Sunday, March 30, 2025
I got called for the Kingman Switcher on a Saturday morning! The Kingman Switcher does not usually work on Saturday, unless the regular crew didn't finish the job, or unless they have special work to do. I hadn't been on this job in 5 years so I didn't know it very well. My engineer didn't know it very well. Fortunately I had a brakeman that did know the job.
We took a van to the depot in Kingman. The trainmaster met us there and gave us our switching list. We also printed out our GTBs. The van took us to Nelson. Our train was there in the siding. We had to get authority to come out onto the main. I dropped the derail and threw the switch. We came out onto the main and then started switching. We had to set out cars, but didn't have to pick any up. We had to leave several cars there at Nelson, then take the rest to Berry. It turned out we had a bad list, so we had to make a couple of extra moves. My brakeman did most of the work. I worked the switch, helping him by tying brakes and lacing hoses when I could. We must have been there about 2 hours. We did the Class I as we came out onto the main. After that it was onto Berry, where the van met us. We had been told to leave most of the car on the "WYE" track at Berry, and some on the musket track. Not all of the cars fit onto the WYE, so we left our motors and the leftover cars on a runaround track that was next to the siding. I spent most of the time working the switch. It turned out to be a 12 hour day! I was exhausted from being on my feet all day. The van took us back to Needles. I told my brakeman that I owed him lunch.
I don't know when I'm going out again.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment