In my earlier days, I was a frequent visitor to the NYC Railroad Station in Rochester NY. There was always enough railroad activity to keep things interesting However, the typical day saw a big lull in activity from 1 pm to 3pm. The NYC Station had a switch engine assigned there. He was definitely not overworked.
His duties were very simple. Following the routine of this switch engine, it was not hard to see why NYC got out of the passenger business. Each morning at 5:30 am , Train 99 The Tuscarora would arrive from New York. It carried three all room sleeper cars and one standard Pullman that provided overnight service from New York to Rochester. It arrived on Track 5, and detached its four sleepers After debarking/embarking its coach passengers, it continued on its way to Buffalo.
The switch engine began its tasks soon after Train 99 departed. It would couple onto the sleepers and move them from Track 5 to Track 14, which was way closer in to the terminal building. The passengers could at leisure occupy their space until 9 am, after which they could have a very easy time of leaving their accommodations and going about their way.
The switch engine would spend most of the day working the mail and express cars that were on Tracks 7 and 9. These cars consisted of mail and Railway Express Agency traffic that would be set up for NYC head end traffic. At some point in the day, it would have to go out to a wye on the west end of Rochester where it would turn the four sleepers so they would be set up to where New York bound passengers could go to bed head first, rather than feet first. At 11:30 pm at night, the switch engine would couple onto the sleeping cars on Track 14, then run them out to where they would be switched onto Train 6, The Fifth Avenue Special which had arrived on Track 6.
The switch engine duties had been long performed by an old B-10 0-6-0 steamer. As a first step toward smoke abatement in Rochester, NYC assigned newly-delivered 600 hp diesel-electric switchers from American Locomotive Company. The 679 was one of these engines. It was subsequently renumbered to 805, and with its sisters 800, 802, and 803, it was assigned to do switching duties in the New York Central Station.
During one of my photography haunts in the NYC Station, the crew of 805 invited me to climb on board to see how things get done. I received an introductory course in NYC’s Diesel School. To this day, I remember where the controls were. There was the big lever called The Throttle. Old timers on steam locomotives remember it as the Johnson Bar. There was the Main Brake which would slow and stop the entire train. and the Independent Brake which would slow and stop just the engine. There was the lever that put sand down on wet rails when the wheels would slip. There was the lever that rang the bell and the pull cord that blew the whistle. And of course, there was the reverser lever. It was so simple even I could run it.
Being the fireman on a diesel-electric was even more simple. There was absolutely nothing to do. Items such as tending the fire, watching the water level in the boiler, and maintaining steam pressure were all things of the past. Just hearing these guys talk, I could sense that steam engines would be gone from the railroad in a few years,
The crew asked me if I’d like to see how they turned the sleeper cars around. I jumped at the invitation. It meant a ride out to the reversing wye on the West End, then a ride back. They moved 805 onto Track 14, then very gently coupled it onto the string of four sleeper cars. “We gotta wait until the tower has us lined up for Track 3″. said the engineer.
That didn’t take long, and 805 was tooling along the westbound freight track with four Pullman cars, one fireman looking at lists to see who he might bump with his seniority, one brakeman looking out the window, and one very excited kid. We soon reached the interlocking plant of Tower 29, which controlled the junctions of the Falls Road and the Charlotte Branch. These formed the reversing wye.
The brakeman on the rear of our four car train signalled the engineer that we were clear of the switches which were on the west side of the wye. As we waited on Track 3, here is what our consist looked like. The “R” denotes the rear (cab side) of 805. The “F” denotes the front (nose) of 805. The arrow shows our westbound direction of travel.
<<=======R805F(coupled)-Car1 – Car2 – Car3 – Car4
When the switch opened, we pushed the cars from Track 3 onto the Charlotte Branch tracks. Main Line Track 3 was restored to a clear block Here is what we looked like sitting on the Charlotte Branch
Car4
Car3
Car2
Car1
R805F(coupled)
Tower 29 then opened the switches from the Charlotte Branch. We uncoupled from the cars and backed out onto Main Line Track 4, which was now red blocked. We looked like this:
R805F
We then moved forward on Track 4 until we were clear of the switches on the east side of the wye. The switch was opened, allowing us to back into the Charlotte Branch, rear side first, nose side out in front. We coupled back onto our four cars. We now looked like this
Car4
Car3
Car2
Car1
R(coupled)805F
We now went forward with our string of four cars, nose of 805 first, rear end coupled onto the cars, and headed eastward on Track 4 back to the NYC Station. Our train now looked like this
Car 4 – Car 3 – Car 2 – Car 1 – R(coupled)805F=======>>
We arrived back at NYC Station and spotted our four sleeper cars on Track 14, completely reversed from the way they had arrived from New York in the morning.
At 9 pm, these cars would re-open to accommodate their New York bound passengers. At 11:30 PM, the Fifth Avenue Special would ease into the station. A new crew would be aboard 805 to run the sleepers out from Track 14 to Track 6 and connect the air and steam lines, and off they would go to The Big Apple.
Was my day aboard 805 exciting enough to make me hire on? Of course it was!! But railroading in the fifties on the New York Central was not safe. Employment was on a down cycle.
I decided to complete my engineering degree at Illinois and remain a railfan in my spare time. Less peril, more fun.
Tags: Bob-Carper, bobcarper99, diesel-switcher, diesels, New-York-Central, NYC, Pullman-Cars, Rochester-NY, switching
