Dave C
I am sitting in the break room at the depot in Bad Axe MI, enjoying a cup of
coffee, reading a newspaper, when the track Forman comes in. My conductor,
Joe, looks up from his paper.
“Guys, they got the main in Applegate shut down, my boys there will line ya
up for the siding”
“Oh, nice” I said, “where are we gonna meet the northbound then?”
“You are gonna have to take that up with the ds”
“Is it gonna be closed tomorrow too?” asks Joe.
“I hope not, we are replacing the rail just north of the Applegate Rd
crossing, we should be done today.”
With that said, the Forman left, and I finish my paper, when the yard
holster bursts in from the cold.
“Ok guys, the train is ready and is sitting just across the street, have a
safe trip”
So Joe and me grab our grip, and walk over to our train, B-C 2 (Bad
Axe-Croswell), a long distance local that works the line as we head south.
Tomorrow, the train will return north as C-B1, which is the train we will
meet today, somewhere along the line.
Our power is HESR 204, a GP38-2, and TCC 31, a GP30. We have 16 empty grain
hoppers, 2 empty 2 bay airside hoppers, 6 empty molasses tankers, 2-loaded
plastic pellet hoppers, and HESR caboose 3188c, which contain rear end
conductor Steve Miller, and rear end brakeman Kirk Walsh.
Joe does a head count of crewmembers, and then confers with the ds.
“HESR BC2 to HESR2, over”
“HESR2, go ahead BC2”
“Yeah, we are ready to leave Bad Axe, for Croswell, requesting clearance out
of Bad Axe yard limits, and onto your limits.”
“Ok, I’ll give ya the light in a sec.”
“Ok, thanks, um, where are we gonna meet the CB1?”
“Hmm, they just left Croswell, so I will set ya guys up for a meet in
Carsonville, he is only 10 cars coming north, no pick up’s till Deckerville,
so he should fit in there.”
“Ok, will keep that in mind.”
“You guys got the 31 to set off at Poland?”
“Yup, and grabbing a couple of boxcars.”
“Ok”
Joe and the ds go through the routine for filling out the train order. The
Croswell sub is “dark” territory south of Bad Axe, though there are ABS
block signals at Palms and Poland. The next dispatcher-controlled signals
are at Croswell.
“Ok, thanks HESR2, BC2 out.”
“You guys have a good trip, HESR2 out.”
The DS gives us the light, and we bid farewell to the Bad Axe yardmaster as
I notch out the throttle and ease off the brakes as our 4300 horses roar to
life to lift the 26 cars 60 some miles south to Croswell at a max speed of
40mph.
The next 20 minutes of gentle flat farmland ease by as we approach Ubly, out
first set off point.
I ease the train to a stop and Joe gets on the ground and throws the switch
for the siding, where I pull the train into, leaving the 2 plastic pellet
hoppers and the caboose back on the main.
After Joe ties the other 24 cars down, we take the engines back to get the 2
hoppers; the rear end crew has already cut the caboose and tied her down. We
then grab the hoppers, and pull them up to the Gemini Plastics spur, where
Joe throws the switch and we ease into the spur. There are 2 empty hoppers
in the spur, so, with the 2 full hoppers, we pull the mty’s out, set them on
the main, and them set the 2 full hoppers at the dock, and shove the 2 empty
hoppers back to tie onto the caboose.
We grab the rear end brakeman and go back to the head of the train, where we
pull 3 empty grain hoppers off, and take them south a half mile and spot
them at the grain elevator. And since there were no cars to puck up, we head
back to the train, hook onto the 21 cars in the siding, and push them back
to grab the 2 hoppers and the caboose left on the main, just north of the
siding.
After a brake test, we continue south, out next work is at Deckerville,
about 20 miles south.
It is around noon as we slow for Deckerville. I ease the train to a stop
just north of Black River street (Deckerville Rd), where we grab 4-grain
hoppers off the head end, and head south, to back into the elevator siding.
There are 5 full hoppers to take with us, so we hook onto them, set them on
the main, and spot the 4 mty hoppers at the elevator, and shove the 5 loads
back to our train, and head south to Poland, our next work station.
At Poland, we grabbed the 6 boxcars off the south leg of the wye, and then
left the TCC 31 there as well. We now have 30 cars and HESR 204 as the lone
power.
Joe calls the CB1 to see if they are in the hole at Carsonville, 2 miles to
the south, and after confirmation, we head south.
The meet was flawless, but now we must contend with the mess at Applegate,
11 miles south, at least we don’t have any work there today.
About 2 miles north of Applegate, we contacted the MOW guys, who gave us the
thumbs up to take the siding through their work limits, at 25 mph, blowing
the horn as we approach ground zero, and keep the bell ringing through their
limits. They also informed us that we would have to flag the Applegate Rd
crossing, as the lights are out.
Well, we flagged the crossing, and headed on our way. As we approached the
“Old M-51” crossing, I noticed the lights didn’t activate, so I shut the
throttle down and poured on the brakes.
Now if I still had the GP30 behind me, this wouldn’t have been a problem,
but I didn’t, and those 30 cars pushed that GP38 through the crossing, I
just laid on the horn hoping someone wouldn’t come through.
Well, just my luck, a car came through the crossing, I closed my eyes as we
till we finally ground to a halt. I opened my eyes, expecting to see a
crumpled up car jammed under the coupler. Boy did my heart leap for joy when
it wasn’t there. Come to find out, we clipped the left rear quarter panel,
and just pushed the car aside!
Joe was on the horn explaining to the rear end conductor why he had just
spilled his coffee all over his lap when I threw the brakes on. A police
officer was now on the scene, as well as an ambulance, but the 2 occupants
of the car were not harmed, and, in fact, later drove home from the scene.
We finally got going again, and hour later, and after letting the ds know
what happened, we cruised into Croswell. Since we were late, we would skip
working in town, and just yard our train, the yard holsters will do the work
for us.
After we climbed down from the engine, our crew huddled together in the
break room at the yard office, and thanked God everyone was ok, and prayed
that our future trips will be less eventful. We then left for the hotel,
where I am looking forward to a long hot relaxing bath, and a Corona to ease
the nerves.
Till Next time
Dave C
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