Stuff on the Railroad in Tales of the Jointed Track

Ya think of stuff. We all do

White Hog:

The White Hog was a tagged D&RGW Bulkhead freight car, it had a crude stick figure Pig with the words White Hog. Importance, none, but we passed it day after day, after day. The “White Hog” spent penance in the Acequia siding. It was either storage, or awaiting rebuild. One day, it disappeared from the Acequia siding. And it reappeared, at the “old” Stadium tracks. A crew that I jested with, “White Hog” I called out. “Yeah right”.. “No, it is in the Stadium tracks”. “Wow yer right, we just passed it!!”. White Hog .. we entertain easily.

Pinon Siding the Rio Grande side, north track:

Called out of Pueblo on a drag. Still a mixture of friction bearings and roller bearing cars. We have a Hot one, about 80 deep. Ya can smell a Hot box versus a sticking brake. We have to set this out. North track, well they took up all of 2500 feet of the old Pinion siding. The pot signal, is gone, and 150 feet of stubbed track is there. This is a tight fit. Okay, they got the fire out, the journal is going to seize, when it cools.

I was stopped about 15 cars short of the switch. The rear end makes the cut, and we ease in. Weeds have grown, and the tracks are covered. They soon discovered they were running out of space. “Big Hole It !!!! ” I did, and we slid it in there, with about 6 inches to spare. LOL I wasn’t going that fast maybe about 5 to 8 mph. Fast enough, to have a problem. Plus there is 80 cars between me, and the end. I was fortunate to pick this car up, a few days later. LOL It loved me ..........

Don’t touch that button:

I got this, via face book on my birthday. We were yarding a Santa Fe freight at Rice yard. I had a brand new brakeman. Doug Sparks, he was a nephew of the Road Foreman. Doug is finishing up his career on the South end of the La Junta-Amarillo-Trinidad end of the interdivisional.

We had a drag, and were yarding it into Rice yard. “High One-Gas One” was the instructions. I took the RED over LUNAR into the yard. We had to stop, to line a switch off the lead that was against us. I am telling Doug how to line us in. He lines the switch gets on, and says whats this button for? LOL. “Don’t push it” Too late, the diesel dies the bell rings, but the remaining two will help us into the yard. It was the emergency fuel cut-off LOL and he remembers that to this day. I restarted it, later on… We survived, what ya remember.