If you were to work for a railroad, which one would it be and what position?

[Snowman]

I apologize for not seeing them.
I do remember the name Sam Dougherty, didnt see much of him tho, they had some good RFOE's on this RR over the years. I spent most of my time East of GJ, but made many trips to Provo, and some to SLC. I will have to get that book "Call the Big Hook" being as 028 still sits a couple miles east of me today.

My SL-SF connection was where I was born and spent the early years of my life on a Dairy farm along the QA&P/SL-SF RY, plus my Grandfather was an engineer for the QA&P/SL-SF. I have at least as many DRGW/SP loco models as QA&P/SL-SF. I sure enjoyed seeing DRGW units on a train I was called on, cause you knew you had a chance of making it with RG power. SP were bell ringers for sure, but they did get better over time. Those Tunnel units were really good locomotives for their day, they would pull their rated tonnage ( when Positive Traction Control) was installed they were rated the same tonnage as SD50's.
I got lots of pictures of RG power in and around GJ for the most part, Im sure folks thought I was nuts for taking all those pictures, but I am glad I did it now. Just wish I had taken more.

No worries, and thanks for the reply. I might have missed a couple of yours too, at times.

If you are interested, "Call The Big Hook" is listed on the Amazon Marketplace RIGHT NOW at only $11.20. Given that I paid a hundred bucks myself for a good copy a while back it's a steal if it's in decent condition.

My own second copy I bought so my nephew can perhaps enjoy one or both down through the years. He was born in 2000, so he never knew the original road in its day, but he's also the youngster who dragged me back into this hobby after I had let it go back in the later eighties. I try to archive important sources of information when I can, and I regard CTBH as one of the better ones.

 

[Snowman]

My first job was working for SP as a programmer. Wrote assembler language code, for an automated hump yard project. Closest I got to a real train, was taking the SP commuter train from Sunnyvale to San Francisco.

That's pretty cool. As it happens I worked for a contractor who had one with the D&RGW...using a database language called FOCUS. But only for a month. I just couldn't get up to speed with it quickly enough to be of any use to them.

Something of an embarrassment really, given that my father was a star programmer for IBM back in the early sixties. :-/

 

[gjslsffan]

Funny how things work out sometimes huh? I got a copy of CTGH on the way, thanks! I dont even know if anyone here knows how to operate the hook in GJ anymore. There was an art to operating that hook, you could lift 250 tons with it, but you had to have a crew just attending the outriggers. It will lift more than you think without any outriggers deployed too. But you could put it on its a$$ really quick too, if you didnt have the boom deployed right. It was self trammed at one time, by simply dogging the gears, was driven by the #3 and #4 axles, but I cannot say if it is that way anymore. It was something else when you had 2 SD9's coupled up to the work train, such a history and story there.

 

[rgeiter]

Just found this thread.

I worked on a railroad for almost 13 years. Started out as a carpenter/painter then moved into the mechanical department and finally an air brake mechanic. Was also a car inspector. Was cross trained as a brakeman/ conductor too. Working on a non-union railroad was the best. You can learn so much. All you had to do was ask.

 

[Snowman]

Funny how things work out sometimes huh? I got a copy of CTGH on the way, thanks! I dont even know if anyone here knows how to operate the hook in GJ anymore. There was an art to operating that hook, you could lift 250 tons with it, but you had to have a crew just attending the outriggers. It will lift more than you think without any outriggers deployed too. But you could put it on its a$$ really quick too, if you didnt have the boom deployed right. It was self trammed at one time, by simply dogging the gears, was driven by the #3 and #4 axles, but I cannot say if it is that way anymore. It was something else when you had 2 SD9's coupled up to the work train, such a history and story there.

That's just one of the many things I learned from the book, that the self-moving thing was so dangerous. IIRC 028 nor any of the others will be capable of that today, but I could be wrong. I suppose you could use it on the flats, but if it stripped its own drive gear as easily as he said it could...did...I wouldn't trust it even there.

As you said, it's a real art form.

 

[Iron Horseman]

That's pretty cool. As it happens I worked for a contractor who had one with the D&RGW...using a database language called FOCUS. But only for a month. I just couldn't get up to speed with it quickly enough to be of any use to them.

Well, if it makes you feel any better, in my opinion, FOCUS was a joke. It could do typical things fairly easy, but give it something a little difficult and one had to be a super expert to make it work. Especially if your back ground is assembly language. Talk about jumping from apples to oranges.

My current company is getting all the contracts for yard operations and simulation now. It is all written in java, ant, spring, ruby on rails, and bunches of other ridiculously named productivity tools.