The
8 years I worked as a Trainmaster were the hardest part of my railroad
career. I was in charge of all trainmen, enginemen and dispatchers,
as well as the agents and telegraphers from Cobre to Ruth to Kimberly.
Mr. Fravel told me that he wanted me to regularly check the ore crews
working at night, and to accompany the freight crews making the Cobre
trip three times a week. I had no regular hours, but on the days or
nights I was not riding trains, I was expected at the office. I had
a private room next to the dispatchers. As you know, the Book of Rules
governing the safe movement of trains is standard throughout the United
States. It covers the duties of Conductors and Brakemen, Engineers and
Firemen. It specifies the exact wording of train orders, and a train
cannot move without the authority of a written train order. I was kept
busy giving the Rules examinations to new brakemen and firemen, plus
men being promoted to conductor or engineer. Some of the examinations
were written, but they were mostly oral.
In
1937, when I arrived at Nevada Northern, there was a daily passenger
train from the Ely Depot to Cobre and return, 140 miles one way. It
also connected with the Western Pacific at Shafter, 18 miles south of
Cobre. There were two complete crews for the passenger service. In addition,
we had an assigned crew on the freight train, which made the three round
trips to Cobre per week. This crew stayed overnight at our Cobre Boarding
House. There was a separate building for sleeping crew, and one end
was separated into a single room with two beds called the Officer's
Room. I became well acquainted with this room. We had an agent at Cobre
(which means copper in Spanish), and he was in charge of interchanging
freight between the two railroads, plus keeping the records of freight
cars interchanged. Also, we had a Car Inspector at Cobre who met our
freight train at Shafter, inspected all cars going and coming from each
railroad, and then did the same thing at Cobre for us. In addition,
he was caretaker of the locomotive and placed it in the roundhouse at
night.
Lucretia
and I rode the passenger train to Cobre on many occasions, going to
Elko, San Francisco or Salt Lake City. The passenger train connected
with an eastbound passenger train at Shafter, and with two mail trains
at Cobre. At Cobre the SP stopped long enough to transfer piles of express
and mail. We paid extra to our trainmen and engine to handle the unloading
and reloading to and from the SP from our mail and express car. We even
had a U.S. Postal Service messenger, who occupied a room at one end
of the express car. He actually worked the mail enroute and prepared
mail pouches for Currie, Cherry Creek and McGill. You would have loved
the old train. It was made up of Engine 40, a high-wheeled steam locomotive,
coal fired manually by the fireman. There was a mail car and express
car along with a coach with red plush seats, and finally the car Cobre.
It was half coach and half observation car. In the rear were big, high-backed
chairs, that would swivel all the way around.
Moving
on. N.N. also had a Switch Crew, which delivered freight cars up to
Ruth and Kimberly. Ruth was the location of the big open-pit copper
mine. Kimberly was an underground mine operated by another company,
Consolidated Coppermines Corp. Ruth was at an elevation of 7,000 ft.
and Kimberly at least 7,500 ft. Ely was only 6,250 ft. The switch crew
also went to McGill to shove freight cars, mostly coal from McGill Junction
up in the Kennecott yard.
We
also had a school train bringing students from McGill and Ruth to the
White Pine County High School. It delivered the students to the Ely
Depot just across the County Courthouse Park to the high school. After
school, it returned them home. This did not last long after 1937 when
the school district purchased school buses. The school had two coaches
filled with students and the Conductors told many stories of rambunctious
kids.
Kennecott
had seven crews working on the ore trains. They delivered 25,000 tons
per day, seven days per week, from Ruth to Kimberly to the Mill at McGill,
a distance of 25 miles. We had steam locomotives (until 1950) and used
one locomotive to pull 30 carloads. There was a 1% grade from Hiline
to the Mill, 12 miles. Later, with diesel-electric locomotives, we operated
50 car trains with two locomotives. Each ore crew made a round and a
half in an 8-hour shift. The first crew took empty cars up to Ruth and
Kimberly, and then took 30 loaded cars to the mill. They brought empty
cars from the mill, and then made another trip to the mines and back
to East Ely. The second crew started the other way by taking loads to
the mill, then going to the mines.
I
am explaining all this so you will see what I had to contend with. The
dangerous part was that the air brakes on each car had to be kept at
100% effective in order to safely get the loads down the 3% grade from
Kimberly and Ruth without a runaway. Each of the 350 cars was sent to
the Car Repair track on a regular basis to have the air-brake system
checked and the axle journals inspected. (Axles would get hot and burn
off under these heavy loads if the lubrication failed or the brasses
wore out.) My job was to see that the rules were strictly followed at
Ruth and Kimberly, with particular attention to the brakes. The trainmen
had to make an air test before the train could start down the grade.
The test included opening the air hose on the last car to see if the
90 lb. air pressure was through the entire train. Then the two brakemen
each checked half the cars in his end of the train to see if they were
tightly set. They signaled the engineer if everything was OK and the
engineer would release the brakes and proceed. Before my arrival in
East Ely, one ore train could not be stopped and it proceeded right
on downhill, through East Ely and three miles across the valley to Hiline
before stopping.
