Re: (erielack) wires down at summit in 71; picking interlocking machines

["William E. Botkin" <webotkin_@_ecentral.com>]

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Len and all,

Len's recounting of the close call at Summit brings back many fond memories 
I have spending hours with Len in the Summit tower.  Len was fine towerman 
and his focus was always to get the trains over the road, if sometimes a bit 
unorthodox. He knew his stuff!

I have posted a photo I took at Summit one very wintery morning during the 
last month of operation of No.6.  The photo shows No.6 pulling into Summit 
with the P&D train No.410 (I think) on the P&D wall track waiting for No.6 
to depart.

William E. Botkin
Centennial, CO


- ----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Len VanderJagt" <lvj911_@_worldnet.att.net>
To: <erielack_@_lists.elhts.org>
Sent: Friday, February 10, 2006 12:10 PM
Subject: (erielack) wires down at summit in 71; picking interlocking 
machines


> Yesterday's post noting the 35th anniversary of the wires down at  summit 
> got some very old synapses sputtering.
>
> I was the first trick towerman at Summit that morning (my regular job). 
> Being in the midst of chaos with hundreds of commuters on the platform and 
> multiple conductors doing what conductors do under these circumstances 
> (think colorful language and a rather focused My Train point of view), one 
> does not have either the time nor the information to develop an overall 
> sense of things.  In the dispatcher's chair you had much more to deal with 
> and far greater overall responsibility, but you had Joe Conboy or an 
> Assistant Chief there to keep the suits off your neck.  On the M&E job you 
> had no machine or direct vision at all, relying entirely on verbal reports 
> from Towermen and others on the phone lines..  You mapped out strategies 
> and communicated the immediate tactics (train moves and train orders) to 
> the troops in the field.
>
> I don't recall anything specific about that day than I can be sure of, 
> beyond the memory of running up and down the steps with orders, yelling 
> out the window to men on the ground, and the general excitement. 
> Truthfully, I loved it. What stress?  It was fun to be young and have your 
> own full-size railroad.
>
> One thing that was always characteristic of the EL, was everybody's focus 
> on getting the trains over the road.  Great pride was taken in on-time 
> performance, and the EL was constantly the best performer in the 
> metropolitan area, by far.  Fact is, everybody would work with you in 
> order to get the trains over the road.
>
> Having said that, the exceptions to the rule can be quite memorable.
>
> On one occasion a westbound scoot broke a pan and came to a halt on the 
> East End of the plant at summit. Rich or someone else may remember this. 
> It happened on second trick, the westbound parade being at stake.  An 
> official, I don't remember who, but I seem to recall it being an Assistant 
> trainmaster (a truly transient position that got no respect from the men) 
> got off the train, looked around, and ordered the engineer to pull the 
> train forward to clear the East End crossovers. The engineer said he would 
> have to have an order from the conductor to move the train, and the 
> conductor initially said no.  A back-and-forth went on with increasing 
> insistence by the suit.  The conductor then had him explicitly direct him 
> to move his train on the suit's authority.  The conductor called to the 
> engineer "pull them ahead" and Pow, hangers are breaking and we are all 
> done.  Last time anyone saw that young Assistant trainmaster.  He did 
> certainly had his moment of being in charge.
>
> The other topic yesterday involved "picking" of EP (by the way, Montclair 
> Tower was EP, South Orange was mechanical, Rich) interlocking machines. 
> As I said, there was great commitment to keeping the railroad running. 
> One of the things I learned on my first day "posting" on the railroad was 
> how to pick locks so that I could get in to pick interlocking machines or 
> hand throw dual operation switch machines on the ground (as at DB).  I 
> have kept this to myself all these years, but I guess I can say it now, as 
> I don't think any of these folks are still with us.  Anyhow, one morning 
> at Summit number 6 was running late, but not so late as being knocked down 
> into the "Plan B" slot for him in the morning rush hour.  Instead, he was 
> hooking 401, who after cutting off from the Dover train, needed to cross 
> over at the west end of the plant and get out on the P&D. If 401 ran late 
> there was hell to pay for the rest of the rush off the branch.  Anyhow, 
> 401s conductor signaled that they were ready to go , but I was already 
> lined up and pulled east for number 6.  A quick conference with the 
> maintainer and I decided to dump the signal on number 6 and get 401 out of 
> town.  Just as I reached for and threw the lever, he hit the bell. What 
> had he seen?  Did the approach signal dump down in his face to "approach"? 
> If I did, would he have seen it? Of course not, but hope prevailed over 
> good judgment and reality.  We went ahead, Harry picked the switch, and we 
> lined up 401 from track one to the branch.  The engineer was a really nice 
> guy but not the sharpest tool in the shed.  He clearly had assumed that we 
> were going to hold him for number six, and when the switches lined him up 
> and the signal went red over green I think he was confused.  He was very 
> slow to get going and make the move. Sweating bullets now, we are all 
> looking out the windows to see number 6 coming around the bend from West 
> summit.  Sure enough, 401 is spread out across the crossovers heading west 
> as number 6 appears moving at track speed, anticipating his regular stop 
> at the East End of the plant.  No radio, remember.  Six throws it in the 
> hole as 401 completes his move. We picked the switches over as the last 
> truck on the train cleared each crossover, and yanked the eastbound signal 
> clear.  Number 6 comes to a stop between the signal and the crossover, 
> figures out what has happened, and pulls down to his regular stopping 
> point.
>
> Deeply concerned about the engineer and fireman, and shaking like a leaf 
> over the barely avoided No 6 T-bones Commuter Train event I had created, I 
> went downstairs and climbed up into the E8 to face the men I had almost 
> killed, and apologized profusely, making no excuses.  They were, of 
> course, extremely unhappy with me, but were also in a state of recovering 
> from the near disaster, feeling relief.  I let it be known to them that I 
> fully expected them to report this and that I deserved the consequences.
>
> Later that morning, after the rush was done and everybody was in the barn 
> in Hoboken, the outside phone rang, and Howard Oakley, the long time M&E 
> dispatcher, quietly told me that he had spoken to the engineer & conductor 
> of No 6, and that he understood what I and Harry ( the signal maintainer 
> who was in his mid-30s and had four children and a wife to feed) had done. 
> He quietly communicated that he understood we were trying to get the 
> trains over the road, and that he expected me to learn from this.  It 
> slowly dawned on me that the train crew and Howard were not going to write 
> it up.
>
> I have never forgotten that day.  In fact, I still remember it often with 
> a dreaded notion of "what if." I was very lucky and fortunate that day. 
> It was a big mistake.  Thank God no one had to pay for my mistake.
>
> Well, there it is folks, my first public confession of this in 36 years. 
> Be gentle with me.
>
> Len VanderJagt
>
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>
> 


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