Jeremy; Most Marvelous Mudhop

Jeremy-Most Marvelous Mudhop

My first few weeks on duty at the Yard Office was spent on days; 0600 to 1400.  It was for training purposes with some of the more legendary Mudhops.  One of those was Jeremy.  When informed by the supervisor that Jeremy would be my trainer, there were snickers in the background.  I turned to see what the joke might be (I had no doubt it was on me as this was the sport and way to test my mettle).  What I saw standing very close was the tallest man I think I've ever met personally.  He was huge!  I had to tilt my head up to look in his face, an unremarkable face with the clearest blue eyes and a soft, tentative smile.  He was resplendent in his crisp, clean railroad overalls and cap and steel-toed boots to complete the uniform.  As big as Jeremy was, his feet were exponentially huge; so huge that he took extra care walking, especially when he was in small(er) spaces or near another human being.  At some time later, I found out that Jeremy's feet were the catalyst for all the snickers - poor guy.  Apparently, he accidentally stepped on a Trainmaster's[1] foot and broke it in several places. 

He held out his hand to shake, a very gentle shake.  I was having a difficult time squaring this man's visage with the gentility of his manner.  The snickers became more insistent and louder as Jeremy led me from the supervisor's office to a desk in a far corner of the main office.  We began my training.

Jeremy  taught me the Inbound Desk, about train consists[2], about yard placement of cars and switch lists.[3]  Then he showed me how to deliver the paperwork to the Yardmaster[4] in the Yard Tower via one of those air things that carries the container with the paperwork by sucking it in the direction one designates.  Banks still use them.

Jeremy knew more about the railroad, past and present, than anyone else I'd talked with to that point.  He was a little shy about sharing this information with me, but, well - a gentle probe and gaining his trust that I was truly interested opened him up.  During the course of these off- training discussions, Jeremy confided that what he really wanted to be was a brakeman[5].  He had been with the Union Pacific a number of years and it struck me curious that he hadn't made the transition before then.  He simply stated that it hadn't been the right time for him but now was.

My training with Jeremy ended and I moved on to the 1400 to 2200 shift and Jeremy went wherever he went.  After several weeks Richard came to me and asked if I had heard what happened to Jeremy.  No, I hadn't.  'What happened?'  As Richard related it, Jeremy made it into brakeman service and since he had so much railroad experience, he was immediately put on train service.  On his first trip out, there was a large number of empties at a siding that had to be included in the train.  This was a westbound train where everything would be switched in the Los Angeles yard.

Jeremy and his partner brakeman were preparing the empties to be coupled to the westbound train.  A switch engine would then shove the empties onto the main rail and the coupling would take place there.  It is not uncommon with a large number of cars for the brakemen to ride the last car to which the caboose would be attached to the coupling point.    In this instance, Jeremy rode the caboose car and his partner rode the engine car.

That was the last the crew saw of Jeremy.  The conductor thought he had gone to the engine and the engineer and head brakeman thought he was in the caboose.  I guess no one bothered to check.  When the train arrived in East Los Angeles, it was the first that everyone realized Jeremy wasn't on it.  They did a walk-by of all the cars and on one of the empty boxcars there was a boot stuck in the ladder.

The bulls[6] were notified and they proceeded to backtrack the train route to the point where the empties were picked up.  And thank heavens, they found Jeremy walking along the tracks toward Los Angeles minus a boot, his radio and lantern.

Remember those inordinately large feet of Jeremy's?  Apparently he got one foot stuck in the ladder on the side of the boxcar and couldn't get it loose.  The train began to move and Jeremy panicked and dropped his radio and lantern.  He loosened the boot on the offending foot and pulled himself out of it.  He hurled himself from the car and landed in the gravel alongside the tracks, banging himself up pretty badly.  He was stunned but okay.  When he regained his senses, he proceeded to begin the long walk on a sprained ankle back to East Los Angeles.

That was the end of Jeremy's short-lived brakeman career.  I've often wondered if he knew this was a possibility and was why he put off going into train service.  Well, who knows?!

(I actually intended this to be funny but as I was writing it, I found it kind of sad.  Oh, well, the muse doesn't always go in the direction we point it.)

[1] Trainmaster - a railroad official in charge of some division of a line

[2] The Train Consist is a list of the cars and engines and caboose in a train.  It consists of the car numbers, load or empty and destination.

[3] The Switch List is used in the yards on the layout and during the switching of small industries.

[4] Yardmasters coordinate activities of workers engaged in railroad traffic operations, such as the makeup or breakup of trains, yard switching, and review train schedules and switching orders.

[5] Brakeman - a freight or passenger train crew member who inspects the train and assists the conductor

[6] Bulls - Railroad Police