725th the worst railroad on earth

8/14/2019 725th the Worst Railroad on Earth

1/4

J

The Claihorne and Polkknown as Old Crime aud Punishmentwas built to have ivrecks.The 725th Railway Operating Battalion cleaning uponeoffivederailments in a hunilred miles.

T h e W o r s t R a i l r o a d o n E a r t hFOWI.KU

j I G H T at the start, let 's squash the rumor tha tbas been going the rounds of the railroad menI in the 725th Railway Operating Battalion atCamp Cla ihorne , Louis iana . There 's not a word of

t r u th in their claim tbat tbe Transporta t ion Corps 'ailroad, the Claibome and Polkknown affectionatelyas Old Crime andPunishmentwas la id out in thea rk of the moon by a cross-eyed man with the d.t. 's .I t jus t isn ' t so.Actually, the road was built by ra i l road men in tbe711th Operating Battalion, with the assistance ofrmy engineers. It wasbuilt as a t ra ining area forailroad troops who would be called upon to take over road on the heels of an invasion and opera te itt ions . In to the railroad tbe menad to huild a l l the handicaps and hazards tha t mighte encountered.The ra i ls of this hnebetween Camp Cla iborne andthe t rack ofan old loggingIt is a fifty-mile railroad laid over thea wide variety ofand black-of slime andof it was laid on a horrendous slickIn some places the men threw in logson those . At other places, when machinery

A engineers did a per-fectbut awfuljob when theybuilt the C. and P. "Now," theysaid, "we'd like to see any so-and-so operate it."

slipped off the roadway andw e nt out of s ight in themire, they built on t ha t if salvage proved impossible.Because of a lack of ear th-moving machinery, the roadhad perforce to follow the pa th of least resistance. Soit twists in the convolut ions of a crazy snake.There wen t into the ra i l road even such things as theeurve which the hoys of the 725th call the only right-angled curve in railroad history. It wasas if some-body wanted to see if a train could tum a corner ^-stead of going around a curve .The 711th Batta l ion, nowin I ran, having buil t it,ha d a whir l at opera t ing it before they left, with a sighof relief, for overseas , knowing tha t anyth ing they metup with in the way of ra i lway-opera t ing problemswould be duck soup after the C. and P. For pu t t ing itinto operation was even more ofa nightmare than wasthe bui lding of it unde r the pressure of t ime and thelimitations caused hy inadequate equipment over ate rra in tha t would make any construc t ion man's ha irtu rn gra y .

Other ba t ta l ions came, saw and took their tUnits now serving on the ra i l roads of five conwere trained there, and,as anyone who has seC . andP. can tell, were trained well.At the present writing, the 725th Railway OpBattah on is opera t ing i t . Made up ofveteran men recruited from railroads ranging from the and Aroostook to the Southern Pacific, they tthey knew the ir b us iness . They arr ived at Camhorne , took a lookand didn't believe their eyThe capta in who sat in the mess hall monthvoiced the sent iments of the ent ire b a t ta l ion wsaid, " I 've been here sixmonths and I still doheve it. It is jus t one of those nightmares tharaih-oad man has periodically. In the nightmfinds himself all balled up in complica t ions hum an be ing can solve . Any minute I 'm going tup and find myself railroading again. So I 'm n oto believe it."

As rolling stock to operate over this onsurrealist railroad, the boys were handed sevemotives, vintage 1902, sent from some never-railroad in the Middle West. Tbey were given ctha t were grandpa 's pr ide and joy when they fpeared. To comple te the agony, they were gba tc h of European-type twenty- ton hoxcars only four wheels and an aversion to curves . Tmode rn and efiicient piece of e quipme nt wwrecker. And, boy, were they going to ne e d tOn one point the bigher-ups were most geThey told the ba t ta l ion, ina fine spirit ofopen-


2/4

THE SATURDAY EVENING POST

L ouis iana l ives tock wou ld n ' t be l ieve T h e Green Horne t , evenwben t hey saw i t rae ing tow ard th em a t tw o nni le s an hour .

Jus t keep the innards of things tied up withThe veteran engineers talk of those days witb awe.The idea was to establish a daily run from Camp

s. Train No. 71 , given tbe dra maticthe regular candidate for this run. Bu t

Their first trip out from Claib ome to Polk am ountedg on a major safari. The boys climbed aboard,th lunches, fruit, canned provisions and

There were fascinating sights to he seen on tboseOne was the close but te mperam entalrship established between .The Green H ome t

car back on the track. Sometimes, in the

tha t tbe wrecker could put The GreenOn one sucb trip Tbe Green Hom et was off

k fifty hours from G laibome to Polk andTbere w as one sight that would have filled the early

ad bee n out twelve or fifteen hours and all con-

tha t "opera ting by smoke signals." At

. Tb e smoke signals prevented them from ru nningAs tbe m onths rolled along, all the trainmiai acquiredfar-oflf, tranceUke look in their eyes tnat comesme n face the incredible day after day. It became

He awoke with a start to peer out the rear door,unbelief. As far as he couldclcs or roadbed. He rushed forward and

He grabbed the engineer by the shoulder andan , where are you? You left the trackAt first, the engineer was pretty siure tha t th e guyFor there ahead of him stretcbed tbe

In the d ispa tebe r ' s od ice two se rgean tskeep the Army 's n igh tmare l ine ro l l ing .

The I 'ansy 's cab is cerise , I be bi!orasso r ted b lues , the smokes tack inc red ib le .

Lilte Ma ry 's Httle l am b, ivberever th e C. & P. 's wired -up old engines went the wreeker was sure to go.more or less shining, wabbling and meandering of rails. He soon realized tba t with th e rain the had begun to sink. The weight of tbe locomotive the two cars was pushing the track down towbedrock, wherever tba t might be. Und er the circstances, there was just one thing to dokeep gowith a prayer. Once stopped, the train would pably sink down witb tbe track and roadbed.Tbat engineer already on one occasion bad btreated to the sight of bubbles rising where a piecequipment, plunging off the roadbed, had sunk sloand remorselessly before bis popeyed gaze.Then there was the case of anotber engineer never quite recovered frona tbe shock that was hihe glanced ha ck along tbe tra ck, to see if all bis were still with him. The cars were, but the roadwas waving from side to side behind him with the sgraceful undulations of a perambulating snake. road, laid on tbe gumbo, had begun to do a rumbthe rain turned the gumbo to grease.A shuddering jar brought his gaze hastily forwagain, as the train hit th at right-angled curve. Bouncing Betsy of tbe Bayou, as bis locomotive heen ailiteratively christened, had left the rails was bouncing along on the ties. She cbewed up tied before he brougbt the train to a stop and the lmotive and cars settled down truck-deep in the with a sigh of weariness.Tbey brougbt the wrecker out and pulled off athat should go down in the annals of railroading. wrecker picked up one car and tbe boys re built the road under it. With th at car back on tbe track,wrecker picked up the second car and they rebuiltroadhed under that, and finally old Betsy hadtum . Tbus a few hundred feet of the roadbed h ad bcompletely rebuilt."And unless I'm wronger than I've ever been,"commanding officer was beard to say later in a tonblack pessimism, "that's bow we're going to rebevery blasted foot of tbis infernal road."Many read ers aren't going to believe tbat one abtbat right-angled curve. A visiting major heard ait and registered flat and uncompromising unbeIt was something tha t just couldn't be. So they liim out in a motor-driven car, or scooter, overrailroad . Racing along at the prohibit ive rate ofniiles an hour, he gazed in round-eyed wonder atpassing roadbed. At his own request he was doingdriving on the scooter.Tbe captain warned him, "Better slow down,Here it is."The major glanced around at the sweep of the ctbey had just made. "A right-angled curve," he scornfully. " Wby , tba t curve "Tb at w as as far as he got. He swallowed the rehe sailed through space. Tbe motor-driven car bajust jumped tbe track . At tba t wild speed of five man hour she actually took off and fiew.The major lauded on his tummy and slid ten fethe greaselike gumho. Lying so, he gazed up atroadbed, his jaw sagging as he stared and said, be damned if it isn't true. It can't be, but it is."In those words the major expressed the spiritsurrounds no t only the whole (Continued on Pag


3/4

THE SATURDAY EVENING POST Jnnuary 15 ,19

But it is jusi as imporiani Co

And, in aAd\non,{ipromotes usually with-t a scar!

Unguentine" is the t hin gfor Hom e First Aid!Ask your drugg is t for aor j a r toda y!

f. S. Pal. Off,

THE WORST RAILROADON EARTH

(Conlitwivilfram Pagp 13}battalion but all hving crea tures whosaw tbehappenings of those fabulousdays . Even tbe fauna of the districtwould not helieve. They treated the rail-road with everything from mild and con-temptuous scorn to angered belligerency.Cows, sheep and pigs on the trackwou ldn't believe the train w^hen they sawit coming. Toavoid an unprecedenteddeath ra te in tbe half-wild livestock oftbe district, the boys had to bring thetra in to a halt and drive the animals offtbe t rack by hand.

But the bull showed the reaction of thebelligerent male. When oldBetsy ap-proached, hesquared away in an a t t i -tude tha t kept the boys safe ly aboard.He stood with feet straddled, utteringlow rumbles of threat. Then, sneering atold Betsy, he charged. Old Betsy shud-dered, but withs tood tbe impact , and thebull t rot ted away, shaking his achinghead from side to s ide in what the boyss tout ly mainta in was the prevai l ing a t t i -tude of unbelief.But the boys unwit t ingly put a right-eous fear into the hvestock even whilethey nearly scared a few fatigue-drugged

section men out of what was left of theirsenses. One of tbe locomotives was rustybeyond tbe rustiness of the others; adis-grace even to tbe old Crime and Punish-me nt . So theboys rus t led around forpaintnatura l ly, a rare com-modity in such an outfit. Theyscared up a can here and a ca nthere, and proceeded to expresstheir individual artistic soulsin color.When it was finished, thewhole headquarters crew gath-ered around to admire. Tbe en-gine cab was a bright cerise.Th e boiler was in various sbadesof blue from sky to robin's eggin streaks, circles and bands.The smokestack was somethingoutof this world. But the front

of the l o c o m o t i v e w a s tbecrowning toucb. Some luckyman had unear tbed a can ofr a t b e r l u m i n o u s a l u m i n u mpaint and put on a coat fromcowcatcher to smokestack.Tbe boys at first were d um bwitb as tonishment . But whentbeir voices came b ack, theydecided to name her . By proc-ess of el iminat ion they nar-rowed tbe names dow/n to two.Half of them s tood out for" T h e E a s t e r B u n n y . " T h e o t h e rhalf of the company stood firmon " The Pa in te d Pa ns y . "T h e oldgirl, by any othername, would have been just aseffective. She left tbe y ard s on ;her first run by night in a full

moon w itb her aluminum frontshining eerily. A herd of cattleon thetrack galloped for theswam p, bellowing in abject ter-ror.A section crew, finishing uptwelve hours of back-breakinglabor, saw her and dived for tb editcbes, thin king the y were see-ing the ghost t ra in. They hadseen everything else and werein the mood to accept even thatas a reality.On a daylight run, however ,the alligators remained un-moved, especially the old hulltha t had c l imbed up the warmballast and lay across the railstaking his sun b a t h . He ob-served the approach of ThePainted Pansy with plac id dis-da in. Even the bright cerisecab, glowing like a t ropica lflower in the sunshine, did not

move him. The glare of the sun on the road men. They s tuck to tbe ir t radi t ialum inum left him cold. a"d even mad e railroad men out of tTh e train crew alighted an d held a con- you ngsters broug ht in to fill up the rankference. They ma de false dashes tow ard The re before them was the challengehim, ye l ling l ike banshees in an a t tem pt the construc t ion en^neers ' unholy ito bluff him, and got not even a flicker spiration , and they accepted standing of an eyelid. Th e moto r-driven car sent and swinging. G radually a semblance order grew out of the deliberately aut from the nearest station to see whatbad happened to the missing train foundthem in their impasse. The intrepid offi-cer on the scooter solved the problem bypicking up a rock and bouncing itoff thea l l igator 's skul l . Tha t moved him. Undera hail of rocks he wen t down over the ban kto the swamp, m utter ing sur ly growls.Belligerency was not confined to thebull and the alligator. The battalion setup a c a mp in a grove of pines near aswamp to house a construction crew. Allwent well until the first mess call and th eboys hned up for chow. From th e direc-tion of the swamp came a babel ofrumbling snorts, grunts, growls and yells.Before the startled men were aware ofwhat was happening, the horde was uponth e m ^ a herd of half-wild pigs from tb eswamp bad smelled the food and comearunning.The construc t ion lads had to a rm them-selves with clubs and fight for the suppe rthey had sweated for under tbe brassyLouis iana sun. They won, but the bogsbave continued to make life bideous,rooting around the commissary at night

and trying to c rawl under huts and ten ts ,keeping the camp in a s t a t e of perpetua lsiege.Throu gh the saga of horrendous eventsthe boys never forgot that they were rail-

RAILROAD REVERIEBy E. R. Y O U N G

Tb e l i t t l e boy s toppe d in t he m iddle o f the ha yf ie ldA nd c oc ke d h i s he a d a nd l i s t e ne d for the s ound .I t w a s the re , it was com ing , it w a s grow ing , it wasc o m i n g .I t w a s c oming , it w a s grow ing a l l a round .Fa r a w a y , bu t g row ing ne a re r , g row ing ne a re r ,groM'ing nearer .Coming c los e r , c oming c los e r , c oming c los e r a l lt l i e w hi le ;R u m b l e - r u m b l e , r a t t l e - r a t t le , c l a t t er - c l a tt e r ,c l a n k - c l a n k ,C b u g g e r - c h u g g e r , c h u g g e r - c b u g g e r , a n d itr e a c he d th e f ina l mi le .The l i t t l e hoy , roo te d in the mid dle o f the ba yf ie ld .Cuppe d b i s e ye s to s h a d e t h e m f r o m t b e s u n .A nd he a rd the f a r -of f w his t l ea nd the f ar -of f ru mb lea nd the f a r -o lT r a t t l e of t be r a i l roa d t r a e ksa s tbe he a vy g ia n t t r a in roa re d on .C a t c h - a - t e a c h e r , e a t e h - a - t e a c h c r , p a t c h - h i s -

b r i t c b e s , p a t c h - b i s - b r i t c b e s ,C a t c h - a - t e a c h c r - p a t c b - b i s - b r i t c h e s ,c a t c h - a - t e a c b e r W b o o s h !C h u g g e r - c h u g g e r , c b u g g e r - c h u g g e r , s m o k e u p o nthe hayfie ld.C i n d e r s in t be boy ' s ha i r a nd s oo t upon h i s f a c e ;L a u g h t e r i n t h e b o y ' s h e a r t , j o y in t he boy ' s f e e t .L a u g h Lcr in t he e ngine e r ' s f a c e .

C h u g g e r c h u g g e r g r o w i n g f a i n t e r ,C a t c h a t e a c h e r p a t c b i s b r i t c b e s ,C a t c h a t c a c h e r p a t c h i s b r i t c h e s ,c b u g g e r c h u g g c r s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s .A n d t h e l i t t l e b o y t u r n s to o t h e r b u s i n e s s o f t h eda yA s tbe he a vy g ia n t runr ib le rum ble s ou t a nd f a de s

a w a y . ( M u c h t o o h u s y , m u c h t o o b u s y ,M a n y t h i n g s t o d o !M u c h t o o m u c h to do! )

ranged cbaos . They jacked up trac l^ abuil t a bed beneath them. Tliey laid tand hallasted . Everyo ne from the locmotive engineers down became gandancers .A gandy dancer , in case you- doknow, is a section hand. The term arif rom the method of tamping t ies . Wone foot youdrive your shovel dowalong the side of the t ie . Then bycovulsive movements of the foot you wothe ba l las t under the tie where it longs . The boys say tba t most of thekept je rking a foot convulsively evwhen they s lept . But they found poor devil out on the parade ground ding a gandy dance, and called the squto cart hina away to the psychiatrist.As the roadbed took on a semblanof likeness to th at of a railroad, t he spelimit climbed up to five miles an hoand derailments decreased from houto only daily occurrences. The 100 mifrom Cla ibome to Polk and re tuwas finally accomplished in twenty-fohours , then in twelve .The right-angled curve, bythe appcation of sweat and near-genius engineing, became merely a bad curve. The side rail went down and the outside weup. Piling driven intbe bad spots pvented the roadbed from crawing around restlessly on s l ick gum bo.Now somewbere overseascer ta in bunch of constructiengineers would probably dvelop symptoms of acute frt r a t ion if they only kneFor the boy s of the 725th Bta l ion bave worked a smmirac le . They have made aoperative system out of tbe oCrime and Punishment .The Green H om et makes huneventful run to P6lk eve

morn ing. She comes backthe afternoon right on tbe baThe Painted Pansy, with juas much ba l ing wire as evaround her working par ts , pain from her fifteen-mile-bour runbearing her feathof smoke like a victor's plumTbe gorgeous hues of her pajob have dimmed somewunder t he glare of the Louisiasun, but not the memory. Thremains as fresh and vibras ever. Mo st of the livestoan d the alligators rememand m ove now with the tootthe whis t le . However , if a" too tir ed " or still defiant crtu re s c hoos e to r e s i s t twhistle, the engineer, by leasing the cylinder cocburls a bissing spear of stefifty or sixty feet ahead ofenginea moving s ight!Looking hack on the glorof their accomplishment, thoys are growing a little borThe i r job now is merelys mooth outrenaaining roupa tc he s a nd w ork ou t w r intha t wil l hoost the old C. &up into place witb the pr ivroads . But they have no rhe a r t for the joh. Their ear e on farther fields. Tfollow the news of new insions eagerly. Somewhere othere a railroad is waiting them. And tha t ra i l road, mfriends, hasn't a ghos t o

chance . It is prac t ica l ly rning on schedule now, asas th e 725th Batta l io n is ccerned.


4/4

725th the worst railroad on earth

Documents