This one is funny to me but it was a bit tragic. The poor schmuck lost his job. While working on the K&O outta Wichita as an engineer, alot of times I had to train others to become engineers. Well, this was a good one. One night I was given a brand new conductor with (according to him) alot of railroad experience. In my opinion he was still a bit green. And I was also given a engineer trainee. What joy I had in my heart for this crew. Perfect recipe for something the dog wouldnt eat already. Well details on this one are important. Alot of shortlines nowadays use company vehicles for the conductor to chase the trains and be in position to expidite switching moves.Well Mr. Seasoned conductor had no clue what was to be done and here were the instructions for this evening. Go to Kingman Jct. Take the locomotives from Kingman Jct. to Conway Springs. Pull the cars at Norbert Grain Elevator to Wichita and spot them in the grain elevator (which I cant remember the name) ANd take the Engine on into wichita and go to the house. SOunds pretty simple huh, well, I thought so too. SO here is how it went down. Our company vehicle was in the shop for "other" repairs so WATCO rented us a nice Dodge Ram 4X4 under the stipulation that...."if anything happened to that truck, we're all dead. So We set out and arrive at Kingman Jct. (in the truck) with no problem. Rob and I climb aboard do our inspections, do a brake test andwe are on our way. Before departure, I instructed conductor Shane to go to Conway Springs, Start from the bottom of the hill and make a list of the cars toward the top. BUT dont touch the cars. Well he did a lil extra which lead to his dimise. He parked the truck in a large mud hole right up against the 3rd car from the top. Now before I go any further let me say that Norbert Grain Elevator has a steep grade that goes from the grain elevator, down the hill, and deadends into a Cemetary. This story is one reason they dont have alot of night funerals. So anyway, instead of making his list, conductor Shane gets the rental stuck in the mud, BAD, so he takes it upon himself to walk through this lil ole bitty town and lookin in the back of the trucks of REDNECKS lookin fora chain, rope, some sorta towing device, and wouldn't ya know.......he found one. He takes his ill gotten rescue device backto the scene of the minor crime and proceeds to make a bigger crime scene. He teathered the truck from the front passenger axle to the 3rd loaded grain car in the train, thinking he could knock off a few handbrakes, get the cars rolling enough to pull the truck outta the mud, then, reset the handbrakes and bring the whole show to a stop. Boy was he wrong. Those cars took off like a rocket down that hill with the truck in uhhhh......tow, beatin and bangin down the side of the cut of cars. And by time I got to K-49 highway all was wrong with the world. WE had to line around the wye into Norbert Grain elevator to find what used to bea nice truck, now a pile of smashed steel laying across the tracks. At first it was percieved that he had parked the truck on the tracks and the cars rolled away on him but the foretold story came stright from the conductors mouth and I was present when this story was told by the conductor to the Trainmaster, and you can probably imagine how hard it was for me to keep a straight face. Afterwards I was asked what was so darn funny,I replied, nuthin, but manwould I of loved to have seen that. Stupidity in action can sometimes be pretty spectacular, provided nobody get hurt. I think there are alot of folks lacking in common sense and are infected with stupidity, it takes moments like these to realize how bad they have it.|-| Thisisprobablythe worst ofthe stories that I haveandsomemight not find it as funny as I did only because I lived it. But IF you like hearing stories of the rails let me know....I got a million of em!
that would have been a hoot to see i would have been rolling on the ground laughing.... please keep the stories coming
Funny story! Trains magazine has a section called "Railroad Reading" in which they publish stories like yours. You might want to consider submiting it to them. Rich
Had milk come out my nose reading that one.Love em! The problem with true tales of the rail is no one thinks they can happen.Well they can and do lol.
