In this episode of Legacies: Living History, we talk with three retired train dispatchers for an insider's look at the job of the dispatcher, the ups and downs of day to day railroad operations, and some memorable stories that took place over the span of nearly 50 years.

https://youtu.be/XN8yFdgfr9s


Edd Fuller, Editor
The Trackside Photographer
http://thetracksidephotographer.com/

As a 51 year railroader of which the final 26 years were in the Dispatching craft - all the stories related in the video are common to every dispatching office on every carrier - just change the names to protect the guilty

Dispatching is making something organized out of a plate of spaghetti - with each strand of the pasta having its own personality and attitude.

Working for a shortline (M&NA) out of Carthage Missouri, I used to run back and forth on the UP's Sedalia sub. between where we got on at Pleasant Hill, Missouri and Neff Yard in KCMO.

Bring a bunch of UP business into a Neff receiving yard track, cut away and run to the other end and come back through another track to put my engines on a track full of our business that they'd assembled in a bowl track for us to take back to Carthage.

Being a non-union road at the time, we weren't very high up on the list of priorities when it came down to letting us leave the yard. When I first started running into Neff, we'd set there hours.. .waiting till the trim job got through doing everything else imaginable before they'd get off the lead and into a pocket track so we could leave. Bored, I wandered over to the switchmans shanty and walked right in and made myself at home.
They had two jobs working, but only one at a time out on the lead. I'd set in there and BS with the crew that was on spot. Turns out one was an old Katy engineer from my hometown, and we knew each other. We'd set there and talk about old times at home and the MKT.
Well, next thing I knew... the other job comes in after completing their assignment and it's my friends job turn. The foreman walks over to the printer and digs around and comes up with the paperwork for my train and tells me "hell, we'll go build your train so you can get home early today."
In just a little bit, they had our cars assembled and the yardmaster hollered over the intercom into the shanty telling me to head out to my power and get on the cars... they were going to get us out of town PDQ.

So, I went out, got on the engines and told the conductor (who had stayed out on the engine snoozing) that it's our turn. We got on the track, the car man did the air test real quick... and we toned up the dispatcher.

He comes on the radio and I tell him who we are, that we have a 55 car train and that we're air tested and ready to go. There is a short pause before he comes back on, and when he does, he says "M&NA, eastbound Amtrak is going to leave Union Station here shortly, so if I let you out, you better not delay him."

Union Station was 6 miles away from where I was at in Neff.

I'm sure beads of sweat broke out on my forehead. I had three 6 axle SD20's (I think they were) for power. Just as soon as you leave Neff eastbound on the Sedalia, it's a 5 mile climb up 1½% "Independence Hill" and there is a 10mph speed restriction right at the bottom at "Rock Creek Junction", where another railroad intersected.

My train list showed I was restricted to 50mph. Amtrak was 70, then.

I looked at my conductor, who shrugged... well, this was my chance. I replied to the dispatcher that I would get over the road to P'Hill and get off his railroad and not delay Amtrak.
The signal at Rock Creek Junction lit up green, and I was off.

As soon as I got my rear end over the 10 at Rock Creek, I racked that throttle back and beat them engines like a rented mule.

It was a little less than 30 miles to Pleasant Hill, and there was only one hotbox detector I had to run across. Just as my rear end was clearing the main line into the siding at Pleasant Hill, I heard Amtrak coming across the detector 6 miles behind me!!!!! I kept my end of the bargain!!!!

Bad Order -

Great story! Thanks for sharing.


Les

There is some great people back on Long Island that really should be interviewed, being they were the last generation of guys to still use TT/TO, Form 19's and hooped orders up on Y sticks until not that long ago.

Stories get generated every day - even on today's railroads.

Recall a 'boss' wanted to give priority for a particular auto rack train over all other trains in either direction to get to Atlanta - After a period of discussion the Dispatcher complied with the order - rack train was expedited to Atlanta and shut the terminal down for 6 hours while the train waited for its Assigned Crew to come on duty at their assigned time. Six other trains 'went on the law' because they couldn't make their destination account of where the rack train was waiting for its crew.

There is more to Dispatching than just keeping signals lined ahead of a train.