True tales from the Broake & Howe Railroad


Old 97

Old 97

Hogger
Taking a cue from Tooter, this is where I’ll be telling all the tales from my model railroad known as the Broake & Howe. I’ve long told friends and family that if it happens on my model railroad, then it’s real.

"Crumpled"

The other day I mentioned of some damage done to my favorite little Docksider locomotive and was seeking suggestions as to the replacement of the smokestack. While working on this task, I became curious as to how the damage actually occurred, seeing as I'm the owner of #98 and it’s in service under contract with the Broake & Howe Railroad.
So I made an inquiry to the powers that be and was quickly referred to the B&H RR Claims Adjuster. I explained that I wasn’t seeking damages, just inquiring of the cause.
I was then told in no uncertain terms that all damages and accidents are reported to the railroad claims adjuster and that’s the direction my inquiry should take. I immediately made contact with the above referenced department clarifying that I wasn’t filing a claim, just wanting to know what happened? “Crumpled.” was the reply. “Crumpled?” I asked. "Yep." came the response. Now I’m aggravated, because that’s not what I wanted to hear. I wanted an explanation, so I requested that he be more specific. His answer was “It got.” Well, I can see I’m going to have to do a bit of digging to get to the bottom of this.

I’ll keep you all posted.
 
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I like your ideas and will be following along. Railroad "tales" sounds like fun.

Your story there reminds me of when my sister was telling the mechanic about her car...and she told him it's broken. The mechanic asked her if she could narrow down the description of the problem a bit. She said "okay I get in the car....and I'm in there a while...and when I get out I'm still at the same place as when I got in. Does that narrow it down for you?" :confused: :rolleyes::p
 
So now you're just having too much fun!

I guess the Broake & Howe RR engineers don't know what they're doing...
 
True story-
A buddy of mine called me up one day to find out if I'd heard what happened to a sexy, little Grumman Yankee I had flown when I belonged to an Aero Club. I had not. He informed me that one foggy day, a Gulfstream pilot didn't see it and had flat out run it clean over. I later acquired photos of it and it was FLAT on top. Poor little airplane. But at least nobody was hurt or worse.
 
Old 97 said:
The investigation continues........
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Well Mike,
It sure sound like it a case of the old runaround from the party/s it's leased to so they can avoid having to admit to anything. It's probably good your doing the investigating as all to often the other party wants to have the matter investigated by their people which is nothing more than a Conflict of Interest to say the least.


Hope you get to the bottom of it.

Ps: If you need another smoke stack I can provide you with something or maybe another complete shell?
 
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Now on my end,
I'm suspended from operating any more Loco's due to my carelessness.
This happened to me twice now and I sort of got canned for it by mannagment. At least temporarily.

You see some time last week I pulled a short consist from lower line up the steep grade to the Horseshoe Meadow Depot [HSMD] and spoted the tender at the water plug there and moved the spout over the filler opening on the tender and began filling it with water. It was going to take a while as it was near empty so I figured I'd go over to the station and talk with old Jake the station agent. We got into such good discussion that I completely forgot about the water filling the tender and when I did everything was throughly soaked and some of the ties were even sunk in the mud!

As I said this was the second that same thing has happened to me so I'm temporarily suspended from operating any more trains! I'm not too worried though as I'm the only guy available so I'll be called again shortly I'm sure.

Sure is nice to have controlling interest in the line C&S West SL for sure.
 
:D:D:D

Well, my RR is having issues with a certain client by the name of Fred 'How'd He Do Dat' Thompson, great grandson of the infamous George Thompson-founder of Thompson Mills and associated environs. Seems that a certain engineer decided to run one of the big steam locos, in this case, a y6b, and didst lose it on a turn out going out of Exceda Yard one fine morning. Said engineer, escaped from the loco as it took the turn, at speed mind, and the loco and six old boxcars found themselves up against Mary Joe's Diner...

Mr Thompson, owner of the Emerald RR Museum and Fancy Dress Saloon, is now a little ticked about having to recover the costs of the refurbishing and repair of said locomotive....:rolleyes:
 
Trussrod said:
It was going to take a while as it was near empty so I figured I'd go over to the station and talk with old Jake the station agent. We got into such good discussion that I completely forgot about the water filling the tender and when I did everything was throughly soaked and some of the ties were even sunk in the mud!
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David you reminded me of when I was running a small switcher for the electric comapny here. Two of the guys stuck the fuel nozzle into the loco and went for coffee. By the time I came along the ground was soaked and the tank dang near drained! :eek: Of course being a gov't corp it got covered up pretty fast! :mad:

Mike, any progress on the investigation? I'm thinking someone rolled a door down a wee bit too early?
 
Rico said:
Mike, any progress on the investigation? I'm thinking someone rolled a door down a wee bit too early?
Click to expand...

No solid answers yet Rick, but I have heard rumors that there was a baseball involved with the mishap. :confused: When I asked the person to explain, all he would do is shuffle his feet and point to the field across from the shops.

I'll keep poking around.....
 
Rico said:
David you reminded me of when I was running a small switcher for the electric comapny here. Two of the guys stuck the fuel nozzle into the loco and went for coffee. By the time I came along the ground was soaked and the tank dang near drained! :eek: Of course being a gov't corp it got covered up pretty fast! :mad:

Mike, any progress on the investigation? I'm thinking someone rolled a door down a wee bit too early?
Click to expand...


Say Rico,
I figured it was a very likely scenario and there you went and proved it did happen but with Diesel fuel yet!

Just goes to show that human nature is within all of us given the right circumstances.
 
Old 97 said:
No solid answers yet Rick, but I have heard rumors that there was a baseball involved with the mishap. :confused: When I asked the person to explain, all he would do is shuffle his feet and point to the field across from the shops.

I'll keep poking around.....
Click to expand...


Ah Mike,
A Baseball?? How does that figure into the stack getting crumpled? Of course I guess if a hard ball were to be dropped on the little loco's stack or thrown and it hit the stack, it could get crumpled?
 
Rico said:
David you reminded me of when I was running a small switcher for the electric comapny here. Two of the guys stuck the fuel nozzle into the loco and went for coffee. By the time I came along the ground was soaked and the tank dang near drained! :eek: Of course being a gov't corp it got covered up pretty fast! :mad:

Mike, any progress on the investigation? I'm thinking someone rolled a door down a wee bit too early?
Click to expand...


Say Rick,
Relating to what you said that my scenario reminded you of brings to my mind the fact that another former SP engineer once told me relating to track work on model RR and the real lines. Mark said if you can dream it up, feasibly of course you'll find it somewhere on the RR.

So I guess that more than applies to what we might feasibly conger-up too as you have just proven, similar things do indeed happen!
 
Say detective Mike,

I just realized that this situation totally epitemizes the name of your Railroad!

Broake and Howe - RR name.

Broake and Howe - Out of cash.

Broake and Howe - Something Broake & Howe?

Broake and Howe - The stack is really broake, and Howe!

Howe did it get Broake??


Have a good day.
 
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