Qualifying Runs on the MRL 378
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- čas přidán 11. 09. 2024
- In May of 1997, I hired out with the newly formed IMRL which took over trackage that had once belonged to the Milwaukee Road. The railroad ran from Kansas City to Chicago and north from Sabula, Junction, Iowa to connect with Canadian Pacific as a route into Minneapolis.
After having quit my employment with Union Pacific the the previous year to return to college, I tried as hard as I could to find a summer job with a railroad in order to keep my engineer certification current.
Thanks to Wayne Gonyea, the IMRL human resource manager, I was given the opportunity for employment, even though I would be going back to school in the fall.
In this video, I was assigned with the late engineer Bill Genochio and conductor Russel Bell on qualifying trips between Davenport, Iowa and Kansas City, Missouri. The MRL 378 was one of numerous locomotives we got from Montana RailLink since both MRL and IMRL were owned by the same corporation.
While this tape had been in a box for many years, I had forgotten many of the details. However, due to the interesting conversation and joking while still operating as professionals, I decided to leave a lot of things in the program during the editing process.
Upon departing, Davenport at the beginning of the program we barely made it 20 miles down the road to Muscatine, Iowa before my camera battery died. However, we did a great deal of sitting and never made it much further than that before having to tie the train down and cab the rest of the way to Kansas City.
The next night, we took charge of a train that had been shuttled out of Knoche yard in Kansas City to Liberty, Missouri. In this case, we only made it as far as Newtown, Missouri before being relieved. Even though we were operating secondhand equipment, it was cool to operate a roster of classic locomotives, which by now in 2023, more than likely have mostly been scrapped.
I also apologize in advance for a couple of foul words that may have been uttered from me during an unexpected event, with the train toward the end of the program. Otherwise, sit back and enjoy a fun filled ride on the MRL 378.
This was amazing to watch. I live in Muscatine, IA, and railfan these same tracks now owned by CP. CP hasn't changed the names of the control points Between Davenport and Ottumwa. Montpelier is still Montpelier, Ipso is still Ipso, Heinz is still Heinz and etc. The yard in Davenport is still called Nahant. The directions are now north/south. The signals are still the same as in the video from Nahant to Muscatine. The yard in the south end of Muscatine is still there. Northbound freights work the yard daily. Southbound freights work the Luke yard in Fruitland but that's a hit or miss. Thank you for sharing It's always interesting to see how railroading was around my area back then.
Love these videos. I’m a conductor out of Nahant now and it’s amazing to see how far this line has come.
Hopefully you can dig out some more footage if you have it!
I worked out of Nahant and Ottumwa during the IMRL days 😊
@@warbondsdid you stay when the IMRL was sold to the IC&E at all?
Another excellent video full of interesting characters and commentary. Pretty sure I know who that night dispatcher is… One of my current co-workers. Haven’t seen the 378 for a couple decades. Long since scrapped.
Just like being there. Sure miss the sounds of those SD's cranking up. I was a dispatcher and those road trips were the best part of the job.
Yes, those 645 prime movers sounded so nice back in the day! 😁
Love your videos, very entertaining
Thank you very much for the kind words! I’m so glad that I could share this footage that sat in boxes for years!
@@warbonds Do you still work for the railroad?
@@unionpacific1973 30 years in and at least 10 to go. 😊
@@warbonds Now with CPKC?
Bill was a fun guy to work with!
Yes, he was one of the sweetest guys I’ve ever met in my life! He would definitely be the first to give you the shirt off of his back!
Most enjoyable........ . Thank you.
That was a helluva slack run-in!