Like I had said before, I've been busy lately... About two weeks ago another engineer asked me if I wouldn't mind swapping jobs. He'd take the yard engineer's position and I'd take over the road job's engine. As I had been the conductor on the road job since I started here in 2006 I felt comfortable handling the engine on the road, and I know the territory and cane loading elevators on the line. I won't go into the reasons... Needless to say, I'm no longer running the small 800 HP switching engine, I'm behind the controls of a 2,000 HP EMD GP-38-2.And I get to see a lot better scenery out on the road. Pictured above is the view out my side of the locomotive this morning around 6:45 AM as we departed a cane loading elevator 11 miles from the mill.
It took some getting used to... I really do miss working with my other conductor, Jay, and my new conductor I'm now convinced is afflicted with narcolepsy... Nah, he wasn't really asleep. We were waiting for a few more loads to be kicked out at a cane loading elevator, and to be honest, there really isn't much else to do except kick back and relax while the harvesters load our rail cars.
But I get to run a big, powerful locomotive that will easily handle 60 to 70 loaded cane cars (1,800 to 2,100 tons) and won't rattle my fillings out of my teeth and heaters actually work on cold nights...
Here's a small look at my new "office"...
And as an aside, you guys now know how warped my mind is sometimes... Someone brought it a case of locally grown sweet potatoes last night for everyone to share and some sick fuck found this one...It does look vaguely familiar...
Photos and rambling Copyright 2010 Thomas J Wolfenden
