Railroad Stories From The EJ&E Railroad

07/07/2024

I would stay here all day long enjoying the view 😍

09/25/2021

Railroad Story #217

As engineer I loved the challenge of running those big heavy coal trains which was the lions share of what I did on the EJ&E railroad. There were also trains of steel out of USX that originated in Gary, Indiana but I was working out of Joliet, Illinois mostly my last ten years. I did run the empties back to Gary on the "Night Flyer" out of Joliet once in a while. I also spent a lot of years working the road switchers out of Joliet.

Most of the men I worked with were pretty good and I would consider friends but there were a few of them who were not so good, I don't care if I ever see them again. So 18 fast years retired now and I still miss those EMD SD38's and how powerful they were. I had to walk away at age 57 with a disability but I'm pretty much okay now.

In another post here I seen mention of harmonic rocking. This happens at about 17 mph on jointed rail. Before I switched departments I was a signalman working in the signal gang. We were doing some work at a flasher crossing on the Lake Front Line. Our line up told us we had a coal train coming at us running west for the State Line Generator.

We were all standing about 15 feet from the track watching the "roll by" of this train when it hit that magic harmonic rocking sp*ed. I couldn't believe my eyes. The wheels were actually lifting off the rail and slapping back down real hard with the hoppers rocking like hell. I was inexperienced with this happening and decided that it would be better to observe from about 100 feet away in case the train derailed. I couldn't believe the rest of the crew just stood there and watched. We only had maintenance radios so there was no way to contact the train.

It stayed on the track somehow but I'm sure it could have derailed quite easily. When I became engineer I took a lot of coal trains to that generator and I always had the picture of those cars rocking like that. I tried my best to avoid that sp*ed at that location.

We always had a sp*ed restriction of 25 mph when we had the scale test car in our train. It had a very short wheel base and it would really move side to side in the train. It was supposed to travel next to the caboose but that didn't always happen. It wouldn't take much bad train handling to have a derailment with that situation.

Just another day on the J.

Railroad Stories From The EJ&E Railroad and a few others

05/27/2021

Railroad Story #216

I brought in a train of mostly empty cars from the Western Subdivision to Joliet. They gave me 7 middle yard as my track. This track holds about 50 or 60 cars and my entire train was going to fit easily. So I get down to the south end of 7 middle yard and the track curves to the left. I was running SD38 #657. I bunch up the cars with the independent and set the air to stop. When I did this the lead axle on the rear truck of my engine jumped over the rail.
When the trainmaster arrived to investigate he yelled at me for poor train handling. I said, no way, I did everything correctly. The lead axle of the rear truck climbed the rail. No p*e p*e test though.
Then about two weeks later I have nearly the same train to yard in 7 middle yard. I get to the south end of the track and I do the exact same thing and the locomotive did the exact same thing. The lead axle of the rear truck climbed over the rail. While waiting for the trainmaster to arrive and chew my butt out I did an inspection. Then I seen it.
Just then the trainmaster arrived and of course he was not very happy. He proceeded to lay into me and I said, "Wait a minute." Then I showed him the chain that is attached from the frame of the locomotive to the truck. This is to prevent the truck from turning too far. This time the chain was pulled tight. So when the truck slewed on the curve and got to its limit the lead axle climbed over the rail, again. If the truck cannot turn far enough it will jump the track.
To complicate matters just a little, out of all the other SD38 locomotives this is the only one that was sensitive to the curve on 7 middle yard. So we blamed this one on the track department. I'm sure they came out to look at it but I don't know what they found.
It wouldn't be unusual for a track to "run" in the heat making it longer and pushing the curve out farther. Making it too tight for 3 axle trucks. Since this is a yard track there were no "creeper' clips on the rails. The lead truck never had a problem. To my knowledge it never happened again.
Just another day on the J.

Railroad Stories From The EJ&E Railroad and a few others

05/24/2021

Railroad Story #215

At this point in my railroad engineer career I was working the road trains out of Joliet, IL mostly but some from Kirk Yard, Gary, In. Over time more people and housing built up along the tracks. More crossings to whistle for to. Along with all of that business's also built up along the tracks at some crossings.
Ever since I was a promoted man in 1978 we would have a problem at Chicago Heights. Lots of cross traffic at Chicago Heights so running East or West it was difficult to get a signal. The other problem was stopping your train to fill running East. The kids in the neighborhood learned to pull pins on trains sitting still down close to the signal where we would pick up cars. It was a big pain in the butt for me and the brakemen. After that started happening a lot I had to set the air and drag the train down to our stop. For those that do not know, done properly this leaves the train in a stretched position and there is no way that a pin can be pulled.
Once in a while I would be running a train not scheduled to stop to pick up more cars. When we could not get a signal at Chicago Heights we would stop the train at Western Avenue. The dispatchers were okay with doing that as the company didn't want us drag stopping trains anyway.
Then it happened. Just a couple hundred feet from the tracks they built a Popeyes Chicken and I think it was a Taco Bell at Western Avenue. So whenever we had no signal at Chicago Heights East Bound we stopped at Western Avenue and "filled" our stomachs. The dispatcher was none the wiser. Part of the reason that I weighed 230 when I was working and I'm now a retired 180.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08RYLF795
Just another day on the J.

Railroad Stories From The EJ&E Railroad and a few others

05/23/2021

Railroad Story #214

I loved being an engineer but it sure didn't start out that way. I come from a Central Illinois farming family. My dad and both of my sons are excellent machine operators. It's in the genes I think. As most of you know though I started my railroad career in the signal department.
It was a dead end street because all of the "positions" were already held by men that had a long way to go to retire. Being a signalman was good to me but not fulfilling at all. Again I had the challenge of training myself as there was no formal signalman training program. I picked up enough information to get by because I was determined to do so.
By far though the biggest challenge I faced was becoming a locomotive engineer. The complete story leading up to and about that is in my book. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08RYLF795.
I made the mistakes that all the young engineers make and that was to listen to the men on the ground. Mostly in the yards for that. They wanted me to run fast so they could get in with a quit or get two hours for dinner. I did some of that and managed to stay out of trouble because "I picked my spots" for that. I'm sure that other engineers ran faster with the same work but they spent time in the "green room" for investigations.
Then there was the other side of the coin. Crews that wanted to spend as much time out there as possible for the overtime. I was impressionable being a young engineer but not happy. I've mentioned my mentor Louie Dedina many times before. It was his guidance that kept me from getting fired and he single handedly did the most important thing for me. He CORRECTED MY ATTITUDE. May God Bless his golf playing soul.
He always worked the midnight transfer engine midnights so I would bump on his job when I got cut off the engineers extra board. We shared running the locomotive all night. We would move cuts of cars from yard to yard and in and out of the mills. We only used the air brakes on coal trains that we moved from the South Yard to the Coke Plant. All of this was below 10 mph.
Then as I explain in my book, I became a master of observation watching all the engineers that I worked with as fireman. The hard part was they all had different styles. I studied the engineers, the yardmasters, the dispatchers and the trainmasters. I wanted to learn what made them tick. I became unflappable. Under Louie's guidance I began running my trains on a consistent basis. It became very clear to me that you will not fool any management with the throttle. They are experienced to.
I still had the crews coaxing me to run differently but I would not. I will have to say that the road crewmen and conductors NEVER even suggested to me how to handle my train. I don't know how they kept their mouths shut. Maybe they were frozen in fear........... LOL
So after a few years when I was engineering the job, everyone working with me knew what to expect before we left the pit. All the management knew what to expect as well. My mentor Louie Dedina was never wrong even one time with his coaching.
After many more years running trains I had the experience needed. Then I became a trainer and successfully passed along everything that Louie taught me to almost all of my students. I had 6 students come up to me after they got promoted and said, "If you hadn't been so hard on me I would never have made it." I hear that in some places my training reputation is still out there after all this time.
Just another day on the J

Railroad Stories From The EJ&E Railroad and a few others

05/16/2021

Railroad Story #213

I've been retired for just over 18 years now. I had to leave early at age 57 with a bad back. Whenever I go shopping with the wife I always seem to pick the cart with the flat wheels. This probably doesn't bother 90% of you but it bugs the hell out of me and here's why.
All through my young engineer days I worked mostly as a yard engineer off of the extra board. So I ran mostly the small 125 ton locomotives with a maximum of 1200 hp. These little engines were capable of pulling a lot more weight than they could stop. Braking was from the engine wheels and brake shoes only. If an engineer wasn't real careful it was very easy to slide the wheels of the engine on the rail. Then of course we had some "cowboy" engineers who just didn't care and applied the engine brakes and waited for the engine to stop. This of course creates flat spots on the wheels.
In the mix here was the Elgin Joliet & Eastern locomotive department calling investigations on engineers for flat spotting engines. A lot of men got demerits for flat spots whether they were the cause or not. They put into place a useless system of reporting flat spots just as the engineer left the pit. Call the yardmaster and report "flat spots." You could almost just report them blindly and be correct.
We had a few locomotives that must have had very soft treads on their wheels because they ALWAYS had flat spots and they were Federal I'm sure. I had one so bad that I attempted to refuse the engine but they wouldn't let me because they didn't have any power to replace it. I left work that day with a headache from it.
Now you can understand why flat spots on a shopping cart just rubs me the wrong way. Throughout my career on the EJ&E we carried 75 lbs. on train the line and 40 lbs. on the independent brake for all locomotives. Our EMD SD38 locomotives weighed 395,000 lbs. just under 200 tons. It was extremely hard to flat spot one of those big hogs but it could be done. Just run along at track sp*ed and go into emergency. Then do not bail the independent. The pressure on the shoes to the wheel treads will get to 65 or 70 lbs. At that pressure sliding the wheels of the big hog is possible.
I suppose that could happen if you were riding your train into a collision with another train. Then either freeze at the controls or desert your post and join the birds. Leaving the independent in full pressure.
Maybe I shouldn't say anything but some engineers might already know this. The EMD SD9's were set up at 40 lbs. on the independent but some enterprising engineers with the right size Allen wrench could jack the pressure up to 60 lbs. I found some that way when they forgot to reduce the pressure.
So I hate flat wheels on shopping carts. Vent over.
This story is not in my book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08RYLF795
Just another day on the J.

05/15/2021

Railroad Story #212

I'm sure I was working off the extra board because I did not have enough seniority to work the Pool turns out of Kirk Yard, Gary, Indiana. I caught the Lined Train about 1 pm in the afternoon and we had several wide loads in our train that a brakeman would have to walk with through several bridges just 1 mile out of the yard. This is so far back we had cabooses and a full crew. Conductor, field man and head man. Engineer all by myself.
I'll give you the definition of the "Lined Train." They make up the train in Kirk Yard in station order for the trains going West out of Joliet. So the cars were in blocks "Lined" up. I was only taking this train to Joliet.
We had a sp*ed restriction of 10 mph through those bridges with a brakeman walking with them to make sure that they would clear. Generally these flat cars were cars of plates from the plate mill at United States Steel plant in Gary, Indiana.
No big deal, we've done this many times before but this time we had a wrinkle to figure out. It was highly unusual but we had another train coming at us that would have to pass us but that train also had a wide load. Must have been a return to the plate mill, I don't know.
The dispatcher sent us out there to go through those bridges and he informed us that we had to pass another train with his wide loads. Wonderful. I know my railroad and all of the physical characteristics very well. Then it came to me. Another two miles down the railroad both main lines cross the Little Calumet River.
In the past both trestles were wooden and one of them caught on fire and burned. The EJ&E had to use just one trestle until the one that burnt could be replaced. To save time they built the new trestle next to the burnt out on and left the pilings sticking up out of the water. This made a very wide place between both main tracks for several hundred feet.
I called the dispatcher and asked him to tell the other train to wait for us at the trestle. When my field man gave my the hi-ball as he got on the caboose, I throttled up and flew past the other train waiting for me at the "wide spot." We had no further restrictions for bridges or trains. It worked out perfectly.
This story is not in my book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08RYLF795
Just another day on the J

This is one set of bridges, there were more as well right there.

05/13/2021

Railroad Story #211

For anyone interested in me signing my book I plan on being in NW Indiana sometime between June 15th to the 30th. Then I'll be there for about 10 days or so. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08RYLF795.

Looking back on my early days on the EJ&E I wonder now how I made it through everything that I did. If I hadn't switched departments in October of 1976 from signalman to locomotive engineer, I would not have been laid off. I didn't have much seniority as signalman but enough to just bump back into the gang.
Instead of dealing with a 30 man roster in the signal department, the transportation department as engineer had over 150 men. Both departments carried "system" rights with them so I was not restricted to just one small part of the railroad. When I wasn't laid off I made it my goal to work every job on the railroad so that if I ever got enough seniority to hold a regular job I would know how good it was.
Along the way and over my early years several of my fellow trainees were invited to management and of course they took the job. Better than kicking stones in the street. Unfortunately for me every one of them was younger than me on the seniority list. Oh well.
I was a little surprised that when I mentioned in a story here that the engineer trainee group that I was involved in had little to no throttle time moving trains over the road. The conductors reading that were appalled at the thought and I don't blame them. It was bad but I was determined to become a good engineer so instead of spending my time in the fireman's seat sleeping, I was watching what the engineer was doing.
What made this difficult was that no two engineer's ran their trains the same. I did understand the basic's quite well then applied that knowledge to each engineer. Some were very good and others needed some training themselves. Everyone had their own style. The conductors and brakemen all knew their engineers style so they adjusted themselves accordingly.
After I got promoted and was the "weekend warrior" off the engineer's extra board I got to bump on jobs as fireman that I wanted to work. As always I preferred the road first then yard transfers to work as fireman. As time went on and I got my feet wet running as engineer I got to understand why when I worked as fireman that most engineers did not share the throttle time and take a break. Now don't take this wrong because I was told so by the switchmen and brakemen. They didn't let me run their engine because I was a better engineer than they were. Not putting myself on a pedestal here that is just the way it was. Almost all the time the ground crews would ask me to bump on their job with them, I had to tell them I couldn't because I didn't have enough seniority.
All of the hardship of being laid off and the on call extra board hard to do at the time but now with a fine retirement it was all worth the struggle. I would do it all over again.
Just another day on the J

05/08/2021

Railroad Story #210

It was during that time where we no longer pulled cabooses so the conductors would ride in the lead engine with the engineer. The work rules were changing it seems like every month. If there was on one move for the conductor to make then he would not need a helper but if we were to do switching then they would add a third man to the crew. Engineer, conductor and brakeman.
I was working the pool out of Joliet, Illinois and caught the famous "Night Flyer." This was a straight train, no set outs or pick ups that ran from Joliet to Kirk Yard, Gary, Indiana right around midnight. Then we would pick up a train at Kirk Yard and bring it back to Joliet.
My conductor was one of the "good" guys to work with and he always did his job and was easy to get along with. Once we had our train together in Joliet and got our track warrants to make the run to Kirk Yard he would go to sleep on the fireman's side. I didn't mind because I was almost always rested enough to stay awake anyway. It was about a 3 to 4 hour ride from Joliet to Gary with nothing for him to do.
When we got to Gary he would wake up and say to me, "I don't know how anybody could sleep on these engines." On the return trip to Joliet, he would wake up and say the exact same thing. All the while sleeping like the dead both ways.
He took his wife on one of those dinner excursion trains and it was a low sp*ed affair. Probably 20 mph tops and on jointed rail. Not quite running at the "rocking rhythm" sp*ed of 17 mph the passenger cars nonetheless were doing some side to side. She was sitting in the window seat and the rocking put her to sleep. About 30 minutes later she woke up and somewhat surprised that she had fallen asleep at all. She said, "I can't believe that I fell asleep on this train." To which her husband dutifully replied, "I don't know how anybody could sleep on trains." (The master train sleeper spoke)
Just another day on the J.
I'm on the far right in my middle 70's style

05/01/2021

Railroad Story #209

In early 1948, my dad, O.C. Stringer was having trouble finding work in Central Illinois. His uncle Morris Stringer was working at the EJ&E Railroad. He called him my dad and said, "I can get you on the EJ&E railroad as a switchman." So in early 1948 O.C. Stringer packed his bags and went north to Gary, Indiana and started working at the "J."
Everything was good but my mom and I stayed behind in Central Illinois until dad got established. I was 3 years old. Things were going well and enough money was coming so they planned for my mom and I to visit dad in Indiana. Back then most travel was done by bus. We took the bus from Decatur, Illinois to Chicago where dad picked us up. All went fine.
It was Christmas time and just after Christmas my mom and I got on the bus in Chicago for the trip to Decatur, Illinois. This is where the real story begins and my life almost came to an end. We rode near the back of the bus all the way from Chicago to Decatur non stop. Everything seemed normal until we got off the bus. The fresh air hit us like a ton of bricks and my mom and I both passed out. She hit her head very hard on the concrete and was taken to the hospital for stitches. As a 3 year old I was only out for a minute. Some other people were also affected.
Turns out there was an exhaust leak near the back of the bus that allowed the fumes to enter the cabin. No one knew. It is a tasteless and odorless gas. I remember a baby sitter in the bus station that was the biggest person I had ever seen.
Dad was working at the EJ&E when family got through to Uncle Morris who was also out there working that day. He found my dad and told him what had happened and where. My dad talked to a trainmaster and told him he had a family emergency and he had to leave immediately. The trainmaster said, "If you leave they will fire you." You are ahead of me right? He told that trainmaster where he could put the railroad and he left. When it was all over the railroad didn't assess any penalty or fire my dad.
I almost died at the age of 3 and you guys would have missed out on all of my stories. More stories in my book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08RYLF795
Just another day on the J.

04/29/2021

Railroad Story #208
I'm sure that this came from a different industry but fits railroading quite well.

Next time someone says "damn, must be nice" or "money bags" you might want to understand the lifestyle that has made it appealing to you!
8-5 didn't make it.
Parking our ass on the couch to watch TV every night didn't make it.
Sleeping in on Saturdays didn't make it.
Calling in when sick didn't make it.
Being content with where we're at didn't make it.
It came from some 12 hour days.
It came from beating the sun up.
It came from working on weekends.
It came from sacrificing family time.
It came from wanting a little better tomorrow at the expense of today.
These are a few things to consider before you throw out "damn, must be nice" at someone! We are all products of our competence. And extra efforts are what make the biggest differences at the end of the day!
I did copy this but I used to hear this all the time, very true statement!
Just another day on ANY railroad.
Yours truly running a UP locomotive

04/25/2021

Railroad Story #207

Right after I hired out in the signal department the EJ&E stopped hiring firemen at all. I do not know the exact date but that would be in the very early 70's. Many years after that they still employed about 4 "fixture" firemen. Those were men that even though they were invited to become engineer they did not. It was in the work rules at the time that they did not have to do that. I have several stories in my book, "Railroad Stories From The EJ&E Railroad and a few others," about working with fixture firemen when I was engineer. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08RYLF795
You can understand why those men were unwilling to take promotion to engineer when they were working straight days with Saturday and Sunday off. Imagine trading that job for one that worked off the extra board all three shifts. There was not enough differential in pay to make it worth all the aggravation.
This story revolves around one such fixture fireman. He was about 58 or 59 when retirement at the time was 30/60 (he had well over the 30 years) and had no intentions of taking promotion to engineer but he was leaning towards leaving his fireman's seat if the EJ&E would buy him out. He contacted his union representative and asked him to look into the possibilities. The J was actually interested in doing that because they had already offered buy outs to engine people before, the question was, "Were they still available?"
The meeting wasn't going well with the company as usual but then the union representative showed them the numbers. This man was making between $40,000 to $50,000 per year sitting in the fireman's seat doing nothing and that was a thorn in the company's side. I'm not sure on the numbers but the Rep pointed out that this man had 2 years to work yet before he retired. So do you want to pay him $50,000 now or $100,000 or MORE in the coming years.
He also pointed out that this man could easily sit in that fireman's seat for another 5 years if he wanted to paying him $250,000 or more. The J forked over the buy out of $50,000 and this man then got an occupational disability but before he collected the first railroad retirement disability check he passed away. He was a large barrel chested man and not the picture of health but the company wasn't paying attention.
Before all of this transpired another fixture fireman inquired about a buyout and he was granted $50,000 to leave. The rest of his story I do not have.
Just another day on the J