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KEVIN EUDALY


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Though increasingly rare, traditional end-cab switchers continue to serve downtown industrial districts across the country... But for how long? PHOTO BY ALEXANDER B. CRAGHEAD


The Romance of the Last Switcher


Today? Today, it’s all about condominiums, and the service industry, and what port officials call “the traded sector,” which is just buzz-speak for imported goods. At the periphery of the urban core, there are still vast swaths of warehouses and old factories, and most of them are actually still quite busy. Some of them even still make boring but honest products like saw blades or high-stress bolts or mattresses. More importantly — at least for one young


Y


railfan — there’s still a switcher. A genuine, 100 percent, LaGrange-made, end-cab switcher. It’s enough to give him chills. Today, the end-cab switcher is almost


an anachronism. The basic layout dates to the early years of diesel locomotive design, with a long, low hood covering the engine and generator, and a small glassed-in cab at the back. If you squint, you can almost see the outline of the steam locomotives they supplanted. Today’s end-cabs aren’t that old, of course — they’re more likely to have been built in the 1970s — but the general arrangement remains the same. Still, that makes them old by locomotive standards, for nearly 40 years is far beyond the lifespan of a typical mainline engine. Still, in one particular industrial park


in our town, one soldiers on. Why? Well the tracks there curve this way and that, because the railroad itself engineered the place, and they tried to get a spur into every nook and cranny of available land in hopes of maximizing the number of cars it would generate. And because that engineering took place in 1943, when cars were typically 40 feet long and the 53-foot semi-truck trailer did not yet exist, the curves are tight. An old road engine like a GP40-2 wouldn’t fit. A downgraded SD-something from the 1980s? Forget about it. The only thing that will go around that 15-degree nightmare at the foot


4 SEPTEMBER 2016 • RAILFAN.COM


OU KNOW THE TOWN. It’s Everywhere, U.S.A., a mid-sized city with an industrial past that’s fading fast.


of Manufacturer’s Way is a short wheelbased end-cab; they didn’t get the nickname of “yard goats” for nuthin’. There’s only four customers left in this industrial park, and they only get switched for a couple of hours about twice a week. Most railfans have given up on even trying to see it, much less make a picture, because who has the time to be a switcher-stalker? But our young railfan is different. His friends are burning up the mainlines chasing hotshot freights across spectacular scenic vistas. Our friend is having none of that, prowling the concrete canyons for his prey. The sun angles can be challenging, and the schedules unpredictable, but this is history. To him, it’s the last remnant of real railroading, and he’s going to document it like it’s his job. Speaking of jobs, this one is on borrowed


time. Of the nine miles of track in this industrial park, only about a third remains, and most of it is minimally maintained. Joints have sunken into frost heaves, and streams of tar fill endless cracks in broken pavement. Most of the switches are spiked and tagged out-of-service; most of the leads go nowhere, and serve nothing but blackberries. But for now, the little end-cab switcher still makes a few moves back in the concrete trenches, and the crew is still three men (because the union contract is at least two mergers old), and they still switch with traditional hand signals like a Real Railroader should. So now, as our hero stalks the switcher


daily, he also is on his smart phone, surfing the internet. Somewhere out there — perhaps 100 miles away, perhaps 200, there’s got to be another operation that still has an end-cab. One problem, though. As he scrolls past headlines of factory closings and downtown gentrification, will he get there in time to actually see it?


Consulting Editor Alexander B. Craghead is a transportation historian, photographer, artist, and author.


ASSOCIATE EDITOR/ART DIRECTOR OTTO M. VONDRAK OTTO@RAILFAN.COM


ASSISTANT EDITOR LARRY GOOLSBY


CONTRIBUTING EDITORS MICHAEL T. BURKHART MIKE SCHAFER JEFFREY D. TERRY


CONSULTING EDITOR ALEXANDER B. CRAGHEAD


COLUMNISTS


KENNETH ARDINGER BOB GALLEGOS GREG MONROE


JAMES PORTERFIELD VINCENT REH


JAIME SERENSITS WES VERNON


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RAILFAN & RAILROAD (ISSN 0163-7266) (USPS No. 516-650) is published monthly by White River Productions, Inc., 24632 Anchor Ave., PO Box 48, Bucklin, MO 64631. Periodicals Postage Paid at Bucklin, MO and additional mailing offi ces. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: U.S.A. and possessions $37.95 per year, Canada $50.00 per year, Overseas $58.00 per year. Single copies are $5.95 plus shipping. Pay- ment must be in U.S. funds. POSTMASTER: Please send address changes to Railfan & Railroad, PO Box 48, Bucklin, MO 64631. Send new subscriptions, renewals, and change of address (please include mailing label if available) to Railfan & Railroad, PO Box 48, Bucklin, MO 64631 or email subs@whiteriverproductions.com. Please allow six weeks for change of address.


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