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We had a tonnage limit of 3,200 over the Marion hill. As the city of Wabash sits in a basin, all freights north and south had to be helped out of it. The first or second trick yard engine gave them a shove over the hill. On the bright autumn day I'm writing about the yard clerk must have misfigured the tonnage for NO. 74. Leaving Anderson, at the foot of the White River bridge, there is a short, steep grade approaching Dow, an interlocking tower at the old Pennsy main. Trains usually topped the grade with power to spare, today was going to be different. The engineer was of 74 was an old timer who knew his stuff and could get all there was out of his engine. The engine was an old Mike, class H-10, (Photo) which was our heavy power at the time.
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I had caught the first trick on the uptown yard job. We were in the clear just North of Dow in the Greed Steel track. Old 74 got almost up to the summit, then she just quit. She had plenty of steam, good traction, and a booster for that extra climb; but 74 just couldn't make it. The engineer sent the head brakeman up to see about doubling the hill, that is if the rear end was over the White River bridge.
In those days we had no radios or walkie-talkies. As a rule, everyone knew what had to be done, and did it. Our conductor got on the phone about the time 74's head man reached the operator at Dow. After an exchange of ideas, it was decided that we would give them a pull up the hill and make a "drop" of old 74. I made over 50 drops in my years of railroading, but never of a whole train. Especially a drop over an interlocking plant and two busy street crossings. At that time, I wasn't an old head and it all sounded exciting to me.
It couldn't have been more than a mile from the Greed Steel switch to the front of 74. If we could get 74 started over the hilltop, we would have to do it in a short amount of distance. Now 74 could have doubled the hill to the Dow siding, and delayed us both more than a hour. However, both crews wanted to get going and head in soon. We ran the red board down to Dow and picked up 74's head man, then we coasted downhill to 74's engine. After listening to our plans, 74's crew was sure it could be done. Our yard goat on this run was one of the hundreds of 0-8-0's that Alco had built for the Central from 1918 to 1944. We were about to go face to face with a 2300 class H-10.
We left our conductor to handle the switch at the Greed Steel spur. The switch there was a pipe-connected derail type. The rear brakeman would flag Cross Street and I was left with the task of pulling the pin the moment we reached Dow crossing.
Before I stepped onto the footboard between the engines, both engines safety pops had opened and two 30 foot gushers of steam rose into the air and joined the black smoke. After about a minute or so, 74 called in his flag and highballed. The firemen for both engines were ready and I was standing between two stacks about eight feet apart. Each stack was belching cinders and smoke almost 100 feet high. Within moments we had all 42 cars of over 3,200 tons moving!
Yes, there was slipping and sanding going on and several pop valves letting loose before our engineer hooked up the old Also a notch of two. We gained some speed and got 74 up to 10 or 12 miles per hour by the time we reached the Indiana Avenue crossing. During the next 1500 feet, as we approached the Dow signal our engineer hooked up the little switcher some more. The signal at Dow had been green ever since we took hold of 74.
Ever since the first chug of those engines I'd been standing in a shower of hot cinders. Those cinders fell so thick and fast that I couldn't open my eyes. I just squinted and peeked through to see where we were and prepare for the race to get away from 74 and get to the Greed switch. I did risk opening my eyes as we approached the signal at Dow. As we knocked the signal down our engineer gave me slack as I nodded my head. With one hand on the pin lever and the other hand hanging on for dear life I shook my head up and down letting our engineer know I had pulled the pin up. Talk about a yard goat flying, this little baby made sparks of red steel around all the wheels for a short while. I could see the drivers spinning through my half-closed eyes and now there was a new blizzard of cinders. The engineer had that yard goat hooked up as high as it could possibly go and we flew across that interlocking plant. I opened my eyes again when we rumbled over Cross Street where the flagman had all traffic stopped. Then our engineer hit the air as we slid through the Greed switch and the derail. I could hear the tender brakes digging in when I signaled that we'd gone past the derail. Our conductor closed the switch at Greed and old 74 went rolling on by. Later our conductor said that 74 had plenty of room to spare, but I noticed his eyes were pretty big when we galloped past the switch. During a shower at the crew room that afternoon I finally got rid of the cinders that were in my hair and all over my body. As I look back on this operation I would have given a thousand dollars to have a videotape of the whole ordeal!
