Dave

Ellis and Eastern

9/19/2019 was my first day at E&E. I was brought on to be a conductor and I feel like I did a pretty good job at it. Even today I still find myself looking at handbrakes and watching for problems when a train goes by.
1/19/2020 was the start of the storm that greatly contributed to the end of my railroading career. We got about a foot of snow over the weekend and on Monday we pretty much just helped MOW clean switches and shovel sidewalks leading up to the crossings in Sioux Falls. Easy day, no issues here. Tuesday I was supposed to assist the guys in Luverne operate their MOW Snow Plow. Not a Jordan Spreader, but their version of that type of equipment. Well, the MTO was running the plow and it had derailed out east of Magnolia. So I spent the day helping the train crew switch out Luverne. Wednesday was more switching, and as the train was ready to depart for Worthington, the plow came into Luverne. I asked the operator if they wanted me to come up and assist, but was told there wasn't any room in the cab for another guy, so I went to Worthington with the train instead. I remember it was a bitterly cold day, around -10 F and windy as all hell. I was also supposed to put lettering on the Caboose from the old Minnesota Southern Railway that was slated to go to Worthington in the near future. When I tried to adhere them to the side of the car, the metal was too cold for the adhesive to stick. I told my manager this and told him we could just get some yellow paint and put the asset tagging on it that way. He laughed and said we might just have to do that.
Thursday I was tasked with helping the mechanics work on the 92 day inspections on both 97 and 107. I was to clean out the oil traps in the exhaust. They were so full of oil and burnt soot that when I opened them up they just spilled all over the top of the engine. It took me 4 hours to get 8 traps cleaned out when it should have only taken 2. After that was done, I went to Baumgaars (or however you spell it) and got some yellow paint. I added the ILSX and the 20 on both sides where they should go and touched up the handrails and grab irons around the car, took photos and sent them to my manager and went home.

1/24/2020 was my last day at E&E. The morning started off normal. we did our stretching and then Toni, Tyler, and Shelby went off in 47 to switch out a couple places in town here. I was left to work on 17s 92-day inspection. I needed a certain filter to replace one and I couldn'y find it, so I called the mechanic to ask if we had more somewhere. He said he wasn't sure but would call me back. Well, he never did. I got in trouble for being on my phone during a safety related work event, (yes, that is what the railroad calls it, even tho there are exceptions if you take yourself out of service and step away from the safety sensitive activity, like I did) and got pulled into the manager's office to talk. Each one of the event I mentioned above was questioned.

"Why didnt I work the Plow?"
"Because you derailed it and I couldn't operate it in that condition."

"Why didn't I work it when it came back to Luverne?"
"Because there was no room for a 3rd guy in the cab and was told by the MOW manager to work the switch crew."

"Why did it take so long to clean out the arrestors?"
"Because they were obviously skipped on the last inspection ans were plum full of oil and soot, and spilled oiul all over the engine that I then had to clean up."

"Why did you spray paint the caboose?"
"Because you told me that we might just have to do that, so I did"

"I was kidding about that. When you sent me photos of that, I was eating dinner at the table and could't believe my eyes! Well, Management isn't sure what to do, so just be prepared."
"For what?"

...

Well, at 3 PM, everyone else went home, but I was told to hang back. Management had made their decision, and obviously you can guess what it was. Nevermind the fact that all thier problems with me were the result of my managers direct actions. Well, I took it in stried and directly asked if the decsion was because of my performance as a conductor. You know, the job I was hired to actualy perform... I was told I did exceptionally well and there were no complaints. (in hindsight, I wish I could have gotten that statement in writing...)

My senior year, I went on a ride along with a McCook County Sherrif Deputy. I was told that the Deputies radio callsign was created by using 461 and the first letter of the deputy's last name. 46 for the county number of McCook County, 1 designating the radio caller as a Sherrif Deputy (a 0 would be used if the city had their own police department), and then the letter of the deputy's last name.

So:

46 = McCook County
1 = Sheriff Deputy
L = officer identifier

That deputy gave me the callsign 461L in case of emergency communication and I needed to radio in to dispatch. I never needed to use it during the ride along trips, but for years afterwards I was known as 461L whenever I would transmit on the radio, and still do whenever I'm not using my GMRS or AR call sign.