Re: Some different aspects of rotary operation

Amazingly enough, the tree incident was only one of a very few incidents of encountering foreign objects in the snow with the Rotary. I was working a pilot at the time. We were working up the hill between Coxo and Windy Point. I remember seeing an aspen tree branch sticking out of the snow at what looked to be an odd angle. It was sticking out of the snow well in the clear of the plow so, it didn't concern me much. When we got close, it began to shake violently and I determined that something was not right and we probably had an aspen tree across the tracks. We stopped, backed up a bit, and there it was. The section gang went to work and we were underway in a few minutes.

The other foreign object we found was in 1991. We were working down the hill between Apache Canyon Road and Los PInos, when suddenly OY's blade stopped dead with a mighty jerk. We backed up and found a nice big round rock had fallen off the hill into the snow and subsequently got buried. It managed to jamb itself between the wheel and the hood on the lower left side. It was solid granite. Several large hammers were produced and the section gang began wailing away. It was solid. We managed to chip a few pieces off and that was all. Finally I had Marvin put OY in reverse with the idea that it might come lose. It did, with a mighty "thump" it fell into the snow. On we went.

Honestly, we tried to keep people from parking in the line of fire at Coxo Crossing, but it didn't work, and the little blue car chose to be parked at Ground Zero. We tried to wind up the blade and throw it over the top of the car, but sadly we failed. It was not the first time OY clobbered a rental car. It did so back in 1978 too. The car was rented by Scenic Ry's honcho Earl Bell, who was shooting video in the narrows on the public trip run that year. He had time to throw his then-very-expensive brand new video camera in the trunk and close it before the incoming mortar rounds from OY started landing.