What was your longest day on the NG? Heres one mine, its a long story but it was a fun yet exhausting day. I know somebody out there has me beat. Let's hear your story.
Mine, when we ran back to back dinner trains at the Yosemite Mountain Sugar Pine. I was 18, so long days were no problem.
At the time, it was fairly small crew and like today, everybody does a little (or a lot) of everything. That particular summer we were doing track work early in the morning before the scheduled trains. We would head out at 5:00 am on the motorcar with Paul Harvey on the radio and a cup of coffee. There is nothing in the world like working on the narrow gauge as the sun comes up over the Sierra Nevada's. Magical, thats all I can say.
We would head back to yard around 10:00, put the car away, shower and change our clothes before the public started to show up. By then the hostler would have the engine almost ready to go and I would oil around before we headed out to make up the train.
Typically we would run 4 regular trains during the day and a Moonlight special in the evening. After we tied the engine and train down between the last regular run and the special, I would clean up and help where ever I was needed. So I kept busy until it was out turn to eat. The crew would eat and head back to the engine at 7:00pm. Generally the train left 30 minutes later and returned to the station after the festivities at the campfire around 9:30.
Not this time. Somehow two full trains had been booked for dinner on the same night. One regular general seating train, and another charter, both were sold out. This wasn't discovered until that day, so we couldn't cancel. We had to run. We took the first train down the hill at 7:30 like usual. BUT instead of waiting while the show was going on, we headed back up the hill for the second group after taking water. Its and hour round trip. We got in at 8:45 (we were moving going back, and I tell you, the 10 can boogy!). While we were gone, the second group was being fed. We ran around the train while the passengers loaded and head back out again within 30 minutes of arriving. 9:15 we were gone.
At 9:45 we were back at the campfire and unloaded while the first group reloaded. After taking water again, its back up the hill we go. We unload, run around, and deadhead back down the hill for the second group at 10:30 (unloading goes quicker than loading).
Sliding down the hill like a log ride we got back to the campfire just before 11:00 pm. We load the passengers and head out again around 11:15. Making time on our last run we get back just before 11:45. Cutting the engine off and tying down the train we put the engine to bed at 12:15 am.
A little more than 20hrs on duty. (No FRA H.O.S)
