Burlington Northern Adventures

Stories from the Days of the Caboose

The Closing of the Texas/Mexico Border and What It Means for Railroads

The  Closing of the Texas/Mexico Border and What It Means for Railroads

 

It’s been in all the news and freight cars are stacking up on both sides of the border! For beer drinkers, it may mean that you don’t have a cold Corona beer for New Year’s celebrations.

Currently, the crossing at Eagle Pass (south of San Antonio) and the crossing at El Paso are closed, affecting trains from Ferromex, the Mexican rail carrier, and Union Pacific and Burlington Northern Santa Fe, my old railroad. Trains can still get through at Brownsville and Laredo in Texas but that’s like putting your thumb over the end of the garden hose. You don’t get all the water you need and in the case of the railroads, they don’t get all of their traffic either into the US or into Mexico. The two closed crossings, Eagle Pass and El Paso, handle 45% of all US/Mexico railroad freight. Commodities being held up from Mexico include beer, auto parts, vehicles, and appliances. It’s estimated that there are 60 trains being held up on both sides of the border.

The closings were caused by the US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) moving agents from the closed stations to other areas swarmed by illegal aliens rushing the border from Mexico. Apparently everyone has gotten the word that the border is wide open and it is. We are getting illegal aliens from as far away as China, Iran, and even Gaza. And not only are they causing problems in the border states, they’ve made their way to so-called sanctuary states like California, New York, and Colorado. Three out of five illegal aliens no matter where they live, are dependent on federal handouts which means that US citizens are paying to support this invasion.

Burlington Northern Santa Fe and the Union Pacific are imploring that the federal government quickly reopen the closed crossings. But the illegal aliens are riding the trains and we all know how dangerous that is. Ferromex reports that there have been many injuries and deaths. How many? We don’t know but a hazardous guess would be in the hundreds based on the pictures that we’ve seen of people riding the trains, many of them on the roofs of boxcars and sitting on jagged material being transported in gondolas.

And it’s hard for train crews to remove these people. I remember when I was working a freight train across Nebraska for the BN and we went into a siding to let a hotshot freight go by us from the other direction. I was in the caboose that day and I walked up on the right side of the train looking for issues like hot bearings or material sticking out. All of a sudden I heard a loud “hey, let’s get this train moving!” It was three hobos in a boxcar hoping to get to Montana where they had jobs waiting for them on a cattle ranch. Their boss had given them bus money to get to Montana but they had used it on booze instead. I explained to them that I was only going as far as Alliance and I had no idea where there boxcar was going after that.

I reached the head end of the train and started back towards the caboose on the left side of the train, looking for problem areas, when I stepped on something soft and wiggly and looked down to see that I was stepping on a rather large but thankfully dead rattlesnake. Still somewhat irritated at my stowaways and their demands to get the train moving I decided to have a little fun with my new friends. By that time, the eastbound hotshot was racing along and I watched the hotshot to see if it had any problems. It didn’t and I continued walking along my train.

The engineer sounded two blasts on his horn letting everyone know he was moving forward as the switch opened to let us onto the mainline. As the train moved slowly back onto the mainline, I waited for the caboose and held the rattlesnake behind my back. The three would be cowboys were all hanging out the doorway of the boxcar yelling “it’s about fucking time” and other such encouragements and I, as they went by me, threw the rattlesnake up into their car, hitting the middle cowboy in the chest. They screamed like little girls and all three of them jumped out of the boxcar on the other side and started running.

I grabbed the railing of the caboose and got up onto the steps in time to see the hobos running back towards the train. But it was too late, they had run too far, and all they could do was raise their fists in confused defiance.

Unfortunately, there is no way to throw enough snakes to fix the problem. It’s incredible to think that the US government has no way to secure its borders and its commerce. What do you think?

 

 

 

The End of the Railroad Conductor?

Back in the days of steam engines, the engineer and conductor had to work closely!

The Union Pacific Railroad is investigating a pilot program to have railroad conductors drive along in a pickup truck rather than ride in the locomotive. They would be called facilitators or expediters. It’s a long way from the days when the conductor and the rear brakeman rode in the caboose. When I worked for the railroad 45 years ago we often had five man crews – an engineer, a fireman, two brakemen and of course the boss of the train the conductor

It could be very difficult for the conductor/facilitator to find his train in the event that the train suffers a broken drawbar or some other difficulty that brings the train to a stop. When I worked in Nebraska and Wyoming there were many parts of the trackage that were pure isolation with no roads. Imagine that plugging up your line and trains stacking up. Plus, how difficult is it going to be to be alone in that locomotive without any other human companionship. Trust me, it can get pretty lonely out there! Especially if you are having problems!

What do you think?

The Canadian Pacific Railroad Shuts Down!

It’s always big news when a railroad shuts down and the Canadian Pacific shut down today and locked out its employees. At issue is the employee pension which has a surplus and the union wants the railroad to be more generous with the pension fund.

Work stoppages are nothing new to railroads. As a trainmaster with the Colorado & Southern Railway in Denver, we had a work stoppage in 1980. I ran a locomotive but thankfully the union action ended within a day. Hopefully the Canadian Pacific can resolve the issue and get everybody back to work. Here’s more below.

https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/canadas-cp-rail-shuts-down-railroad-workers-strike

Suicide By Train?

Brightline commuter trains in Florida have the worst fatality rate per mile than any other railroad. Brightline Has Worst Fatality Rate in the Nation Why is that? Authorities say that many of the fatalities are suicides, with the remainder simply people trying to beat the train.

 

It’s easy to say that people today like to skirt the rules. New York City and many rapid transit systems have turnstile jumpers and it used to be that if you shoplifted and got caught, you went to jail. No longer. It seems that people believe that rules don’t apply to them. This makes it tough for railroads like Brightline to operate efficiently, since when you hit an individual or a vehicle you have to stop and wait for the police and the entire system comes to a grinding halt.

 

And the impact on the engineer is significant. I’ve been in a locomotive cab when we struck a car. Thankfully the people weren’t killed, but I’ll never forget the driver’s statement to us after we got them out of the car (his wife was in the front seat with him). It was “I thought you would stop”.

 

A freight train was leaving Grand Forks, North Dakota in the late 70s when a rather large woman laid down on the tracks in front of the train. A friend of mine was the head brakeman in the locomotive and as the engineer dumped the air, the brakeman ran ahead of the train to pull the woman off of the tracks. Luckily the train wasn’t going very fast, and the brakeman was able to pull the woman off of the tracks and prevented her certain death. In the process he wrenched his back and had to have back surgery to go back to work.

 

Most of the time it’s not that way, however. In the case of Brightline, people go around the crossing gates in their cars and when they get hit, they typically are killed. It cannot be easy for the engineer, who is an unfortunate witness to the stupidity and death of the hapless driver.

 

My seniority as a brakeman was in North Dakota with the Burlington Northern Railroad and I worked many local freights. One night we were coming down one of the few hills in our territory and we were going along at well over 50 miles an hour which was very fast with the old F9 locomotives that we had lashed together for our power. We had four locomotives, all older than I was, and about 60 cars with a caboose on the end. What we saw next terrified us.

 

It was a car sitting on the tracks at a rural crossing and in the very dark North Dakota summer night we could see the silhouettes of four people in the car and at least two of them were smoking cigarettes or something because we could see the tiny red glow in front of their faces. The engineer dumped the air and as soon as we did that the car started and drove off the tracks. As we went squealing by with the brake shoes clamped to the wheels, the occupants of the car threw empty beer cans at us and I could hear the cans bouncing off the locomotive, along with drunken laughter.

 

We came to a halt about a mile down the tracks and immediately called the dispatcher to let them know to call the North Dakota Highway Patrol. I got out to walk the train to make sure nothing was damaged or derailed. That was always the risk you had when you made an emergency application of your brakes. Fortunately, the train was okay, and we eventually made it back into the terminal in Grand Forks.

 

But I’ve never forgotten the four youths who ran the risk of suicide by train by parking their car on the train tracks. What if their car hadn’t started? In North Dakota you called an old car a “beater” and the car they had been driving was definitely a beater. Thankfully the car had started, and they were able to clear the tracks. But before they cleared, I was preparing myself for the carnage.

 

The engineer told me that it was called “playing chicken” with the train. It was a unique North Dakota tradition because I had never heard of it before. But I don’t think the drivers that have been killed by Brightline trains were playing chicken. They were just playing stupid.

Attendance Policies at a Railroad? And at the BNSF, My Old Railroad!

My old railroad, the Burlington Northern, half of the new BNSF, has a new attendance policy for its operating personnel. It works like this – you start off with 30 points and points are deducted if you don’t show up for work. Doesn’t matter if you are sick according to the unions who threatened a strike over it. But Judge Mark Pittman ruled that the unions couldn’t go on strike over the attendance policy because it was a “minor dispute”.

When I was a brakeman/conductor for the Burlington Northern Railroad, some 40+ years ago, there was no attendance policy. You didn’t work – you didn’t get paid was all the incentive I needed to show up. I worked what was called the extra board, and I was called to work trains when someone called in and said that they were not reporting for duty. Or sometimes, they simply didn’t show up and I was given a short call. Normally you had a one hour call for a train – which often times wasn’t enough in Grand Forks, North Dakota. There it snowed in feet as opposed to inches, and sometimes my 76 Chevy Van with snow tires and sandbags in the rear for traction, had a tough time negotiating icy streets.

 

The extra board had been in use for almost the entire life of the railroads, and the crew callers were people you got to know pretty quickly. Oftentimes I would call them to let them know I was available, especially when we really needed the money. I think there were occasions when the crew caller encouraged people not to come in so that I could work. I didn’t have to make those calls when it was 35 below outside because I knew I was going to get called to work locals – trains that made a lot of stops to pick up and drop off freight cars.

 

And holidays made up a lot of my working time. For three years, the entire span of my years as a brakeman/conductor, I worked every holiday. It was the same for the opening weeks of hunting and fishing seasons, I would get the call to work the locals and every now and then the Cadillac of trains, the unit coal freights. Oh I would get so excited when I would get a call for a coal train because that meant I just climbed aboard and relaxed in a nice comfortable chair because the coal trains always got the SD40 locomotives, which were still relatively new. And, they didn’t make any stops! The trains I usually worked had old and tired GP9s or F9s which were typically built in the 1940s.

 

The extra board is no longer in existence, but I’m not so sure about an attendance policy. It sounds demeaning and I think my old union, the United Transportation Union, might have raised holy hell about it. Still, I can understand BNSF’s position in that they need crews to run trains and without those crews, we’d have an even more serious supply chain crisis.

 

Welcome to the New BN Adventures Website!

This is my first blog post in the new website. I hope you enjoy the new website and feel free to comment.

Back in February of this year we had the infamous freeze in Texas and like many other folks, we had water pipes burst when the weather warmed up. It didn’t help that we had rolling blackouts that turned off the power every hour or so for us to sit in the dark and wonder if the power would come back on.

Our house was a mess from the water pipes bursting and the water came through into our breakfast nook and spread quickly throughout the house as we frantically tried to get the water turned off. As a result, our insurance carrier moved us to a house about 15 miles up the road in Argyle, Texas.

One interesting thing about being in the house is that it is very close to the BNSF mainline that runs along US Highway 377. Our little subdivision is just off Highway 377 and there are a number of crossings nearby, which gives locomotive engineers an opportunity to sound their horns throughout the day and night. One thing I found over the years is that I’ve never grown tired of hearing a locomotive horn but apparently a lot of people detest the sound, which has given rise to the “quiet zone” movement.

Let me tell you, there are no quiet zones in Argyle. And I’m fine with that because it’s comforting to hear the train horns blow because that tells me that the economy is moving and better yet, trains are a part of it.

I’m always amazed that my hearing is so good after four solid years of listening to train horns in the locomotive, well before they gave brakemen and engineers hearing protection. I’m in my 70s now and I worked for the railroad well over 45 years ago. Every now and then when I worked for the railroad an engineer would offer me loose cotton to plug into my ears. I always declined even though the horns on the old F9 units were particularly loud.

I can hear a train coming from miles away, with both the horns and the rumbling. And it’s always amazing that every train horn sounds different, some louder than others. Again, not a bad thing, at least for me. Now the people who want quiet zones, that’s a whole different story!

A train in Argyle

The Way It Was in Enosburg Falls

Old steam locomotive

 

When I go to Vermont, I’ve often found myself driving through the small town of Enosburg Falls. It’s a quaint little town (of course there are no big cities in Vermont), and I often stop at the ice cream shop for a maple creamy – ice cream made with maple syrup. As I drive through the town, I can see the old railroad crossings that shows that the railroad, the old Central Vermont, meandered through Enosburg Falls. Of course, the tracks have long since disappeared and now the old right-of-way is a hiking and bike trail.
As I’ve driven through the town, I’ve frequently wondered what it was like back in the golden days of railroading when steam locomotives came through. Imagine my delight when I found this picture of a CV steam locomotive in Enosburg Falls. It’s exactly like I pictured it, almost a Norman Rockwall kind of picture!
While I often wish that I grew up in that time, I’m happy I didn’t. In 1962 my appendix burst as a child, and I was only saved through modern medicine. Not sure that I would’ve survived in 1935!

I’m Kinda Tired of Seeing Container Trains

Rounding a curve.

 

Now here was a train! We were coming back from Staples, Minnesota in December 1979 on our way to Grand Forks on a cold snowy day with a full consist. In fact, we were called a mixed train. You can see a flat car or two with stacked lumber, tanker cars and boxcars with lots of other commodities. No ubiquitous train with just containers.
A trainmaster once told me many years ago that a boxcar had been put on a siding and forgot about. When they opened it 25 years later, they were surprised to find it was full of 1949 Ford sedans. Believe it or not that’s how they shipped cars back in the day.
I know that container trains pay the rent but boy oh boy I just wish we could see some boxcars now and then. Maybe with a Herbie painted or drawn on the side. For those of you that don’t know what a Herbie is, let me know and I will see if I can find a picture of one and post it.

Will Mighty Trains Make It to Texas?

Lately I’ve been watching Mighty Trains on the Smithsonian channel, and they’ve featured primarily high-speed trains in Italy, Switzerland, and Spain. There are no trains featured from the United States, although there has been a train called the Rocky Mountaineer that runs through the Rocky Mountains in Canada that has been on the show.
Interestingly enough, the most recent show featured the high-speed trains running between Barcelona and Madrid in Spain. It’s 386 miles between the two cities, and the train makes the trip in about 2 ½ hours. The Texas Central Railway, which is trying to build a high-speed line between Dallas and Houston, plans to use the Spanish company that operates Spain’s high-speed lines. But will Texas Central be built?
Since the COVID crisis began, many companies have laid off significant portions of their workforce, and Texas Central has been no different. One of the last updates I received from Texas Central was that it was laying off most of its personnel because of the pandemic. When I visited the Texas Central website, there were no new updates that I could find.
Originally, the plan was for the train to begin operations in 2026. The trip to Houston from Dallas would take 90 minutes, a considerable improvement over driving or flying. I hate driving on Interstate 45 to Houston because it is a nightmare of traffic and dangerous to boot!
Let’s hope Texas Central rebounds after we get through COVID. And that a future (way in the future) Mighty Trains episode features Texas bullet trains! It will have to be Texas because what I’m hearing is that the California high-speed rail system is dead and will not be built.

« Older posts