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Interlocking Diagram My Rock Island Tower experience at Joliet began with this message received while working at Ivanhoe. Since I had never been to Rock Island tower, I asked an operator at Ivanhoe for directions. He wrote these driving instructions. I followed this route each workday as I chose to drive Hobart to Joliet and back. The J would pay driving mileage only for the first and last day worked, i.e. one round trip from my home base (Hobart, IN) to a job, no matter how long that job lasted. The J paid 7.5 cents per mile in 1963. So, since the distance between Hobart and Joliet is about 50 miles, I got paid a whopping $7.50 mileage for all those trips. Gosoline cost about 30 cents per gallon. There was no mileage paid for break in days. My first break in day got off to a bad start. The message made it clear that I would be working 2nd trick but that first day I had a personal problem. My parents were returning from a vacation in California and I was supposed to pick them up at Chicago's Midway Airport in the early evening. So I decided to do the first break in day on 1st trick and then go to Midway after work. I walked into Rock Island tower, introduced myself, and said I was there for break in. I don't remember the operator's name but he told me he would not do it because he didn't get paid enough for breaking someone in and I should return for 2nd trick. I said "Okay, but I want to make a diagram of the plant before I leave." I made the diagram and left the tower. I then called a friend in Hobart and he agreed to pick up my parents at Midway. I spent the day in Joliet in my car familiarizing myself with the Rock Island plant diagram. I then returned to the tower for 2nd trick break in. Made for a long day! By the way, I interacted with that first trick operator several times in the next two weeks and we got along fine. No hard feelings. I guess technically he was correct to refuse the break in. I never did learn what extra pay an operator got for breaking in a new operator but the base pay at Rock Island tower was $2.6868/hour. Here are the two pages of notes I took when learning the job. Included was getting a track for inbound J trains and then displaying that information to the crew. Remember, there was no train communication radios then. The inbound track number was displayed outside the tower and was lighted at night. The primary objective was to move J trains in and out of the yard while avoiding delays to the Rock Island passenger and commuter trains. J trains and RI freights had equal priority. This Rock Island passenger train schedule lists all 3rd trick (11pm to 7am), 1st trick (7am to 3pm), and 2nd trick (3pm to 11pm) trains. The 200 and 500 series trains were commuter trains, the others long distance. There was an intercom, I recall, between Rock Island tower and MC tower close by to the west and maybe UD tower too although I don't remember ever talking to UD. Since J trains entering or leaving East Joliet Yard were traveling slowly, one had to be very conscious of the Rock Island passenger schedules. As the notes indicate a 100-car J train could take 15-20 minutes to clear the plant. The only delay I recall was when a J train entering the yard experienced a minor derailment which resulted in sticking a couple of westbound commuter trains. I recall being criticized by MC for not reporting the problem to the RI in a timely manner. Speaking of MC tower, here's a photograph showing MC tower where the Michigan Central Joliet to East Gary line crossed the Rock Island. If you look carefully in the background of the left-side 1/3 of the photo, you can see Rock Island tower, just a short distance away. Here's my MC tower diagram. During break in I was made aware of a certain sequence of legitimate lever throws which might lock up the plant. A crank had to be applied at a specific point in the locking bed to free things up. I forgot about this until it actually happened one night. I had to make a call to the maintainer to refresh my memory as to what to do. This incident reminds me of the 20-80 rule which states that 80% of one's training should concentrate on the 20% of things which can go wrong while 20% of training should be adequate for the normal good stuff. In my tower break in experience the bad stuff was rarely mentioned.
Finally, I mention a very scary experience after working 3rd trick one night. On my way home I dozed off briefly while driving on one of Gary's Glen Park streets. I woke as I started to drift to the left side of the road. That horrible feeling stays with you forever. My Rock Island tower experience was one of the highlights of the summer. The tower was a busy place (especially with the Rock Island passenger, commuter, and freight traffic) and served as a terminal on the J, making the job very interesting and fun. Unfortunately, I did not keep a list of trains run.
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