Catching Flimsies, 2018
Paper train orders- snagged at speed from station agents, block operators, or tower operators- have gone the way of the steam locomotive, the first-generation diesel, the five-man crew, and the caboose. Almost everywhere on the North American continent, radio, computers, and yes, even the fax machine have rendered paper train orders picked up on the fly- "flimsies" to steam-era veterans- outdated to the point where their receipt by crews is sometimes replicated by museum operations.
And yet, here on the drearily wet evening of July 20th, 2018, a date which probably seemed impossibly futuristic to those railroaders for whom picking up orders this way was an everyday occurance, the engineer of Canadian National symbol U26171-18, an empty crude oil train heading back to Canada, leans over the railing behind his cab to snatch those all-important documents, strung up on the order forks by the operator- himself a member of a critically endangered species- at JB Tower at West Chicago, Illinois.
Running on the ex-EJ&E, the locomotives hammer across the diamonds on the former C&NW triple main of UP's Geneva Sub as the catch is made.... almost. As it turned out, the engineer on CN 8875 just missed the orders, and had to bring his train to a stop, momentarily blocking the interlocking while he walked back, understandably frustrated, to retrieve his train orders.
Catching Flimsies, 2018
Paper train orders- snagged at speed from station agents, block operators, or tower operators- have gone the way of the steam locomotive, the first-generation diesel, the five-man crew, and the caboose. Almost everywhere on the North American continent, radio, computers, and yes, even the fax machine have rendered paper train orders picked up on the fly- "flimsies" to steam-era veterans- outdated to the point where their receipt by crews is sometimes replicated by museum operations.
And yet, here on the drearily wet evening of July 20th, 2018, a date which probably seemed impossibly futuristic to those railroaders for whom picking up orders this way was an everyday occurance, the engineer of Canadian National symbol U26171-18, an empty crude oil train heading back to Canada, leans over the railing behind his cab to snatch those all-important documents, strung up on the order forks by the operator- himself a member of a critically endangered species- at JB Tower at West Chicago, Illinois.
Running on the ex-EJ&E, the locomotives hammer across the diamonds on the former C&NW triple main of UP's Geneva Sub as the catch is made.... almost. As it turned out, the engineer on CN 8875 just missed the orders, and had to bring his train to a stop, momentarily blocking the interlocking while he walked back, understandably frustrated, to retrieve his train orders.