Wednesday, September 3, 2025
I got called to dogcatch the H BARTUL. First the dispatcher told us to get on a Q train because there were no vans available. Then after we departed they told us a van would meet us at Franconia. We got off the train and got in the van at Franconia. We got on our train at Seligman. The dispatcher had just told them to pick up a motor in the siding at Seligman- but it was not possible to do so the dispatcher highballed it. Our IPADs said that we were to set out a motor when we got to Winslow. Then when we got to Winslow they told us to highball the set out. We were happy about that, but then they asked us if anyone had told us that we had a car to inspect. No one had told us anything about that. They gave us a car # and an axle #. It was the 16th car back. We had a bunch of gondolas filled with scrap metal on the head end of our train followed by some auto cars. The car in question was the first auto car.
They told us "track 12, in the pocket." My engineer and I weren't sure where that was, but the trainmaster helped us. As it was we were lined in and I didn't have to throw any switches. We met the outbound there. The outbound engineer took the train ahead. I stood on one side of the train and the outbound conductor stood on the other side. I got out my heat gun and checked the temperatures on one side and the other conductor checked the other side. The temperature on the second axle was higher than the other axles. We passed it on to the yard. It looked like the car in question woud have to be set out. At this point we turned it over to the outbound. My engineer and I had to climb over two trains to get to the depot. I really don't mind climbing over trains- except when I have my cooler and my grip with me. I had to put my stuff on the car, cimb onto the car, get off the car, and reach up and grab my stuff.
My engineer had a truck and was nice enough to give me a ride to the hotel. They still haven't fixed the refrigerator at the hotel so I opted for a frozen dinner. I slept ike a log, went down for breakfast at 6 am, and got my call right as I was sitting down for breakfast. I was called for the Q CHISTO. We were to pick up a motor. Our train already had 3 motors on the head end and it didn't need another, but this motor was supposed to be taken to Stockton to be repaired. The inbound helped us. It was just the same as when we set a motor out in Winslow- but everything was reversed. My engineer and I took the motor out of the roundhouse. I had to line switches, then connect the hoses and the cable. We had to do a locomotive air brake test.
We departed after being on duty only 55 minutes. It started out as a good trip- then they stopped us for a while, and then they started to give us high wind warnings that slowed us down to 20 MPH. Then we had flash flood warnings. It did rain pretty bad We were going into an electrical storm. When we were at Walapai there was a cloud of dust on the horizon. It looked like Armageddon. Our trip was almost 12 hours. I rolled my train by and tied up with only 15 minutes left.
I have been off all day and I'm projected to go to work tomorrow morning. I have attached a picture of out leader- the 6734
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