On Christmas Eve 1980, I arrived at work on the Burlington Northern second-trick assistant chief dispatcher job in Seattle for what should have been an easy evening. BN was planning to shut down the railroad, and whatever was not already on the road was not going to run. There would be early quits in the yards and roundhouses. Depending on the local situation, operators might answer the dispatcher’s phone to be told, “Merry Christmas ‘GN’ ” (good night — time to go home).
There was no Spokane–Portland section of Amtrak’s Empire Builder back then. Portland passengers connected to a Portland train in Seattle. That formed the basis for my being able to play Santa, with the help of a few colleagues. Train 7, the Empire Builder, was late because of a derailment east of Spokane. The dispatcher told me that Number 7 threw off a note at Harrington, Wash., a 24-hour train-order office west of Spokane, saying he had more than 50 Portland passengers and would like to know what to tell them because they were going to miss the last train out of Seattle.
I went downstairs to the waiting room, found the station supervisor, gave him the message, and asked what Amtrak had in mind. This was the first he had heard of the situation, and there was nothing lined up. He said they would probably put the passengers up in hotels after they arrived in Seattle. I asked him if he really thought they were going to find hotels around King Street Station for that many people at 10:00PM on Christmas Eve. He didn’t know, would need to find out, and would tell me when he knew something. I went back upstairs thinking it just didn’t seem right that these people, who had planned to be in Portland for Christmas, would be in a hotel in Seattle instead, and get to Portland around noon on Christmas Day.
Back then, the railroads generally ran the passenger service for Amtrak. Amtrak owned the cars and engines, but the host railroads furnished the crews. A call to the Amtrak control center in Philadelphia would generally yield a conversation with someone who didn’t have a clue about anything west of Harrisburg. I called Philadelphia to talk about the situation. Although things were beginning to change, the chief dispatcher still ran the railroad, but it was Amtrak’s train, not ours.
I asked about running a train to Portland as the Empire Builder connection, and the response was entirely inconclusive. The control center didn’t know Number 7 was late, didn’t know about connecting passengers, and didn’t know how to initiate an extra train even if they had thought of it. Trying again, I asked if an extra would be okay with them if I could arrange it. That got a positive response. “Yes, it’s OK with us if you can arrange it.”
The coach yard was run by a BN yardmaster. I called, explained the situation, and asked if he could dig up a couple of cars and an engine for an extra to Port-land. This would cause another interface with Philadelphia, but his, not mine. He would tell them he was going to use this unit and these cars on an extra to Portland, they would ask if he needed them for anything else, he would say no, and they would say “OK.”
The next call was to the chief dispatcher in Tacoma. I explained the situation, and asked about running a passenger extra out of Seattle at about 10:00PM to Portland. He said that would work with him, and he would check with the chief dispatcher in Vancouver, Wash. I asked him if Vancouver would come up with two units that could be at Portland, ready for the arriving crew to take back to Seattle so that they would be home for Christmas morning, too. A little while later he called back. Vancouver was okay with the move and had two units on hand at the Hoyt Street roundhouse in Portland. He would have them taken to the station before the passenger extra arrived, ready to leave as soon as the arriving crew could get on. The King Street yardmaster called back to tell me that he had lined up a couple of cars and an engine. We could leave them in Portland to be brought back the day after Christmas.
Now there was one more piece to put in place. I called the crew office and said I needed a crew for a passenger extra to Portland, and return light engines, for 9:30PM on duty at King Street Station. I told the crew caller that it would be voluntary, don’t force anybody to go, but call until you have enough people. I told him it didn’t matter if the train crew was a uniformed crew, as long as the conductor was passenger qualified. I also told him to tell the people that he asked that there would be engines in the station waiting for them, they would have the railroad to themselves for the return trip, and that they could leave the power at King Street Station and go home on arrival.
Inside of an hour, we had a crew.
I called the station supervisor downstairs and laid out the whole plan. He said he would be in position on the platform to handle the transfer of passengers, and to tell the conductor that if passengers wanted to give someone in Portland a message about their delayed arrival, write the message down and he would handle it. I had the trick man tell Number 7’s conductor that there would be a special train at King Street Station for his passengers, to have all of the Portland passengers, coach and sleeper, ready to get off, and to tell them about leaving messages with the station supervisor on the platform.
That night, 50 or so people got to where they were going for Christmas.
A bunch of other railroaders, the Seattle yard crew, the Seattle crew caller, the Portland roundhouse crew and hostler, and probably a few others, worked to make it happen when they could have gone home early. A couple of engine crew, a conductor, and a couple of brakemen, and not a uniform in the bunch, spent the night they planned to have off making it happen.
The Amtrak station supervisors in Seattle and, especially, Portland, were on hand long after quitting time to handle the final important details — the passengers.
Putting all the pieces together took hours. It was my most memorable Christmas Eve.
—Thomas White
