March 1993

NEWSLETTER

OF THE MOHAWK & HUDSON CHAPTER, N.R.H.S.

THE CALL BOARD 11

A Winter Interlude
loco's steam generator water tanks full. Perhaps many will recall the winter of Thus everyone on the train was comfort1965-66 when New York State-and New able, despite all the heavy snow still comYork Centralwere really hit with snow. ing down. After a three-hour wait, the sigI was just able to catch No. 90, the "Chicanal cleared and we were off for East Syragoan," the last through train from the west cuse. While at Utica, the loco's oil engines for a while back to New York City (a bit were at idle and so temperatures were down. late, though). Thus I Was able to reach our However, when the engines started to work, office at 466 Lexington A venue Monday the temperatures came up and so all of the morning on time. snow packed around the exhaust manifold In the middle of the morning, Carl Miller, outlets began to melt and we had Niagara Supervisor of Locomotive Maintenance, Falls inside the units! came in to our Locomotive Engineering Tben the "fun and games" began - the Department and said, "Harold, go get your ground relays started to trip (electrical suitcase. You and I are going to DeWitt. I'll equipment getting wet)! Carl took one unit meet you on No. 39 at Hannon." At Grand and I the other and we raced back and forth Central Terminal a large .gn announced resetting the ground relays to get the power that No. 39 was only going as far as Alban plant back on line. Finally, Carl bad one nn1rP>". olant tbal could not bold the ground on account of the stornL Qui Harmon as planned.. n>j.,,~ ,nv1 so bad to be left off the line. I had pitched in to belp tile j boldine the layshaft handle the sixth throttle position., the the locomotive tnar was seuggling dlfOl!J~=~ 00 auld hold. Thus we came from the west M of ground rela cracking off the ice from the into East Syracnse with two-and-a-half power plants out of four on line. At East carbody intake ill so that the oil engines, air compressors, traction moSyracuse, we were relieved by diesel inspector Jobn Kelley from the West Springtor blowers and generators could "breatb." field, Mass. diesel shop. How John made "Knickerbocker, " out I never did heard. Finally, o. dec:ide:d to let this train What with all of the snow, city traffic in came in and it go througb. Carl ",,0 up and ride Syracuse was at a standstill. After a while, Mohawk we got a lift over to the railroad "Y" in Eat the cab - I ba en't Division on the beal Syracuse. At least here we were able t obtain some breakfast. Eventually, we made had a cab ride to Eas SYlrno:::se Mean wbile, it was stl!ISlJl(J!;>;>iag it to DeWitt Diesel Shop. Here we found It was truly amazing ~~iliaw General Foreman Jim Basille andbis people. The men on duty when the came couldn't Division engineer intervals when visibility ~,z;:mafiJOt get home and the ones who were to relieve them couldn't get to the shop. Sa they made front of the loco's neat:lli~~ second, crossing flashers were ~;ea;;tq~at do. Maintenance work was at a standstill as ing as we passed through. _ everyone was needed to check on yard engines stalled by the snow throughout the York, a message awaited us; yard. Two snowmobiles had been obtained further notice. East Syracuse plugged with trains." So Cad these were utilized to reach the yard back to the dining car and bad ans::ec::;.;;;;a-. (Aleo S-2's). Finally, Jim came tome said: "How about you going out and afterwards sitting in the rear :::1i~.[ng the operator on the jet snowways rated two "A" units) to . He hasn't had any relief in three "winks." While all of this was goi "" Utica car department people came.oetped odically with a water hose to k! seen the jet snowblowers being

By Harold Crouch

constructed at Collinwood Backsbop, but bad no information on their operation. Thus the operator made a "Ninety Second Wonder" of me and so he operated for twelve hours and I for another twelve. Perhaps a brief description of the jet blowers will be of interest at this point: A New York Central caboose had the carbody cut away just ahead of the cupola (where the rear brakeman used to ride) and a heavy steel plate was mounted as the deck. On top of this plate was a stand wbich held the J-47 jet engine in a horizontal position. Near the end of the caboose (about over the draft gear), a turntable was mounted which could be rotated by hydraulic cylinders. Mounted on the turntable was a large nozzle that was hinged at the inboard end, but the outboard end could be raised or lowered hydraulicall y. This nozzle extended out over the coupler of the caboose. In operation, with the jet engine running at about 65-70% of full speed, the nozzle was singing back and forth across the track ahead to clear the snow. It is not necessary to remove the snow down to the ties except at switches - as a couple of inches below the top of the rail is sufficient. When the top of the rail on both sides could be seen, a signal was given to the engineer on the loco pushing the blower to move it ahead. With the relatively light weight of the caboose, if the top of the rail could not be seen, it would be very easy to de-rail it, and, in emergencies like this, a de-railment was not desired! By now, the snow had stopped so we spent the remainder of the week cleaning out the hump, retarders and class tracks. Where more diesel locos had traversed a track, the traction motor cases had packed the snow down and so it was slow going to dislodge this packed snow - even with the exhaust gas leaving the nozzle at 300 mph! By the end of the week DeWitt Yard - and Syracuse, too - wee back to normaltill next time! The following year, Chicago, Illinois, was really hit with snow and so I went out to help there, too - but that is another story!