Hehe.......the stories that used to circulate concerning Barr Yard in Chicago were nothing short of scary.
No, I never had to go there and don't think I would have. The rail yards over around Baltimore have a nice reputation too.
It was sedate where I worked, yet we always carried a pipe wrench as insurance if we had to walk deep down a track in the wee hours of the morning.
I'll never forget one time, back in the late 70's. I was walking along side a train one winter morning and it was blue cold. I heard this 'hey buddy, you got a light?' I looked around and didn't see a soul, then I heard it again. I looked at the end of a grain car, and there in a little cubby hole in the bulkhead were two hobo's and they had to be half froze to death! I smoked back then and gave them my Bic lighter. They seemed mighty grateful and I told them where a yard shanty was with a coal stove....to go get warm. No....they were afraid they'd 'miss their train' hehe! I told them the cars they were in might not move for days. I showed them where to go to catch a train and went on my way. Another time, about the same era, I mounted a train in the winter and the crew I was relieving told me I had a 'passenger back on the third unit (engine) and would I show him where to get on a northbound freight. I went back and encountered the biggest black man I had ever seen....he looked like Rosey Greer's grandfather! Here sat this gentleman in a huge overcoat, with a 2 gallon water jug and a small suitcase. He had a rimmed hat on and glasses. He was a gentleman and asked where he might catch a train to Cleveland. I told him he was a long way from Cleveland (he was in Russell, Ky.) and if he stayed where he was, he'd go west to Cincinnati. "Whal, whar's do I go to get to Cleveland?" I pointed to the outbound yard where the trains bound for Columbus pulled from and told him I would take him there. Oh no, he'd walk he said. I told him it was too cold, but he hopped off and went on his way.
He had been to Baltimore to visit his daughter and grandkids for Christmas. I have often wondered if they knew what that old man had gone through to get to spend the holidays with them. I have a hunch that wasn't the first hobo trip he had made, but for man close to 70 and in the winter....that took some balls!
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Today's Featured Article - A Belt Pulley? Really Doing Something? - by Chris Pratt. Belt Pulleys! Most of us conjure up a picture of a massive thresher with a wide belt lazily arching to a tractor 35 feet away throwing a cloud of dust, straw and grain, and while nostalgic, not too practical a method of using our tractors. While this may have been the bread and butter of the belt work in the past (since this is what made the money on many farms), the smaller tasks may have been and still can be its real claim to fame. The thresher would bring in the harvest (and income) once a y
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