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God Bless America
By Jerry L. Ginther
From the second floor of the yard office I could hear the low rumble of diesel locomotives idling in the train yard below. One was the yard engine that a short time earlier had finished putting together a southbound freight. The other was the three-unit engine consist on the freight train readying for its departure from Wisconsin Street Yard in Indianapolis.
This was my first regular job for the Illinois Central Railroad. One of the telegraph operators had recently retired leaving an opening on the afternoon, 4 p.m. to midnight shift.
The blackness of night had settled over the yard two hours earlier. Now, all that was visible on the train was the lights along the sides of the coupled units as they sat motionless in the dark. The yard engine crew had come into the yard office to acquire updated switch lists from the yard clerk. After completion of the assembly of the outbound freight, the yard tracks would now be void of those cars. These changes made it necessary for the switch crew to get updates on what cars remained, their destinations, and on which tracks they were located. They surveyed the new lists as they waited for the outbound freight to clear the yard track it was occupying.
The outbound train crew had been in my office, picked up the train orders, clearances and messages of instructions, which I had stapled together in two sets for the crewmembers on both ends of the train. Each one had checked his watch with the standard clock on the wall and compared the time with each other. Finally, they checked the register to be sure that all superior trains due Wisconsin Street Yard had arrived or left.
The conductor had begun the entry for the departing train in the train register. I would enter the actual departure time when I saw the markers on the caboose enter the main track. Other items that were entered in the register were the schedule number of the train and the lead engine number. The word "extra" was written in the space for "schedule no" if it was an extra train. Signals also had to be registered and their colors. No signals were displayed for a freight train running on a timetable schedule. Green signal lights were displayed on the top front of the lead engine if that train was ordered to display signals for a following section of the same schedule. White lights were displayed instead if the train was an extra train.
At last, I saw the signal lights on the lead unit come on and I knew the departure was near at hand. Next, the brilliant headlight illuminated that entire end of the yard and I heard the conductor tell the engineer on the radio that the brakes had released. Two short blasts on the whistle made all within hearing distance aware that the train was about to move. The three GP9s came to life as the throttle was moved to the first notch and they broke out of the low idle and began to pull the slack out of the standing cars. Again the engines revved a bit soon after the engineer heard the conductor say on the radio, "You've got 'em all. Let's go to Palestine!"
The engines moved out onto the switching lead, and continued to pull the rest of the train out of the yard track very slowly. When the caboose cleared the yard track switch, the conductor once again gave a report to the engineer. Although the engines were far in the distance, once again I could hear them rev up as the engineer began to widen on the throttle to increase the speed. Still I could hear the departing train's engines go through transition and whistle for the grade crossings for several minutes after it had disappeared from sight.
That was in the autumn of 1965, but I can remember being conscious of the fact that a string of cars standing on a yard track could, in a manner of speaking, come to life and become an animated thing with an identity. They became a train with a name such as Extra 9386 South or No. 391, no longer just railcars standing on a railroad yard track.
Jerry L. Ginther
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