got called much quicker than I expected to on Friday evening. On duty time was 7:55 pm Mountain Time for the Z LACNYC, which jgoes from Los Angeles to New York City. It was a small, light train. It was a good trip, About 8 hurs. I got to the hotel too early for breakfast. So I slept an hour or two then went down to eat. I slept for severl hous, and at 4:30 pm I went down to the grill to get something to eat. The refrigerator in the hotel is still out of order, so they have a limited menu. I could have the "bandit burge," my favorite. Because they took the meat out of the freezer and microwaved it. It tasted like a brick, and I said so. Still it filled me uip. I got calledat 11:20 pm for a big stack train. It was over 14,000 tons and over 15,000 feet long.It had 4 engines on the head end and 2 in the middle. I went down to the depot and noticed right away that there were a lot of guys there. I had heard earlier in the day that there had been a derailment at Winslow. I found out eventually that 3 things had happend- a train had rear ended another train at East Winslow, someone had stolen a skidsteer, parked it on the tracks, and a train had hit it, and shortly after an axle had locked up on another train. No one had been killed or injured in any of these incidents, but it had slowed traffic down and a lot of guys were hanging around the depot waiting for their trains. My engineer and I were on duty for nearly two hours before we got on our train and departed. The trip was just over 8 hours, and our day was about 10 hours long. We saw some deer and a small herd of elk near Flagstaff. I have attached a picture of our leader on the stack train, the 6058. I'm projected to go out tomorrow afternoon. Labor Day is going to be just another day for me.

I got called for the Q BARNSA. On duty time was 3:26 am. It wasn't so bad because I got up before I was called and had my morning coffee. It looked like it was going to be a good trip. They kept us going. Then they stopped us, once or twice. Then they gave us wind warnings that slowed us down t 35MPH. They told us we would be relieved at "Sunsine." We weren't sure where that was. We went by one siding that had a vehicle stopped in it, but it wasn't a Halcon van. We saw a man wearing one our vests getting out. It turned out that was Sunshine. The vehicle was a rental. We got to Winslow and tied up just before our 12 hours was up. The grill at the hotel had just opened. I had my usual. Then I went to bed. I got called for the H KCKBAR at 4:45 am. They hadn't started serving breakfast at the hotel yet, so I had the van driver run me to McDonald's. I gave the guy at the counter a coupon good for a free egg McMuffin. He didn't know what to do with it. I waited a few while another employee showed him how to ring it up. I still made it to the depot in plenty of time. Our train was a monster- over 15,000 tons. We had 3 motors on the head end, 2 in the middle, and one on the rear. We started out okay. Then we got an alarm indicating that one of our motors had stalled. We were going uphilll at about 13 MPH. I went back and found that the third motor was not loading. We called Mechanical. The had me flip some switches and cut out the traction motors, one at a time. When I cut out traction motor #2 the engine started to load and our speed increased. I had fixed the problem. Our day was just over 9 hours. I have attached a picture of the 7407, our leader on the KCKBAR. I had a long rest- longer than I wanted. By the way, some of you may have heard that I have started work on a new CD. It's true. More on that later.

I got called for an "X train" (in this case it was empty hoppers). Our work order said that we had to set out a defective car at Needles, but the inbound started it, and by the time we came on duty and headed out there in the van they were done. The inbound conductor asked if we would give him a ride to the head end, and we did. On duty time was 2:45 in the afternoon, and it was hot! Since we were an X train we were low priorty, and they didn't run us very well. We finally got dog caught at ? (I can't remember). It was about 2 am. We shared the van with another crew. The van brought us to the depot and we tied up. All of the other guys had cars. The van driver didn't know how to get to the hotel but I helped her with my GPS. (She was new). It was about 4 am when I got into bed. I slept for a couple of hours, got up for ther free breakfast, slept some more and went down to the grill. I was surprised it was open at 2 pm. They are supposed to open at 4, but sometimes they open early. I had my usual. I timed it just right. I got my call right after I finished eating. I was called to dogcatch the H BELBAR near Darling. We shared the van with another crew. They caught the train ahead of ours. We each got on our trains at "Airport Road." The train ahead of us had two motors go dead so they picked up a couple at Purina. This took time, and they blocked our train while they were doing that. On the way to Needles they told us we had to pick up two cars out of Yard 7 and add them to our train. One was a tanker, and the other was a coil car. We would have to put them 5 back and do some switching to flip flop the cars so the tanker was behind the coil car. When we pulled into the yard the "rapid respnder" called us on the radio and said that he had to inspect two defective cars. This was new to us. Also, our outbund met us and said that we didn't have to pick up those two cars. The dispatcher had gotten us confused with another BELBAR. We could tie up and go home. So we did. I'm on my rest cyle.

I got called for the "S LBELPC," going from Long Beach to Logisitics Park, Chicago. It was an average size train, but it had 5 motors on the head end. One of them was isolated. Our trip was almost 12 hours. When we got in I told the inbound that I didn't have time to roll them by, but I got a shot of our leader, the 5325, though the window. It was too late for breakfast at the hotel, and the grill wasn't open, so I bought a frozen dinner when I got in. I slept for a couple of hours, then went down to the grill when it was open. I had the usual, then I slept like a log. I got my call at 4:30 am. My train was the "S ALTLBE." It was a light train with only 3 motors on the head end. All of the intermodal containers were empty. My engineer and I went out to get on our train and it went right thorugh the depot! There had been a miscommunication between the dog catch crew on the train and the train master. They thought they were supposed to pull up to the West Winslow signal. We got in a van and went to our train. The inbound said something about a problem with the air brake system but it worked fine for us. We had been on duty for over an hour by the time we departed. It was an 8 hour trip and a 9 hour day. When we got in we had to climb over a train that was tied down to get to the depot. I couldn't roll my train by since there was another train in the way, so I tied up and went home. I'm on my rest cycle. I had a lot of things to do today, and I've got things to do tomorrow. I will mark up tomorrow aroun supper time.