WAF Wrote:
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> Please tell us about Holiday Harry's ride..

Be glad to.

Harry Johnson was a longtime Trainmaster for SP at Tracy. You either loved him or hated him. He at some point acquired the knickname "Holiday Harry" because (depending on which story you want to believe) he (1) used to tell complaining crews that "Everyday was a holiday on the SP," or (2) he used to give a lot of crews unpaid "holidays," i.e, fired them.

After SP stopped using Altamont Pass it used the eastern side of the pass to store cars. There were at least 250 of them up there at one point, and in early 1985 (seems like it was in February) it was decided to bring them down and store them on various unused branch lines in the Valley.

A regular Pool 1 crew was deadheaded from Oakland to Tracy one Sunday evening, got their rest, then took seven units and went up the hill the next day to get the cars. Two trips were made. And although there was indeed a actual train crew, Holiday Harry and the Road Foreman of Engines from Tracy did the actual work. The regular crew just operated the two light engine movements. They even bought the crew lunch between the two trips. Most of the day was spent recoupling the cars, most of which had had their pins pulled by people accessing the right-of-way. Coming down the hill was interesting, as the cars had been up there so long that after travelling a mile or so it became impossible to see more than about 20 cars back, because of all the dust blowing off the cars. All of the block signals were either red or had been shot out, so they were just kind of ignored. Ah, the Good Ol' Days . . .

Pretty sure there's a story about it in the old SP Review, or maybe Flimsies. Tony J. would know, if he see this.