In 1989 and 1990 I worked as a Control Operator for the Soo Line Railroad at Rondout, Illinois, a station a few miles west of Waukegan, Illinois. My territory was only about two miles long, but it consisted of a maze of electrically controlled switches and signals I was responsible for handling. One of my other chores was to do this without running two---or three---trains into each other. Four railroads operated over the diamonds at Rondout: Soo Line, EJE, METRA and Wisconsin Calumet (reporting marks WICT).
There was a single main branch (Fox Lake Subdivision) that ran NW/SE off the main, the primary purpose of which was to carry METRA commuters between Fox Lake, Illinois and Chicago. Between the early morning hours and late afternoon/early evening these scoots, as they were called, ran like street cars. If those scoots were delayed because of a poor choice the operator or train dispatcher made it took the intercession of the Pope, the President and Congress of the United States of America to help the poor soul. The fortunate ones would get away with losing a little ballast from the aft end of their anatomy, the less fortunate were sent to Siberia to reflect on the error of their ways.
The Wisconsin Calumet was formed by a series of transactions following the successful reorganization of the old Milwaukee Road, which had abandoned several lines servicing a bunch of small communities in south central Wisconsin. Part of the deal was the acquisition by the Calumet of several Milwaukee Road locomotives, including two EMD F-7’s, as pictured in the post. The F-7’s were old and beat up. My understanding is the Calumet put a fresh coat of paint on them and turned them loose.
On a number of occasions the train dispatcher called me to say the wicket (as we called it) was coming south out of Fox Lake, wanting to know if there was room to put the critter away at Rondout if the crew dogged (ran out of hours to work). His worst fear was having the train dog on hours or break down on the single main...meaning, no scoots would run between Fox Lake and Rondout until the problem was resolved. That would assuredly involve a lot of explaining to a lot of influential people.
One of the Calumet F-7’s acquired was the MILW 106. A truckload of spare parts was part of the deal, including several sets of duplicate number plates. The other locomotive had no number plates, so they took a set from the 106 spares, turned them upside down and walla...we have the WICT 901. Talk about an operation run on a shoestring!
wow... the end of days for railroading. Fewer railroad commuters as cars got cheaper I suppose, gas was dirt cheap, used cars were dirt cheap, and hauling cargo was switching more to trucking... railroads failed, went bankrupt and maintenance got more expensive... flipping a number plate upside down? That's clever, but sure does show the lack of budget
In 1989 and 1990 I worked as a Control Operator for the Soo Line Railroad at Rondout, Illinois, a station a few miles west of Waukegan, Illinois. My territory was only about two miles long, but it consisted of a maze of electrically controlled switches and signals I was responsible for handling. One of my other chores was to do this without running two---or three---trains into each other. Four railroads operated over the diamonds at Rondout: Soo Line, EJE, METRA and Wisconsin Calumet (reporting marks WICT).
ReplyDeleteThere was a single main branch (Fox Lake Subdivision) that ran NW/SE off the main, the primary purpose of which was to carry METRA commuters between Fox Lake, Illinois and Chicago. Between the early morning hours and late afternoon/early evening these scoots, as they were called, ran like street cars. If those scoots were delayed because of a poor choice the operator or train dispatcher made it took the intercession of the Pope, the President and Congress of the United States of America to help the poor soul. The fortunate ones would get away with losing a little ballast from the aft end of their anatomy, the less fortunate were sent to Siberia to reflect on the error of their ways.
The Wisconsin Calumet was formed by a series of transactions following the successful reorganization of the old Milwaukee Road, which had abandoned several lines servicing a bunch of small communities in south central Wisconsin. Part of the deal was the acquisition by the Calumet of several Milwaukee Road locomotives, including two EMD F-7’s, as pictured in the post. The F-7’s were old and beat up. My understanding is the Calumet put a fresh coat of paint on them and turned them loose.
On a number of occasions the train dispatcher called me to say the wicket (as we called it) was coming south out of Fox Lake, wanting to know if there was room to put the critter away at Rondout if the crew dogged (ran out of hours to work). His worst fear was having the train dog on hours or break down on the single main...meaning, no scoots would run between Fox Lake and Rondout until the problem was resolved. That would assuredly involve a lot of explaining to a lot of influential people.
One of the Calumet F-7’s acquired was the MILW 106. A truckload of spare parts was part of the deal, including several sets of duplicate number plates. The other locomotive had no number plates, so they took a set from the 106 spares, turned them upside down and walla...we have the WICT 901. Talk about an operation run on a shoestring!
wow... the end of days for railroading. Fewer railroad commuters as cars got cheaper I suppose, gas was dirt cheap, used cars were dirt cheap, and hauling cargo was switching more to trucking... railroads failed, went bankrupt and maintenance got more expensive... flipping a number plate upside down? That's clever, but sure does show the lack of budget
DeleteThanks to RIK for a wonderful explanation of the machinations of railroad operation, especially under financial duress.
ReplyDelete