A day with Balto on 11E

A phone rings and Balto wakes from his slumbering rest. Half asleep he answers. On the phone he hears a familiar voice, "Hello Balto, Your called for 6AM to go out on 11E."
Politely Balto responses, "Thanks Nava. Thanks for the early rise."
Nava chuckles then howls, "Your very welcome brother. " Followed quickly by a click on the phone receiver.

Balto grumbles as he looks at the clock and notices the time. Its 4AM and the call is his two hour window to show up for work. Balto is a half dog half wolf locomotive engineer on Norfolk Southern’s Conway to Toledo crew pool. Balto had been advanced to engineer a year before and he still finds himself on the extra board. Seniority comes slow when one finds a real job and no one leaves except when retiring. Everyone with enough seniority get regular trains with a fairly predictable work schedule. But with the extra board, you are on call as soon as you are rested. Maybe as less as 7 hours from marking off. Not enough time for a good rest when the railroad is running heavy and you’ve work twenty days straight. No weekends or holidays off here, just fat blue collar style paychecks.

Balto looks over at a sleeping Jenna and licks her neck, slightly waking her.

She looks up and frowns, "That was the railroad, wasn’t it?"

Balto frowns, "Yes."

"They cant even give you one day to celebrate Kodi’s birthday, can they?"
"It’s the railroad Jen, gatta keep it running."

Jenna frowns, "I know."

"Goodnight sweetie."

With a yawn, she replies, "Goodnight."

Balto gets up, packs his lunch and gathers accommodations for an overnight stay in a motel and heads out the door. He walks outside to see clear skies above and fog nestled into the wide Ohio River valley. After an hour commute, he arrives at the huge sprawling yard called Conway. Balto has come up from Wheeling, WV via four lane highways of interstates 70 and 79. Fighting through early commuters along the way. He turns off of I79 and onto Route 65 North, following the four track Norfolk Southern mainline on his way up. A few trains scream by, seemingly shooting out of the patchy fog heading east. One even paces Balto in his Monte Carlo on the 65MPH mainline. Balto howls with it at as the freight storms across the crossing at Leetsdale.

Five miles later, Balto smiles as he nears the end of his commute, before him lays Conway. A yard home to some 35 trains terminating and originating daily and an equal amount of relay (run-through) trains. Freights being built around the clock and leaving when their crews are ready. Intermodal and mineral trains coming in from the east or west and getting a fresh crew to take it further to its destination. Coming and going almost like a race car pit stop. Cars sprawl out amongst the 150 track yard and takes some 4,000 freight cars to even make it look full, which it always is.

He turns off of Route 65 and into the yard. He parks his GM built product and heads into the main office. A place called Ivory tower. The tower is the largest and tallest building in the yard. The nerve center for all operations in the yard, controlling every rail car to find itself in the yard.

Inside he finds many wolves and dogs. He makes his way to the time clock and marks up. He looks at who will be working with him and is shocked to see who his conductor is. His own son, Kodi. Balto smiles as he sits at one of the tables in the active room. He looks over the yummy goodies Jenna has packed for him. Her famous Steak sandwich and even some cold veggies from last nights dinner is what he finds.

A large tan husky named Dan runs over and sits next to Balto. He laughs, barking, "Howl are you Balto!"

Balto smiles, "Run eight. Man, its been what, a week? Its good to see you!"

He frowns happily, "Slick, its goen. Heres a few goodens. But hey, catch you on a flip side." He hands Balto a phone with BNSF initials on it and $50 bucks from their wager on the Pens. He gets up and leaves just as fast as he came, rushing to get to his train.

Balto laughs, thinking to himself, "He’s always good for a laugh. Goes from a trucker to a railroader and doesn’t look back. Takes some balls to pull that stunt."

Balto puts the phone into his duffle bag and looks up to see Kodi walk into the room.

Balto howls, "Hey boy."

Kodi walks over and shrugs, "Hey dad."

He then walks away to mark up. He runs over a few seconds later, barking, "You? Me?"
Balto smiles, "Yup, we’ve got the 11E today."

Kodi then goes to the computer and gathers all the paperwork for their train. He arrives back at Balto’s table, "Looks like 73 cars, 7 thousand tons, and 44hundred feet of train today."

Balto ponders over the information Kodi has given him. A few seconds later he responses, "Small train but heavy, Its not going to be a fast run today."

Kodi sits next to his father and lays a paw on his, "Oh dad, I’m told you’re the best on the Toledo Conway crew pool."

Balto smiles, "I’m just able to get the junk NS calls power moving. I’m always up for a challenge."

Thirty minutes later, a muscular malamute husky walks into the room, he barks for 11E’s crew. Balto and Kodi walk over and look at the black and white husky. A husky they know and despite his history, had been promoted to chief yardmaster. His ignorance and self absorption led him to the powerful job.

Steele looks at the pair and grins. "Well, if it aint the wolfies."
Balto looks at Steele with vengeance, "Just tell us what you want."

With a slight growl, he snaps, "Your power is ready on track 586."

He walks away barking, "And Make sure your PPE (personal protective equipment) is with you. We don’t want you to go deaf or crush a paw now."

No other words are exchanged between the three. Balto walks outside to find the sky in a light blue, a sign sunrise is but a half hour away. A tad of mist has replaced the thin fog. Balto and Kodi walk the hundred feet to the power. Blue diesel exhaust rises from the engine terminal as beasts wait for their calling. What stands at the engine terminal is nearly 3 dozen engines in from various assignments. Most are waiting for inspection before they are assigned to their next train. Balto and Kodi walk over to their power as an oil covered wolf from the engine house finishes his final inspections and removes the blue flag off of the locomotives. What stands before Balto is two of EMD’s latest products, both being SD70M-2s. The leading motor would be 2655, the trailer, 2703.

Barely two months old, the rough looking units already have a fine coat of dust and grim on its black paint. Between the two, they produce eight thousand horsepower and have a combined length of over 160FT. Their black and white paint with a symbol of a horse on the nose and Norfolk Southern proudly on the sides sit before Balto, almost mocking him. He remembers pride in the railroad version of a phoenix called Conrail. A railroad formed out of six bankrupt railroads to become one of the best run and profitable railroad in the states. A merger between the other two eastern railroads, NS and CSX split that Railroad. The sky blue on the locomotives are now black.

Balto climbs up and enters the cab. Kodi follows close behind. The pair sit in their respective seats and prepare for the day. They both go about organizing the trains paperwork and get ready for the day. Once done, Kodi calls the yardmaster and he response, "Hello 11E, 586 is against you, (Switch is lined for the other track) come out on 589 where 214 is against you. Come west on 572, run it till 224, it is against you. Slide onto 222, 356, and back yourselves to your train on 372."

Kodi smiles, memorizing everything the yardmaster has said, "Thank you."

He steps out and up to the switch and starts radioing Balto, "Okay dad, two cars to a bad one." Balto releases the engine brakes and coasts the one hundred feet. Kodi lines the switch and proceeds out. The continue this dance until they are finally at the west end of the yard. The pair follow the yardmaster’s instructions and tie onto their train.

Kodi yells, "One car…10 feet…5 feet. That’ll do."

Balto stops perfectly. With a loud clunk, he has coupled up to their train.

Kodi then yells, "Give me a little slack."
Balto tugs on the throttle and moves the power a foot away from the train.

Kodi yells, "11E, three step please."

Balto applies the train, locomotive and emergency brake, "Three step applied."

Kodi gets in-between the lead car and the trailing engine and connects the air hose and couplers.

A few minutes later, Kodi calls to Balto, "Aright dad, release the three, I’m on the way up."

Kodi then walks up to the lead engine. He walks up to the power as a yard pullout with a tired 30 year old SD40-2 screams by, straining to build another train. It stops then heads back into the yard as Kodi climbs onto the husky EMD and into the cab. He sits in his seat and yawns then gulps down a cup of hot coffee.

On the rear, the car inspector informs him he has become 11E’s crew and goes about putting the (EOT) End Of Train device on. Balto waits as the compressors build the trains air line. Kodi looks at his father and smiles unpleased, "Another good day stuck in this cab."

Balto rolls his eyes, "When will you take this serious?"

Kodi growls and stares out of the window watching the rail activity in the yard, ignoring his father.

A few minutes later, the air gauge reads 80 pounds and soon the car inspector drives to the head end to watch the train leave and to give it a final inspection. Balto radios the yard, "This is Balto with the 11E, we have been given the okay to leave and are ready to depart."
The yardmaster replies, "Okay to blast off 11E, here comes your signal."

Balto releases the brakes and notches up to the first power position. Balto then notches to the second and third as he gets a flashing yellow

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