Back in the "good old days" of a full crew, I sat in the cab and laughed, while the brakeman carried the knuckle back.

I had an incident going up the hill through San Gabriel, and we went into emergency, and came to a stop in the middle of San Gabriel Blvd., at about 3 am. Up roll two SGPD Officers who demanded that I move the train "immediately", then threatening to arrest me, if I didn't.... Well, I told them to arrest me, because if they did that, then nothing was going anywhere.... Their SGPD supervisor rolled up, and saw what was happening, pulled his two "night shift" "newbies" off, and then told them, to drive my brakeman and knuckle to the break, so we could get the train moving.

I once was pulling the ore train up to the plant, and as we approached the gate, we saw that the switch was lined for the plant and not the ore loader. I had a new brakeman on the head end who wasn't "cut-in", yet. I told him to get the switch, he looked up sheepishly and said aren't you going to stop.... And, I said I would be happy to stop on that grade, if he was okay with hauling the knuckle back, when we broke in two.... He decided it was probably better to get off of his ass, and run and get that switch.

My experience with the recent resurgence in the "super trains", that are "popular" once again, with yet another new generation of freshly minted RR MBA's, guarantee more air brake problems and knuckle busters, which go up and tie up RR's exponentially, as they grow in size....

So much for "fluidity".....