In the early days of the D&S, the turntable needed a lot of work, especially in preparation for the new winter operations. A contractor was hired to dig out the old and rotten steam coil pipes that were still in the pit and used to be connected to the old roundhouse stationary steam boiler which was long gone. In addition, the contractor was to install new steam coil pipes for the pit, new gravel for the pit, and auxiliary steam lines to the roundhouse. Time was short to get this job completed by the contractor before the first snow. The contractor was using a front-end loader to deliver the gravel to the pit and dump it in so as to be distributed by laborers inside the pit. This was taking too much time, so the contractor rented a second loader to also deliver gravel to pit side. As they hurried to complete the job, the driver of the rental, (a brand new Case) would scoop up a load of gravel and head to the pit as fast as he could. At the last second he would slam on the brakes and tilt the bucket down so as to throw as much gravel toward the center of the pit as possible. It seemed to work pretty good and was getting the hang of it after 3-4 trips, but was very risky for obvious reasons. Sure enough, it wasn’t long before the brand new Case rental nosedived into the pit, severely damaging the bucket and for some reason destroying both front tires. The operator was embarrassed but not injured. I heard the job foreman on the phone with the rental company a short time later telling them “Hey, I just rented this loader a couple of hours ago and it has already broken down!”
At this time, with the D&S being an all steam operation, there were always two steam locomotives under steam and available for winter operations. The intent was to have the reserve locomotive to provide steam heat for the turntable pit as necessary. Depending on the amount of snow, it worked OK, but was hell for the engine watchman. Even with the steam heat, during heavy snow, the MOW boys would still have to spend a lot of time shoveling snow out of the pit by hand. It was difficult to keep everything thawed out, especially the airline to the air motor on the turntable.
As much as I like steam locomotives and the snow, all the nostalgia disappeared after the first winter.
Mike Ramsey
