H10s #107 Howie Waelder at the cab window, FM H15-44 #1503 Smithtown
Station
View E c. 1950 Photo: John Krause Archive:
Bill Lane |
H10s #107 Drag freight westbound with Engineer Howie Waelder at the
window. Photo: John Krause Archive:
Bill Lane |
"Howie"
WAELDER Stories
Compliments
of PRR
T&HS/ Keystone via Bill Lane - Cartoons by Vic Roseman |
The
Bouncing Clinker Bar
Howie
was firing what was probably a G5s on a passenger run. He was not
paying attention as much as he should have been one day. After tending the
fire he tossed the clinker bar up into the coal pile, but it was a little
too hard of a throw. The clinker bar teetered on the edge of the tender
wall, balancing for a second or two. Before Howie could climb up to catch
it, the clinker bar slid off the tender, bouncing and twirling, and
shattered windows as it skipped and ricocheted off the coach walls.
(Bill Lane)
The
Railroad Life
Howie
loved the Railroad life. He worked the extra list for much of his
career. Since you lived and worked by a phone call there was always a two
minute sand hour glass on top of the telephone. With seven children, the
phone could be busy for long periods without the hour glass rule. Many
of his children's phone calls were physically cut short as the two minutes
of sand ran out! (Bill Lane)
Outlaw
or Nap Time
The
Long Island road diesels had a control box near the control stand. If
he was coming up on his “outlaw” time, didn’t like the engine he was
given, or was too tired to finish the run, he would grab the brass
reverser handle and give this control box a good whack. This would
damage the electronics, and completely disable the locomotive. Howie
would have to wait until another unit could be dispatched to finish the
run. (Bill Lane)
Switcher
On Fire
With
the Long Island having a very high number of grade crossings, Howie was
often heard as saying “I hit everything including a school bus”! He
usually followed with this story. It was a cold winter day. Howie was the
engineer on a local freight with a diesel switcher. They were done with
the switching for a while so all the crew was crammed into the cab trying
to warm up. A gasoline tank truck stalled on the tracks, but Howie did not
see it. His fireman yelled “Dump it, Howie”. He dumped the
brakes into emergency but of course still hit the tanker trailer, pushing
it into the third rail, and showering the outside of the engine with
flaming gasoline. Luckily it was winter and all the cab windows were
closed. It took a minute or so for the gasoline to burn off before the
fire went out. No one got hurt. (Bill Lane)
A
Hot House
Howie’s
house and cars were never air conditioned in spite of pleas from his
family. Years of working in a hot loco cab made him very tolerant of
heat. (Bill Lane)
|
Firing
on Steam
I
was always completely amazed at the fact that Howie (and many other
firemen) shoveled TONS of coal on a daily basis. That is unheard of in
today's workplace. I could not imagine having to head off to work knowing
I would have to shovel 10+ tons in a day. Howie was the first person to
explain to me the use of the throttle and reverser bars, and how an
inexperienced or uncaring engineer could almost kill you by having them
improperly adjusted “down in the corner” It would literally suck the
coal off the shovel. You did not dare complain to the engineer or anyone
else;, you just kept on shoveling. (Bill Lane)
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Wayward
Water Spout
One
of my favorite stories was his tale of the fireman aboard his locomotive
in commuter service kicking the water spout out of the way and giving
Howie the highball while water still spilled over the tender and ground as
the valve slowly shut. It saved time... One hot summer day the
fireman followed the routine, only to notice that, as the train charged
away, the water spout valve did not shut but instead showered all the
commuters on that side of the train with their windows open with gallons
of cold water! Howie suggested they ask the conductor to call ahead
for a customer representative to be on hand at the next station, but not
to tell him why! Guess you had to hear and see Howie tell it to get
the complete hilarity of that scene! (Jim
Kindraka)
|
Nothing
to Report
During
the war on one of the troop trains this one was full of Marines there was
some kind of tie up on the railroad and the train was sitting at a red
signal. The Marine Colonel in charge checked the time and saw that the
train was not moving and so went up ahead to see what the problem was and
to get the loafers in the crew to get the train back on schedule again.
And he must have told the engineer and fireman to get the___train
moving. At first the engineer explained that he couldn’t move the train
against a red signal, but apparently the Marine Colonel didn't want
any___excuses.
Anyhow,
within a few such exchanges, apparently the Colonel and the engineer and
fireman were spouting colorful language, and a couple of other officers
got on the ground to see what was going on then the rest of the trainload
of Marines began pouring out of the cars as the whole train crew got into
a free-for-all with them trying to keep them in the cars with fists flying
in a full-scale riot. And when the report was made by the Military Police,
it was found that since it was known that a Marine Colonel would never use
foul language to a train crew, nor swing first. Since the railroad firemen
and engineers would never use foul language to our fighting men, and would
never swing first, that in the report it said that in fact, nothing had
happened. (Vic Roseman)
|
Keeping
On Time In Single Track Territory
Howie
was the engineer on one of the fast east end trains running city bound
(westbound) in single-track territory. He had to keep his schedule because
he had meets to make at passing sidings with the rush hour trains
eastbound out of the city. At one of the dinky stops out east where
no agent was on duty, he was being held because there was a large box in
the express car that had to be handed off to the waiting Railway Express
driver, only there was no truck waiting. The conductor told Howie that the
baggage man had been told they had to wait till the truck got there, but
Howie told him that the train had to move because they had oncoming
traffic. So the conductor told the baggage man to shove the thing
out the door -which the baggage man dutifully did. Out came the casket,
falling to the platform and leaving the poor cadaver inside standing on
his head as the train rolled out of the station! (Vic Roseman)
|
You
Came In On A Locomotive On A Boat...?
It
was the early part of World War Two when this took place, perhaps 1942,
before the draft got my friend Howie. Howie was a fireman on Long Island,
and got a job bringing a K4s PRR Pacific down to Bay Ridge for
transporting over to Greenville (Jersey City) Long Island engines were
sent to PRR facilities for a lot of major (expensive) work to keep their
guys working while Morris Park, the LIRR’s shops had to lay off guys. As
he had done this kind of operation a number of times, he decided to ride
the car float across to Jersey City, with the idea of taking a bus up to
the Square and getting the tubes (PATH) back home.
So he said his goodbyes to the guys on the float after the Jersey City
hostler got the engine off, and proceeded to walk over to the gate to get
the bus only an MP stopped him.
The
MP asked where his pass was to be on the premises- his Long Island RR pass
and I.D. might well have been Southern Pacific, for the MP insisted that
he should not have been let into Greenville- and asked how he got there.
Howie
explained that he had ridden the locomotive across on the car float out of
Bay Ridge. Well, the MP knew full well that you didn’t bring
locomotives on a car float. And after getting a lot of brass and the PRR
supervisors into the mess it was finally decided that Howie couldn’t
walk over to the road and take the bus. The only solution to the problem
that would satisfy both the railroad people and the military was for Howie
to go back the way he came. Which he did not getting home till the wee
hours of the morning. Legend says that in the engine facility at Bay Ridge
there appeared a sign with a stern warning that crews were NOT to
accompany their engines when transporting on car floats. (Vic
Roseman)
|
A
Clean Locomotive Is A Happy
Locomotive
One
time during diesel days on the Long Island, where a crew had to take
whatever engine the enginehouse set out for them, Howie went up into the
cab and found it full of grease and oil, a filthy mess. The Fireman on the
job said to Howie, “What can you do? We have to take this garbage heap.
Howie said “Heck we do!” He unscrewed the adjusting knob from the
seat, allowing the whole seat to come off its mount, and then he threw the
seat across a couple of tracks so it would fall under another train. Howie
went into the enginehouse and began to raise his soft melodious voice to
get the attention of whoever was in charge, and said, “How can you give
us an engine with no seat in it? I want another engine – and he got it.
(Vic Roseman)
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This page, material, write-up, and permissions compliments of Bill Lane |