OOC: Since my positive TLs still seem to be getting quite a lot of interest, I figure its time I did something about filling that interest. So, without wasting any more of anybody's time, here we go with that: Random stories about people, places, things and life in the world of The Land of Milk and Honey. Hope people enjoy.
P.S. If people have ideas on what they want to see, kick them in. Comments and additions are always appreciated.
March 26, 2016
Tehachapi Pass, near Bealville, California
6:29 AM
The engineer of Southern Pacific's train Extra 9025 East was alert from his coffee, but starting a shift at five-fifteen in the morning wasn't easy for most people and it wasn't for him. Regardless of that, the good coffee that the crewhouse at Bakersfield always seemed to have was a godsend, and that, along with the scenery of the Tehachapi Mountains and the task of driving a 136-car freight train, kept him good and alert even as part of him wanted to wish he was still back in his bed in Bakersfield. But even as fatigue still clawed at him, Damian Jefferson knew eventually his job's perks would get through to him and make the fatigue disappear. But he wasn't the only one who had noticed he was a bit tired. His brakeman, Anthony Morgan, had noticed too.
"You tie on one too much, man?" Anthony commented.
"Do I look like that kinda guy these days, Amno?" Damian answered with a smile.
"Shit man, every time I see you these days you have those bags under your eyes."
"Twin nine-months-old girls will do that, you know."
"Well, yeah, but you didn't have to get Sarah pregnant, you know." Anthony offered. "Besides, you were telling me back when we were doing shit jobs out of Long Beach that you yearned for some jobs less stressful than the morning collection out of the Beach." Damian smiled at the memory, despite knowing that his friend had used those lines for a reason.
"Eight hours to grab loads at Long Beach and deliver to West Colton always rubbed a little raw, ya know?"
"Especially when some idiot puts a Budgee up front on the power."
"Yeah, I don't know the guys at the Beach so often did that."
"I asked once upon a time." Anthony commented. "They always said that it was better to be able to see coming out of the docks into the city."
"With the Corridor, they don't need to do that anymore."
"Unless we got sent onto the East line."
"Even then, most people knew that the train couldn't stop if they got in the way, but that we couldn't hit them if they weren't on the tracks." Damian paused to take a sip of his coffee. "Fuck it, this is better anyways."
"Ain't that the fuckin' truth." Anthony genuinely agreed. "And we got enough power this time."
Damian had to admit that was true. Extra 9025 East was a manifest, with pretty much every single one of its 152 freight cars loaded with a combination of lumber, cement, steel pipes, fertilizer, plastic pellets, crushed rock, biodiesel fuel, industrial chemicals and a dozen flatcars loaded with road construction equipment and four new buses for the Los Angeles MTA. To move this immense load was two electric locomotives and four diesels at the front and four more electrics in the middle of the train. On a heavy manifest like this, Southern Pacific had a crew of four - engineer, two brakemen and conductor, and in this case the helpers required their own engineer, who also got the second brakeman. Despite the multiple wash stations at SP terminals at West Colton and Bakersfield, the hill power - all electric with the completion of the electrification of the Palmdale Cut-off in the late 1980s - was always dirty. The tunnels and the diesels saw to that. Despite the uncertain nature of the train schedules, Southern Pacific - owned by its employees for decades - had developed ways of crew assignment that allowed friends to work certain trains, which was today the five men on Extra 9025 East all knew each other very well. The four diesels on the train through the valley had had a fifth, but that extra diesel had been left behind at Bakersfield. As the electrics would be with the train all the way to West Colton, it simply wasn't needed, and could be more easily used to move loads back north through the valley. All told, the train has over 10,000 tons to move....and 74,500 horsepower to do it, three-quarters of that from the electrics, who took their power from the immense Lost Hills nuclear power station northwest of Bakersfield.
"True as that is, we still gotta work at this, with a load like this one."
"I'm already on the sanders and brakes, Archer, you just gotta keep this big beast moving."
Damian adjusted the throttle on the electric as he did that, noting the incoming S-curves that marked Bealville, the second checkpoint on the climb from Bakersfield to Mojave. "Not a problem, today." The radio squawked before Anthony could.
"Helper 9025 East calling head end." Anthony grabbed the radio.
"Head End here."
"Could you guys take some more of the slack up there. We're starting to get a bit of slippage back here." The voice was that of the second brakeman, Russell Joshua.
"We got it, Russ, so long as you guys can watch the pull. The materials boxes are more our way."
"Roger that Anthony, we'll up the pace on our end as well, but we gotta get the slack dealt with first."
"Already on it."
About an hour later, the big train had rounded the famed Tehachapi Loop at Walong and had reached for the top of the pass, emerging out of the canyon at Cable into the small city of Tehachapi and its satellite city Golden Hills. The train faced out over the desert landscape that marked where Tehachapi was, noting that the train had arrived to see a brilliant sunrise appear just over the last row of mountains that marked the entrance into the Mojave desert. The mountains and the collection of wind turbines that marked that last row of hills made for a truly gorgeous vision of the day arriving in Southern California. Both men in the lead locomotive liked what they saw.
"Well, damn." Anthony commented. "Ain't that a pretty one."
"The only benefit of working mornings like this."
"Aside from being able to get home and see the Missus while its still bright and sunny?" Anthony was really laying it on thick, Damian thought.
"I guess I'm just too damned tired to see the obvious."
"Hey man, when those kids are grown, you'll get to tell them how hard it was."
"How hard what was, raising them?"
"Yeah, man." He smiled. "You'll still be a capable guy when they have kids, and you'll get to say to them 'payback time for all that shit you put me through'."
Damian laughed out loud at that one. "Okay, there is that, I suppose. Grandpa will get to hear about how gross changing diapers can be and laugh his ass off."
"Fuckin' A right, my friend." Anthony grew a big Cheshire cat grin on his face. "And I got one other thing to make your day." He grabbed the radio. "Extra 9025 East calling the depot at Tehachapi."
"Tehachapi answering."
"Is Mac there?"
"Hearing every word of you, Anthony." A voice came over the radio with what sounded like a bit of mirth.
"You have my packages, Michael?"
"Yeah, I got 'em. How you gonna get 'em, though."
"We're due a run-by inspection. We'll back it down to allow Allison some extra time, and she can pass it up."
"Thanks for volunteering me, you little shit." Another voice, this one female, came over the radio. "You and Damian up at the head end?"
"Yep."
"I'll pass it to you from the window."
"Anthony, what the bloody hell are you up to now?" Conductor Joshua Larkson commented from the caboose at the other end of the train.
"A surprise for us, boss. Remember the night back at Simon's last week?"
"I'm not gonna forget it any time soon." Joshua commented with a chuckle. "You paying us back for bailing your dumb ass out?"
"Absolutely, boss."
"You better have something good."
Fifteen minutes later, the train slowed onto the outside inspection track, rolling by the inspection station on the south side of the tracks. Damian slowed the train down to a crawl, allowing Allison to pass a big plastic bag to Anthony's outstretched arms as the train rolled by.
"Thanks, gorgeous."
"You owe me one for that." Allison shouted back.
"You gonna keep score?"
"You fucking know it!" Allison shouted back with a grin. "See you boys back at the barn!" Anthony waved as the second locomotive drew level with Allison as she scampered off the inspection platform, allowing the two inspectors to get to work, both of them smiling as they did so. Anthony stepped back into the cab as she did that and opened up the big plastic bag.
"What the heck is that?" Damian asked.
"Breakfast." Anthony said with a smile, reaching into the bag and pulling out a small cardboard box, packaging for food from a very good burrito place in Tehachapi. "Yours are the Breakfast Cobb burrito you like, mine are the real manly shit, sausage, bacon and hash browns."
Damian howled with laughter. "Please tell me there is more waiting for Russ and Ryan and Josh."
"After Simon's? You know the answer to that." Anthony tossed Damian's long-empty coffee cup into the trash bag between the seats on the locomotive, replacing it with a big can of Arizona peach green tea which Anthony knew Damian liked.
"You really pulling out all the stops, huh?"
"You betcha. Now we can eat up before we get far past Mojave." Anthony opened up the box and sunk his teeth into the first. He hadn't gotten three bites before the radio squawked.
"Helper 9025 East calling head end. Anthony, you SOB, pick up the radio."
"What's up, Ryan?"
"You little shit, was this your idea?"
"Fucking duh." He heard a laugh over the radio.
"How did ya pull this one off?"
"Michael's is open 24 Hours, man. I just called ahead this morning, and asked Mike to pick them up for me. I get it right?"
"Carne asada for me, turkey club for Russ. Yep, you got it right."
"Good." He paused. "Boss, you got one coming, too. Pork carnitas, chopped eggs and pico." He got a chuckle over the radio.
"Good, because I was gonna kick your ass when we got to Palmdale if you didn't get me one."
"Now come on, how could I forget the guy whose actual train this is?" Anthony commented jokingly.
"I'll score you one in your favor, wiseass." There was a pause over the radio. "Thanks for breakfast, Anthony."
"No problem, boss." He hardly said that when the radio came back up.
"Tehachapi Inspection calling 9025 East." Damian picked up the radio.
"9025 East responding, Tehachapi."
"When you lucky bastards are done stuffing your faces, your train's roll-by is good. You guys pass over any detectors on Tehachapi?"
"Yeah, passed over the one at Marcel, no defects."
"Good, good. Have a good day, guys, and enjoy breakfast. You have clear signals at east end Tehachapi."
"Roger, thank you Tehachapi. Have a good day, and tell Mike to go get a few more burritos." Damian called back.
"Only if you're paying, Damian." Michael called back with a chuckle as both Damian and Ryan opened the throttles on their locomotives, causing hissing as brake pressure fell in the train and growling as the four diesels had their prime movers pick up RPMs. "Tehachapi out."
"Ready to go to Palmdale, Damian?" Anthony smiled at his friend.
"Bet your ass. Let's go."