Yard Critters (The Real Kind)

[Anonymous]

Tuned in the radio to a local yard and found what sounded like a yard in total chaous. Aparently during the night a skunk had been feeding on some spilled grain and was run over by a car coming down the hump. The smell was so bad it was disrupting crewmen building trains on adjacent tracks. All kinds of suggestions were heard coming through the radio, as to how to remedy the situation. It was finally decided to have someone with a haz-mat oxygen mask remove it with a shovel.
Well, the person selected for this task apparently held a gruge against the office people at the yard. According to the conversation over the radio: Foreman: "Did you bury it deep." Laboror: "I did not bury it I threw it in the dumpster." Foremen: "Which one" Laboror: "The one by the yard office". Foreman: "Kind of a long walk you didn't do that on purpose did you?" Laboror: "The others were filled" Foreman: "Well I'm sure I'll here about it".
Do situations like this happen often in the yard with critters? Do railroads hire exterminators to keep them under control in the yards? Is this a danger only in less used yards? Is that a normal way of disposing dead animals?
TIM ARGUBRIGHT
I hope I did not give anyone bad ideas on how to get back at office personal.

[Anonymous]

We have a guy that catches pigeons (gets a buck appeice), he fires a net out of a little cannon to corral them. We also have quite a few big, I mean big rats in the bowl. When I get bored I try to hit them with chat. Occasionally I will get lucky and whack one.
Ken

[edblysard]

Hi Tim,
We too, let a guy trap pigions here, uses the same thing, a net cannon. If you dont know he is in the yard, and he fires that thing, you swear someone is shooting a shotgun at you, scared the crap out me about a month ago.
We have snakes, raccons, skunks, bats, owls, more rabbits than you can shake a stick at, and feral hogs out near the cargil grain elevator.
At greens bayou, we saw a alligator, its been there for years, and just about any type of water fowl you can name. And rats everywhere, along with field mice. During grain season, like now, you carry a stick with you around the grain cars, not only for the rats, but for the snakes that come to eat them. Down here, we have a paticularly nasty viper, called a water moccasin,
or cotton mouth, that lives in the ditches and wet lands, (Houston is built on a swamp/wetland)and feed almost exclusivly on rodents like rats. They have a hemotoxin venom, that attacks tissue quickly, and we have had two bad bites this year.
Oh, and if all the guys you overheard did was put the skunk in a dumpster near the office, they were being nice. Last time one of the car men here caught a skunk in a grain bag he used a slim jim to get into a yardmasters pick up truck, and ...well, lets say the truck hasnt been driven lately, and the yardmaster marked off for a few days.
I cant speak for the other railroads, but about the only thing we get done here is a spray truck comes by once a month, and sprays the ditches and between the tracks for mosiquitoes.
Beyond that, your on your own.
Stay Frosty,
Ed

[Soo2610]

Oh man, I'd sure hate to be the poor sob on the receiving end if that yardmaster ever figures out who dun it!
Really though, laughed till my sides hurt at that one.

[wabash1]

Tim

It is against the law to have trainmasters exterminated. we have deer racoons opposoms,snakes skunks rabbits rats dogs cats fox cyotes those are just whats on the ground.

[Mookie]

Also heard stories that with all of the above, we also had some trees in the area and a lot of birds would roost there. Not just the normal ones, but parrots and parakeets by the dozens. They were "escaped" birds and for whatever reason, found their way to the rail yard.

And it is only against the law if someone realizes the TM is missing....and reports it.

Jen

[edblysard]

Oh, he knows, just cant prove it. The yardmasters here have had a ongoing contest with our car department, over something, who knows what. Its been going on for years. Pay back for the skunk was this same yard master would get one car man to bleed off a receiving track, and a hour later, he would get the guy who gave him the pet skunk to put a rear end device on it, and hook it up for ground air. Or send him out to the boonies with a knuckle and a pin to repair a car that wasnt damaged. Stuff like that.
But the truck stank, and still does, he has had it professionally cleaned several times, and you can still smell it.
Stay Frsoty,
ED

[edblysard]

Who would miss a TM?
Ed

[Mookie]

my point exactly!

Jen

[Anonymous]

Everybody would miss a TM after they figured out that they were gone. How would they figure out that they were gone? Easy. The yard would work smoothly. Switching would be more effecient. Guys would be happier. Nobody would be hiding in the weeds to ops test you.
Ken

[Anonymous]

What is the Train Master in charge of. If it's in the yard is not the Yard Master calling all the shots?
TIM A

[wabash1]

yard masters are in control of movements in the yard what he says goes. train masters are in control of the people. easiest way i can put it.

[Mookie]

Ken - don't you ever lose that great sense of humor!

Jen

[cabforward]

until 1961, greens bayou was a turnaround point for the houston-north shore interurban.. the car used a turntable to reverse direction.. odd place for a destination.. nothing there except a locale sign.. no waiting platform or path to the nearest road..

how far does the old mp track go towards baytown?

[Soo2610]

OH how I know about the stink! Our Lab tangled with one about 2:30 in the morning when we let her out. Bad part about it was that my aunt and uncle had just finished all the tomato juice in their bloody marys. Ever try to destink 150 pounds of blinded lab with canned tomato wedges at 2:30 in the morning? I can think of lots of better forms of entertainment let me tell you!

[edblysard]

And no matter what you do, the smell never really washes off, it just has to wear off.
And our old lab would have tried to eat the tomatoes, goofy thing he was.
But he was the best dog I ever had, so I would have been there with the canned tomatoes, trying also.
Stay Frosty,
Ed