Rush Springs, Oklahoma, 21NOV'73
On the Kansas City - Texas mainline, Rush Springs was 54 miles south of El Reno and the location of a 24-hour train order office as well as a 6316-foot long siding. This was ABS territory and the train order office was maintained to keep train operations fluid through messages that set up meets between trains or alerted crews of changing conditions. One night as we bore down on Rush Springs, the train order signal above the bay window indicated that our northbound was to pick up train orders here, the blade on the right being in a diagonal position known as a "19-order signal" so that the orders, tied in a string that was clipped into a triangular shape on an order fork, could be picked up on the fly...and flying we were. June'72, my first summer working for them out of El Reno, I worked quite a few trips on 97 or CTX and returned to El Reno on 98; maybe they wanted to keep the kid off the locals! Can't say I objected if that was the plan, but going northbound here - left to right - it was my job to snatch the "flimsies" and I'm sure we were doing every bit of the speed limit. The official speed limit at that time was 60, but there was a bulletin directing all trains on Subdivision 26 to observe a 50mph slow order, BUT exception was made for Trains 97 and CTX between El Reno and Rush Springs (which was welded rail.) So at least 50 was our closing speed and I'd say it was likely more than that! I missed them; my first attempt was unsuccessful. The engineer was very kind and patient and explained to the youngster - me - that the trick was to make a fist with your right hand and just look at that triangle of string with the determination that your fist will go right into that triangle, then the string and orders would come off around your elbow and you just became a railroader. Well, almost...he also said not to try catching the string between my thumb and index finger or I could likely break both of them. I took his sage advice and never missed those orders again, with many subsequent occasions to catch them on Rock Island and BN.
Rush Springs, Oklahoma, 21NOV'73
On the Kansas City - Texas mainline, Rush Springs was 54 miles south of El Reno and the location of a 24-hour train order office as well as a 6316-foot long siding. This was ABS territory and the train order office was maintained to keep train operations fluid through messages that set up meets between trains or alerted crews of changing conditions. One night as we bore down on Rush Springs, the train order signal above the bay window indicated that our northbound was to pick up train orders here, the blade on the right being in a diagonal position known as a "19-order signal" so that the orders, tied in a string that was clipped into a triangular shape on an order fork, could be picked up on the fly...and flying we were. June'72, my first summer working for them out of El Reno, I worked quite a few trips on 97 or CTX and returned to El Reno on 98; maybe they wanted to keep the kid off the locals! Can't say I objected if that was the plan, but going northbound here - left to right - it was my job to snatch the "flimsies" and I'm sure we were doing every bit of the speed limit. The official speed limit at that time was 60, but there was a bulletin directing all trains on Subdivision 26 to observe a 50mph slow order, BUT exception was made for Trains 97 and CTX between El Reno and Rush Springs (which was welded rail.) So at least 50 was our closing speed and I'd say it was likely more than that! I missed them; my first attempt was unsuccessful. The engineer was very kind and patient and explained to the youngster - me - that the trick was to make a fist with your right hand and just look at that triangle of string with the determination that your fist will go right into that triangle, then the string and orders would come off around your elbow and you just became a railroader. Well, almost...he also said not to try catching the string between my thumb and index finger or I could likely break both of them. I took his sage advice and never missed those orders again, with many subsequent occasions to catch them on Rock Island and BN.