Author: LCDIV5

Our beginnings

Posted on by LCDIV5

sp indio

From The Dessert Sun.

The transcontinental railroad opened the doors to America, especially those lightly traveled areas where Herculean efforts were required to cross hundreds of miles of remote wilderness, steep mountains, and endless desert.

Discovery of gold in 1848 focused world attention on California and the Pacific Coast region. At the time, early settlers had few options in cross country travel: An arduous overland journey across the plains by oxen or mules, or long ocean voyages via Panama or around Cape Horn.

A growing sentiment in the west and east favored a railroad that would bind the nation closer together.

The roots of Southern Pacific Railroad’s path through the Coachella Valley can be traced to the country’s pre-Civil War days and the creation of the Central Pacific Railroad Company of California, incorporated June 28, 1861.

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The brainchild of Collis P. Huntington, Leland Stanford, Mark Hopkins and Charles Crocker, the corporation was formed to build the western portion of the Pacific Railroad — a transcontinental link from Sacramento, east over the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

Construction began in Sacramento in 1863 followed by authorization of Congress in 1863. The line traversed 690 miles over the mountains and across Nevada to meet the Union Pacific at Promontory, Utah, where the last spike was driven on May 10, 1869.

In 1865, the Southern Pacific Railroad was organized to build lines from San Francisco to San Diego and eastward to rails being proposed to reach westward from New Orleans.

The surveyors for the Southern Pacific route reached the site of Indio, known as Indian Wells at the time, on March 25, 1872. They reported that this point was halfway between Los Angeles and Yuma, Ariz. A perfect spot for a train depot.

Southern Pacific acquired a 22-mile railroad from Los Angeles to Wilmington, opened in October, 1869 and construction began during 1873 on lines north and east out of the city.

Trains were operated to Colton on July 16, 1895 and to Indio on May 29, 1876.

indio cottages

 

After the railroad’s arrival in 1876, Indio really started to grow. The first permanent building was the craftsman style Southern Pacific Depot station and hotel. Southern Pacific tried to make life as comfortable as it could for their workers in order to keep them from leaving such a difficult area to live in at the time. It was the center of all social life in the desert with a fancy dining room. Dances were hosted on Friday nights.

While Indio started as a railroad town, it developed into an agricultural area shortly thereafter. Onions, cotton, grapes, citrus and dates thrived in the arid climate due to the ingenuity of farmers finding various means of attaining water — first through artesian wells.

The arrival of the Southern Pacific Railroad would leave an indelible mark on the Palm Springs-based Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians and shaped the future of the tribe. In the 1860s, the Federal government granted the railroad ten miles of odd-numbered sections of land on each side of the railroad right-of-way.

In 1876, when President Ulysses S. Grant established the present Agua Caliente Indian Reservation by executive order, only the even-numbered sections were still available. This created the reservation’s “checkerboard” pattern.

In 1875, the Cahuilla Indians began working on the construction of the railroad. The tracks ran about six miles north of the Palm Springs Way Station, which served as a stagecoach stop from 1865 until the rail line was completed in 1887.

The Southern Pacific built a Spanish-styled railroad station in the 1930s, located in North Palm Springs on Tipton Road off Highway 111.

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By this time, Palm Springs had already become a popular tourist destination and was known as a world famous winter playground for Hollywood stars. The Southern Pacific, traveling on what became known as the Sunset Route, now delivered travelers right at the doorstep of this thriving desert community.

the sidewinder

A 1914 brochure touting the Southern Pacific Sunset Route as the “Best Route to the California 1915 Expositions” — the Panama-Pacific Exposition was being held in San Francisco and the Panama-California Exposition was taking place in San Diego — provided colorful descriptions of the stops along the route, which originated in New Orleans.

This is how the railroad’s literature depicted the desert 100 years ago:

“Yuma, the Colorado River and California is reached 1,754 miles west from New Orleans … the route is through a region that is peculiar and interesting. At Imperial Junction, a branch line of the Southern Pacific runs south to the celebrated Imperial Valley, which has sprung into a wonderful existence in a night, almost, because of its splendid fertility, its varied, almost tropical products, freedom from frosts, great volume of water for irrigation, taken from the Colorado, and its rapid development and adaptability for all forms of agriculture, yet in the heart of the desert.”

salton sea 4

That year, 1914, the valley shipped more than 4,000 cars of cantaloupes alone, to all sections of the United States. From a waste only a few years ago, the Imperial Valley now has a population of 25,000 with fine towns, street cars, clubs, newspapers, excellent hotels and a high class civilization.

salton

The journey is then through the Salton Valley and along the northern shores of the Salton Sea made by an overflow of the Colorado Rivers some years ago. Here the train runs for miles below the sea level, at Salton reaching the bottom of a great depression at a depth of 253 feet. This condition is peculiar and unequaled and is not even approximated by any other railroad in the world. The route through the California desert passes through Thermal, Coachella and Indio, all below sea level, and climbs the divide, reaching the apex at Beaumont, California.”

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Next week: Southern Pacific Railroad History in the Coachella Valley, Part II.

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Sources: City of Palm Springs, Agua Caliente Cultural Museum, Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, Historian Pat Laflin, Coachella Valley Water District, Central Pacific Railroad website, Michael L. Grace (Palm Springs Rail Heritage blog)

Protecting two-person crews is still our goal

Posted on by LCDIV5

 

2013 Cartoon Single Crew Graphic alone

(The following is a statement by Dennis R. Pierce, National President of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET), regarding recent media reports concerning a tentative contract agreement that would open the door to single-person train operations along portions of the BNSF Railway.)

CLEVELAND, July 21 — The BLET National Division has received many requests for comments following the announcement last week that BNSF and one of the SMART Transportation Division General Committees of Adjustment (STD GCA) representing trainmen on BNSF have negotiated a new Crew Consist Agreement that allows for engineer-only operations under certain circumstances. As we understand SMART’s internal rules, their General Committees of Adjustment are not unlike BLET’s in that they have the autonomous authority to negotiate and interpret contracts. That said, and from the statement issued by SMART Transportation Division President Previsich on July 18, the single STD GCA that entered into the new Crew Consist Agreement does not speak for the SMART Transportation Division. Correspondence is also in circulation that would indicate that this single STD GCA does not speak for any of the other STD GCAs on BNSF.

Almost one year ago to the day, I issued a statement following the disaster involving a one-person crew in Canada urging BLET’s membership, and the officers and membership of SMART’s Transportation Division, to join us in an effort to ensure safety on the nation’s rails by supporting two-person crews. I was clear then that there are three avenues available to protect a two-person crew: regulation, legislation, and collectively bargained agreements. BLET has no intention of discontinuing our efforts on the regulatory or legislative fronts. We will continue our effort to advance H.R. 3040 in the U.S. House of Representatives as well as similar legislation on the state level, and are awaiting FRA’s regulation on crew size with every intention of commenting in support of a two-person crew for all over the road train operations.

And on properties like the Wheeling and Lake Erie (WLE), where BLET is the designated bargaining agent for both engineers and conductors, BLET stands steadfastly at the bargaining table, refusing to give up the conductor’s position as WLE insists we do. In fact, I authorized a strike against the WLE in late 2013 over their refusal to call conductors when they were available. Our members on the WLE have made it clear through their solidarity that they will not accept an agreement that would eliminate the conductor’s position, and they have the full support of the BLET National Division in this fight.

Things are vastly different in the Class I railroad world, where BLET represents the majority of the nation’s engineers and SMART represents the majority of the conductors. To preserve a two-person crew through collective bargaining, each union must protect the craft and class that it is authorized to bargain for. In 2007, BLET and BNSF negotiated such an agreement, revising the scope of duties belonging to locomotive engineers and, in doing so, preserved the work rights of BNSF engineers well into the future. Similar agreements were negotiated on Norfolk Southern and CSXT in that bargaining round. The reasoning behind these agreements is straightforward: neither BLET nor SMART can protect a two-person crew if each union does not collectively bargain agreements that preserve the work rights of the craft for whom it is the bargaining agent.

While BLET’s 2007 agreements recognized that the involved railroads did not have to bargain further with BLET should engineer-only operations ever come to pass, that recognition was hardly necessary as it was merely recognition of the status quo. BLET General Committees of Adjustment, and the BLET at large, were not and are not the NMB designated bargaining agent for trainmen or conductors on the involved railroad properties, and as such, have no jurisdictional authority to bargain on their behalf. Instead, that authority is vested in SMART’s Transportation Division, formerly UTU, and only SMART has the jurisdictional authority to bargain for and protect those positions. In fact, when the 2007 BLET/BNSF Scope Agreement was negotiated, engineers had already been required to work engineer-only helper assignments on BNSF following UTU’s failed effort to preserve their ground crew position on those assignments. Purely as a result of SMART being the designated bargaining agent for trainmen and conductors, BLET’s agreements with BNSF have never included crew consist requirements that govern the number of ground crew members required or that prevent engineers from being required to work engineer only, nor can they.

BLET’s 2007 Agreement with BNSF was overwhelmingly ratified by a membership vote, a vote to preserve those members’ jobs, and it is my understanding that the BLET General Chairmen responsible for enforcing that agreement are reviewing the BNSF/STD proposal to determine whether any portion of it conflicts with BLET’s 2007 Agreement. At the same time, SMART’s membership on a portion of BNSF is now in the same position as BLET’s membership was in back in 2007; they must decide if the proposal they have been provided actually preserves jobs or eliminates them, and determine if the balance between those two outcomes warrants ratification or rejection.

In either event, BLET’s National Division remains as committed to working to preserve two-person crews as it was a year ago when I commented following the Canadian disaster. We will continue to work with the National Representatives of SMART’s Transportation Division wherever and whenever in an effort to preserve and protect two-person crews. That includes the regulatory front, the legislative front, and on the collective bargaining front where possible. The stakes are too high to do otherwise; the safest and securest workplace for the nation’s railroads, their employees and the public at large is one that includes a minimum of a two-person crew.

Tiger Lyons

Posted on by LCDIV5

By Michel Nolan, The Sun

POSTED: 07/11/14, 6:00 PM PDT | UPDATED: 17 HRS AGO

tiger (2)

 

As a railroad man, on the job nearly 60 years, Tiger has proven he has nerves of steel and a will of iron.

The railroad is in his DNA.

How hard it must be then to walk away from a job that is a way of life.

Tonight will be Tiger’s final ride on a Union Pacific freight train as it thunders along the tracks from Colton to Orange County and beyond.

Tiger Lyons is retiring.

I couldn’t wait to talk with this man who has started his night shift like clockwork at the Colton railroad yard for nearly six decades.

 

 

Tiger is a quiet man, soft-spoken and kind.

He told me he wanted to keep his retirement “low profile.”

And it will be — but a few more people will know of a job well done by this man who has dedicated his life to the railroad.

The railroads put this country together, he’ll tell you. He’s glad to be part of the railroad experience.

Kenny Naucler, Tiger’s supervisor, has known him 35 years.

“All his years of service just show his work ethic,” Kenny said. “It would be amazing in any industry to have this length of service. He’s a genuine nice guy, one-of-a-kind.”

 

 

Tiger does his job right and helps new hires learn the job right, Kenny added.

Now 77, this father of three sons doesn’t mind the nightly drive from his Victorville home to the huge Union Pacific rail yard in Colton, where he works all night.

Over the years he has seen the transition from steam to diesel, the crackdown on safety rules and regulations, and more efficiency in communications.

“In 1955, there weren’t as many safety rules — it was different — you just did what they told you to do,” Tiger said.

 

He remembers when it was common practice to walk over the tops of cars while the train was moving — like a movie stuntman.

“It only sounds amazing if you’re not familiar with it. We don’t do it anymore,” he said, downplaying the danger.

In 1955, as a teenager living in Glendale, Tiger started working for the railroad as a brakeman out of the Los Angeles yard. Soon, he tested for the conductor position, a job he has enjoyed ever since.

And no, a conductor does not walk up and down the aisle on a freight train collecting tickets.

 

Conductors are like managers, deciding where to put the cars — where to put the lumber car, the hazardous materials car.

On a recent route from Colton through Anaheim, La Mirada and Santa Fe Springs, the train was one mile long and included 86 cars for a total of 10,000 tons snaking along the tracks.

He considers a 30-car train short and says, “When we get one of those, we can run like a rabbit.”

From his original base in Los Angeles and then Colton, Tiger’s routes have taken him to Yuma, Ariz., and Bakersfield, Santa Barbara and El Centro.

 

About his 20 years of runs between Colton and Yuma, Tiger says, “The same lizard has been sitting on the same rock every time we go to Yuma.”

Tiger also noted that after 20 years, he has never seen a flying saucer out there in the desert where there are so many sightings.

In the old days, crews were composed of a conductor, an engineer, a fireman and three brakemen.

Nowadays, thanks to technology, engineer-and-conductor two-man crews handle the workload.

A workload Tiger can still handle.

I could work another year or two,” he says, “but I thought I’d just step aside.”

 

What’s next for this rugged railroad man?

Surprisingly, he likes the idea of travel and is thinking about taking a train (Amtrak) up to see his brother in Eugene, Ore., and maybe do some sightseeing in Canada as well.

He’ll be able to spend more time with his three sons — Bill Jr., who drives a cement mixer; Richard, a San Bernardino County firefighter/engineer; and James, a fireman/paramedic for the Apple Valley Fire Protection District.

“I love them all, and they’re all handy up here in the High Desert,” the senior Lyons said.

 

And how much will he miss the steel rails and thunder along the tracks?

“You can’t do this all your life and not miss it,” he said simply.

 

And here’s a thought for the day: Take my advice, I’m not using it.

C.E. Poxon

Posted on by LCDIV5

 

 

 

Brothers and Sisters;

 The Los Angeles Service Unit lost one of our finest, C.E. Poxon (Cece)

 Cece hired out with SPRR 05/05/78, retired with a disability on 09/05/05

 Cece passed away Monday June 24th 2014, after losing her battle with cancer.

 

 Cece’s family is planning a celebration Sunday July 13th at her

sisters home in Pasadena. The celebration will begin at 6pm with a

 presentation At 7pm,  followed by dinner. I’m sure everyone that knew Cece

 has a Colorful story or two to tell, she was fun to work with, a great Engineer

 And above everything a Great person…she will be missed.

 

1755 Homet Road, Pasadena, Ca 91106 – 6pm Sunday july 13th 20 

homet rd

 

C.E. Poxon