonna get outta town.

Yeah and did he ever. The diesels were on line. I was on the ladder on the center door of the car body. They all sprang to life and Lawrence was going Hell bent for leather. I heard the signal line peeps and saw the Conductor swing on and give a high ball. I slammed the car body door and I hit the platform at around 8 to 12 mph.. The last coach flew past and he was already at 20 mph, taking the CTC signal to the BN Main at 23rd ST.

I caught a ride with the afternoon machinist, the electrician and laborer back to the roundhouse. ( they were the Amtrak rescue mechanical crew in case there were problems ). Then they did the afternoon work as needed. I changed clothes and headed home . Words of wisdom, from Harold and the shop Foreman Don't Let Cal Jewel know you did that, because I wasn't supposed too. I was to be the apprentice on at 0800 and off at 1600 or 4 PM. I left at 630 pm...so what, they could have forced one of them old heads to do that, but they didn't, because they didn't want to pay overtime, and they didn't want it. They wanted as much break in time before it was ready to produce horsepower. I was the dumb ol kid enjoying railroading.

It was about a 4 to 4 and a half day turnaround from Denver to Chicago and back. We were wondering, when Amtrak was to arrive that morning, how our handiwork prevailed. It was third out in the consist of three units. If the number 2 diesel failed, there was one half of a motor left. Well No. 5 came into town, late by an hour, as we watched as it went around the Wye to back into the Depot. Both diesels were chanting the old 567 roots blown growl, and with no failures no reports of problems or loading. Cal Jewel was there as well. He said " That last one had engine problems before leaving town, did you know that ?" I told him I did but didn't elaborate.

I was with Cal that day, why because he was the air man at the shop, and it was my turn to break in with him. Calvin Jewel, he was also the Local Chairman for the Machinist union and oversaw, along with the company the training for the apprentices.

We changed out air brake equipment for the inspections, or if there was failures. Rebuilt blow down valves, and other small stuff. The major stuff...service portions, emergency portions, the brake valves themselves ( No.6 24l and 26rl) were shipped of to the Lincoln air brake shop fro rebuilding, and reuse, We changed those and returned them to the air crate. These were shipped back to Lincoln. A switch crew would spot a box car at the storehouse, and they would load and unload the crates, then reload with the recycles for rebuilding, along with used cylinder liners and heads...etc... Anything that was scrap was that, and then ATLAS METALS would come and pay the BN and reclaim those.

We worked the air on the Amtrak units, changed out shoes and took up brake travel. Cal's dirge SET UP ... RELEASE ... SET UP RELEASE.. adjusting the travel or the automatic slack adjusters. We'd change out air brake equipment during the 3 year air if they were due .. Amtrak or BN units.

One day on my rotation Cal called me over and said..".take this unloader gauge and replace it on that SP unit outside, because its going out on Amtrak tonight. Get an electrician to go with you to pull the wires and reconnect when you're done ...test it and make sure the air compressor unloads and unloads at the proper pressure" Amtrak had a lot of power failures, so the troublemakers, were rotated out, and sent to a deadline for trade in on newer power or scrapped. Well the SP ( Southern Pacific ) FP-9's were being brought into play. They were pretty much worn out as well. I took the unloader gauge and magnet valve and headed out to find an electrician. Well Eddie Cohen was honing a main generator and he was out of pocket.. Okay the guys working the line for the incoming freights...well they had hidden out...I knew the location. There they were Old man Hoppes, Larry Ottercrans, and Joe Lucero. "I need one of you guys to help me out" Nah we're hiding from the foreman...Jewel says I need one of you guys to take off and replace the wires ... "Screw Jewel, do it yourself".." I don't want to get time slipped"..".No one will know ...GO AWAY".. okay this 10 minute job has already taken 30 minutes looking for an electrician. I went to the F unit and cut off the air supply, to the compressor unloader magnet valve.. pulled the wires, and unbolted the offending gauge and magnet valve. Replaced the gasket, placed the new magnet valve and gauge on..put the wires back on..and then cut the air supply back it. Seeing that there were no leaks, I took a wrench and loosened the flared coupling to drain off some air... the gauge went to 120 lbs and I heard the compressor kick in...I tightened the coupling and the gauge shot to 140 lbs and the compressor shut off. Victory...all worked. I returned to the air shop with the old gauge and magnet valve.. "Get it changed out OK?" "yes"..."Did ya get an electrician?" " yep all taken care of." On to the next chore..

Since Cal worked this job, I got his days off as well, which were Saturday and Sunday..so on Fridays come close to quitting time he was already chomping at the bit. Two different consist came in at the same time, and already were called out of another assignments on arrival. The line one boys were short handed and Cal told me to help out on the bottoms as needed. Doug Handran was the "Bottom man" inside the shop... I told him I was to help out...he said go to the other side and do what's needed...I need to go under. If you finish up start on the other side. All was good.. We had a "former" Great Northern unit in the consist a U-33-C. I was looking over and taking up travel and draining the main reservoirs of any excess condensation. Well the number 2 main reservoir had a bad blow down and this ran like a faucet while I was draining it. I yelled to Dougie and he told me shut it down, and drain the air...change 'em both. I went up top and told the guys up there not to start the unit, because we had a couple of blow downs to change out... They said let us know when done.. I cut the main reservoir line end cocks on each end and opened up the main reservoir drains on the U-33-C

Then went to get 2 blow downs for replacement at the air shop. Cal was there..."are ya doing?" "getting 2 blow downs", "why ?" " because the ones on this unit are bad order, Dougie said to change them out"... "Well I don't know, do you really need too ?" Huh I though what are these Gold Bullion ? " Well one must not have seated Cal ...because it is on the manual drain position and running like a faucet"... "Okay make sure you bring the old ones back" ... DUH !!!??? what does he think I am gonna do with them take em home and horde em? Dougie worked the other side while I took the old blow downs off, and put new gaskets in and wrenched the new ones on .. I cleared us from below and the topside boys fired up the unit and the hostlers spotted the next bunch of motors...

I had 2 weeks with Cal ..and was sent back with Harold ... YES!!! ... So back to the grind. Amtrak was still having problem with the older E-7's most of them were Penn Central and Seaboard Coastline units.. We'd get those in interchange at Chicago and they found their way to the west, which was not good. They were bell ringers, ran hot, shutdown, would load up and make horse power..a boat anchor is a polite term. Now UP had some units E-9A's which were the cab units and E-9B's which were the cabless booster units.. And they were in a dead line storage at Omaha and North Platte, Nebraska. So the Government ( AMTRAK ) being such railroad savvy bureaucrats, said hey lets buy these... send then to various shops and use them... So we were given 5 units all E-9B units... So they shoved the first 3 of these into line two. UP did a good job of placing them into storage..the stacks were covered ... the units were drained...but nobody drained the crankcase oil. Now usually that's not a big deal, the BN was gonna drain and refill the oil anyway, after changing the filters out etc...So the hoses were connected and the sump drains pulled and we started draining out the crankcase oil...

The E units had Michianna tanks, which were the "main" oil filter and they stood up, where most of these tanks laid on their sides below the expansion tank where the water is stored and re circulated. There was a drain cock that went into the sump line and purged the tank... That was opened...

We barred the diesels over looking for signs of excessive wear in the liners and the pistons... Checked the rings and ring wear..( you could access through the ports ). The electricians looked over the electrical cabinets, blew the dust out...checked the circuits with a megger, to see if there were grounds, and the overall condition of the Main and auxiliary generators. Since the E units had two diesel engines in the car body, Harold and I took one and Lyle and his apprentice took the other. I went to unbolt the top or the tank and lifted the lid ... HMMMM it's still has oil in it ... I looked at the drain cock... it was open... Might be plugged ...and BOY HOWDY was it ever. There are 7 filter slots in the Michianna tank, The BN used a sock waste filter with metal end caps... UP used a wax cardboard stock with metal end caps... Well over time the cardboard deteriorated, and left a thick soupy mass in the bottom, along with all the metal end caps. We were able to kind clear the outlet...and snake up from the bottom allowing the tanks to slowly drain. That had to be done on each unit. The laborers had to use a modified tool to scoop up the mass and remove it..That took time.. these tanks are four foot high, and not that big around, maybe a 2 and a half diameter..in cramped quarters...so it was a job. Plus the tanks were modified by the UP for these filters and would not accommodate the sock type filters..So the UP style filters had to be special ordered up...at Amtraks expense...

In about a weeks time, the E's were up and running, with minor glitches here and there, but overall doing what they were supposes to be doing, pulling passenger cars and supplying heat and cooling. They were regulars on the Denver to Chicago leg for a while and then like everything else, they disappeared and the junkers started coming in. The straw that broke the Camel's back, was when Amtrak got brave and put three pieces of garbage on No. 6 to Denver. They took a major dump between West Burlington, Iowa and Omaha,Nebraska. Tying up the main...because all three quit. The BN coupled 2 road motors to them and took it all the way to Denver. Amtrak paid handsomely for those two road units...and they used them back to Chicago with the junkers...least the steam generators worked ... So the edict to Amtrak was supply power that will function...and keep your crap elsewhere. which they did, otherwise BN was going to make Amtrak find another route into Denver...We started getting the old SP F-9's and the old CB&Q E units back. It remained like that, till after I left in 73 and Amtrak started buying brand new power from EMD the SDP-40's