Storms.... in Tales of the Jointed Track

My best and prayers to all that are suffering from Hurricane Ian. During my time on the rails, I’ve seen a lot of weather. No Hurricanes, although when I did power for the Santa Fe, I managed power moves to get locomotives, out of the Houston-Galveston area, till the storm surge passed. I was safe in Chicagoland, orchestrating power moves via wire and telephone.

My late mother was always afraid of thunderstorms and bad weather in general. During the summer and spring, especially after her husband had died, the basement was her friend.

Pueblo, CO-Exel Energy Power Plant 06/2008:

I got a call to report to Pueblo,CO for a 1500pm Comanche Coal train unload. We would either grab the train off the Main, at the yard office, or Dead Head up to the Utility and start from there. Upon arrival at the Utility, the train crew were dropped off, and I waited for approval to run thru the dumper.

It is approaching 500 pm and my cell phone rings off. We have unloaded about 35-40 cars, and the plant unloading and spotting machinery is in control of the train.

Its my late mother. “Where are you?” “Pueblo, unloading a coal train”. “What is it doing down there?” ” Sunny, 80 degrees”. “I’m in the basement.” “Okay, why?” “Well the radio said there is a Tornado watch and warnings”. “Really Denver metro area?” “I am not sure they said Morgan and Washington counties”. “Okay, those are between 1 to 4 hours away”. “oh”. “What is it like there?” “Partly cloudy”. ” Turn on the weather, and see if Denver is under any warnings”. “Okay, I’ll call back if there are”.

Well we unloaded the train and spotted it for the Crew at Southern Jct. We had a 0145 am tie up and I headed back to Denver. She never called back so all was well. Being in her early to mid-80’s she had that fear. I told her I would print a map of the counties of Colorado. I’ll color in those in the Denver metro area. She told me that helped a lot