Re: A what's going on question for Greg Scholl
| December 08, 2013 11:35AM |
|
My time book has little info on this day....
Thurs, May 8, 1997
called 800am
X497-484E
eng 484 - Knoob, Stebbins
eng 497 - Atkinson, ?
16 cars 320 tons.
dp CH 905a
dp CU lite eng 1143a
tied up 800pm
12hrs.
What my brain sort of remembers:
We helped 497 up the hill, and ran light to Osier. 497 followed. The idea was to turn on engine on the loop at Osier to pull the train back.
I had told my trainmaster when he was out on the rock removal work train a couple of days before to go to Osier and be sure the main and the loop were both clear of snow. He did not do that. He said they went around Martinez Point and saw a little snow on the track at MP 319, "which won't be any trouble" and the loop was clear, and headed back.
He was wrong....
We came up to the drift at MP 319. It was about 4' deep, 150' long and hard as concrete. 484 did not have any blades on it's flanger, but we dropped the flanger anyway. 497 and train came up, everyone unloaded to watch the spectacle. I backed 484 up and took a run at the snow. It took several hits at it to break through. On the last hit, I heard an evil "clunk" under the front end of the engine. Coming out of the snow I stopped and found the pilot truck on the ground. We set frogs and had it back on in "short" order. Around the curve we went into Osier, with 497 following. we rolled down to the east loop switch and found the loop had about a foot of snow on the outside rail - and about 6' on the inside rail. We obviously were not going around the loop today.
I said evil thongs about my Trainmaster.
As we could not turn anything, and a significant part of the trip was runbys going west from Osier. We decided to continue east to Rock Tunnel and get shots down there before heading back. Only difficulty was our orders only allowed us to run to Osier. We could not get the DS on the radio, so I made an executive decision to "flag" ourselves to Rock Tunnel. MOW was still cleaning up the rock at MP 321, and I knew nothing else would be between us and Antonito. We put 484 on the point and did the first runby at the tank. Notice the ice had to be chipped away to clear in front of the engine. We did runbys all the way to the east end of Rock Tunnel. 497 followed us and pulled the train back to Cumbres where the engines were turned for the trip home.
On this day I vowed I would never do a charter train for Gregg Scholl. Everytime he puts on something, it becomes a disaster. I was true to my word. Of course, he never asked about doing one again, and I left the C&TS a year later.....
Cheers, Gregg!
Thurs, May 8, 1997
called 800am
X497-484E
eng 484 - Knoob, Stebbins
eng 497 - Atkinson, ?
16 cars 320 tons.
dp CH 905a
dp CU lite eng 1143a
tied up 800pm
12hrs.
What my brain sort of remembers:
We helped 497 up the hill, and ran light to Osier. 497 followed. The idea was to turn on engine on the loop at Osier to pull the train back.
I had told my trainmaster when he was out on the rock removal work train a couple of days before to go to Osier and be sure the main and the loop were both clear of snow. He did not do that. He said they went around Martinez Point and saw a little snow on the track at MP 319, "which won't be any trouble" and the loop was clear, and headed back.
He was wrong....
We came up to the drift at MP 319. It was about 4' deep, 150' long and hard as concrete. 484 did not have any blades on it's flanger, but we dropped the flanger anyway. 497 and train came up, everyone unloaded to watch the spectacle. I backed 484 up and took a run at the snow. It took several hits at it to break through. On the last hit, I heard an evil "clunk" under the front end of the engine. Coming out of the snow I stopped and found the pilot truck on the ground. We set frogs and had it back on in "short" order. Around the curve we went into Osier, with 497 following. we rolled down to the east loop switch and found the loop had about a foot of snow on the outside rail - and about 6' on the inside rail. We obviously were not going around the loop today.
I said evil thongs about my Trainmaster.
As we could not turn anything, and a significant part of the trip was runbys going west from Osier. We decided to continue east to Rock Tunnel and get shots down there before heading back. Only difficulty was our orders only allowed us to run to Osier. We could not get the DS on the radio, so I made an executive decision to "flag" ourselves to Rock Tunnel. MOW was still cleaning up the rock at MP 321, and I knew nothing else would be between us and Antonito. We put 484 on the point and did the first runby at the tank. Notice the ice had to be chipped away to clear in front of the engine. We did runbys all the way to the east end of Rock Tunnel. 497 followed us and pulled the train back to Cumbres where the engines were turned for the trip home.
On this day I vowed I would never do a charter train for Gregg Scholl. Everytime he puts on something, it becomes a disaster. I was true to my word. Of course, he never asked about doing one again, and I left the C&TS a year later.....
Cheers, Gregg!
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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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