I got a story about trying to stop. I dogcaught a local on a super cold night, after the last pick up we had 145....146 something like that, 100 loads on the headend and the rest was mixed bag of junk, tanks, empties, loads, 5 motors on the point, one was dead cuzz the blue card was past due. It took me a good 45 minutes just to get enough air to test the cars. Kicked them off and up the hill we went. The clime to the top is about 7 miles then you rocket down the other side for about 8 miles to reach town. Usually by time you get to the top your air is charged back up, well i had only gained 6 pounds after i released the brakes for the air test. Most hogs wouldnt have started up the hill till the air was good enough to set them for an air test again. I dont like using just the dynamic brake when i come off most hills. So i tip toed off the other side (which i never do when i have good lights) and made it all the way down just to the edge of town. I had to use full service to stop, which didnt work too well, i was gonna plug it if we would have slid another 1/8th of a mile twards the block. We had to yard this train, so when we got a light, switched to the yard channel, told the yardmaster i was coming in, no air, have those boys line me in, if i have to stop at a switch im gonna have to run it, or dump the train and slide for who knows how far. That trip did scare me. I could hear my engineer instructor voice when i was cresting the hill"being a good hog means making good choices". Well we made it, still dont know if it was a good choice or not to pull the hill so soon, i thought about getting her balanced on the top and pumping some more but there is an control point at the top, and the dispatcher would have been asking what the problem was.
Last edited by UPRR engineer on Wed Apr 27, 2005 3:12 pm, edited 2 times in total.