1970 PC Story on Bay City Branch

[AARR]

From Jerry at MIRR.com

One trip I had in 1970 I was called from the Firemans extra board for a coal train to Bay City. When I arrived at Livernois Yd. office I was informed by my Engineer M. Sommers we would be the 61st car in the train of 110 cars. Well being still green I thought this will be fun! I couldn't have been more wrong watching the coal dust blow at us all the way and that car rocking back and forth and Marty calling me over to his side of the engine to look at the wrecked hoppers at Yates from a derailment (not what I was wanting to see, but we made it some how in the 16 hours allowed. We stayed at the Wenonah Hotel, and my room was 8x10 so depressing since we layed over abut 24hrs. Mr. Sommers and myself was called to deadhead on the empty coal train. They had coupled all 5 units together and I was on the 5th unit. After passing Saginaw we came to a stop I wandered to the lead unit and opened the rear door and was hid with the worst smell I had ever smelled like sulfur. Now I had about 1 and a half years in and the two Engineers had 12 years each. Nobody new what was wrong, but I knew I wasn't staying in the smell. What happed next was all the units stopped running. After about an hour we isolated the problem to the lead unit witch was the only unit headed south. We called the operator at Saginaw to inform the Detroit Road dispatcher we were going to shove our train in at Denmark JCT. & wye the engines and tie up for beans (for the life of me I can't remember where we ate at). When we got back the north bound had passed and we headed south and got relieved in Lapeer. We got to Livernois 25hrs had passed.

[AARR]

From Jerry Meeks

My experience on the Bay City Branch is limited. I worked with E. L. Novak for about 2 months in 1970 where I learned train handling & air brake's. It was in the spring of 1971 I was up for promotion to Engineer. I went to the MC Depot for the book of rules test. The examiner was from the east and a hard a--. He informed us (about 15 Firemen) that we would all fail. A great way to start your day. There were 5 sections to the test. The first section seemed easy enough, but the 2nd section left me worried. We had to pass each section at 80 percent or better, or retake the entire test up to 3 times, if you failed 3 times you lost your job. Well no one passed, and I knew what I needed to do. I went to Livernois Ave. to the crew disp. office, and marked up on the Sterling to Vassar local with the first Engineer I ran a train with, C. W. Watts. We were on duty 9am and on M. W. F. we went all the way to Vassar and back with work in Lapeer, Oxford. The other day's T. T. S. we turned at Lapeer working their and Oxford and any interchange work. This job was just what I needed to learn rule 251 rules (train orders). I passed the test July 7, 1971 to Engineer.
1973 found me on the Fireman's extra board and many times I was called for the Vassar-Caro local on duty 7 am in Bay City. I lived in Woodhaven at that time. The call was until usually Thursday and Friday. The job usually did not work on Sat. so that gave me a dead head back to Detroit.
The engineer was M. Johnson. We worked at Hoggers (not to sure of the spelling) it was located just west of I-75, Richville, Munger, Reese, Vassar, Millington, Wahjamega, Caro, Colling & Bach and all in 15hrs and 59mins. One of the most unusual thing I ever had happen was we were traveling from Vassar to Caro and all of a sudden the rear door of the engineer opened and it was the Conductor. He had walked on top of the cars from the caboose, if anyone new the conditions then they would just shake your head like I did. The trees formed a tunnel.
I have 2 photo's of E L Novak & me standing in front of PC 3124 a brand new unit under the Fort St. bridge on the Junction Yd. Branch when it was still double track.
In 1976 just before Conrail took over I was called as an engineer for the Sterling-Lapeer turn. That was the only time I officially worked as the engineer on the branch. The trip to Lapeer was a little hair raising as no jobs had been over there in a couple of weeks and the crossings were ice covered. In Oxford on the return trip we were going to go to beans. The head brakeman operated the cross over to the west track and gave me the go ahead signal. I moved about 30 feet and went on the ground when the rail spread in the balsa wood tie's. We died (time expired) right there.
I do have so many memories so maybe I will write them down.

[bctrainfan]

Great stuff, AARR! Hope Jerry continues to write and appreciate you sharing it here.