The Atlantic & Southern Saturday Report

Started by Judge, January 05, 2019, 03:59:09 PM

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Judge

Jerry - We don't let him play with matches anymore and may restrict his access to X-acto knives. 

MAP

Another great story Judge!  When I visited the A&S this past summer with my son I missed seeing the burned forest!  Dang!  I'll have to make another trip down there to visit the A&S (and my son!) next year.
Mark

Judge

Mark - You are always welcome. 

And thanks to all of you who visited this week's Saturday Report.  I appreciate your comments. 

Judge

#393
Welcome to the October 5, 2019 edition of the Atlantic & Southern Saturday Report

Big Day today!  While we are sorry Bill Cutler decided to pack in model railroading, we are happy to report that a number of Chris's trees and Bills locomotives and rolling stock have been acquired by the A&S, some for sale and others to keep.  We spent most of the morning testing locomotives, many of which are equipped with WOW Sound.  Of course, all are Pennsy so why should A&S care to acquire them?  Well, The A&S and the Pennsy have a long and warm history with each other beginning in the early 1970s when a hobby shop named the Train Depot opened up on Colonial Drive in Orlando.  The owner, Dick DeWitt, was an avid Pennsy fan and Tom and I stayed friends with him even after he retired until he passed away in December 2006.  The A&S has several engines that belonged to Dick and a few items of rolling stock lettered for the Buckeye and Pennensula Railroad, which was the name of his railroad.

We were happy to receive Curt Webb and Bob Butts during the morning session and they accompanied us to Smokey Bones for lunch. 

There was additional testing after lunch with a lash-up of an FP7-F7B-F7A hauling 20 loaded Pennsy coal hoppers down the Ovalix to the Midlands.  Looking Good!

Today's story gives the readers an opportunity to ger reacquainted with Wilie McSlyme, whose friends call him Wormy.  You met Wormy some weeks ago when he and Shortstack got jailed for stealing food from the A&S Commissary. He's back, this time stealing wages from his time card. 

                                                                                                   Roundhouse Monkey Business

"Tater" Cartwright (main squeeze of Peaches Weaver - See pages 10-11) was recently promoted from roundhouse mechanic's helper to Assistant Roundhouse Foeman.  His new responsibilities included supervision of routine engine repairs, equipment maintenance, and safety enforcement within the roundhouse.

Of necessity, Tater had to hire on parttime help during the busy harvesting season in Central Florida which lasts from October until early summer.  The freight traffic from Florida to the North requires a lot of "extra" runs, especially when fruits, vegetables, and citrus are being harvested.  Extra runs of long trains of reefers or open "watermelon cars" crowd the rails on their way past Jacksonville to as far as New York or Boston. 

Scarce labor requires hiring marginal employees and sometimes Tater had to stoop so low as to hire out of the transitory residents of the Bottoms.  Such was the situation when the first cold snap (temperatures in the low 40s) occurred and the citrus crop ripened up a little early.  Tater advertised for part-time roundhouse help and hired a guy from the Bottoms who claimed his name to be Willie McSlyme, but his friends call him Wormy.  Now Worny had no references, although he claimed to have made "Inmate of the Month" at the Tahope County Jail.  Tater put him to work as a "wiper," whose duties were to wipe down the boilers of the engines brought in for repairs, polish their brass, and clean out the cabs. 

Wormy reported for work Monday morning ready to show off his wiping expertise.  He grabbed a box of waste and went to work on the nearest steam loco, a huge ACL 1800 series 4-8-4.  It usually took four wipers to wipe the boiler on these engines in a day, but Wormy wanted to prove his worth so he had the boiler wiped down before noon.  He went for beans at Sweaty Betty's hamburger joint and decided to take a short nap on company time.  There was no place in the roundhouse for him to hide, so he climbed up to the top of the boiler of the big engine.  He had seen the maintenance crew remove the hatch from the steam dome earlier in the day and, since the engine was cold, he decided to slip down into the boiler for his nap.

As luck would have it, shortly after Wormy drifted off to slumberland, the maintenance crew decided to refill the boiler and bring the engine up to steam.  A five-inch firehose was inserted into the boiler through the steam dome hatch and the water began flowing with gusto. 

The hose was directly over Wormy when the water started gushing into the boiler, drenching him.  There he was, sleeping on the job his first day at work and in such a fix.  If he did nothing, he would drown.  If he hollered for help, he'd get fired for sleeping on the job. 

But Wormy, who was not slow in the avoidance of consequences department, hollered for help and, when he was pulled out of the boiler, he produced a wad of wet waste he had used as a pillow during his nap, and bawled out the maintenance crew chief for disturbing him while he was wiping the inside of the boiler. 

Tater looked over the situation and allowed that since Wormy had wiped down the outside of the boiler before lunch, it made sense that he would wipe down the inside afterward.  Wormy got off with a warning to let the maintenance crew know the next time he wiped the inside of a boiler.

And that is how Wormy got the Roundhouse Worker of the Month Award to go with his other one.


PRR Modeler

Amazing how slackers seem to come out on top.
Curt Webb
The Late Great Pennsylvania Railroad
Freelanced PRR Bellevue Subdivision

jerryrbeach

"Inmate of the Month"  Seriously, Judge?  I laughed out loud when I read that.  Maybe I could drop that idea into the suggestion box at the county jail.
Jerry

BandOGuy

Never let a golden opportunity go to "waste".
Working on my second million. I gave up on the first.

GPdemayo

Good one Bill.....sounds like I missed a fun day at the A&S.  :)
Gregory P. DeMayo
General Construction Superintendent Emeritus
St. Louis & Denver Railroad
Longwood, FL

jrmueller

I look forward to your stories every Saturday. Better than reading the newspaper. Jim
Jim Mueller
Superintendent(Retired)
Westchester and Boston Railroad

jrmueller

Jim Mueller
Superintendent(Retired)
Westchester and Boston Railroad

ACL1504

Quote from: GPdemayo on October 06, 2019, 08:55:27 AM
Good one Bill.....sounds like I missed a fun day at the A&S.  :)


Greg,

Yepper, everyday here is a fun day.

Tom  ;D
"If we are to guard against ignorance and remain free, it is the responsibility of every American to be informed."
Thomas Jefferson

Tom Langford
telsr1@aol.com

Judge

#401
Saturday Report - October 12, 2019

There is no official Saturday Report today because it is the monthly treck to Mt. Dora for the Babe to get her hair done.  Meanwhile, the A&S CEO will be visiting Bill Cutler in Tavares and taking custody of the remains of what is left of Bill Cutler's Pennsy layout.  Some of these items will no doubt find their way to E-Bay and others will probably end up being absorbed by the Atlantic & Southern. 

This week's story involves aspects of railroad safety.  Railroaders who take short cuts risk injury and there are no minor injuries on the railroad.

                                                                                                      NEVER TURN YOUR BACK

Regular readers of this Saturday Report will remember that Newt Fisher did not do well as a fireman and was reassigned as a brakeman. 

One windy night in early fall, Newt was brakeing in the Sanlando Transfer Yard.  The yard switcher, Number 1150 (a USRA 0-6-0) was making up the morning local, which usually consisted of 12 to 14 cars, two of which were tank cars from the Pure Oil storage facility.  These cars were delivered to the diesel facility at Summit for refueling diesels spotted there for repairs.


                                                                 

The switcher had the two tankers coupled to the front coupler, and the engineer, "Fatso" Johnson, was about to make a "flying switch."  This maneuver required two brakemen.  One brakeman had to open the switch to an adjacent track while the other brakeman positioned himself on the footboards at the front of the engine so he could "pull the pin" on the front coupler.  The engine proceeded in reverse towards the open switch and the front brakeman uncoupled the tankers from the engine.  Their momentum carried them slowly down the track and the engine traveled through the open switch.  The brakeman closed the switch and the tankers continued to roll towards the other cars assembled at the end of the track.  This tricky maneuver was not at all unusual in 1950, but bad timing could result in derailments or injuries and most railroads prohibit it today, although some crews still take the risk.

Newt was too green to be part of the flying switch maneuver so he was posted at the end of the yard track in front of the other assembled cars.  His job was to connect the angle cocks on the air hoses once the tankers coupled to the other cars.

Now, any experienced railroader will tell you one of the rules when switching in a freight yard is to never turn your back on moving cars.  Freight cars make a lot of noise when they are coupled to a locomotive.  But cars that are coasting are silent as a mouse.   One wheel, just one wheel, on a freight car weighs nearly 100 pounds.  Get caught under one of those and you can imagine what it would do to your bones. 

Newt was posted at the end of the track standing in front of a boxcar.  He was busy adjusting the knuckle on the boxcar coupler and did not hear the tank cars coasting towards him.  He felt a change in the air as the tankers came within a foot or two from him and he managed to jump out of the way as the tankers slammed into the boxcar.  Another split second and he would have become part of those two cars. 

Newt, who had all of the blood drained from his face, sat down to check and see if he was really alright.   The other brakemen approached him and hollered, "Whatcha sittin' down fer, Newt?" Newt replied, "Sometimes I sits and thinks and other times I just sits.  Right now I'm jus' sittin'."

The incident was never reported.  After all, no one was hurt and no railroad property was damaged.  But Newt learned a lesson he would not forget.


Although the "Flying swtich" maneuver is generally prohibited today, it looks like Conrail didn't get the word.  The link below is an example.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AB7L1ytf47g





PRR Modeler

Curt Webb
The Late Great Pennsylvania Railroad
Freelanced PRR Bellevue Subdivision

Dennis Bourey

Dennis Bourey
dpbourey@comcast.net

Lake's Region RR
(Happy Modeling)

jimmillho


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