August 1974 ... force assigned yard job Part 2 in Tales of the Jointed Track

The first day of the assignment, was routine . Probably not for them, but for me, but we did the south lead work.. Pulling the class tracks off the hump, making up trains. an odd task here and there. I was a little nervous, but if you made a major goof up, they would let ya know.

The Comanche coal train:

How many Comanche's have I operated from Denver to here ? A lot, more than I'd like to count. The Santa Fe crews were still dumping the trains. We're banging cars off the south lead, and told to go get coffee. Danny Maulin the switch foreman, says " There's a Comanche coming, and we're gonna get it. I told George, we'll take it up there. Okay no problem.

The Division Trainmaster Delbert Miller is there. He tells Danny, that he is unsure if I can handle this. LOL. Danny says "GODDAMN Delbert, this fucking kid runs 'em in here, outta Denver. Plus he takes the ore loads up to Minnequa, when he ain't bumped down here. There ain't no reason he can't get 'em to the plant. The trainmaster says to me "What do you think?" I tell him, "not a big deal, I'll get it up there. I learned from the best".

We trade off with the inbound crew. "What are you doing down here"? "I got bumped for a vacation vacancy" "Well get your ass back up here, as soon as ya can". Wow, maybe I am getting accepted ...

We get permission to take off, and take the signal off the mainline, just south of the yard. We're lined at Pueblo Jct, and walk them into the Comanche Plant, 2 miles south of Minnequa yard proper.

We are in the plant, the first three cars are spotted, and the dumper is taking over . We are now on channel 30. This is for the Hump crews, and when we are dumping coal. The hump crew won't hear us, or if they do, it is a minimal bleed over.

The radio crackles, its George Poteet, the yardmaster. " Where are you guys at? I have a crew coming to shove you up the hill." I tell George we're in the plant and have 25 cars unloaded. "What ???? They were pants pissing, that a young snot nose got this up the grade ... It was nothing..and I did it again 36 years later without a running start...lol I'll relate that later.

The radio crackles again, its Danny Maulin. "Who ya talikin to Kid?', "The yardmaster?" "What for?" "He thinks we're stalled out and has a yard job to shove us up". "What!!!, I'm phoning George and gonna chew is ass out!!!" Gulp...OOps..."okay".

Nuff said...and we got it unloaded, and traded out front. To room 138 and goodnight Irene...lol Irene never showed...lol Work with me it's a tough crowd..