Milk Carton Wire "Have you Seen Me" in Tales of the Jointed Track

OKay.. Chill I am not making fun or going against the milk carton “Have you seen me Campaign”.

Locomotive Utilization BNSF South Central Desk, Ft Worth:
The Power Desk, the generic unpolitical correct part of the former Santa Fe. I am your forefront, bastion of Utilization. Save me the band just left!!..

Kansas Division, Emporia Sub:
There is a GP series locomotive out there. It has two days before it goes past Federal Inspection. I get the “EYE of you better”.. It was on a work train. Now the limits were Emporia to Wellington,KS. I can’t remember, was it a one day, two day, a week, till they had to make it a bid job? The Icon is now YELLOW/RED, lol, needs to get picked up and to “shop” for inspection.

Lot of places to set out and hide. A spur, an old yard, in an obscure track with, its empty car pals. Who knows.

I figured, I’ll spread the dragnet out. This could have originated really anywhere. I cannot remember the Work train symbol. Was it out of Newton,KS? Was the unit placed on a westbound at Kansas City and set out on line, or at Wellington,KS? Could it have been originated at Wellington,KS and gone westward onto the Waynoka Sub?. Last and not least, was it working the Arkansas City Sub toward Arkansas City?

The Milk Carton wire:
DS-Newton,DS-Waynoka,DS-Emporia, YM-Wellington,YM-ArkCity,DS-ArkCity
Please have crews, as possible be on the look out for ATSF ####, last known on work train, W-######. Unit is due Federal Inspection in two days. If found, please notify South Central Power desk.

NOC BOB
SOUTH CENTRAL DESK

Yeah ya think, this being a major Class-1 railroad, how can you loose track of a locomotive? Many factors, the crew tying up, on line, for the trip, after the work train was finished, failing to notify the Dispatcher, of where they tied up. A dispatcher, busy at the time failing to notate the location. A Trainmaster or Foreman in charge, failing to do the same. Happens, but I have always said, regardless of the tools given to us, Field Reporting, is the number ONE, reason for failures.
Tricks I used, were looking on WRKBRO (Work Train Browse). That would give me an idea and the limits this was working in. Another was AEI reader (Automated Equipment Identification), this is a wayside, detector that reads the AEI tags fastened on each side of a locomotive or rolling stock. AEI is good, but usually the are at either end of a Terminal, ie: Kansas City, Emporia, Newton, Wellington Ark City. Where was the time, date, and locations it went by?

The AEI Tag and AEI reader trackside

A close up of the AEI readers, we had them at Walnut Street, at Denver, for the route I ran, on the Joint-Line. At Colorado Springs, was a Joint-Reader for the UP and BNSF, and at 29th St at the North end of Pueblo and just at the CTC signal, and switch at South end of Pueblo, for the main and the yard.

I was lucky, 25 minutes after, I sent the wire out the Emporia Sub Dispatcher came to my desk. She said a crew spotted it after, she broadcasted to be on the lookout. She’ll have a drag eastbound pick it up and take it and the associated M.O.W. cars into Kansas City. Well that was simple, but sometimes, it doesn’t come that quickly.