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God Bless America
By Jerry L. Ginther
A large part of the romance was the pride each employee felt for the particular service he performed. Whether he was a clerk, superintendent, section man, signal maintainer, car inspector, agent, telegraph operator, train dispatcher or a member of the operating crews, he was aware that his job was important to the overall operation of the railroad system. Those jobs mentioned were just a few of what it took for a smooth and efficient operation; remove any one of them and the operation suffered. Whatever his responsibility, each employee knew that his part was critical and he was proud of his part in the overall operation. Of course in many instances, that created pressure. In the building of a train there was as much going on indoors as there was in the train yard. Each person must complete his part before another could begin his and no one wanted to be the one holding up the on time departure of a train.
This discussion will concern itself with the process as it was before the reduction of the train crew's size and the removal of the caboose from the rear end of the train. Now, through freight trains usually only have an engineer and conductor and both ride the engine. A caboose will no longer be seen on most freight trains.
Let's take a generalized view of what it takes to ready one particular freight train for an on time departure. This process may start as early as twenty-four hours before a train is due to leave its initial terminal.
The first car to placed in the designated track is the caboose. Next, the cars that will go through to the final destination of that particular train will be placed in the track and coupled to the caboose. The cars placed in the track next will be placed in the order of their destinations, with the first cars to be setout being placed next to the engine. Finally, the engines will be placed on top of the cars and coupled to the first car in the track.
A yard engine and switch crew perform the above tasks by bringing cars from other tracks in the yard and placing them in the proper order for the train. This same crew may be building several trains on several different tracks at the same time. To accomplish this, the yardmaster provides the crew with lists showing the cars, by initial and number, in each track and the destination track for each. Every time another train arrives in the yard, and at the end of each crew's shift, new switch lists are prepared by the yard clerks for the new crew coming on duty. The yard is in a constant state of change as trains arrive and depart and yard crews move the cars to the many different tracks. In the process of building the trains, the crews must make sure that the cars make proper couplings and that the air hoses between each car are connected.
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