About the Author J. D. Santucci (a.k.a. "Tuch") began his railroading career in 1978 as a trainman on the Missouri Pacific. After a round of lay-offs in 1985, Tuch embarked on a railroad odyssey, working in many different situations for different roads. This column tries to explain some of the nuts and bolts of the job and also demonstrates what we have to deal with on a regular basis within and without the industry. Tuch currently works through freights out of Chicago for Canadian National/Illinois Central. ©1999, 2003-2007 JD Santucci. Logo ©2002 The Railroad Network. By J.D. Santucci

August 4, 2008
Well, we’re back, I hope. It has been quite the busy period of time in the past few months. Work has crazy. For a time there I was hardly home at all, working twelve plus hours everyday, getting long layovers away from home and going to work way out of cycle. That seems to have improved somewhat. Then there is the wonderful baby that has evolved into the terrific toddler. She is now 28 months old and busier than anything. She wants all the time she can get with dada, and dada wants to spend lots of time with her, so my home time has been quite involved with her. And then there are the projects around the house that need tending to. I had a week of vacation in May and had every intention of trying to knock out a couple of columns then, but time just got away from me.

And then about two and a half weeks ago there was tragedy; my dad suffered a massive stroke and wound up in hospice Friday, July 25th. He passed this Saturday morning, August 2nd after a life of 81 years, 4 months and 14 days. So now we are dealing with that. 

But now, I am taking some time to write. I really need to remove myself from my life for awhile; I have to take a break from it be it just thirty minutes or so. And writing will take me to an escape from it for a little while anyway.

Before we get going, an update on the book as many of you have sent me notes to inquiring about it. The publisher that wanted this project so badly a few years ago withdrew from the deal about this time last year. After speaking with a small publisher since then, I was given some ideas on the manuscript. I have since taken on a professional editor that is going to assist me on the project later this year. So with any luck at all, we might have this thing ready to offer another publisher a year from now. So stay tuned.

I also want to thank all of you that sent me notes inquiring to my well being. I appreciate your concern and thank you for it. We are fine but have just been too busy to do any writing. Hopefully I can steal some time here and there to try to put one of these little diatribes together once a month again. Of course now there is dealing with the aftermath of dad’s passing so we’ll see.

And one last bit of business, we recently traveled to Connersville, IN and the Whitewater Valley Railroad. They were hosting Thomas the Tank Engine there and put on a great program of which the proceeds go to support their rolling museum. My little girl is mad about trains. (Wonder where she got that from? Still more proof that she is indeed mine and not the mailman’s.) She loves Thomas and all the characters from the Island of Sodor. WVRR sponsored the event as they do annually as a fund raiser for the museum and to provide exposure of their operations to all. It was a great time and the terrific toddler had a great time as did this old guy. The WVRR people went out of their way to provide a good time for all. It was well worth the price of admission, which was actually fairly reasonable for all that you got. If you have little ones interested in Thomas, I would strongly suggest you check them out for next year’s visit. It is a great time for all and also an important fund raiser for the Whitewater Valley Railroad. You can visit their website at www.whitewatervalleyrr.org. If you cannot make to it Connorsville; check to see if Thomas is going to come to a railroad museum near you.

So with that all out of the way, let’s begin today’s exciting episode.

Despite all the claims from Homeland Security about making the areas around them safer from intrusion, railroads are generally wide open and clearly exposed to threat. In the days and years before the 9/11 attacks, there have been all sorts of security issues with regards to railroads. You cannot feasibly fence off all rail lines or build some sort of barriers around them. So as a result of this shortcoming, any nutcase, kook or weirdo can wreak some sort of havoc around the railroad. In many instances, some of these nut jobs decide it is funny or amusing to open fire on passing trains. It is by no means rare and has been happening for years. I have been a target on more than one instance in my career. So with that in mind, we will look at open season on trains, from the receiving end.
 
The first time I was shot at (that I know of) occurred in the Roseland community in Chicago during the summer of 1980. We were en route back to Yard Center from the Belt Railway of Chicago’s Clearing Yard with a train. It was around 8:30 on a hot and steamy July evening. I was a student engineer at the time. The engineer was at the controls and I was on the fireman’s side of the cab. I had taken the train north to Clearing Yard earlier and the engineer wanted to run on the way back. As we rolled into the Roseland community, one that had seen its fortunes wane some years earlier, we were used to encountering the neighbors trackside throwing rocks, bottles and many other items at us as the train passed them. It was not rare or unusual; it was pretty much expected. This and several other communities in Chicago in which we operated through along the trackage of the Chicago & Western Indiana were commonly referred to as “the war zone.”

Whenever you saw people near the tracks that weren’t railroad employees, you automatically closed the cab windows anticipating the potential projectiles to be hurtled in your direction. And in many cases, your hunches were correct as they would throw rocks, bottles and what have you at your locomotives and train following. In those days, the FRA required Part 223 glazing was just beginning to be transitioned into service for locomotive and caboose windows. At this point in time many locomotives and cabooses still had the older, non-missile resistant glazing in place. The Federal Government had deemed such projectiles as “missiles.” It didn’t mean the neighbors had acquired Stinger missile launchers and were opening fire upon us. So it was not unusual to have your windows struck and broken by such projectiles. It was also not unusual to have the glass come flying into the cab as a result of a direct hit.

The Part 223 Glazing; Part 223 being the rule from the Code of Federal Regulations, was defined as being “missile resistant” by no means missile proof. The glazing was supposed to be shatter resistant so that if it took a direct hit from many projectiles including some calibers of ammunition, it should be able to hold such projectiles back enough to cause the glass to break and “frost up” as it were but not shatter and not allow said projectile to enter the cab confines of the locomotive. 

So back to that summer evening. We’re just rolling into Roseland along the rails of the C&WI. I am slouched forward in my seat on the fireman’s side looking out the window at the track ahead and wondering what I was going to do when I got off work that evening when there was this big “BOOM” and then my front window started flying in around me. I heard several more booms as more windows started flying in around us. My front window, both center cab windows and the engineer’s front window shattered with much of the glass coming into the cab and all over us. We immediately hit the floor. The engineer said he thought that was gunfire. I reached up and grabbed the handset from the radio and called the CWI Dispatcher. He answered and while lying on my side on the cab floor behind the control stand told him we were under fire and already had several windows in the locomotive cab shot out. He summoned for the railroad police to the scene immediately and asked if anybody was injured. It didn’t appear we were struck and we told him it didn’t appear so at this time.

I then contacted the boys in the caboose and warned them to hit the deck. Being that we had an engine down with overheating problems, we were only rolling along at about 12 or 15 MPH. So we weren’t going to make a fast break from the line of fire. And our slow speed had given the shootist(s) plenty of opportunity to take aim and repeat their fire. We had around 50 or 60 cars that night and this gave the tail end crew plenty of chance to take cover. The Conductor called and said while lying on the floor looking out from the bottom of the window on the bay of the caboose he could see several people on the roof of a factory along side of the tracks, one of them with a gun. They fired several shots at the caboose as it passed. I should mention that this factory was open and operating at the time of the firestorm as well. It wasn’t like this was an abandoned facility or anything.

We kept on rolling, none of us saw any reason to stop in the area where were just shot at and wait for the law to arrive. While nobody on board was injured, I wound up with small fragments of glass in my mustache and on my clothing and hat. The engineer had it in his hair (he was hatless), his eyebrows, mustache and beard as well as his clothing. When we stopped on the “Bumtown Hill” a few miles south of there, we began to clear the glass from each other. We were fortunate that no glass got into our eyes or worse, none of us took a slug. Further inspection of the locomotive showed the front number boards were also shot out. Somehow though, they managed to miss the headlights. There were also a couple pock marks on the side of the locomotive where it had been hit by gunfire. The tail end crew told us they had also been hit back there in the caboose as well, but only one window took a hit.

We talked with the company police on the radio about it and at great length in person when we arrived back at Yard Center. They told us they arrived at the scene long before the Chicago Police and began to investigate. Acting on the word of the Conductor they checked out the factory where he spotted the perpetrators. When the Chicago PD finally arrived they all checked out the roof of the factory where the alleged perps where standing. They found numerous spent shells on the roof, all 25 caliber rounds. However, nobody at the factory had any knowledge of anybody being on the roof of building. Go figure!

The second episode was while traversing through a rather upscale area in New England along the Atlantic Ocean while working a local. The conductor, brakeman and I were discussing the plan of attack when we reached the first customer we were scheduled to service that morning. All of a sudden there was this very loud pop and snap. No crackle, just pop and snap. The snap sounded almost like a whip hitting the window. We all immediately looked in the direction of the sound, which was the fireman’s side of the cab and noticed a small divot at the top of one of the sliding side windows. It didn’t penetrate, just took a small divot, about the size of a quarter out of the outside piece of glass. We reported the incident and went about our business. Railroad police believed it to be a pellet fired from a pellet gun and nothing more. They called it “vandalism.” Wonder what they would have called it if the window was opened and somebody got hurt?

The third episode was probably the most dramatic. It was in my days at the WC. We used to operate via the CSX (former Baltimore & Ohio Chicago Terminal) tracks between the end/start of the WC at Forrest Park, IL and the end/start of the former B&O Altenheim Subdivision to a connection with the Chicago & North Western on the west side of Chicago at a junction called Rockwell. The further east you proceeded on the CSX trackage, the worse the surrounding community became. The west side of Chicago is widely known for its incredibly high crime rate. To give you background on this area, there were huge riots here in 1968 where businesses were not only vandalized and looted, but many of the buildings that housed them were also intentionally set on fire. To this day, some of those burned out buildings remain, untouched from those stormy days, sort of as a monument to a terrible period in our history. Unfortunately, the situation in this area has not advanced for the better of the people of the community either. When the CNW built Global One, the intermodal container yard from the old Wood Street Yard and the adjacent former B&O yard that were here in the mid 1980’s, they had to install concrete barriers along the branch line route that extended from Kedzie Tower to Global One (which also connected to Conrail just south of there at a place called Ogden Junction) and install high security fencing with razor wire atop of it to keep the bad guys out. They also trained their police officers on how to recouple trains that the bandits had uncoupled when they had to slow or stop.

And so it was right at this spot that we had to cross from the CSX to the CNW trackage, and do so with hand operated switches. And to make it all more exciting, we were often held at that spot for hours as this location was also near the west end of Global One intermodal and container facility. Those double stack container trains entering and leaving Global One, as well as manifest freight and intermodal trains interchanging between Conrail and the CNW took higher priority than our 30 or 40 car freight trains en route to the Illinois Central via trackage rights through Global One. And believe me, it was not unusual to hear gunfire in the distance as well as numerous sirens from police cars and paramedic vans en route to situations that had occurred.

So one hot summer night after sitting at Rockwell for some time, the Global One trainmaster gives us permission into the facility and a track in which to run through the yard. So then we receive the permission from the CSX dispatcher to enter the short stretch of single track at Rockwell and up to the crossover switches that connects to the CNW. My trusty conductor Dave gets off and begins lining the switches to crossover from the CSX to the CNW and then I start to pull the train through this route. Now I didn’t hear anything at the time but only learned about it later and then saw the proof when I inspected the power well after the fact, but the first of numerous shots fired at us began when I was starting through the crossovers. After I cleared the switches and Dave stopped me, he started screaming over the radio about shots being fired in his direction. As he was talking I could clearly discern the sound of gunfire in the background.

As it happened, I could see the switches in front of me were lined against my movement. The trainmaster at Global One heard this conversation on the radio. He began calling the CNW police for assistance. Dave had a most certain sound of concern and fear for his own well being and survival in his voice. He told me he spotted movement in the brush not to far away from where he was lying on the ground that appeared to be heading his way. He also spotted an empty box car two from the rear in our train with an open door. He stated his only chance was to make a run for it, and so he did. I was yelling for Global One to get somebody out there now to line those wrong switches in front of me or else I was going to run through them. All I cared about was getting Dave to safety; a run-through switch can be easily repaired, a dead conductor cannot.

I heard Dave yell “GO GO GO!!!” on the radio and began to move the train. It was by no means a textbook start, I just yanked back on that throttle and the train started to move. I guess it was a good thing we only had about 25 cars that night. I then heard his radio key on and off several times and I surmised this to be him rolling over it as he entered the car. As the car he was jumping into began to roll, he then yelled to go again and stated he could see at least two men coming out of the weeds in the direction of the train and they were not too far away. I poured on the coal as it were and charged towards those improperly lined switches. All of a sudden I saw somebody run out of the shanty at the west end of the yard and heading towards the wrong switches. I figured it was a car inspector as they usually worked out of that particular building. This guy looked like an Olympic sprinter as he raced down the lead and lined these switches properly for my moved just moments before I was about to run through them.

Once the tail end of the train was completely inside the facility where there was security and lots of lighting, Dave told me to bring the train to a stop. The CNW police met him there within moments after the train stopped and interviewed him and checked to assure he wasn’t injured. Fortunately, he was okay aside from a nearly terminal case of nerves. Who could blame him?

He told me on the radio to check the engines over as he believed the shooting started as our movement through the crossover switches began. He told me of hearing a strange, non-railroad type sound and wasn’t sure of what it was, so I got out and looked. In between my two SD45s right on the rear drawbar of the lead unit was a very fresh mark that stood out against the oxidation. The CNW police also checked it out and figured it was made from a round fired from a gun. Several cars in the train, including the car Dave jumped into also had bullet marks.

So here is what happened when Dave made his mad dash to safety; he told me he leaped up and into the car with the open door. Not an easy task I might add. He said for me to go just before he jumped. He landed with most of his body inside the door frame and hit the floor and began to roll. I was right when I heard his radio key on and off several times as he told of rolling over a couple of times before he stopped. He said the train began to move as he began to roll across the car floor. He jumped up to move away from the door and looked back to see two men approaching the train as we were starting to pick up a little speed.

The railroad gods and the Good Lord were looking out for Dave that night as he was not exactly a young man and as he put it, “never a sprinter or a long jumper.”

When the CNW police interviewed him and took his statement, they told him that they too, have been shot at in that area before, showing him pot marks on the police car made from gunfire. They also mentioned an episode that we had heard about from the previous week when a Conrail police officer shot and killed a bandit that was trying to break into a car in the area just south of here where the track ownership changed from CNW to Conrail. The bandit opened fire on the Conrail officer when he was spotted and called out to. The officer returned the fire and took out the bandit. They believed our situation to be retaliation for that episode. The CNW officer told Dave it was probably not a good idea to have his lantern illuminated while out there for any period of time as it would make him a better target.

After I got the train into the safe zone and Dave was talking with the police, the trainmaster asked me to call him on the phone. Now in typical fashion for a railroad manager, this guy told me’ “I know you were trying to protect your conductor and get him to safety, but please don’t state on the radio that you are going to run through an improperly lined switch. That is a violation of the rules.” No freaking kidding! So what comes first, employee safety or your stupid switch?

So after that latest episode what did the WC, CNW and CSX do here to try to make this little piece of the world a little safer the railroaders that had to use this trackage on a daily basis? Nothing. You see, nobody was killed or injured so there was no money shelled out to an employee or his family. They perceived this situation to not be a significant threat to our safety and well being. We were just told to “be safe and use good judgment.”

And so it goes.

Tuch

Hot Times on the High Iron and the HTOTHI initials, ©2005 by JD Santucci.