I got called for a Z train to San Bernadino bright and early on Saturday morning. I gulped down two cups of coffee and went through Jack in the Box on the way to work. We had a good train and a good trip.. After we went through Barstow security told us that we had two riders on our train. We stopped at Oro Grande and security removed them. I couldn't see anything from up in the cab where I was. It was raining in San Bermadino when we got there. I told my engineer that I had never yarded a train in San Bernadino before. On top of that, the yard made it more complicated because they wanted us to pull our train through the A Yard and then shove into the first track. We asked for the herder to come up to the cab and brief with us. The herder came up to the head end in his van, and another van came to pick me up. We went over what I had to do. The yard told us to shove into track 15/25 first, and then shove into track 16/26. (The tracks in the A Yard have two numbers. For example, on the east end track 15 is track 15, on the east end it is track 25, which only makes things more confusing). I got in my van and went to the first crossing on track 15. I"lit the crossing up" as we say. I threw two "fusees" (flairs) on each side of the crossing and then the herder passed the shove onto me. (The reason we throw fusees onto the crossing is to keep trucks from going through the crossing when we are about to shove through it. I was told that sometimes the trucks drive over the fusees anyway, but that didn't happen today). I shoved my train through the crossing. In the meantime the herder "leapfrogged me" in his van and picked up the shove. He spotted the rear of the train. He got an "in between" and started to tie handbrakes. He told me to make my cut. I got an in between, closed the angle cock, pulled the pin, and told my engineer to take it ahead one car to make the separation. He did. Then I spotted the last car on the west side of the crossing so the rear coupler on the car was inside the hash marks. This is done so the last car is close enough to an air hose so the train can be filled with air again. I got an in between and tied 4 handbrakes on my cut. Once this was done, I rode up in the van and made the cut at the next crossing. We repeated the procdure and shoved our train into track 16/26. Again I had to light up the crossing, shoved my train through the crossing, and then made the cut, spotted the west end of the train, and tied 4 handbrakes. I moved up and did it at the next cut. While I was doing that the herder cut our power away and took it to Diesel Service. We were done. The van took me to diesel service and I got my gear off the motor. We went to the depot and tied up. I was lucky that I had an engineer, a router, and a van driver who were helpful and knew what they were doing. If I have to yard a train in San Bernadino again I will ber more confident. We checked into the Best Western In Rancho Cucamonga. I went across the street and grabbed something to eat. I went to bed around 4 pm. I slept for the rest of the day and all night! (Boy, did I sleep). I got up for the free breakfast at 7 am, then went back to bed. The hotel called me around noon and asked me when I was checking out. I told them that I was projected to go to work a 5:30 pm. They said they would extend my stay. (This hotel is the ony one that wants to know how long I'm going to stay. I work for the railroad. I never know how long I'm going to stay!). Instead I got called for a deadhead at 1:04 pm. I went back to Needles in a van with the same engineer I came with. I tied up and went home. I wasn't sure if I would be able to sleep, since I slep so much in San Bernadino, but last night I slept like a log!

I got a call bright and early at 5:06 am on Saturday. I was called for a dog catch. I was supposed to dog catch a train that was having problems. By the time we got to the depot the train had been fixed and it looked like it was going to make it in. The dispatcher told my engineer and I to go to Seligman in the van and shadow the B HUDSC. We did. Then they told us to go to Griffith and shadow the Q CHISTO. We did. Then they told us to go East Griffith again and shadow the H BELBAR. We did. By this time 8 hours had gone by. I claimed 540 miles and I didn't get on a train all day.

I got called for a dog catch. On duty time was 6:48 pm Mountain Time. Originally we were supposed to catch a sack train, but instead they told us to get the Z ALTSBD at Yucca. Our van driver didn't nwo the best way to get there, but we got to the signal. We swapped crews there. After that we were told to get a grain train out of the siding in Berry. It was tied down. The train weighed over 15,000 tons and I had to untie 24 handbrakes. There was sand piled up next to the track and I had to walk through it. I thought we woud be done then, but the dispatcher told us to "shadow" the Q CHILBE. We wound up dog catching that one too. After that we had been on duty for 10 hours. There had been two boxes of donuts in the depot, but my morning they were all gone. Two dozen donuts. On the way home I got myself a donut.

I was supposed to be on my rest cycle, but I found out the hard way that the railroad came up with a new policy. We have to schedule our days off in advance now. Supposedly we were "informed" about this. I don't remember being informed, and neither does anyone else. Monday night I was tired, and it looked like I was going to be called until Tuesday morning, and I said to myself, "I don't want to go to work tonight" when my phone rang. I was called to be the brakeman on the Kingman Switcher! On duty time was 2131, Mountain Time. We got a short call. Luckily the conductor was familiar with the job. We had to finish up work that the day crew did not finish. A trainmaster told us, via cell phone, what we had to do. A van took us to Berry. We had to shove our train onto the Main Track, cut the power off, take the power into the industry, hook onto some cars, shove them back to our train, and then set out 8 cars that were originally on our train back on the industry track. When this was all done we had to "run around our train with the power" and put it on the opposite end of our train. Then we had to hang the ETD, do a locomotive air brake test, and the Class I Air Brake Test. I was lucky the conductor did most of the work instead of telling me to do it. A road crew was supposed to be on duty to take the train to Winslow at 2:30 am. We were done by then. They hadn't shown up yet. So we tied the train down and went back to Needles in the van. I was exhausted! I couldn't sleep in the van because it was a very uncomfortable ride. I claimed 140 miles and 52 cars when I tied up. I got in bed around 6 am and slept for 6 hours. I'm not showing out during the next 24 hours. That's good. I can use a good night's sleep.

I got called for a long pool to San Bernadino. Since I'm certified for San Bernadino I didn't ask for a pilot. My train was the Z ALTSBD. It was over 9200 feet long, with 4 motors on the head end. Due to our length we were limited to 55 MPH. My engineer said that he thought we would make it there, but since our train was so long it would take 3 moves to yard out train. When a road crew makes 3 or more moves we can file a claim for more money, so we were wondering if they would have the yard crew put our train away. We got to San Bernadino with 90 minutes left to work. They told us to go through the A Yard and pull up to the B Yard and the yard crew would take over. So we did that. When we got inside the depot and tied up we found out that the regular hotel was full. They were going to put us in the hotel in Colton but my engineer didn't want to go there. He got on the phone with CLC while were were in the van and asked if we could go to the "Home Two Suites." CLC said that we could, but when we pulled up there my engineer went inside and the desk clerk told him that someone had just come in and taken all of the rooms. Annoyed, we got in the van and CLC told us to go to the Surestay in Upland. That was quite a drive. My engineer went to the website of the Homestwo suites with his cell phone and he said they still had vacancies. Had the clerk lied to him? I got in be around 1 am. I got u for the free breakfast at 6. It was good, They had an employee there serving everybody. You told her what you wanted and she gave it to you. I had a waffle, bacon. I eggs, and several glasses of Apple Juice. I went back to bed and at 11 am I got a call from the front desk asking if I was going to check out. "I'm projected to go to work at 9 pm," I said. So I will probably check out at 7 pm." They asked me to call CLC and extend my invitation. I did. I don't know why but in San Bernandino I have this problem with the hotels. They don't seem to understand that railroaders don't check out at 11 am like other guests. I resented them waking me up, but I went back to sleep I woke up at 4, ordered some food, and got my call at 7:30 pm. We had a smoking trip back on the Z SBDWSP. Just over 6 hours from switch to switch. . Monday I might call CLC and question why they didn't want us to stay at the Homestwosuites, and try to find out whether or not the desk clerk lied to my engineer.

My phone rang at 12:23 am on Sunday. I got called for the "NEE NEE." My engineer and I dog caught 3 trains in 7 hours. When I got home I took a nap for an hour then went about my usual business. I slept good last night. Currently I'm 23rd out. The extra board has been turning slow lately.

I got called for a Q train going to LA. I am not qualified to go to LA, so I asked for a pilot from Barstow to LA. The PTC on my side of the cab wasn't working properly. It started out as a smoking trip. We made it to Barstow in just over 4 hours. It looked like we were going to make it to LA in time to yard our train. My pilot got n at Bartow. After that, thing slowed down. Our pilot told us that we weren't going to go all of the way to LA. They were going to dog catch us. The LA terminal didn't want this train for some reason. Sure enough, we got dog caught at Santa Fe Springs. MY engineer had a car and was nice enough to give me a ride to the hotel. We arrived at 9 am and they serve breakfast until 9:30 am. I had a waffle, scrambled eggs, and sauseges. I slept like a log, sent out for some food in the evening, and watched TV. I woke up in the middle of the night and it was showing me on a Z train at 8:45 am. They started serving the breakfast at 6:30, so I said to myself, "I'll have 15 minutes to eat before I get my call. That's exactly what happened. When I got the call I requested a pilot again. It LA you have to call the trainmaster and ask them to send the van. I did that. They showed up in about 20 minutes. I was ready to go about a half hour before we came on duty, and my train was ready to go by 8:45, our on duty time but my pilot was late. My engineer and I went out to our train and waited for him. My train was the Z LACNSA and it was on "Buggy 2." My pilot finally showed up. He apologized for being late. We pulled out of the yard. I found out that my radio handset wasn't working. I had to use my engineer's radio. There are a lot of homeless, and a lot of homeless villages along the tracks in LA. We stopped one place for about an hour or two because a train hit a car. If my pilot had been n time maybe we would have hit the car. We were not told any details about the incident. While we were stopped out pilot got off the train and got some food. He treated me to a burrito. When we went through the crossing where it happened there was no sign of an accident there. We dropped our pilot off in San Bernadino. As it turned out, I could have gotten by without a pilot. We had a 10 mph restriction in the yard in Barstow, and then a high wind warning reduced our speed to 35 MPH for 30 miles. We were dog caught at ASH Hill. My engineer and I tied up at exactly 12 hours. I am now on my rest cycle.