Tales of The Jointed track part 8 BRAKESHOE in Tales of the Jointed Track

How did I get the name Brakeshoe ... well it originated, here at Rice Yard , when I was in the Mechanical department... and continued when I went into engine service. Nicknames on the railroad...like in sports are given for traits, or actions, or even plays off a name. BUT with the railroad, when your marked your marked. AND if there is any hint that You!! don't like or appreciated it ...you are cursed with that the rest of your career. Yeah was it earned ...yeah ...and I didn't care, and when I went into engine service, it went with me. I was called Brakeshoe, Shoe...shoes...didn't matter I answered to all .

When I came back from an exempt management position back to the craft....There was a few young ones that called me that...and again is what it is...and I answered... I had worked my way up to No. 1 on the roster, and there was one young guy that always addressed me as Shoe or No. 1... I also told the new hires, IF!! they give you a name or you do something and that gives you a name, DO NOT, let on whether it pisses you off or not, that you are bothered by it. Just go on... It will pass...if it sticks , then like Brakeshoe, you're stuck with it.

I am the midnight machinist ... I am responsible, for everything that comes off the pit. Fuel, water, lube oil levels, shoes , piston travel for the air brake adjustment... other levels. Denver was a midpoint..stuff came out of Montana and up from Texas. So the last maintenance points, may let things slough off, or a unit was picked up en route, or due to storms and frozen rigging etc, it fell here.

I'm new...I am unsure ..I am afraid... So with the road consists, you can get a myriad of variables. Take up the travel, or change out shoes... Sometimes the adjuster for the rigging is fouled, so you can't adjust, so take off the old shoe and replace with a new one... Now its with in tolerance...save the old one as a replacement, for another...Have done that.. I have used, with units that used cast Iron brake shoes, and I could not get the rigging to adjust, used a new Locomotive shoe on the difficult end...then slip in a railroad car shoe (they are a lot thinner) to bridge the gap... Yes they work yes they are interchangeable, yes they are of the same composites, and after 2 days..who really knows.. A new locomotive shoe has a 3 in thickness, in cast iron...a car shoe is 1 and 1/2 to 1 and 3/4 thickness, see what I am doing... It works ... plus the car dept kept a pallet close for the yard...and yes I robbed it as needed. NO SAFETY WAS COMPROMISED ... it was just making things work... and this was also done with the composition brake shoes as well. If you could swap and interchange out shoes...keep it in service...it is within the tolerance...brakes like it should.. and when it gets to a "Major" shop...they will shop it and make sure the rigging works like it is supposed to. A notation was placed in the record and so it was replaced or repaired as needed. At Rice we didn't have those parts, so it was either Bad Ordered and sent to 31st ST, or held for repair and parts were sent over during the day shift. That was rare...

So more times as not, power came in...piston travel was longer than usual...some were easy, take up the travel, others the shoe was thin...so if it was thin facing outward, it was more so by the flange.. The wheels were cut on an angle, although looking at them they seemed straight across.. The were not, but cut a a slight taper...so as the speed increased they would center themselves, and the flanges would steer them around the curves, or guide them through the switch frogs, or take the points at a switch. Amarillo was good at passing off thin shoes... and you were going to change out or take up a good part of the consist. Switchers, that was a fact of life.. they braked a lot and got heavy wear... The Beer run came in every other day for water and fuel.. so they needed to be taken up. Normally that came in on first or second trick, so unless late or delayed, or a problem we didn't see the Beer run power...That was usually a trio of SD-9's. We saw the Beer run power on early Sunday morning when the the 2300 pm crew came in and the power laid over Sunday night. So we had to get it ready for the 600 am crew. So I changed out shoes, I got ribbed for it, but truth be known, second shift passed a lot on to me. Was this a Boo HOO on my part?, not really. First shift had 2 machinists...second shift had 2 machinist. Me on the third shift, I was the lone dog.. I might have a helper and then again I might not.

Some of the older units had a cap adjuster, that operated off a larger screw drive which adjusted the brakes travel, or allowed to change out the shoe itself. The large cylinders on the side are the brake cylinders..the pistons are in due to being off air...If properly adjusted for this type of arrangement, when the piston was out, should be about 3 to 4 inches exposed.

C&S General Foreman MI Smith... and the Brake shoes on the desk. I was working the night shift as always ...it was slow, that night. There was an old SW-7 in the black "Everywhere West" scheme in the house. I had no idea, why it was there, till the relief Foreman Art Phillips cornered me. "Hey this came over from 23rd St, and they couldn't finish it off" Hmmm really Art...really...who you think you're fooling here? They have a full complement of people on each shift...Nights here are the skeleton crew. The truth be known, they did the inspection and most of the bottom work ... and either; a) sloughed off the inner brake shoes, because yes they are difficult to change out, or b) it was forced out of the house, due to other needs, or Rice yard needed it. c) !!! it got bad ordered, by the engineer it was assigned too. So they placed it in the roundhouse stall...they even shut the doors ..lol. The shop at 23 rd St had elevated tracks where you could go underneath and get these knocked out... The old C&S 7th St roundhouse...these were 2 1/2 to 3 foot pits, made for steam engines, when you could squeeze in and stand up and work the driver boxes.... No I am not a steam man, but I knew of it.. I am almost 19 1/2 years at this time.. so I am not an old guy...LOL I told Art okay... this is BS...they have far better facilities than we do here...and the "PIT" track we have is always filled with water, oil, ooze the drains are plugged. I could have a Navy Frogman's suit on and still not be able to go in there. Art did the mumble...get it done...nothing is due for 5 hours... I made sure the handbrake was on... a blue light on the control stand of the locomotive.. I chained a driving wheel... placed a flashlight and looked at what I needed to change out.. Since these were clasp style... 2 per wheel. Eight of these were inside truck shoes ... and six were really bad... I got the shoes that I needed... I told the rest of the crew where I could be found. Like they really gave a shit. The unit was dead, and the air leaked off. So I could adjust it as needed, after the change outs were made, and it was under air. I placed the shoes where I could get to them. I got an extra bar, and crawled my then skinny ass, under the pilot and shimmied into place. I knocked the bad orders off from outside if I could and wrestled from there... These switcher shoes, were cast iron, probably about 15 to 20 lbs apiece...and the had a flange lip. I put these on top of the wheel and where I could grasp them slide then to the top of the brake head..then placed a bar on the bottom of the rigging..I used the other bar to open the brake head and allow the shoe to slide into place... put the pin in and adjust... if it fell through that's what the other bar was for...I could wedge it back into place... Being by myself it took about 15 minutes apiece...quarters were cramped...etc... I did get them changed. The unit was started, and it aired up and any adjustments needed were made. So all in all, getting parts, and doing the work about 2 and/or 2 1/2 hours was spent.. I was sorta pissed...because this all could have been done...with a full crew over at 23rd ST. SO I GATHERED THE BAD ORDER SHOES..AND TOOK THEM TO THE MAIN OFFICE. The night caller...Mr. O'Malley was there ( he’s an old cranky Irishman), and in his condescending tone, “What ye need here, what ya dooing?” I said I have a present for Mr. Smith... He left his office door opened... YES..so I placed all those bad order shoes on his desk, with a note!!.. "He's not gonna like that"...yeah John no "F'in" DUH !!! I went on and finished up the rest of the chores...ate lunch and worked an inbound. I went off duty, ready to return the next shift... The next night was light as well, but there was enough to keep us busy... It is now Monday morning...a new week dawns ... and Ol M.I Smith was there at 0600 am.. HARRR... I wish I was in shouting range...when he saw those 6 worn out shoes on his desk... I was told he had a fit... Good... As I was getting off... I was told to report to M.I's office... I did... "yes sir..you wanted to see me?" "yes" I thank you for letting me know that the locomotive in question, was not properly finished, off of Federal inspection...I will take it up with the General Foreman at 23rd ST. "Thank you" I replied..."AND YOUNG MAN ... DO NOT LEAVE BRAKESHOES ON MY DESK AGAIN!!!"... "Yes Sir"...and I left ... mission accomplished.... The Sunday layover day ...Beer Run Power We worked the inbound's ... made up an extra ...the goats were ready for assignment, those out in the yard, some were brought in for fuel, and sent back out. We were pretty busy...second shift had a chance to help out, but why ? They fueled the Beer run, swept out and re supplied the cabs, and set it over out of the way to the ready track... Good... I walked around it and the brake travel was where it needed to be ... shoes were thin, and they were pretty much close to tolerance... I am on rest days after this shift...and I am not going to change 'em ... I checked levels, made sure they were ready to go, told the foreman they're okay and signed the cards out. A yard crew came around about 200 am and used the power for a BN yard transfer and then it stayed out in the yard for the Beer Run.. "Good.... they'll have to do some work".. 2359 pm Wednesday night... Well I was told, the Beer Run is late...power will come to the pit service and get it out... Okay no problem. It came to the pit ... the brake pistons were longer than normal...and the shoes were, past tolerance... Luckily the foreman was there... "I said..look at this? what did they do while I was off". "Let 'em go and now it's a BIG DEAL"... Work the tops and I'll get started" Now these were three MU'ed SD-9's Six axle designated units ...three traction motor wheel sets per truck... clasp shoes..cast iron...12 shoes per side 24 per locomotive. and I was going to change most of them.

It took me again, a good two hours to get it done, and those that would make another trip or two to golden were let go... The foreman..noted the problems and first and second trick were told ...let's not slough this all off on third shift, because he's the new guy and you think it’s funny .. It eased off for a bit, but they were pissed. But hey, they pay you to work, do your part...keep the railroad operating ...

The "BIG HEADACHE" I being the night guy...Some of us wore hardhats...some did not ...and at that time it was really not enforced...but it you got hurt..no hard hat...no harm no foul...It was on you!!. It was encouraged that you wore them...It is not like it is now ...it is enforced, per company rules and OSHA etc... I wore overalls, steel toed boots..and an old railroad cap... just to keep the oil and crap out of my hair. We were working an inbound consist which would be the outbound 78 south to Pueblo, CO and beyond. It was a mishmash of SD's...40's and 45's...one was a former GN SDP-45. Was in the GN Blue SKY and white scheme...and they were striking.. These units were former passenger high horsepower units...3600 hp on 6 axles...taking over for the aging fleet...had a steam generator..( a Vapor Clarkson )...when AMTRAK took over..these were re geared and placed into freight service.. rear end SDP-45 ex GN the square above the 97 is the steam generator air inlet..the unusually larger fuel tank..is a dual fuel and water tank, for the diesel and the steam generator... the railroad, when they placed it into freight service breached the tank and expanded it to 5000 gallons of diesel fuel capacity.. These ex GN diesels had re railing frogs that hung off a large strap hanger hook. The GN's hung down and hooked up at the horseshoe and were straight up and down I was changing shoes on the rear truck of that SDP-45... There was the strap hanger, without the frog.. I said to myself... "self, make sure you clear that frog hanger, while going in and out of the area"... I took up brake travel and got distracted... someone yelled to me and I stood up... YEP right on the bend of that strap hanger.. I hit that with my head, and it brought me to my knees...The foreman.... Roger...the compassionate man he was said "Don't turn in an injury...you didn't have a hard hat on".. I said..." Don't worry about that did I place the locomotive on it side"...I saw stars...it was my fault ... and yes the locomotive never moved ...felt like it did..but it still was there.. LOL.. live and learn safety first...