Have any "stories" to tell about a day in the life or your Free-Lance Road? "Imagineering" is one of the best ways I've found to come up with new ideas for my AOW. Here's one to start things off. "And the man at the throttle was...RODREGIS CHIVES!" One of the hottest Locomotive Engineers on the TVRS, now AOW, is Rodregis Chives of Corpus Christi, TX. He has Top Seniority on the Corpus-Gridley Division and has recently been promoted to Head Road Foreman, of the C-G Div. He started out as a Locomotive Repairman back in 67' on the TVRS out in El Paso. Once the TVRS became the AOW, he was retained by the new ATSF-BN management after a purger of some of the more "lazy" work force. He worked his way up to Car Knocker, Breakman, Fireman, Conductor and finally Engineer in 1975. After the BNSF merger, he was "Da' Man!" taking on all the HOT assignments. Nick-Named "BEEB-BEEP!" because of his constant handeling of the AOW's "Roadrunner" Fleet, never, that's right, never bringing a Roadrunner in late. Described as a "working" manager, Chives still hits the road with an occasional Roadrunner trip, but spends alot of his time at the Gridley Shops making sure the AOW/BNSF fleet is in top shape for his crews. AOW/BNSF Sulutes RODREGIS CHIVES, the "CASEY JONES" of the C-G Div., for a job well done! Let's just hope his career doesn't end the same way as Casey's. KEEP 'EM ROLLING, BEEP-BEEP! ------------------ Brent Tidaback, Member #234 BNSF Railfan-to-the Max and a N-Scaler to boot! "Ship it on the Route of The Roadrunners!" The Aransas Odessa & Western, a division of the BNSF
Now we know who exceeded our town speed limit of 15 mph! It was that Beep Beep fella with the big grin that flashed through. Got all the High School girls in a dither! Even scared the feathers offn' Aunt Linnie Trappe's prize Turkey! ------------------ Watash
Maxwell, I just read your post over again! This must be the third or fourth time. You should write a book like this, it would make interesting reading. I remember when I was maybe 8 to 12 mom would read a story to us while dad drove acros the west Kansas plains. Radio wasn't all that much in those days. I remember stories like this one sounded! Wopuld be a great one around the fireplace at night too. I guess families still get together don't they? ------------------ Watash
Maxwell, I have a photo/journal going on the NY&W that may fit the theme: http://www.nyandw.com/nywphoto.htm and: http://www.trainsarefun.com/lburg/welcome.htm done by a non-train person that likes scenery. SL
Cool stuff guys! This is the stuff that makes this hobby great! I'll share a little more about "Mr. Chives" here but I'm not one to write books, just not my line. Many years ago when I was but a lad, I was "playing trains" with my fellow chums. We would build trains in the then HO-scale TVRS yard. We would not only assign power, but a crew as well. We'd make up names for the crew members and use them as we operated the train on the layout. One day we put together a HOT passenger train that had two F-7's on the point, one Santa Fe Warbonnet and one Southern Pacific Bloody-Nose. The train had a Southwest feel to it so I wanted the names of the crew to reflect that. We were drinking Iced Tea from Dixie Cups which had a "Spices of The World" print on it. Mine had the spice "chives". "Cool, that's got the right sound, but what about the first name?" "How about, Chico" one of my friends asked. "Naaa! Sounds to cheesy!" said I. "AH! I GOT IT! RODREGIS!" said another. Thus, "Rodregis Chives" was born and soon was running all the Hottest trains on the TVRS. His was the only name we would reuse and soon became "The Casey Jones of the TVRS". Come on gang, I know you have some stories from your "Free-Lanced" railway. Let's hear them! ------------------ Brent Tidaback, Member #234 BNSF Railfan-to-the Max and a N-Scaler to boot! "Ship it on the Route of The Roadrunners!" The Aransas Odessa & Western, a division of the BNSF [This message has been edited by Maxwell Plant (edited 24 October 2000).]
Maxwell,If'n I kin get my little cajun buddy riled up enuff,I'll get him to tell ya'll bout the time, He had 1 to many ponys and let the air out of his tires on his 4wheel drive and drove bout 10 miles down a KCS line south of S'port City,La.Heck of a story!! RRman48
A true story? If so, I'd suggest you share it at the Railfan and Events forum. If it's a "Free-Lance" story, let it RIP! IEEEH! BON TEMPS ROLLIE! I'm a Honerary "Coon-Ass" too, Lived in Baton Rouge and Monroe, LA. for a while. It's where I got my start in N-Trak with BatoN Rouge N-Trak, Now called Baton Rouge Scale Modelers. Well, back to Free-Lancin'! ------------------ Brent Tidaback, Member #234 BNSF Railfan-to-the Max and a N-Scaler to boot! "Ship it on the Route of The Roadrunners!" The Aransas Odessa & Western, a division of the BNSF
Yeah, rrman48, I'm going over to the Rail Fans forum and look for your tale! I'll bring the crawdads (mommas too) and a tub, you get a fire going and we can eat tails and suck heads righ' smart! Hoo Eeeee!! Go mon' I think WhoDat done brung some long necks, anyone else interested? (For those who may not know, a momma is a crawfish, and is pink, the daddy is a crawdad, and 'e got that red neck! see?) ------------------ Watash
It's 7:00 AM in Miami, Oklahoma on what will be another hot July day, as the city wakes up & starts another day. Waitresses are pouring coffee by the pot and laying out stacks of hotcakes over at the local diner. At B.F. Goodrich, shift change is taking place, as the day & night shifts trade messages, jokes and good-natured insults. At the Oklahoma & North Eastern yard, three Alcos sit sleeping by the shops. Shop crews file out of the yard office and head over to the slumbering Alcos, bringing them to life with a rumble and belch of black smoke. The yard clerk has printed up a list of cars in the yard and at the Frisco inter- change. Judging by the lists and the request for cars from the line's customers, it's gonna be a long day. B.F. Goodrich has several boxcars of new tires to ship out; BlitzUSA is in need of plastic pellets; wheat is waiting to begin its journey to the Soviet Union in hoppers at Miami Co-op; and another unit chat train is destined for the Cardin chat loadout. To top it off, EDEC's Riverton coal train is due in Miami at 9:00 AM, right in the middle of the Miami Switcher's workload. With no air conditioner in the cabs of the Alcos, and another high-humidity high-heat day in the works, the switch crews will be pounding the water bottles all day. ------------------ Southeast....Southwest.. Ship IT on the Frisco! Bob T. http://hometown.aol.com/slsf1630/myhomepage/profile.html
watash I c'n brin' some up from thar' New River, they're pretty nice'n har'. BOULL' EM' REEELY REd. ------------------ Appalachian & Atlantic Model Railroad "QUALITY at WORK with SAFTEY in MIND"
We'uns had tubs boilin' an' squeezins', an' waited til they wuz ripern' a new bride, but you'ins didn't show, so the whole thang got et and drowneded. June Bug drunk the last of the third tub an' swore it was sweet swamp juice! Thet youngen aint never gone have airee smarts! ------------------ Watash #982
