The reason we had to go to the City was a disgruntled engine crew dispatcher at 7th St. It was the mother board for the Coast, SF, SJ, Wat.Jct.& SLO Engineers & Firemans extra boards. When Thelma, the Chief Crew Dispatcher retired, this guy took over her job. He had always been pissed because when they started to hire Fireman again in the late 60s, they wouldn't take him. Well, he made it hell for the new hires.

The agreement called for the use of Fireman on the district to augment to any place the carrier had a shortage of Fireman on their division. Back then when I hired out, I was sent to SLO to work the helpers, etc. I was then forced assigned to a Red Tag Veto job, a midnight goat in San Jose. I then bid in the SF extra list to get off the goat. Thelma knew I was from Santa Barb-Goleta area and she would call me around other fireman to deadhead to SLO to augment the board there. Most of the guys lived in the Bay Area and didn't want to go anyway.

I was cut off the working list for the first couple of years during the winter. The first one, I moved back to the ranch in Goleta and went to work as a lineman/installer for Western Cable. The second winter I was cut again in SLO but I could still hold the extra list in the City and had to go there in order to work. I was elected BLE Local Chairman a few years later and by then I had been promoted to an Engineer. When I couldn't work in SLO, I just stayed home until I was put back on the list. I didn't work much as an engineer and fired the helpers and passenger to SBA. Well, I made it hard for this jerk of a crew dispatcher when he tried to pull something on people in engine service in SLO and he had to live up to the letter of the E&F agreements.

Well, in the 70s, this crew dispatcher was at it again. He had called the SLO crew dispatcher on a Friday afternoon and told him that LD Nelson #1 and I were augmented to the SF Firemans extra Board. The only trouble was we were Fireman in SLO but were engineers on the City Board. The E&F agreements stated that he was supposed to get men at the closest source of supply such as SJ, Wat.Jct. Also he was not allowed to promote or demote us in this move. He wouldn't listen and everyone in the Glass House was gone until Monday, soooo, Dan & I went to the City, a 252 mile deadhead. When we marked up our seniorty had us way up on the engineers list in that terminal, not even close to being a Fireman. That meant they had to give us a live bump as engineers. I bumped on the midnight Quint St goat and Dan on the South City goat.

Well, wouldn't you know it. The next day SLO had added 2 jobs to the Engineers extra board and the City had to release us. Oh, the fact that I controlled the Engineers Boards as the Local Chairman may have had something to do with it. But these were tri-party agreements signed by the Carrier,(SP) Engineers(BLE)and Firemans(UTU)many, many years before this came up and we got a 252 mile deadhead back. It was called Mishandling the Boards by the Carrier. This crew dispatcher had stepped way over the line to start with, so I called our General Chairman and he went and talked to labor relations first thing on Monday morning. No problems after that and he still wasn't allowed in engine service.

As far as the tracks to Bayshore and beyond to San Jose. At that time it was called double track. The Eastbound track was on the ocean side heading east (south) and the Westbound track was on the land side going West.(north) The local towers were gone by then and it was controlled by 4th Tower at the depot to Visatation. From huge interlocking controls in 3 towers to a tiny box that was about 15" long with CTC type controls on it. Here you had the big interlocker in the 4th St.Tower and on the south west corner of the tower was this little box. It did have a "Fleeting" switch on it so when the commutes started the operator only had to clear it once, the rest was automatic.

Nudge