OK you talked me into it. Several people have said they want to hear more 
so hear is more.
This is a true account of a road trip. It is NOT by any means a normal 
trip but it is the trips like this one that you tend to remember the 
longest. It was originally a letter written to some freinds so parts may
read a little weird.

Sept. 9
The last trip up was a doozey, one of those that make you wish maybe you'd 
stayed home. I got called for 4:15pm for train #125, a regular freight 
train, not coal or piggyback. When I got to the depot I saw the train was 
already there, pulled down into the CTC siding west of the depot and they 
were in the process of cutting the two crossings. That meant we were going 
to have to couple up the crossings and pump up the air and make an 
airbrake test before leaving. A 25 minute proposition at the best. Since 
they were still cutting the crossing that meant the train obviously 
arrived only 5 or 10 minutes before we were on duty. Why didn't they just 
hold it east of town 5 or10 minutes until we were on duty and then just 
make a depot crew change??? Anyway it turns out that this is a DOG! It has 
an old beat up SD40 #6343 on the point, one of the earliest built circa 
1968, 25 years old and showing it. At least it is turbocharged so it can 
turn out its 3000 hp at this altitude and has six axles & traction motors 
for good low down drag pulling. The only other loco was a GP38 
with a 2000 hp non-turbocharged engine which at this altitude is lucky to 
crank out 1500 hp. It is relatively light at 253,00 pounds and only has 
four axles and thus not a really good drag unit. The tonnage is 4856 tons, 
on the heavy side for two good 3000 hp engines but way over the limit for 
these two clunkers. Worse yet we have exactly 100 cars, over 7000 feet 
long, way too much rolling drag for the power. The heavier you are per car 
the easier it rolls simply because for the same tonnage you have fewer 
cars. Example: 4800 tons in 133 ton coal cars would be only 36 cars, a 
good roller at 133 tons per car. We have 4800 tons in 100 cars or 48 tons 
per car, a very poor roller, a real drag. I consider anything under about 
85 tons per car to be a poor high speed roller. The reason this is so is 
because the power gods allocate engines strictly on a horsepower per ton 
ratio without considering the length of the train at all. We get 1.7 
hp/ton which is OK for trains of 85 tons per car or more but inadequate 
for trains of much lower tons/car. Anyway suffice it to say that this 
train #125 at 1 hp/ton is gonna be a DOG based on hp/ton let alone the 
extremely low tons/car, double whammy!
Anyway we go out and get on the train and soon I back up to couple the 1st 
then the 2nd crossing. It was very hard to shove back up the slight hill 
of the siding but I made it. When the conductor coupled in the air to the 
last portion of the train and the rear end released, the slack ran in a 
bit and pushed me forward an engine length until the engine brakes stopped 
it. I thought it was a little strange that 2 units brakes would not hold 
that train on that grade but thought no more about it (big mistake). We 
left town heading westward for Laurel. Going up Parkman hill we managed a 
whopping 9 miles per hour! The minimum continuos speed for the 6343 was 
11.5 mph and for the 2341 it was 16 mph! Needless to say that after 50 
minutes of that the traction motors were beginning to smell hot. They want 
you to keep going as long as it isn't too bad. I had a coal train with 
helpers shoving it right behind me and he was nipping at my heals trying 
to run over me. Kept asking "are you still moving up there Kruggy?" Never 
the less we finally topped the hill and awaaayyy we go. Green, green, 
green, green, rumbled along at 60 per for 35 miles then flashing yellow, 
then solid yellow, then red over lunar. The dispatcher put me in the 
Benteen CTC hole for two eastbounds.  Over the four mile stretch I slowed 
the train with the dynamic brakes (with the help of a knoll) from 60 to 25 
mph to enter the siding. With the help of another small knob at the east 
siding switch the dynamics slowed me to a 5 mph crawl nearing the west 
end. I applied the loco brakes slowly, more, more, more, egads all of it. 
Quick grab the train air before we slide out the other end of the siding 
into the approaching eastbound. Since I had used only hill knobs and 
dynamic to slow the train for the siding I'd used no train air brakes and 
they were fully charged so the train air sets up and halts the train, 
whew! Remember the pitfalls of air brakes described in a previous posting? 
This is a place where if I had wasted much air coming in there I'd have 
been in trouble. At least I wasn't totally out of control, I never went to 
emergency. Now just why wouldn't the engine brakes stop that train from 5 
mph at that place? It usually would have no trouble doing so. At the same 
time I remembered that earlier minor incident at Sheridan siding, where 
the slack pushed me a unit length. I looked at the engines independent 
brake cylinder pressure gauge, 48 psi!! It should be 72 psi. I went back 
to the 2nd unit and looked at its gauge, 4 psi!!!!. No wonder the 
$#@!&%$## won't stop or hold it!! I began looking for the cause of no 
engine brakes. I finally found it inside a hatch under the cab of the 2nd 
unit. A bolt was about to fall out of the cover plate of the engine air 
brake relay valve. This had allowed the cover plate to lift and the seal 
gasket to blow out. All the independent air brake control air was leaking 
to atmosphere. I could have shut the train down right there for 6 hours or 
more while roundhouse men came out to fix it, but who wants to sit there 
for 6 hours? I carry a small pair of vise grips in my case so I used those 
to cinch down the bolt. The trouble was that I couldn't stuff the gasket 
back into place with all the air pressure blowing against it. Oh well, a 
good cinching clamped it off enough to bring the 2nd unit up to 45 psi and 
the lead unit up to 62 psi, that'll have to do. I'll just be careful and 
not rely on the engine brakes.
The two eastbounds have pounded by us (the coal train following me got 
screwed by being held back at Lodge Grass siding for them). The dispatcher 
flops the switch over and the signal goes green. Get em movin, stretch the 
slack, and let 'em eat in number 8 as we accelerate out of the siding with 
a mighty roar (well OK, a clunking wheeze but the smoke from these two old 
junk heaps looks nice in the sunset, if you're not an environmentalist.) 
The rear comes thru the switch at 25 mph then its back up to 60 quickly 
with the help of the down grade. About 10 miles out of the Benteen siding 
the conductor hollers out as his sliding cab window falls out of its track 
and into his lap! We manage to get it stuck back up with some tape and by 
jamming paper in the groove. That's when the conductor opened his fatal 
mouth and said, "Jesus what next with this junk? Is a wheel gonna fall 
off?". Now I'm not superstitious mind you but....
Rattling along at 60 per about 20 miles down the line there is a god awful 
KeeBang-whirrrrl from beneath the cab. The lead unit instantly drops its 
load and smelly electrical smoke fills the cab momentarily. Then the alarm 
bell goes off. Great zot what was that? We now have a ground relay 
indication. I isolate the unit and reset the ground relay, still at 60 
mph. The unit tries to load back up but gets a continuos wheel slip 
indication and unloads. Great! Now we're down to one dinky little 2300 and 
Toluca hill is up ahead, no way Hoezay. I know there are two work train 
units parked at Hardin overnight. Before I could beep up the dispatcher on 
the radio we began to get ominous grinding and vibrating noises from the 
lead truck, I'm gonna stop this muther before a wheel falls off!  So I 
grab a bunch of train air to stop the train east of all the Hardin 
crossings to look under  the lead unit. I can't see anything looking under 
the unit so I tell the conductor I will roll them ahead slowly and he can 
check to see if all the wheels are rotating. When I open the throttle to 
move forward we can hear the #2 traction motor really wind up. Obviously 
it is not connected to the wheel anymore...it  has sheared a pinion gear. 
This unit must be babied into Hardin and set out for repair (the 
roundhouse will come up tomorrow and torch cut the end of the armature off 
so the unit can be towed to Alliance). Meanwhile I call the coal train 
that is catching up to us and tell her (its Mary Peters) to stop where she 
won't have crossings blocked 'cause its gonna be a while. I call the 
dispatcher and tell him of our plight and he gets the OK to pick up the 
5375 work train loco, a filthy due to ballast dust, 3000  hp GE. One hour 
later we are back on our train with the new consist. We get the air, make 
a test and go. We still have the engine brake problem since we still have 
the same 2nd unit and it is the one with the problem. The conductor left 
his lunch in the fridge of the old lead unit we set out so I have to stop 
when we go by it so he can pick it up. We grind out of Hardin and attack 
Toluca hill. Its not as steep as Parkman and we trudge up & over at about 
17 mph. Upon topping the hill and reaching 25 mph I find out that the 5375 
we picked up at Hardin won't make transition from series to parallel. 
$#@%^&@!* again! It loads good from 0 to 25 but at 25 it drops its load. 
That means only the 2341 is pulling at 25 so the speed drops to 23 or so 
where the 5375 again loads in series. The train accelerates to 25 
wherefore the 5375 tries transition and drops its load. We slow down again 
and so it goes over and over....we are essentially a 25 mph train from 
here on the remaining 50 miles to Laurel. Then during one of its attempts 
to make transition the 5375 makes it...but since the turbocharger, the  
governor, and the generator load control is out of synch due to numerous 
attemps...the generator loads full, 1200 amps, and stalls the goddamn 
diesel. Sonofabitch, excuse my french but this is really begining to piss 
me off! After trying to get the old GE perkalating again for 10 minutes we 
finally get her to fire up. By now we are rolling down hill at 45 mph and 
I find that at this speed she will transfer OK. Awaaayy we go. We attack 
the Anita hump at slightly better than 60 per and roar over the top at 45. 
From there on it is up the Yellowstone river but at a grade that allows us 
to keep moving above 25 mph thus the unit never makes reverse transition 
to screw up again. We tied up at Laurel at 12:00 midnight.