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From: "William E DOT Botkin" webotkin AT ecentral DOT com
Date: Sat, 11 Feb 2006 20:08:53 -0700
Subject: Re: (erielack) wires down at summit in 71; picking interlocking machines
"EL_Lake_Cities_MU_Summit_NJ_Dec1969_cW.jpg" - image/jpeg, 127383 bytes, 1024x676 (24bit)

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"
To:
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
>
> The Erie Lackawanna Mailing List
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> http://www.elhts.org
>
>


EL_Lake_Cities_MU_Summit_NJ_Dec1969_cW.jpg

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