Piedmont Ghost Town

(This blog post was received recently from Steven, in a handwritten letter. The photos came shortly afterwards, after he had a chance to go take a few. All the text and photographs included are from Steven.)

Muddy Creek Campsite Marker
All Photos by Steven Ogden.

 Located in the southwest corner of Wyoming, lies a town called Piedmont, whose history is closely tied to the history of the transcontinental railroad. Piedmont was settled by the Byrne and Guild families. Mrs. Byrne and Mrs. Guild were sisters, and they named their new town after their Italian hometown, which means, "foot of the mountains." Located near the Uinta Mountains, the town is appropriately named.

Before the railroad came through, the area was an important stop on the California Trail. Fort Bridger, about 12 miles east of Piedmont, was the first supply point west of Fort Laramie, several hundred miles to the east. The Oregon Trail left the California Trail about 100 miles east of Fort Bridger, but many wagon trains going to Oregon continued to Fort Bridger for supplies, before turning towards Oregon. At this junction, a few miles past Fort Bridger, and close to Piedmont, Brigham Young, the leader of the first wagon train to the Salt Lake Valley, made an arrow out of rocks, pointing the way for the wagon trains following his, so they would know which way to go. There was a good camping site on the Muddy Creek, just a few miles north of Piedmont, where almost every wagon train and handcart company going to California and the Salt Lake Valley camped. Later the campsite became a Pony Express station, where the rider would exchange his tired horse for a fresh one, and keep riding.

Cabin Remains

Piedmont was settled in the mid 1860's, before the railroad came through. It served several purposes. First, it served as a base camp for the workers who built the railroad grade in preparation for the track to be laid. Since it was located near the Uinta Mountains, which had good timberland, railroad ties were made there and sent to where the track was being laid. The railroad rented Piedmont in 1868, a year before arriving at Promontory Point. Going west out of Piedmont, the railroad climbed a steep, eight mile grade, to get around the Aspen Mountains. Piedmont became a helper base, where helper locomotives were put on the rear of westbound trains, to get them over the grade.

Moses Byrne, one of the original settlers, saw some opportunity with the timberland and the railroad so close. He built charcoal kilns and began making charcoal in Piedmont. The finished charcoal was shipped by rail to the smelters in Salt Lake City, to fire the foundries there. The charcoal industry and the railroad kept the town pretty busy, and Piedmont quickly became a typical western frontier town, with a general store, hotel, train depot, and several saloons.

Charcoal Kilns in Piedmont, WY.

In early May of 1869, Thomas Durant, the Vice President of the Union Pacific Railroad, was traveling on his recently completed railroad, to Promontory Point, for the Gold Spike Ceremony, which was scheduled to take place on May 7, 1869. When his town arrived in Piedmont however, they found the track blocked by angry railroad workers. The railroad owed them over $200,000 in back wages, and they had decided they would get their money, even if it disrupted the Gold Spike Ceremony. Thomas Durant wired the railroad's headquarters for the money, and when it arrived, the disgruntled workers let him continue west. As a result, the Gold Spike Ceremony, marking the completion of the transcontinental railroad, happened three days later than planned, on May 10, 1869.

Butch Cassidy, a famous train robber, met up with some of his gang in Piedmont, in 1896. They boarded a train there and rode to Montpelier, Idaho. They robbed the bank in Montpelier, and then took the train back to Piedmont. There are two stories about the events after this. One story says that Butch Cassidy traveled by rail to New York, where he used the money to hire a lawyer for one of his friends. According to the other story, the money is still buried somewhere near Piedmont.

At the turn of the century, the railroad and the charcoal business were still what kept Piedmont alive. However, in 1901, the Union Pacific opened a tunnel through the Aspen Mountains, eliminating the steep, eight mile grade, and bypassing the town of Piedmont. With the railroad gone, there was no way to ship the charcoal to Salt Lake City, and the charcoal industry quickly fell apart. The other businesses in town soon closed their doors, with the general store closing last, in the 1940's.

Piedmont Today

Piedmont today is one of the most accessible ghost towns in the area. It is on a dirt road, but it is easy to drive because it was built on the original railroad grade. There is a monument near the road, marking the location of the former town.

Descendants of the Guild family live near Piedmont. They own a large ranch and live just a few miles south of where the town once stood. Many of the Piedmont buildings are still there, although there have been no efforts to preserve them. Many of them are on the Guild ranch. The kilns, however, have been preserved and are on public property. The cemetery, which lies south of the town site, is also accessible. The Muddy Creek campsite, where many wagon trains have spent nights, is on the county road into Piedmont, and the foundation for the Pony Express station is still visible.

The fort, at Fort Bridger, has been preserved, and is actually open for tours during the summer. Fort Bridger is probably the best place to visit, to learn more about the area, as it is still an active community and is just a few miles off Interstate 80.

Training Again

For the last two weeks, I have been busy working for the Alaska Railroad. Currently, we are in training. Training started about two weeks ago, with some classroom time. We spent two weeks in the classroom, mostly going over operating practices from the General Code of Operating Rules (GCOR). Conveniently, this is the same rule book that BNSF uses. While it is the same rule book, the Alaska Railroad does do a few things differently. The biggest difference in operations is due to the fact that Alaska Railroad runs both freight trains and passenger trains. On the BNSF, we did not need to know anything about passenger trains, because we did not handle any. They have to be switched differently than freight trains and air tests have to be conducted differently for them.

Despite having railroad experience, I still have to go through all the training. That is just fine with me though, because I have been learning more, and I have had to learn what the differences are between the Alaska Railroad and how things are done on the BNSF.

This week we have been doing field training, which involves going out to a yard with our trainers and learning things hands on. We have been at a place called Birchwood, which is about 20 miles from Anchorage, where there is a four track classification yard. Since the Anchorage yard handles most of the switching, Birchwood is usually pretty quiet, which allows us to do our stuff without getting in the way of anyone else and without having anyone else get in our way.

Yesterday was our first day out at Birchwood, so we started by practicing hand signals. Most of them are exactly the same as they were on the BNSF. After we had all practiced a bit, they decided to have us move a locomotive, using the hand signals we had just practiced. That was quite entertaining. For a lot of people, it seems like it is easier to remember what each proper hand signal is when they do not have the pressure of actually controlling a moving locomotive with them! Everyone did very well when we were all standing in a circle practicing. When we got next to the engine though, some people did some goofy things. It was funny, and everyone did improve as we moved the engine several times. It is just part of the learning process.

We also got to practice applying and releasing hand brakes, and lacing and unlacing air hoses. Most of the equipment we are using is very old, some of it goes back to World War II, so most of the hand brakes are up high. That proved to be a bit of a workout, to tie and untie those brakes several times. Later in the afternoon, they showed us how to change knuckles and air hoses. We each had to do both of those tasks several times, to get some practice.  Before we knew it, the day was over. It went much quicker than the classroom time had!

Today, we started the day by practicing hand signals again. Everyone is getting better. They had us move the engine again, and then they had us ride the engine and move it around. There were far fewer goofy hand signals today, and I expect there will be almost none by tomorrow. After we had all had a few turns at riding the engine, they taught us how to get on and off moving equipment. This was something new to me. On Alaska Railroad, the do not use it much, it is mostly for when necessary because of an emergency, but they want us to know how to do it so that we do not get hurt if there ever is an emergency that requires it. It is not particularly difficult when the train is going slow, but there is still a proper technique to it.

In the afternoon, they got a little more ambitious with us, and decided to have us switch cars. We got a cut of four cars and went to the north end of the yard. We practiced switching a couple of cars out, using two different tracks, and using all the appropriate hand signals to make that happen. We also got to practice passing hand signals. I think everyone liked switching more than most of our other activities up to that point. It gave everyone a chance to see and experience what exactly they signed up for by taking a job as a Brakeman.

After switching, we looked at some freight cars and learned what all the different parts are called. I had to learn some new slang for parts I knew already. We looked at several different types of cars, from modern intermodal cars, to some very old gondolas that were built before World War II. The basic parts are all the same, even if the overall appearance and size has changed a bit. Once again, the day was over quickly, and we all headed home. It is nice to be outside and learning more hands on. Everyone seems to be enjoying it a lot more and understanding everything better.

Career Change

First of all, I must apologize for our recent silence. There has been a big change in my life, which has kept me off the network, so to speak, for the last several weeks. This should not affect operations on our blog, although the content may change slightly as a result, as I'll explain later.

Several weeks ago, we posted a photo of the Alaska Railroad depot, in Anchorage, as our "Photo of the Week." That photo was actually taken just a couple of days before it was posted. I had flown up to Anchorage for a job interview with the Alaska Railroad, and despite it being a very short trip, I did have a little time, after the interview process, to go downtown and see some of the sights.

The interview process at the Alaska Railroad was similar to the BNSF, but far more relaxed. For one thing, there were only nine people there, instead of well over 100. The first thing they had us do was take a reading comprehension test, which took four minutes. After that, there was some down time and the nine of us chatted a bit. The next step was a physical strength test. I was not quite sure what to expect for that, because on BNSF they had sent us to a physical therapy office for that, where they had connected us to machines and had us do differ exercises. As it turned it, the Alaska Railroad application of that test was a little more local. They took us out behind the yard office and showed us how to line a switch, then had each of us take a turn at it. They did likewise for tying and untying hand brakes, lacing and unlacing air hoses, and climbing on and off cars. We each had to take turns doing that. They also had us lift and set down a knuckle, and we all had to climb on a car and hang on for ten minutes. Everyone passed the strength test as far as I know, and interviews were scheduled for after lunch. After the interviews, they told us they would be making calls to those who got the job early the following week. At that point, I decided to do a little sightseeing downtown. Early the next day, I flew back to Montana, and went back to work.

The following Monday, my two weeks of vacation started. That was scheduled about six months ago, and my wife and I had forgotten about it for a while, so we had actually not made any vacation plans. As it turned out, that ended up being a good thing. On Tuesday, the Alaska Railroad called back and offered me a job with them as a "Locomotive Engineer/Conductor Trainee." I'll actually be a Brakeman for the first year or so, and then they'll promote me to a Conductor. I accepted the offer, and we started making plans to move to Alaska. Since it is a four day drive from eastern Montana to Anchorage, we decided to leave the following Monday, which gave us less than a week to pack up all of our stuff and load it in a truck. Four days later, on Saturday, we loaded the truck and left our little apartment in Glendive for the last time. We stayed with some friends for the weekend, and early Monday morning, we headed out, bound for Alaska. Ironically, it was snowing when we left, although that did not last long.

On Monday, April 8th, we left Montana and drove to Edmonton, which is about 13 hours away. Starting out, it felt like the trip would never end, we knew that we had four long days of driving to do. It seemed as if we would be driving forever. On Tuesday, we drove to Fort Nelson, which is in the northeastern corner of British Columbia. It is also the northern end of the former BCRail system. Wednesday saw us get to Whitehorse, Yukon. We stayed only about two blocks from the White Pass and Yukon Route depot there, and by then, the end of the drive was in sight. Thursday we drove the final leg, to Anchorage. We were very happy to arrive, and be done with the driving.

We did some apartment shopping over the next couple of days, and actually found something very quickly. This week, I have been doing all my pre-employment exams, which included a physical and a drug test yesterday. Tomorrow I have to do a strength test where they hook my up to machines, like I did with the BNSF a couple of years ago. We have been using our downtime to unpack all the boxes and get settled. I begin training with the Alaska Railroad on Monday, the 22nd.

From what I understand, the Brakeman training program here is four weeks long. It includes two weeks of classroom training, and two weeks of field training. During the field training, the entire class goes out to an online training facility at Fort Richardson, just a few miles north of the Anchorage Yard. The instructors go too, and they teach us what we need to know using are hands-on methods. As far as I know, there is no on the job training portion, where we would go to work with other Brakemen. They did tell me they may send us to Fairbanks for a couple additional weeks of training, to familiarize us with operations there. It sounded like they had not yet determined whether we would do that or not though.

I expect that this change will have minimal impact on our blog, other than the silence of the last couple weeks, during the move. Obviously, there will be fewer BNSF stories now, but I suspect they will be replaced by Alaska Railroad stories. I will, in a sense, be starting at the bottom again, although that does not bother me at all. I am in a place I have wanted to come back to, and a place to which I have some ties. Eastern Montana was nice while it lasted, but when I moved there, it was only intended to be temporary. However, I learned a great deal from my trainers and coworkers in Glendive, and appreciate everything they taught me. I am certain that the experience I gained, and everything I learned, in Glendive helped me get this job in Alaska.

Photo of the Week: Anchorage Depot

This week our (not so) weekly photo comes from Anchorage, AK. This is the Alaska Railroad depot, in Anchorage, still with a layer of snow on and around it.

The depot is a quiet place during the winter. Between October and May, the Alaska Railroad only runs a few passenger trains per month, one to Fairbanks and back each weekend, and one to Hurricane on the first Thursday of each month. By the middle of May however, the depot will be a busy place several times a day, with daily departures to Fairbanks, Seward, and Whittier. The passenger trains will get longer as tourist traffic increases in the spring. Freight traffic also picks up in warmer weather, and is beginning to pick up now. It will slow down again in the fall, just like passenger traffic does. The Alaska Railroad is the only railroad in the US that still carries both freight and passengers.

The depot itself was built during World War II, to help accommodate the increase in passenger traffic during the war. Interestingly, the Alaska Railroad carried more troops during the war than any other railroad in the US. The depot has been renovated and remodeled inside since its completion. In the last couple of years, a high level platform was added to meet ADA boarding requirements.

The locomotive that sits out front, ARR #1, is an old tank style steam locomotive, with an 0-4-0 wheel arrangement. The locomotive belonged to the US government and was built for use in the constriction of the Panama Canal. The canal was finished in 1914, and many of the newly surplussed locomotives and freight cars from that project were brought to Alaska, to build the "government railroad." The federal government owned and operated the Alaska Railroad until the 1980s, when the state of Alaska purchased the railroad. Since the state purchased it, the railroad has been operated for profit and pays all of its operating expenses without receiving a subsidy from the state.

Product Review: MagnaLock Brake Hoses

Pacific Western Rail Systems recently announced the release of working air brake hoses in HO scale, from their sister company, North American Railcar Corporation. These are aftermarket detail parts than can be added to a modeler's existing fleet of freight cars, passenger cars, or locomotives. They also announced that they are currently developing a similar product for all other scales, although in the announcement email I received, it sounded as if N scale may be next. Currently, there is no timeline for future releases in other scales.

Several years ago, Steven and I talked about the possibility of making some sort of working brake hoses, using magnets, but we never gave it much thought, and never tried anything. Since then I had thought very little about having working air brake hoses on models, because it is something that has never before been available, and I suppose I had figured it never would be. However, when I received notification of this, I decided I would have to give it a try, and see if it really worked as well as the video that was in the email.

The brake hoses come in packages of ten pairs. Each hose is rubber with a small magnetic cube on the end. One side of the magnet is red, to identify the top. Other than that, the metal is bare and unpainted, and the rubber hose portion is black. The key to making the brake hoses couple properly, regardless of what direction the car is facing, is to make sure that the red side of the magnet is facing up. Once installed, the magnet can be painted or blackened with a permanent marker.

In HO scale, brake hoses are pretty small. This makes installation a bit tricky. Actually, the first installation is so tricky that I wondered if it was really worth all the trouble. It does get easier after a couple of them though. Besides the air hoses, some wire comes in the packaging, which can be used to form a brake pipe, to which the rubber hose can be attached. The wire would simulate the brake pipe on the car. In order to install the wire brake pipe on most cars, the trucks will need to be removed temporarily.

Once the brake pipe is in place, and the glue has had some time to dry, the brake hose gets glued to that. Out of the package, the brake hoses are not all a uniform length. Pacific Western Rail Systems recommends, in their tutorial, that the brake hoses all be trimmed to 3/8 inches. Cars with longer drawbars or draft gear may require brake hoses longer than this to navigate curves though. Once the brake hoses are trimmed to the proper length, they can be glued to the wire brake pipe, or even the coupler box. PWRS recommends using a 3/16 inch spacer to ensure that the brake hoses do not hang too low and hit switch points, frogs, or guardrails when uncoupled.

Once I had a pair of cars fitted with the hoses, I was excited to see if they were worth all the trouble to get them on. Once the glue dried, I placed the two cars on the layout, coupled them together, and then decided that they are indeed worth the trouble of getting them attached properly! It is amazing how such a small detail really adds to the overall appearance. I plan to buy more of them in the future and continue installing them on my freight cars.

Overall I am very satisfied with the brake hoses. I have big plans to install them on everything, although it will be quite some time before that happens! They add quite a lot to the overall appearance of the car and especially to several cars coupled together.

PWRS does provide a written and video tutorial on installation, however it is only available on their website. It is located on the same page as the brake hoses are sold from.

The air brake hoses will be available to the public beginning on Monday, April 1, 2013.

Manufacturer: North American Railcar Corporation
Item Number : 11-AIR-10H
MSRP: $24.98 for 10 pairs
Available April 1, 2013, currently taking reservations.
Reserve and order through Pacific Western Rail Systems.

What I've Learned as an Engineer

Taking the Engineer program has, if nothing else, made me much more aware of certain things, even as a Conductor. It has also changed my attitude on getting freight over the road. So, I thought I would put together an informal list of some of the things I have learned. Not all are entirely related to railroading, and not all are entirely related to taking the Engineer program. Without further delay, here is the list, in no particular order at all. It is by no means a comprehensive list.

• Slow is not always bad. When running with a heavy or unresponsive train, it is a whole lot less stressful to take your time, especially when coming to a stop. It is much better to take up two or three miles for a nice, controlled stop, than to come flying up to a stop and then try to come screeching to a halt in the last half mile. And most trains are running so far behind their "scheduled" time anyway that there is no hope to ever make it up.
• Skunks eat skunks. When skunks, or raccoons for that matter, become railroadkill, it seems that other skunks and raccoons come along to snack on the carcasses  and we end up killing more of them. I would call it the circle of life, but it seems more like a dead end to me. Seriously, if you want a coonskin hat, or entire rug, there are about a dozen lying between the rails at MP 40.
• Patience is not a widespread virtue in the human race. I laughed pretty hard back in December as I was coming through Miles City with a train that was only about 1,200 feet long. We got to the first crossing, near the tank car clean out place, and saw a vehicle making about a five point turn, to get away from the crossing and go somewhere else to cross. As we continued west, we saw the very same vehicle at the next crossing, by the grocery store, again trying to turn around. Presumably after two failed attempts at beating the train, the driver chose the underpass. However, had they just waited at the first crossing, we would have been out of their way in less time than it took for them to get to the second crossing. We see something like this almost every time we go to work. In Forsyth one night, we saw someone turn around at the east crossing, and start heading into town to cross at 10th Street. The street is parallel to the tracks there, and about halfway into town, there is a big dip in the road, where a drainage ditch crosses the road. Apparently the driver forgot about that, because we saw a shower of sparks spray out from under the vehicle. They got to the 10th Street crossing just as the gates lit up, and surprisingly, they stopped. Of course, we got a one fingered wave as we went by.
• You run a train by the seat of your pants. Before I took the Engineer program, I really had no idea how the Engineers knew where all the hills and valleys were on the railroad. I could not see them, the track all looked flat to me, and I certainly could not feel them. I figured the Engineers I worked with must have just been around so long that they knew. Turns out the train tells you everything it is doing, you just have to pay attention to how the seat feels on your rear end. If the train is going downhill, it responds a bit differently than when going uphill, and that can be felt if you are paying attention. The seat also tells you if the couplers are bunched or stretched, if the brakes have released throughout the train, or if they are applying throughout. All the information that the seat conveys to your pants affects how you run. If you're not paying attention, sooner or later the train will give you a good whack, to wake you up. Strangely, when I am not running, I cannot feel most of the subtle changes in the seat.
• Don't rush the signal. I used to hate it when Engineers would creep up to a stop signal, especially at night. At night, when I am tired, I want to get stopped as soon as possible, so I can take a nap, which is why I hated creeping to signals--it was cutting into my nap time! Now I have exactly the opposite attitude. I would rather creep up to a signal and know I will not go by it. This is especially true when I am tired, because when I am exhausted I am not necessarily operating at peak performance.
• If you don't hear the dispatcher, they'll call again. I used to worry that if I did not respond right away when the dispatcher called, I might get in trouble. While it might annoy the dispatcher a bit, ultimately they will call back again, because they have to get the train moving. Likewise, in Centralized Traffic Control, where the dispatcher directly controls the signals, if you do not respond to a signal right away, the dispatcher will eventually call to find out why. And if you do happen to fall into a deep sleep for like four hours, because you have been at work all night, the dispatcher might be a bit annoyed, but they will learn to deal with it.
• Running a train is a brain game. Running a train is 99% a mental activity. You spend most of the day planning ahead several miles, and very little of it actually performing any physical work. You can tell if you were successful or not by how the train responds to your plans as you put them into action. It is a lot more of a mental task than I could have imagined before I took the program. But for now at least, all that extra thinking helps me stay awake on long nights.

I have learned a lot more as an Engineer, and working for the railroad, but these are just some of the highlights. Most importantly though, I still enjoy my job on most days, which is good because I still have more than three decades until I can retire! Regardless of the pay or benefits, railroading is hard to do if you do not like it at least a little, because the schedule is unpredictable, and the lifestyle is a little crazy.