Category: Gary O. Ostlund

Another craft superseded by technology, automation: Switch-tenders and grade-crossing guards.  The grade separation story about Oklahoma City last February included pictures of grade-crossing shanties.  Some were rather elaborate, and a certain “ownership” was obvious.  Note the Good-Luck horseshoe over the doorway in the picture above, along with the bench for outdoor comfort.

Many if not most of those positions were filled by employees injured on the job. These men were able to remain employed, and achieve their deserved retirement benefits. 

The handy broom hanging on the wall does double duty, sweeping dirt out the door, and snow out of switch-points. Switch-Tenders received their instructions for routing incoming trains from the Yardmaster.  They usually assisted the “herder” with departing trains.

In my home-town, Tacoma, Washington, there was an elevated tower on the double-track that crossed Pacific Avenue, perhaps the busiest street in town.  On double track these towers had to be high enough to monitor the movements on both tracks.  For years the gentleman manning that tower had a warning system alerting him of snoopy inspectors.  He used fish-line to serve as a trip-wire on the steps leading to this elevated tower, whereupon anyone coming up the stairs would jiggle tin-cans or bottles.  That way he could wake-up, and/or quickly hide his bottle.

The switchman shanty at East End in the Cheyenne yard is visible behind the smoke and steam escaping from the boiler pressure relief valves.   A similar arrangement existed at the other end of the huge yard.  – Gary Ostland

Credits:  Shanty – Emil Albrecht photo, Don Strack collection,   #9040, a three-cylinder 4-12-2 – photo by James L. Ehernberger

Credits:    Photo of NYC Hudson #5403 by noted photographer, the late Phil Hastings as seen in Classic Trains, Summer 2014.  Notice how Hastings managed to get a silhouette of the engineer, usually unseen in pictures of the left side. Text by Robert S. McGonical, Editor of Classic Trains, used verbatim.  Bob’s right, other than a short visit in the cab of UP’s excursion locomotive #844 in the Summer of 2004, I cannot recall the last time I’ve responded to “come-on-up.”   In that same magazine were six accounts in “Tales from the Cab.”  Great stuff.

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Those three words – used almost universally by engineers to invite visitors into their locomotive cabs – are among the most thrilling a train-watcher can hear.  They signal access, however temporary, to the most alluring of railroading’s inner sanctums.

Although we may also be drawn to other places, some that reveal even more about how a railroad functions – dispatcher’s office, caboose, boardroom, backshop, interlocking tower – none of these matches the engine cab for its combination of public visibility, crew-only exclusivity, and sheer excitement.

Spend enough time around the railroad, and circumstances eventually tend to result in invitations to visit, or even ride in, engine cabs. For most of us, these are rare glimpses into a realm to which we’ve been attracted since childhood.  Memories of these occasions stand like trophies on our mental mantelpiece.

Today, an increased emphasis on safety and security are threatening to make those “Come on up” moments extinct.  In any case, the cab experience for crews in vastly different now” steam locomotives are gone, employees are fewer, equipment is more uniform.  – Gary Ostlund

Gary Ostlund sent this in as a Christmas greeting back in December.

Mishaps will always be a part of railroading.  These scenes show the old and newer methods of cleaning up a wreck scene.  In years past the railroads owned and positioned “big hooks” and associated equipment out on the line.  Such equipment was always in the ready-mode, warmed up and on the go in a moment’s notice.

In today’s “contract-out” way of doing business, private firms like Hulcher Services are called to the task.  They and other firms have highway transportable lifting equipment on the scene dispatched from numerous locations around the country.  Upon completion of the Interstate highway system truck-transported clean-up equipment allowed the rail lines to reopen sooner.

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Note the special tread on the pair of crawler tractor side-mounted lifting machines.   I didn’t use the word “Caterpillar” because their origin could be of a different manufacturer.             

After reaching their goals, and becoming profitable, the western railroads soon made major improvements to their infrastructure. On the western slopes of Snoqualmie Pass the Milwaukee Road crossed six water courses.  The forests provided ample supplies of heavy timber and wooden trestles such as we see here were the result.

Wooden trestles required a lot of maintenance, and were subject to forest fires.  Some were filled like Humpback Creek.  The planking shields the structure from damage when dumping fill.  A hefty culvert allows passage of the creek to this day. The other five wooden trestles were replaced by steel structures, assembled within the confines of the wooden trestles.  Traffic was only minimally disrupted. Somewhere in my “stuff” I have a picture of that work in progress that I will share, someday.

Many years later the westbound Olympian Hiawatha is seen at the same location, about to enter a snow shed, also made out of 12 x 12 timbers.  The locomotive, (a motor in railroad lingo) is one of 5 Bi-polars built by General Electric.  They were unique in that the axles were the armature, no gears.  Other than the clickety-clack of jointed-rail, they were extremely quiet. While traversing the warehouse district of Seattle, with many street  crossings, the engineers were required to keep the bell clanging in addition to using the whistle.

Credits: Wooden trestle: Unk; westbound Olympian: Milwaukee Road photo 

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A large high-speed locomotive, like the New York Central’s Niagara 4-8-4, will consume a lot of water.  By volume, the loco will require many times more water than fuel.  At Tivoli, beside the Hudson River, #6009 takes water from a track-pan at 80 MPH.  A Hostler fills the tank to capacity from a water-plug, probably at Harmon where passenger trains from Grand Central Terminal switch from electrics to steam or diesel.

The Central’s marketing and advertising many times, included the phrase the “Water Level Route.”  Chicago-bound trains followed water-courses and avoided any serious grades.  Their posh all-Pullman 20^th Century Limited promotional material toted “ride and sleep on the Water Level Route.” 

Track pans were spaced about thirty miles apart for the entire route.  A closer look at the tender clearly shows the enormous length of the 46-ton coal bunker, and the relatively small water compartment. The Niagara needed refueling only once between the “Big-Apple” and the “Windy-City.”

Credits:   Photos by W. A. Akin as seen in Kalmbach’s Steam’s Lost Empire

Submitted by Gary Ostlund

Spotting features:                                      photo- Kalmbach Media           

This is not your ordinary well-manicured railroad R-O-Way (city park..?)  The roadbed is nicely maintained, the ballast is neatly dressed, (little attention is given to most land abutting RR ROW.)  The crossing arm is down as it should be, and we must assume the lights are flashing alternately.  (The crossing arms might be short, as there are no counter-balancing weights.  Perhaps this is a walking trail (in that park) rather than a highway crossing.)

Orange-tipped gas line marker (some rights-or-way are used for buried utilities, phone lines mostly, but this appears to be a line crossing under the railroad).  Rusty – welded, protective barrier made of used “rail.”  To me that means the railroad probably fabricated and placed it there.  (is it protecting a fire Hydrant.?  Seems to be in an unusual location, so close to the rails, yet there is foliage).  Graffiti-laden well-cars.  (the closest being an articulated unit, then a solo, followed by a 5-set, the fifth segment in the shade. Articulated units share a wheel-set between each car.)

Wally-world has gone modern (those containers have been extended to the legal limit of 53 feet, also there just may be an element of “promotion” with such dominant placement.)  It’s Spring or Summer (who can identify the red flowers..?  Can anybody ID the location?)

My friend and advisor, Dave Sprau correctly pointed out that this was a promotional display kicking off new logistics within the Walmart organization.

– Gary O. Ostlund  

Being the third day of winter, at least according to the weather bureau, let’s talk snow. With his pack, canteen and camera gear, photographer James A. Turner is ready for another day on Stevens Pass in the Washington Cascades.   The scene is Corea, near the Great Northern’s Martin Creek loop, in 1925.

Turner placed himself properly to one side, looking into the picture, in what must be a tripod, timed picture.  From what I know about him he traveled alone, and did not own a car. He no doubt rode the train from Seattle and managed a drop-off. A man of class, you will see Turner dressed this day with a white shirt and tie.   He was a personal friend of my friend, the late Warren W. Wing, also an avid railfan photographer and book publisher. Turner’s son’s home in Gig Harbor was literally a gallery of his father’s works.

Snow sheds were common in West Coast railroading.   Those vertical beams and sloping roof are solid 12 x 12s.    Providing those today would be nearly impossible.   Is it any wonder why the Great Northern Railway, with miles of snow sheds, invested in the 8-mile tunnel under Stevens Pass.?

There is irony here. Some say if the railroad had not cut down so many trees in their quest to build snow sheds, that saturated snow would have remained in place on those slopes.  Others will say the beams didn’t come from those same trees.   Hmmmmm.

Note the attachment: The eastbound is about to enter the Horseshoe Tunnel.  It will curve to the right, cross another trestle and work its way to and through the upper snowshed.  Turner was standing about where the boxcar is exiting the lengthened snow shed.

Credits:  attachment photo by Lee Pickett, seen in book:  Lines West by Charles R. Wood  – Gary Ostlund.

Before we got used to the jumbo covered hopper cars so prevalent now, grain was shipped in a common 40’ boxcar.  In the early days grain was shipped by the sack.   Bulk grain shipment by rail required the use of a temporary grain door secured inside the doorway.  In the picture to the left, the wooden door has been removed and the men are manually shoving product out the door.

In the other picture, a loaded boxcar is being mechanically tilted and tipped to completely off-loading the product. The car was secured firmly, then raised to about a 45-degree slope, and tipped side-to-side.  The car is lowered and the process is repeated as the other end is lifted.  This time the car will be tilted before it is raised in hopes of the product not refilling the far end of the car.  The whole process was fairly swift, as I recall watching at the Port-of-Tacoma back in the 50s, probably five minutes total. With all those fancy dressers observing behind the protective glass, , and there are no other cars lined up, this appears to be a demo.

Back at the grain elevator before loading, the grain door was secured and heavy paper lining was applied generously to all surfaces.   When loading is complete, the regular sliding steel door could scoot past the temporary grain door and be secured.   More than one loaded grain car arrived nearly empty, days later after bumping along over the clickety-clack. Such happenstance kept railroad claims adjusters busy.  Even one tiny break in the paper, in the wrong place, with tons of pressure, for a week or more, could wreak havoc.  Pigeons and others loved it.

Grain doors only went a little more than halfway up the boxcar door opening, varying some due to the weight and density of the product.  Corn, soy beans, and rice received the same treatment. 

Reportedly, the very last grain-filled boxcars left the elevators in western Oklahoma in the Spring of 1978.  The Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad, better known as the “KATY” did the honors.  Why was it called KATY, you ask?  Because the KATY’s New York Stock Exchange ticker-tape symbol was “KT”.

Credits:  photos from the Oregon Historical Society, as seen in the Union Pacific Railroad Historical Society’s Streamliner Fall 2011 issue.

Submitted by Gary Ostlund