Re: Needleton Tank and Tank Creek Winter Preperati

John's description on winterizing Needleton tank is mostly accurate except the part where he mentions the water wagon and flushing the tank. True, they brought the wagon with them for the first winterizing misson, but they never used it. So a second trip to remote and frosty Needleton had to be orginized. This time with myself, our section boss, and one of our finest engineers (who at the time was working on MOW as a light duty hand). The tank had to be flushed before the first real freeze came. since i was sort of the grunt out of the three of us on our crew having the least seniority, i elected myself to take the fire hose inside to get wet and dirty while the other two fed the hose and manned the floating pump down at the river. They warned me of the smell-- as the sludge that has been collecting all season is full of dead worms, algae and other dying and rotted organic matter. I grabbed an old yellow rain jacket from behind the seat in the gangcar and climbed in. I actually had a great time douching out the old tank; It did indeed stink quite a bit but was bearable. It reminded me what it must be like to clean and maintain tanks and systems of another nature! After freeing the sludge from the rusted walls and getting it all to successfully go through the small drain holes at the bottom i climbed back out into the light and down to the tracks to see the sludgy goo in the day light where it had run down to the tracks and clogged the pipe under the rails. We had to try and wash all that sludge from the ground too. It was an interesting experience, always something new and different is the name of the game when it comes to railroading!
p.s. nuclear boy was still in there...we let him out...he's going to be just fine!