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From
Behind the Throttle |
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From
Behind the Throttle
The
People
Two individuals who have contributed greatly to this page and who I'd like to personally thank are Bob Currie and Tuch Santucci. JD "Tuch" Santucci, a former MoPac Engineer, has generously allowed me to quote many of his stories and is a frequent poster at the MOPAC group on Yahoo and publisher of his own online newsletter, "Hot Times on the High Iron" -- it is always worth stopping whatever you're doing to read. Bob Currie, also a former MoPac Engineer that I've frequently corresponded with has built an excellent website filled with experiences of railroad life. Bob probably has more tales to share than he will ever get written down. Both men put a face on railroading like nobody I know.
The
Stories
We will continue to add more stories as told by former employees of the Missouri Pacific, material by engineers, and any interesting information we come across. Enjoy!
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From
Behind the Throttle
While most didn't know it, MoPac was very quietly and conservatively one of the richest railroads in North America. It was indeed a great railroad. I was fortunate and got to operate all the new power as most of it was delivered to Yard Center and placed into service there. Favorites for road power were the SD40 series. In the yard the GP15 and MP 15 series and the GP38 series for much of everything else. I didn't care for the B23/30 series as their ride was extremely rough and would about kill your kidneys, although they did pull well on dry rail. The U30C 's were bastard red-headed step children that were real oddballs and poorly maintained as a result. They seemed to be prone to failure. The GP50 's were pretty good high speed units, but were poor performers on heavy tonnage trains. They tried them on some coal trains with dismal results including burning up main generators and traction motors. The GP15-1 's actually had some remanufactured components. They required a trade in unit towards them. This lowered their purchase price and also offered the MoPac some tax breaks on the price of them as well. I liked them as they were really good units and performed well. Their only drawback was that some of them seemed to have excessive vibration when idling in regular idle.
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The DeQuincy Division - A
View from the Driver's Seat
Bob Currie |
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The East Local
going by
in July 1977. Bob's brakeman is bending down to pick up a rock to throw
- he was just water-balooned by the East Local brakeman. - © Bob
Currie Photo. |
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The East Local ran on the New Iberia Subdivision - formerly the New
Iberia and Northern Railroad - ran 48 miles from Port Barre to New Iberia,
Louisiana. The one local freight that ran over this track, #876, was the
last regularly scheduled timetable train on the Missouri Pacific. I loved
this sub more than any other. I was force-assigned to New Iberia, and
I worked my first job as an engineer on this sub. This was a very high-revenue subdivision thanks to all the salt we got out of the mine. My average train was 125 cars, of which 125 would be loads, and usually 50 of these cars were of salt alone. We had 4 jobs at New Iberia: 2 salt dodgers, the East Local, and the Opelousas Turn. We had 2 hand-cranked bridges over the Bayou Teche. One was just north of New Iberia at Vida, and the other was at Oaklawn on the Franklin industrial lead. Before I started working for the MOP, a locomotive went off into the bayou at Oaklawn when the crew fell asleep approaching the bridge. My occasional fireman on the Opelousas turn, Leroy Jackson, had the dubious honor of riding that engine down into the cool, deep waters of the bayou. Leroy told me that contrary to what you may think, GP7s do float for a few seconds! For more rail stories, visit Bob Currie's MISSOURI PACIFIC DeQuincy Division |
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| Looking Back at a spectacular view of the train as the engines come out of the span on the east side of the Mississippi River bridge. The lead of the three unit consist is a B23-7 (a.k.a. a "B-boat"). - © Bob Currie Photo. |
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The Mississippi River Bridge at Baton Rouge was part of the Beaumont
Subdivision. The Beaumont Sub ran from Houston's Settegast Yard to Anchorage
Yard in Port Allen, Louisiana. Anchorage Yard was located just at the
base of the Mississippi River Bridge at Baton Rouge. Many engineers had the advantage of being on what we called the Big MOP. My end of the line, the Gulf Coast Lines, usually got the older power. I was still running GP18s in the lead in the 80s.
Bob Currie is a former MoPac Engineer, having worked on the MOP and the DeQuincy Division from 1972-1990, and as an engineer from 1973 to 1990. Before the MOP, Bob worked for the Santa Fe from 1969 to 1972.
Today Bob is a Medical Technologist at Smith & White, and has
currently completed his first year Law school exam.
Bob's old superintendent, C.E. "Cliff" Satterfield also has his own site - Missouri Pacific Railroad Memories . Cliff is a Missouri Pacific man from way back. Says Bob, "He helped make the Missouri Pacific one heck of a railroad." |
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Practical
Jokes and Railroad Mayhem
This website has been archived from TrainWeb.org/screamingeagle to TrainWeb.US/screamingeagle. |
