Tales of the Rails

As a group, I would hazard a guess that ex-military, or perhaps fishermen, tell the best darn stories of their exploits. Since I grew up within the storytelling influence of Grandpa Frank, I was weaned on stories of the railroads.

My only regret would have to be that I was much too young to fully appreciate all of the wondrous stories that gentle man had to tell. Over the years most of these stories have stayed safely tucked away within the confines of my now aging cranium. Before some malady connected to my not too graceful advance on elder age, I figured it was high time to let a few of my favorite tales of the rails creep out for your enjoyment and entertainment.

One of my most cherished possessions is an old black and white photograph from 1939. There are five men, all decked out in their Sunday-go-to-meeting best, complete with fancy top hats. The man on the far right in this photo is Grandpa Frank, and the other four men his co-workers at the Union Pacific freight yards in North Platte, Nebraska.

They were all assembled to attend the Hollywood-style premier of Cecil B. DeMille’s epic saga ‘Union Pacific’ on May 10, 1939 in Union Pacific’s hometown, Omaha, Nebraska. He and his crew got to meet some of the stars of the movie and hob-nob with the Hollywood elite. I was only 5 or 6 years old when he told me this story, but it must have been one of the more memorable times in his life judging by the way he lit up when telling it.

Now for a local tale, at some point in postwar Tehachapi, we were blasted with one extremely brutal winter, I think maybe 1949 or thereabouts. Southern Pacific was doing very well in the post WWII marketplace and had been replacing steam locomotives with diesel power as quickly as they could.

Engineer Charlie Steffes had pulled assignment on the newly dieselized San Joaquin Night Owl leaving Los Angeles for its night run to Bakersfield and up the San Joaquin Valley. The weather was miserable, with snow and high winds starting up as his train climbed Vincent Hill and dropped down into Palmdale and the Antelope Valley. Charlie stopped in Mojave for his orders to Bakersfield, an update on weather conditions over the mountain and a quick cup of coffee. Despite the near blizzard conditions, he had clear track to Bakersfield and a friendly warning from the station clerk to be prepared for anything that Mother Nature had up her chilly sleeve.

Up the east side of the mountain with no problems, the Night Owl hit Tehachapi about midnight. Lots of snow drifts and high winds, but the lights shone green and Charlie cautiously headed down the west side of the mountain toward Bakersfield.

Keeping his speed down, because of the weather, Engineer Steffes entered the first of several tunnels that run above Tehachapi Creek. Highway 58 runs along there now, but at this point in time, there was no major freeway and that area was all open ranch land. As the train rounded a curve through one of the tunnels, the reflection of several dozen brown Bossie bovine eyes looked up in what must have been heifer horror as the piercing headlight illuminated the soon to be unpleasantness.

This, of course, brought the train to a stop and everyone was late getting to Bakersfield.

Seems that the cattle were seeking refuge from the horrid weather in the tunnel and the new, quiet diesel locomotives weren’t noisy enough to alert them into getting out of the way. Southern Pacific did reimburse the rancher for his loss instead of having the cattle cited for trespassing on railroad property.

Last but not least is this short gem from the early seventies. During some repair work at Colton Yard, several flatcars of rail had been unloaded as the track gang was winding down their work day. With reports of a storm coming, the supervisor instructed the crew to, “Throw a tarp over that load of rail. We wouldn’t want it getting wet.”

Think about it...