I found it. I am sorry to report that the credit to the individule posters has been lost but the story still remains. Its going to be a long post. Here it goes.
-Eric
Few people were stirring at daybreak that morning in 1893 in the small, somewhat dreary community of Burning Switch, Montana. A short, southbound mixed train made it's smoky way out of the canyon north of town and stopped to take on water at the dilapidated, ice-coated tank just across the track from the old boxcar which served more or less as a depot. Billy Thompson, making his first pay trip as a newly promoted engineer, eased down from the cab of the little Baldwin 2-8-0, oil can in hand and began inspecting and lubricating his new charge. He had taken promotion the previous summer but only recently, with the retirement of J. D."Stinky" Smith and G. B. "Jelly Belly" Moore taking a regular turn was he able to bid off the Firemans' board and on to the Engineer's Extra Board. Here he was on his first Pay Trip.
The Hog was a getting a bit long in the tooth, having been built almost 20 years earlier, but to him it looked like the finest machine ever to come out of Philadelphia. He wished that he had a photographer to record this moment, but they were expensive and he was still on Fireman's wages until he completed this trip. He saw that his fireman was up on the tender deck, already adding water to the nearly empty tank. "Glad the damn valve in the water tank isn't frozen," he mused, or we'd lose even more time than we did waiting on that northbound freight extra to clear the main ten miles back."
He suddenly stopped his inspection of the little narrow gauge Baldwin, quickly walked back to the rear of the tender and called up to his fireman, "Hey, did you notice anything out of the ordinary on that northbound freight extra we were in the hole for?" "Yeah," came the reply, "There was something odd about the guys on the hind end they looked like they were asleep or somethin' Didn't wave back when I give 'em a Highball "Nah not that. That was Slim he's always asleep. I meant the locomotive. I seemed to be having a rather hard time with that train. It was only 20 cars but it sounded like it was haulin 40!"
The fireman stopped for a minute and thought. "You know come to think of it it did sound like the hogger was rappin 'er pretty hard with the Johnson bar down in the corner....Bet that fireman is cussin' him up and down tryin to keep up with it. Who was the engine crew anyway? Did you know either of 'em." "Yeah I know 'em. Ricky "bugaloo" Johnson was the hogger, promoted about six months ago. That big ashcat is "China" Ellis. Those two been together for a couple of weeks now." "Well if ol "Boogaloo" or whatever they call him don't hook her up a bit, China is gonna be reachin for coal before they get half way up the hill.... He'll probably wrap the scoop around that hogger's head when they get in."
Just then they spied "Punk" Blackstone, their conductor wading through the snow, coming up from the depot telegraph office where had gone to see if they could get the Dispatcher to give them some more time on the next northbound they were to meet a couple stations down the line. They were already running late and would have to get moving to make the meet without delaying things. Billy could tell by the look on Punky's face that the news wasn't going to be good. "That damned Dispatcher should go back to shufflin' papers for Mechanical. What he knows about railroadin' you could stick in a thimble" Punky complained. "He sez we got our orders and we gotta wait for the Northbound to clear, looks like another long trip. Billy looked at Punky and then at his watch, well, he said, "We can't change nuthin', especailly the Dispatcher's mind, so I guess we gotta make the best of it." Punky, you got the stove back there in the Clown House fired up so we can cook somethin?" "Sure" Punky said. Billy pulled a few coins from his pocket and looked at his fireman Billy (Jojo) Johanson. "Hey Jojo go into town to the general store and see if you can pick up some eggs and maybe a few slices of bacon." Then he looked at Punky, "Any coffee back there?"
Before Punky could answer the Dispatcher came running out of the station. "Hey you there!" He pointed right at Punky then stumbling through the snow ran up to the confused crew. "Word just came down from the pass. No. 29 is stalled on the grade. I was told to tell you to cut your train and head up there to give them a hand." Billy frowned and thought to himself, "Why couldn't I have had an easy first day." They dumped the air, and tied down enough hand brakes on their train to keep it from rolling away, and got the head shack to cut their engine off so they could run around their train on the main and start back up the pass. They'd be running in reverse until they got back to Horse Creek where there was a wye to turn their engine and get it pointed right to couple onto the rear of No. 29 and give them some help . The operator handed Punk their orders to cover this movement and they all climbed up into the cab and whistled off. The head shack lined the switch to let them out on the main and then lined it back and locked it. He swung up up into the gangway as they started back. It was getting crowded in the cab with the four of them in there, and they still had to stop at the hind end as they passed the caboose and pick up their rear brakie. Jojo grumbled about missing the bacon and eggs they had planned to cook up and hoped they'd have enough coal to get
this little "extra" work done.
Oh Man" Billy thought to himself "You can't swing a cat in this cab without hitting a trainman". "Hey Punk" Billy said aloud "Why don't you stay with the train, after all, we got your head Brakie and the rear end crew on the other train will be doing most of the work". "That way you'll stay warm and Breakfast will be ready when we show back up... or maybe Lunch." "Waal, y'know Billy" Punk replied "You just got promoted and I gotta make sure that you do things right." "Well, I tried" Billy thought as he eased back out on the throttle and started hooking up the Johnson bar to make it easier on the Ash Cat across the cab. "I wonder what's wrong with the Hog on 29?" he said half aloud, "probably a blown flue." "Whazzat?" queried Punk. "Nuttin, just talkin to myself" Billy replied.
They were just getting up to speed on the Main when Punk changed his mind and said "Well, choke her down then, and Me and the rear brakie will stay here with the train and get some grub fixed to eat". He had had time to think about it a little and decided he'd rather have a full belly and be sleeping in a warm caboose rather than jammed alongside the boiler in the deckless-cab Hog or standing in the gangway dodging the fireman every scoop while he was down on the deck putting in a fire....'sides that, he figured Billy would be OK with the head brakeman to line the switches for him and couple him up when they got up to where 29 was stalled....He also didn't want to be put to work passing coal later on, which was sure to happen when they got the coal gates open and jojo began having to reach for it.
Billy slowed the Hog when they came abreast the caboose, and Punk climbed down and swung off. Jojo came over and said " Hey, we just got a full tank of water, and we ain't gonna use much of that or coal getting back up the road, but I been eyeballing our coal supply, and mebbe we ought to stop at that coal tipple where the Yankee Boy mine is just the other side of Horse Creek and swipe us a ton or two of coal, just so we won't run out and stall on the hill ourselfs." Billy thought that would probably be a good idea..."No sense having two engines fail up there, if we can do anything to avoid it", he thought....He said to Jojo "We'll get more water at Horse Creek Tank too, just to make sure we got as much of everything on here we can possibly get...No telling what we'll run into up there."
He widened on the throttle a bit, but didn't want to run too fast in reverse. It wouldn'd do to derail himself before they got the engine turned at Horse Creek After all it was Billy's first pay trip and the last thing that he wanted it to be was his last. Bill said to JoJo "Let the head Shack", some guy by the name of Lake "keep his eye peeled". "He seems pretty good and isn't about to doze off when we're running backwards." JoJo agreed and Lake took his position back behind the tender collar so he could see, but where the wind wouldn't turn him into an icicle. Billy go the hand signal from Lake and they began easing their way to Horse Creek. The wind was beginning to pick up a little and there were some small drifts forming over the track.
Now, bucking snow with a tender is not the best idea in the world. Everybody on the engine kept an eagle eye out, watching to see how much those little drifts were increasing as they rattled along. Billy opened the throttle just a bit as they approached a drift slightly larger than what they'd been running through. The tender got through and stayed on the rails, and the little Baldwin shook herself free of the snow, got her feet back under her with Billy's skillful use of the throttle and pushed on. The snow was coming down a little harder, now, and Billy had to occasionally use the sanders to keep moving.
Billy kept a sharp watch out his side, ready to stop the Hog if they went on the ground or in response to a stop signal from Lake on the tank. He was glad it was daylight now and not dark because the Hog didn't have a light on the back of the tank. "Lessee,” he thought to himself, "ten miles back to Horse Creek wye, that'll take us about an hour at the best speed we can make if we don't derail." He fished out his watch and checked the time. The operator back at the water stop hadn't given them any exact location where No. 29 was stopped Apparently, their conductor had hiked some distance to a telegraph booth to let the Dispatcher know they were in trouble, and it was hard to understand him over the primitive circuit with all the line hum. Billy figured they'd get turned, take on all the water they could, get some coal at the mine tipple, and then proceed northward cautiously until they popped No. 29's guns (track torpedoes)and came on their rear flagman...He hoped the cold wind and blowing snow hadn't induced 29's rear brakie to do any "drawbar flagging"....
Horse Creek was out in the middle of nowhere, nothing there but a water tank, a station signboard and the wye. The ceaseless winds scoured the snow off the tracks pretty much, so Billy didn't figure they'd have any trouble getting turned. There was an old boxcar set off there that was used for a telegraph office and a mine agent when the mine was shipping coal, but it was closed when the mine temporarily shut down a few months ago. The wye was used to turn helper engines sent over from the terminal on the other side of the pass and they usually ran on "go and return" orders so there was no open train order office at Horse Creek. The yard limit sign a mile south of Horse Creek was a welcome sight. There was only a skiff of snow on the rails here and there, due to the small yard and wye being sheltered from the wind by a ridge rising sharply along the west side of the main track. Billy shut off and let the Baldwin drift easily to the south switch of the wye, where he stopped and gave a short blast on the engine's hooter. "Wish they'd put one of those new chime whistles on this thing," he thought.
The wye at Horse Creek was seldom used anymore. It had been built over twenty years ago when the line was first built, and still had mostly 30 pound rail on both legs and the tail. he brakeman waved a "come on" and Billy eased the throttle out and started backing into the wye. He had just cleared the main when suddenly the pops lifted with their usual sharp retort. JoJo had been doing his job too well. "Easy on the coal, Jo" Yelled Billy, "we still got to make it to Yankee Girl to coal up". "I 'preciate the good job, though". Bill tried the middle try-cock and water sprayed out as merrily as you please. "Holy Moses", Billy thought "those pops scared ten years growth out of me, I thought we had flipped a rail on this old rickety track". With the drivers lightly set, Billy began easing the old Hog around the wye. "Good thing this is an old Hog" Billy confided to Jo "it's light enough that we can take this wye, even as rickety as it is, if we go slow enough".
Lake got off the pilot, where he had positioned himself after lining the first switch and saw that the tail track was all ready lined for them. when the Locomotive got to the switch stand Lake bailed off and was at the ready to line back the switch behind them. He grabbed that old stand and fumbled with the lock. He threw the switch and gave Billy the come ahead. Billy eased the throttle back and kicked open the cocks. Steam rushed from them as the wheels started to turn then he closed them. Lake swung up into the cab as they past. The track creaked and moaned under the little engine. Billy stopped just before the switch to the main and Lake went to set it. Now that they were facing forward Billy said, "Why don't you close them cab curtains its getting a little windy."
Billy eased the Hog out on the main headed north, and spotted her with the tender under the tank spout. Jojo climbed up, opened the manhole and pulled the tank spout down and jerked the water valve rope. Only took a few minutes to top the water up, and he let go of the valve rope and swung the spout up, cussing the splashing he got from the icy water drizzling all over his overalls. Slammed the manhole cover shut and climbed back down into the cab. Lake had re-boarded also so they were ready to head for the coal tipple at the Yankee-boy Mine. Even though the mine wasn't shipping, there ought to be several tons of coal still in the tipple where they could dump some of it right into the tender without much trouble. They'd need all they could get this day. Billy hoped the hind end crew on 29 would have a coffee pot going when they found them. He knew their rear brakie would be standing out there on the rails with his flag, half frozen and waiting to be called in. The man was bound to be miserable.
There was something else that bothered Billy, as the Hog chuckled along, hooked up to quarter stroke and running swiftly now that they were headed forward...They had met No. 29 on it's schedule at Horse Creek, and an Extra North that was following, the one with the funny sounding engine they had noticed...Question now was....Where was that Extra North, if 29 was stalled in the pass? They must have run up on 29's flag and stopped there too? This could take more unraveling than they thought at first......Maybe the northbound extra's engine couldn't help 29 for some reason? They'd soon find out, he thought. The Yankee Boy coal tipple was in sight now, Billy hollered over at Jojo to get up on the tank and signal him to stop where he could get the coal chute down to the tender, and shut the Hog off, letting her slow for the stop at the mine. No large amounts of snow bothered them on the short trip to the Yankee Boy Mine tipple. Billy spotted the tender under a coal chute where they found more than enough coal to fill the tender, and soon, Billy whistled off and they headed up the main on their rescue mission. Every man on board that little Baldwin knew that anything can and will happen of a railroad, and they were all hoping no one had been injured, or worse, on Extra 29 North.
Snow was falling more heavily as they started out. Three miles upgrade, they encountered snow drifts which nearly reached the top of the pilot plow, but the snow was fresh and powdery and the little Baldwin kicked it off the track will little trouble. Billy was careful to raise the Priest flanger below the pilot when approaching a switch or grade crossing, lest the engine derail and tear up some track. They'd gone nearly ten miles and were high on the side of the mountain on a nearly four per cent grade. As they nosed around a sharp, left hand curve Lake, who was leaning out of the fireman's side gangway shouted, "Stop, there's a flagman on the track!" As Billy dumped the air and slammed the throttle shut, the two torpedos on the track went off with two very loud bangs. They stopped quickly, and the rear end brakeman from Extra 29 North, a man known only as "the German", slogged through the snow and pulled himself into the cab. "Mein Gott, I'm glad to see you guys," he said with a thick accent. "Ve stalled in a drift, und ven ve backed out der damn hack vent offen der track. Dere vas no vay we could pull up to rerail der damn t'ing. Ve been here for several hours and it's gettin' colder all the time."
Lake, in a somewhat shaky voice, said to the German, "Did you see another train behind you at any time?" "Nein," the German replied, "but ve couldn't have seen it because of der snow." Billy told the German about the other train they'd passed, and the German turned white as a sheet.
Billy thought "Well, this is a little goofy....if the train ahead of us IS the 29 that is stalled, there must have been two sections of No. 29 that they met back at Horse Creek...this one maybe wasn't carrying signals as second 29, or maybe somewhere they had missed getting an order that showed a second 29 running some time behind the schedule...no matter now...they had found the stalled train ahead, picked up the flagman and
now could begin sorting things out.”
Billy had Lake go back a few hundred feet and put some new "guns" (track torpeodes) on the rail and leave a red flag to warn anything that might be following that they were stopped there. He didn't figure the dispatcher would run much up behind them with the siding at Burning Switch occupied with his own train. The only other place anything could get in the clear was the empty passing track and the wye at Horse Creek. The railroad was pretty well tied up until they could unravel what was wrong with the 29 and get the line cleared. Billy whistled off and he moved forward slowly toward where the German had said their caboose was derailed. He thought if it maybe wasn't too far off the iron, maybe they could set a rerailing frog and chain up to the drawbar and pull it back on the tracks. In the backs of their minds they were all wondering what had become of the "second" train they had met back there at Burning Switch....There was no place a whole train could have gotten in the clear and out of sight between where they were and where they had started back up from Burning Switch.....Had someone made an error and not made them aware of a "second 29", or was the vision of that second train with the strange sounding engine and the unresponsive hind-end crew something they had all imagined??? A "Ghost Train?" Why had the German paled so when they asked him if a train had been following him?
