B&M Operators

8-24-1957

AC&E RR

Maintenance Dept.

Office of Dept. Chief

Y.O.R. Ajerk

To: Chief Operating Officer  – A. Disaster

Report of a malfunction of the 90′ turntable at St. Johnsbury engine facility.

On reporting to work Monday morning 8-23-57 at 0600, I found a form 84 (major problem documentation form) on my desk compiled by the 3rd trick Yard Foreman

A. Goodoldboy (The A is for “Alwaysa”), it used to be Alyoishous but no one could spell or pronounce it so he had it changed to Alwaysa, (still tough to pronounce but makes sense to me).

The problem was when attempting to align the table to #10 track to set off the shop switcher the table moved about a foot or so, stalled and refused to move another inch in any direction. Zeke Gonzo the table operator, set out in a hurry to locate Foreman Goodoldboy in his office (that’s the 1920’s old wooden caboose set out in back of the engine house, right next to the 2 stall outhouse, good place for that old buzzard)”. Goodoldboy got right on the yard PA and called for all of the maintenance guys to join him at the turntable, NOW!!.

There were 3 or 4 guys standing around and the “I don’t knows” and “what the H-ll’ happened”? and “who was running this thing?”, “Gonzo was runnin her”! ,”don’t that figure”! , “how the bloody H-ll did you do this?” comments were being passed around between all these grizzled old veterans of many a mishap and coverup’s and of course as usual old Zeke Gonzo had no clue at all.

A. Goodoldboy gave orders to try a few of the old tried and true methods to get’er movin again, they had “old Heavy Henry” crawl down into the pit to check for debris in the gears, Kenny Dew-it looked for crap in the ring rail, his cousin Didhe Dew-it checked to see if they had juice to the motor. “Yup we got juice”, they re-tried the controls but nothin moved, it was bound up tight “DEAD”. It would have to wait for the day shift crew to give it a look see.  An official form 84 report would have to be filled out and the fallout would be brutal but it had to be done and God help the guy who caused this mess.

Seeing that the light of day was fast approaching and that the 1st Trick guys would be coming to work within the next hour, gave old Jake Fumbles and Goodoldboy a chance to take off to the back of the engine house for a smoke, Goodoldboy lit up his pipe (filled with the usual foul tobacco he gets from his cousin Caleb (I think that’s Don’s Uncle)  from Bennington, I think he works in the signal department for the DCRR, Dividing Crick or something like that, “you know them shortlines, not bad but sure ain’t a class 1 road, got some pretty good equipment though, I seen a few of their engines over in Gassetts”.

Anyway at 0715 we all set down in my office with some of the day-shift guys to see if we could figure out what the h-ll happened to the damn table. Each guy was trying like mad  to head for cover before his job was blown away. (Not a pretty sight).

The blame was really going around the room and gettin ugly. Dead silence took over for a  few minutes and all of a sudden out of a clear blue sky Heavy Henry piped up with a “ya know me and Jake Fumbles was working at the electrical panel that controls the lights for the overhead on the table and we did get a touch of a spark, wonder if we shorted out the control section to the table, ya know it’s not connected directly to the table but they are on the same breaker panel!”   “Holy smokes shouted out Goodoldboy, I bet that’s the freakin problem!” Gonzo sez “Ya know the damn thing did lurch a tad before she ground to a halt”. “Damn, that’s got ta be it sez Goodoldboy”.

They all tore out of the office to the back of the engine house and Henry opened the panel and sure enough the damn fuse for the overhead lighting was blown. A lousy 20 cent freakin fuse caused a freakin electrical interupt to the table controls and screwed up the works, the motor to the table was still workin but the pre-set stops to the table had been wiped out by the interupt and the table wouldn’t budge. The on-board control system would need to be restored but that was just a mechanical re-set of the stops that had been wiped out and not a full blown disaster, the table would be back on-line in a few hours.

Six hours of lost time would be deducted from the pay of Heavy Henry and Jake Fumbles for negligence (or stupidity, your choice), Zeke Gonzo went home by way of the Dew-Drop-Inn for a wee taste, Kenny & Didhe Make-it headed off to go fishin over in Turtle Creek and Foreman Goodoldboy took off for the outhouse to take care of some business and stick his old corncob back in his yap for a bowl of smoke. Ya gonna love this part boss, Al Loafer’s wife Bridie called about 9:30 lookin for him, I told her that the “Loafer” left the shop at 7 he must have stopped off somewhere, She thinks she can find him at Guffer Murphy’s Pub, that ought ta be a good row when she gets over there. What a damn day!!

At least nobody’s job was gone and the fuse brought the juice back to the controls and the guys will have the pre-set controls back up in a few hours

Boss, typin this report is a pain, can’t we get somethin better than this old Underwood typewriter, wish I still had “old Haggy Maggie” in the office but there just ain’t enough to keep her busy nomore, gawd, she must be drivin old Earl nuts being underfoot all day, ouch!  OK boss, I hope you’re plannin on buyin lunch next month, when you get up here I’ll fill you in on the rest of these jokers we got workin here, it’s a wonder any of this stuff even runs!

Y.O.R. Ajerk

Chief of Maintanance

As most of us know now, Carl is back-dating the Atlantic Shoals to include  more steam locomotives. With this in mind, a couple of months ago, I was at Atlantic Shoals during an operating session and thought that St. Andrews could use some sort of small coaling facility for the steamers. There was some open ground adjacent to the newly installed turntable. I shared my thoughts with Carl, and he thought it would be a good idea. I also told him that I believed I had, in my archives, some plans that might make a good project.

I went through my accumulated projects and plans and found the very one I thought would make a good facility for St. Andrews.

The plans were of a Pennsylvania coal dock at Elmira, NY for steam powered wreck cranes. Carl and Christine were away in Spain and Portugal at the time, so I thought I would surprise him and just build the coal dock,suitably modified for steam locomotives, for St. Andrews. And to add to the surprise, I also threw in a CV prototype green sand bin.

I gave the coal dock to Carl,and he installed it at St. Andrews. During subsequent visits, I admired the coal dock in its setting and thought that it really looked cool.

So, I decided that the yard at Dividing Creek could also use a small coaling facility. And, the rest of the story is, of course, I built one for myself. I’ve attached a photo of the one at Dividing Creek. By the way, most of the coal in the bin is from the Rutland. During RailRun 2010, one of my guests asked if I would like some coal from the Rutland and even thought I crushed it as much as I could, there are still some rather large chunks in the bin.

Model railroading is fun, especially when shared with friends.

Don Howd

Recently, Chris Tirone forwarded a website to me–the Ralph Poulin Collection. In the early 60s, Ralph walked the entire Rutland (in Vermont and the portion of New York near Bennington) and photographed the right-of-way. Most of the photos are black-and-white, but there are some in color.

The collection is archived at UVM (Middlebury) and is available through the website. I’ve provided the link here (hope it works) Click here: Poulin Collection Index

Although most of the photos are just along the railroad (not much rolling stock or motive power), I’ve found the images invaluable for research. You can find tons of details and with the color shots, how things looked, e.g. track, rocks or structures.

I found a picture of Rutland’s speed limit signs and made a number of them-some are installed and the rest will be. Rutland used a sheet metal diamond, painted yellow with black numbers.

These are the kinds of details that really enhance a railroad.

Thanks, Chris.

Don Howd

As you all know, at the throat of Church Point Yard on the Atlantic Shoals is the safety switch. It is programmed to automatically align for the hump lead whenever any of the yard track turnouts are activated. For years the safety switch has confounded and, sometimes, embarrassed Yardmasters and others at Church Point, causing derailments and gnashing of teeth.

A few operating sessions ago, I was talking with Carl about this, sort of wondering aloud if there were any options to make the safety switch less user-surly.

Lo and behold, at the very next session at Atlantic Shoals, Carl unveiled his solution. He installed a toggle switch to disable the automatic feature of the safety switch whenever an operator was just flat-switching and not using the hump lead.

Since the installation of this toggle, I’ve had several opportunities to work Chuch Point yard and in my opinion, Carl’s solution was brilliant.

With the new toggle in the “Switching” position, flat-switching Church Point is ever so much easier. No longer do we have to always remember to re-set the safety switch when not using the hump lead.

Thank you, Carl.

Don Howd

I’ve always had a soft spot for the Delaware & Hudson. Back in my youth when I both lived and worked in New York State, whenever the opportunity presented itself, I would find the nearest D&H facility or trackage and take photos of whatever showed itself.

That’s why I have slides of the D&H Sharks, PAs and the “Adirondack” with PAs at the Fort Edward station.

So about a year ago, I started thinking (always dangerous) that maybe the Dividing Creek could have a D&H interchange train. Onto Ebay, where I found a Kato D&H RS-2 for really cheap money. The only problem: it was in the gray and blue paint scheme and I felt the older black and yellow would be more appropriate. Fortunately, Highball Graphics has the proper decals, so another order went out. Now I was set.

Enter Jere Jozak. We were talking about the project and Jere says: “I have an Atlas RS-3 in the black scheme” Without much further ado, I now have an RS-3 in black and Jere has an RS-2 in gray and blue.

Next, I added a different style horn and jeweled marker lights. And then the project languished until last week (end of July 2010).

Naturally, I had to install a Dynatrol receiver, but since Dynatrol is limited to 18 channels, I needed to select a channel that wouldn’t interfere with locomotives used more frequently. I selected channel 5. The only other locomotives using #5 are the Rutland 70 tonner and the NYO&W F3A.

So, I plugged in my soldering iron and prepared to install the receiver. I had already prepared the locomotive with a styrene box over the forward truck to hold the receiver, so I got the #5 receiver ready to go.

Here we digress: over the course of time I have acquired a lot of extra Dynatrol receivers from Jere, Bob Pierce, Ace and Ebay to ensure I had enough back-ups on hand. End of digression.

I wired the receiver in (temporarily), put the loco on the track and it took off like a rocket. Obviously, something’s amiss. Unwire the receiver, wire in #12 (for a test check), locomotive runs perfectly. Throw receiver away. Rummage for another # 5, wire it in temporarily. Put the loco on the track–takes off like a rocket. @#$%&*.

Unwire receiver, throw receiver away, rummage for (as it turns out) my last #5 receiver. Wire it in, put #4069 on the track and…and…PERFECT!!   Huzzah!.

Now the ultimate test–add the shell. Once again, back on the track–#4069 runs like a champ.

Among my many foibles, I believe the locomotive and the van (caboose) should be the same road name. So during the course of all this, naturally, I needed a D&H caboose of the same vintage. Back to Ebay where I was able to locate an Ambroid D&H wood caboose. Curse the luck, I was outbid. However, the seller contacted my and let me know he had a Gloorcraft or Quality Craft kit (I forget which) he would sell me for the same price.

So finally, the Dividing Creek can have a Delaware & Hudson interchange train with proper locomotive and caboose. Of course, I still have to figure out how it will fit into the operations scheme.

Happy model railroading!

Don Howd