Finally....NNG no steam either.
| January 01, 2019 12:12PM |
|
At 600am, Dec. 31, 2018 I tied up for the last time, ending 41 years, 5 months and 3 days of Railroad Employment. In those 41 years, all but 3 involved running steam somewhere.
As there would be no brass bands to welcome me home at the wee hours of New Year's Eve in Hayden AZ, I took my camera along to document the event.
This what my railroad life looked like for the last 15 months of employment. Staring out into the dark as I wheeled the Copper Basin Ry's OT-1 Ore Train between Ray Mine and the dump hopper at Hayden, AZ
OT1-97 (97th ore train of the month) waits for its 1200am departure from Ray Mine with 40 loads, 4200 tons of copper ore. Power is GP-40's 301 and 303, followed by GP-39 504. We were scheduled to make 2 round-trips a night. This was the first. My intentions were to take pics of the last one only, but just in case, I though I'd better shoot this one too, just in case our second trip got cancelled, which was a common event. As ASARCO is very paranoid of cameras, setting up a tripod in front of the mine office at 1145pm would probably attract more attention than I wanted, This shot was taken hand held and braced against a power pole. I cranked the ISO on my camera to 6400 and tried my luck.
It was a good this I shot the above. The crusher plant in Hayden was down, and could only take about 2/3 of our train, so we sat and waited, and slept, for about 3 hours while the hopper emptied. This was a pretty common event, especially at night. I spent many hours of my employ at the CBRY taking in this scene:
Finally at 500am, the hopper was emptied enough to take the remaining 14 cars. We dumped them, the drifted down the hill to Hayden Junction Yard and tied up for the night. Here the power has been cut off from the train to clear the crossing, my conductor is tying the hand brakes on the train down. I've shut down and set the hand brakes on the engines. I shot these two before I killed the circuit breakers on the 504's headlights for the last time. I then grabbed my grip, went to the office, turned in my paperwork, my rule book and my switch key. The End...
As always the my timebook tells the story:
Sunday, Dec. 30, 2018
in 900pm
OT1 - conductor Jeff Cross
engs 504, 301, 303
40 cars
Crew change at Hayden Hopper 915
finish dumping train #96
Dp Hayden Hopper 925
Ar Hayden Junction 927
air test
Dp Hayden Jct 950
Ray Junction 1012
Ar Ray Mine 1022
Begin loading train #97 1045
Finish loading #97, air test 1120pm
Dp Ray Mine w/40 loads. 0 empties, 4200 tons 1200am
Ray Junction 1222
Hayden Junction 1259
Hayden Hopper 109
In hole with 14 loads 210 - 459 am
Resume dumping #97 459
Depart Hayden Hopper 507
Ar Hayden Junction 520
Out 600am
9 hours
As there would be no brass bands to welcome me home at the wee hours of New Year's Eve in Hayden AZ, I took my camera along to document the event.
This what my railroad life looked like for the last 15 months of employment. Staring out into the dark as I wheeled the Copper Basin Ry's OT-1 Ore Train between Ray Mine and the dump hopper at Hayden, AZ
OT1-97 (97th ore train of the month) waits for its 1200am departure from Ray Mine with 40 loads, 4200 tons of copper ore. Power is GP-40's 301 and 303, followed by GP-39 504. We were scheduled to make 2 round-trips a night. This was the first. My intentions were to take pics of the last one only, but just in case, I though I'd better shoot this one too, just in case our second trip got cancelled, which was a common event. As ASARCO is very paranoid of cameras, setting up a tripod in front of the mine office at 1145pm would probably attract more attention than I wanted, This shot was taken hand held and braced against a power pole. I cranked the ISO on my camera to 6400 and tried my luck.
It was a good this I shot the above. The crusher plant in Hayden was down, and could only take about 2/3 of our train, so we sat and waited, and slept, for about 3 hours while the hopper emptied. This was a pretty common event, especially at night. I spent many hours of my employ at the CBRY taking in this scene:
Finally at 500am, the hopper was emptied enough to take the remaining 14 cars. We dumped them, the drifted down the hill to Hayden Junction Yard and tied up for the night. Here the power has been cut off from the train to clear the crossing, my conductor is tying the hand brakes on the train down. I've shut down and set the hand brakes on the engines. I shot these two before I killed the circuit breakers on the 504's headlights for the last time. I then grabbed my grip, went to the office, turned in my paperwork, my rule book and my switch key. The End...
As always the my timebook tells the story:
Sunday, Dec. 30, 2018
in 900pm
OT1 - conductor Jeff Cross
engs 504, 301, 303
40 cars
Crew change at Hayden Hopper 915
finish dumping train #96
Dp Hayden Hopper 925
Ar Hayden Junction 927
air test
Dp Hayden Jct 950
Ray Junction 1012
Ar Ray Mine 1022
Begin loading train #97 1045
Finish loading #97, air test 1120pm
Dp Ray Mine w/40 loads. 0 empties, 4200 tons 1200am
Ray Junction 1222
Hayden Junction 1259
Hayden Hopper 109
In hole with 14 loads 210 - 459 am
Resume dumping #97 459
Depart Hayden Hopper 507
Ar Hayden Junction 520
Out 600am
9 hours
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488 stops for water at Los Pinos tank on closing day Oct. 1979. Photo courtesy Don Richter
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