Power Desk musings, and why things didn't work Dee... Part 1 in Tales of the Jointed Track in Tales of the Jointed Track

I was working the South Central power desk, after the merger in Ft Worth, TX.

Let’s just call this person Dee. A male, a young management candidate. His first name was Demetrius, and Dee was the nickname. I had met Dee briefly, while re-qualifying my engineers certificate, back in Colorado. He was working as a newly promoted engineer, out of Denver on the former Santa Fe, my old territory. I returned, back to my position at the powerdesk, and Dee unfortunately resurfaced several times.

Lubbock, TX:

This was part of my territory. Trains came down. from Amarillo, via the Plainview Subdivision,to Lubbock, TX, meeting up with the Lubbock Subdivision.

I had written a power set-out wire, as well as talking with the Lubbock Division management. I split the days off rotation with them, on my shift, but all the management people were on the distribution list. The dispatchers got the communication and it went to the Lubbock printers as well. These included management and crew printers, and also generated on the work orders.

There were two locomotives, due federal inspection at Amarillo, TX. There was a M-AMATPL (Amarillo Temple,TX ) manifest with two replacements for Lubbock. During the night, a TPLAMA picked up the inspection units. The layover between was about 6 hours. There wasn’t a night job, not covered for power so this was going to work.

Enter the equation, Dee now is working the day rotation. He lets the power go through, and the units were not set out. The phone rings, it’s Dee, “I need two switch engines at Lubbock”. “Do ya?, What happened to these two units that were sent out off of AMATPL early this morning? The train they are on is past Snyder, TX”. Stammering, and periods of silence. “They were not cut off, when they made the set out, and there was a northbound Q train as well”. “Well Dee, what about Slaton, TX..that’s the crew change point and it is 6 miles away, they could have been set out there?”

More silence, he either forgot or told them to not set the units out. “Well I need some bad, and we have a few industries to switch”. “There is road power, use those, till I get them back, and when I need that road power you’ll have to surrender those”. “They are 6 axles”. “Well use reachers if needed, you’ll have to figure it out. The wires were sent, and I talked to Donna and Brent yesterday about this.” “Well, I am busy, and can’t read everything”…excuse, excuse, excuse “We’re all busy Dee, I need to get to the Slaton Sub Dispatcher before they get further out of pocket”.

What is a reacher or reachers? They are extra cars used to grab other cars in a track or industry, that will not support the weight of a locomotive.

I go to the Slaton Sub DS, and say, “I hate to do this, but Lubbock didn’t set out the replacement switch/local power”. “Yeah, I questioned it, but the trainmaster acted like it wasn’t important”. “It’s Dee, business as usual, can ya get them back to Lubbock?” “Yeah, I have a H-TPLBAR in the yard at Sweetwater, waiting for crew rest, and will be called by the time the AMATPL get here. That train is finalled for 0930 and is called out. I’ll have the inbound crew, cut them off”. “Thanks”

I sent another wire, and called Dee. Wow he is actually in the office. “Dee, this is the power desk, the inbound TPLBAR is bringing the power back, don’t let it go through. I sent another wire. They should be there by 1500-1600 at the latest” “Well I really need them now”. “I’m sure you do, but they were available and were let run through. I can’t make them appear by magic, so work through it”.

They did make it work, and the night trainmaster wasn’t happy, when he arrived that evening. We were told he highlighted the units on the wire and stapled it to the turnover as the first page. It was still on the desk where he left it, that morning.