Steve Thompson Wrote:
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> Over in the old part of the yard, built
> when cars were much narrower, it was a squeeze to
> get through. I always worried about a line of
> cars moving, and getting rolled between them.


Steve, the same situation existed in the Oregon Electric (30 Yard) portion of the SP&S Hoyt Street Yard in Portland. The tracks were so close together that you could not walk between the cars without turning your shoulders to the side. When I started working most of the guys switched from the tops of the cars as that was before the Feds declared that the roof walks had to be removed. What I'm curious about is whether this same practice was done before the wires came down. Does anyone know at what height the catenary wire was mounted in the 30 Yard?

When my father got cut off firing as the result of the arrival of the SP&S 4-6-6-4s in 1937 (he caught from the SP&S fireman's pool in Hillyard the Spokane to Pasco portion of the maiden voyage of the class-engine 900 on October 22, 1937, his 25th birthday - and exactly 65 years to the day later I found myself running the SP&S 700 from Spokane to Pasco blowing one of the 900s whistles) he had his choice of trolley tending in the 30 Yard or watching engines in the Metolius roundhouse for the winter. After a night of checking out the trolley tending while standing outside the cab in the pouring rain he opted for the Metolius job.