railroad praks

[Anonymous]

Just wanting some stories on some classic railroad pranks. As a railroader myself I have been on both ends of the stick and was just curious about some of the pranks you have pulled or have had pulled on you.

The best I ever gave was convincing a new hire on his first student trip that a running brake test was done while running next to the train. I did stop him before he jumped off, but you should have seen the look on his face.

The best I ever got was an old conductor sending me to the mechanical department to look for a car stretcher after I had made a rough joint. Now this doesn't sound that bad in itself, but the whole mechanical department kept sending me all over the railroad trying to find this thing. I still get ribbed for this one today

[mvlandsw]

There was a conductor who could not resist taking anything not nailed down. One day he was spotted taking a can of Draino from the utility closet in the yard office and putting it in his grip. When he went to get his paper work the janitor opened the can, dumped it in the grip, and then added some water. When the conductor picked up the grip on the way out the door all that he got was the top and the sides . The bottom had been eaten away by his free drain cleaner.

[daveklepper]

Doung Riddell in his book FRIN THE CAB mentions the rookey switcher brakeman who spent a morning looking for a single-door boxcar . He assumed that meant a door on one side only. Dave Klepper

[wabash1]

As we are going down the road sometimes we let the alerter start sounding and tell the trainee this is the warning that the toilet needs to be flushed.