Here is my first Marty story: When she announced to the world she wanted to go firing, most of us had the opinion that that was fine, as long as she could physically handle the work. Except for one guy. He was an engineer. He was a retired Mechanical Engineer, who was a WWII combat flyer (on B-25’s in the Pacific). He believed that women had a place in the world – which was not in the cab of a steam locomotive. He would not stand for it. Nope, nope, won’t stand for that. But, GM Dan Ranger stood his ground and let Marty take her student trips with the other guys. In a few weeks, Marty was pronounced ready to do battle with the hill on her own.
It was a nice fall day during the stock rush. Marty was firing for me. We had a heavy train, with a helper being run by Mr. Grumpy B-25 pilot. We had 484 for power, I think 487 was ahead. 484 was not a very stellar steamer then. She ate a lot of coal, seemed to go through water faster that she should. But she was manageable if you stayed on top of things.
As we settled into the hill, it became obvious that we getting set up to make Marty fall on her face. We were doing about 2/3 of the work. Well, OK, we’ll just go slow. We slugged up the hill at about 10 mph, treading sand through the curves with 484 constantly on the verge of slipping. One thing about a 480 is that if you keep the speed down, you can beat them hard and still keep up steam and water. In reality, we weren’t working all that hard, certainly no more than a one engine train with tonnage. Marty had the water bobbing in and out of the top of the glass, and the steam gauge glued at 193 lbs. All was well with the world.
We got up to MP 333 and into the long stretch of 4% below Coxo. I yelled over to Marty “You doing OK? Gun running wide open?” She nodded and smiled. “Well let’s give old ….(Mr. B25)… a ride….” I dropped 484 down 2 notches and hit the sanders. 484 dug in with a couple of quarter slips and away we went. Down 1 more notch. Marty was on the deck feeding 484 where she needed it most. Each scoop was a black eruption out the stack which immediately went to a dark grey haze – perfect. Across Coxo crossing we went at about 15mph, with 484 roaring with all she was worth. I wasn’t worried too much about steam, Marty still had the gauge stuck at 193, but water could be a problem as we were beating her harder than one injector could keep up. The water stayed winking in the top. I gave her another notch. Nope, that notch didn’t change anything, we were getting all the expansive power out of the 484 she was capable of making, so I came back on the Johnson Bar.
By now Mr. B-25 had woken up to what was going on, He kept looking back at me with a “WTH” look. We started over the top at Coxo, I hooked 484 back up and eased the throttle in. 484’s pops lifted with a mighty roar. Marty looked disgusted and said “I’d tried to keep them from doing that…” I broke out laughing and told her that she had just been through the toughest bit of firing she would see on the hill. If you can get through that, you’ve got it made.
We made our point the guy up front and went the rest of the way up the at a nice normal rate with 487 doing her proper share. That other engineer never made another remark about Marty firing. He retired from the C&TS that fall.
