Russell Heath Part 2 in Tales of the Jointed Track

Dahkerry’s and the Ba’Haymas:

As I wrote at the start, Russell liked motorcycles. He rode with another engineer, Bill Butler. Bill was the engineer on the 1st Beer Run on the C&S, out of Denver. They got together and went to the Bahamas for a week.

I caught Russ on his first trip back…and surprisingly he was in a pretty good mood. How was vacation Russ ? “Say…It was real good. Bill Butler ‘n me and the wives went to the Ba’hayma’s ( that’s how he pronounced it ..the Bahamas)” Wow sounds like ya had a great time”. “We did. And ya know what ? We had the damnedest drink..A Dahkerry”. “A what Russ?” “A Dahkerry Dahkerry…you know with crushed ice and rum!!”.. “Oh yeah a Daiquiri. “Yeah a Dahkerry…and you know what…??? Whatever flavor of Dahkerry you wanted. They would make em right there !!”. The brakemen and I laughed. “Ya do anything else ?” “We walked around took a tour. Ate well, and drank them DahKerries”. I didn’t ask if there was a paper umbrella in it, he was in a rare good mood …

Russell on the High wide special..

I wasn’t with Russell for this one, but Elvin Bethurum and I ran around him, on the siding, at Fountain on the northbound. They were called several hours ahead of us.

The train was a high wide special, which had certain speed restriction conditions for transit. They could only do 25 mph on the straight track and 15 on the curves. At the south end of Colorado Springs the curves were a little closer than normal and reversed left to a long sweeping right. There, no trains could be met or passed, for concern of a sideswipe.

We had a runner. C&S Train 151, 6 units, close to 95 cars. We made good time across the flats. The signal north of “Rio Grande” Buttes station showed a yellow indication. The signal just past Wilson Road glared RED.

“Who’s ahead of us ?” that was general conversation. We stopped and started flagging the block. We went about three quarters of a mile and around the curve, a Santa Fe caboose was ahead. The switch was thrown for the siding. Dave Bradford the conductor had been flagging the rear end per rule and met us 150 feet south of the switch. We stopped as Dave boarded the motors. “Hey…we’re to let you around due to speed restrictions. George has you lined out the north end and we’ll take care of the switches.” Elvin radioed the rear end of our train and we began running around the high wide special.

I could tell Elvin was antsy and wanted to get going on the trip. We went through the siding, George Harrower the head brakeman was on the roof of the second unit, on the train we were running around, giving us an easy sign..( we were a far distance from sideswiping the special). Russell..pompous..head thrown back with a sneer, smoking a cigar and pissed. Ray Hill the head brakeman and I laughed. Russell was not a happy man. The next trip, I caught the midnight train 424, a Santa Fe drag. I had the same train crew, and I caught Russell this time.

I said “Hey was that you on that Special we ran around at Fountain”. “YEAH IT WAS”. “Who was that engineer on that train?” “Elvin”…“Goddamn, he flew through there he knows better than that” . Then the lament, “Ya know that train was 25 mph maximum on the straights, 15 mph on the curves. I had Grandma Bradford for a Conductor!!! and that F’ing Harrower on the head end!!!! and the beauty of it all is we deadheaded down to catch the S.O.B. We laughed..Ray n Me…ah working with Russell… What can ya do.