From the Erie Lackawanna Mailing List Archives: It was the practice of the ERIE-LACKAWANNA as it had been their predecessor, the DL&W, to run two freight trains every night to Binghamton and back. The earlier of these 2 trains was designated SB 24 and was usually on duty early in the evening, say 7:30 PM or so. This job usually required 2 GP7s or GP9s since it was a fairly light train. The other, SB 50 was somewhat heavier & did more work & therefore ran with 3 engines & took a little longer to get over the road. As you can see, this required the roundhouse people to assemble the power for these trains prior to the crew coming on duty which meant gathering up the several GPs which had been on the locals & industrial jobs and checking them for faults & supplies so theyd be ready to go. The night roundhouse foreman at the former DL&W roundhouse was an older man, William (Bill) Laumeister who was very knowledgable and like most of the former DL&W men all business. The night mechanic was a man in his early 20s, Mike OBrien, who had a few years ago gotten out of the Air Force and hired out on the EL. I had been in the Air Force too before joining the railroad and he and I used to sit outside the roundhouse office and talk about the USAF. When you sit outside the roundhouse office, you are looking at the inbound and outbound tracks, the sand track and #5 & 6 as well as facing the turntable. Id better state the location of the DL&W roundhouse in Syracuse - its in a depression about 15 or so feet below the level of the yard tracks and the New York Central branch line to Auburn which crosses the inbound and outbound EL tracks from the roundhouse and passes in the rear of the engine house on its way between the NYC uptown yard and the line to Auburn. Imagine an X crossover with one leg the NYC & the other the EL tracks to & from the roundhouse. In order to get from the higher level to the roundhouse, the inbound & outbound crossed the NYC & then crossed the city street ( Geddes St I think) on 2 side-by-side girder bridges sloping gently downward. There was a tower (Magnolia St. Tower) at the NYC crossing and although no longer occupied, the crossovers were protected by a signal which was always red & u had to get permission to crossover when coming out with power. On the night in question, OBrien and I were sitting outside - it being a warm night in May - and gazing at the engines (3 on one track and 2 on the other) that had been fueled and were ready for the 2 turn jobs to Binghamton. It was about 8PM or so and Mr. Laumeister had gone to the nearby Dunkin Donut shop for coffee. OB (as he was called) told me that the early crew (SB24) would have to take the 3 nearest engines up the hill and set one of them onto the 2 already on the sand track & that these three would be power for the later train (SB50). The crew arrived and OB went with them for the short ride up the hill , across the trestles, and over the NYC after which theyd reverse, come back on the other track & leave the trailing unit with SB50s power. I hadnt noticed the engineers & head end Brakeman’s unsteady gait as they crossed the turntable & mounted to the cab.........OBrien went with them & off they went. I sipped my coffee and waited, and waited, and waited, and waited AND here they came!!!!!. 2 Geeps sailed down the grade as I sat mesmerized, thinking Now, hell take some air & shut off Surely NOW, hell shut off & brake. To my horror, the engines emitted a flurry of sparks as the throttles were advanced and instead of slowing, rushed into the 2 engines already on the track with an ear-splitting CRASH. I swear those 2 locomotives leaped a foot off the rails when they were hit, but none of them derailed. They did, however all shut down from the shock and some knife switches came out too. I came closer and saw that there was oil and water running from all 4 units. OB had baled off when he saw it coming and approached as the engineer slowly crawled down showing a large wet stain on the front of his overalls where hed voided his bladder. He staggered around clutching a beer can mumbling Im drunk and I admit it!!. Its all my fault! hic...I know Im drunk. The head man had run away & left the property. OBrien came to me & said What a mess! I agreed & said Yeah, I dont think youll be using these engines tonight. OBrien saidNOO, I mean the mess on the NYC crossovers. NOW IT STRUCK ME.......they went out with 3 engines & came back down the hill with 2. Where was the 3rd engine????? OBrien told me it had run through the derail at the NYC signal protecting the crossovers & would I go to the donut shop & get coffee so we could pour some into the engineer and on my way STRAIGHTEN UP things on the crossovers. I ran up the hill and found the 1200 class laying at a slant in the middle of crushed ties, twisted rails and with the throttle still in # 3 or 4 - the driving wheels turning, digging itself into the ballast & ties. I went up the ladder & entered the cab to find a half can of CARLING Black Label beer sitting on the throttle stand. I shut the throttle, set the brakes, threw the beer can out the window, and picked up the drinking water can & sloshed it all over the cab (which smelled like a brewery). Now, looking out the cab window, I saw lanterns coming from the direction of the NewYork Central yard, so it was down the ladder on the far side & off to the donut shop for black coffee - lots of it. When I got back to the roundhouse, I found Bill Laumeister had returned to a scene from HELL. The engineer was still staggering around in his pee-stained clothes mumbling that he was drunk and placed his beer can on the roof of old Bills new Chrysler New Yorker. Laumeister dashed the can to the ground and yelled Get off the property, you drunken fool I dont know what they told the NYC, but NO trains ran to Binghamton that night. Much later I heard the crew all got 10 days off. Nowadays, I suppose theyd pull your fingernails out. Regards, Walter E. Smith
Posted on: Sat, 22 Mar 2014 22:57:50 +0000
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