Each morning and afternoon the Extra Gang fixes the track. Each afternoon and evening the Gravel Train covers the repaired track with crushed rock. The cars of the Gravel Train are always wrecks. They are open gondola cars with twin emptying shutes underneath. Here is how we dumped gravel. We would always start with the cars farthest from the engine. We would chain a tie at both ends just ahead of the rear axle. The Conductor would radio to the Engineer to start the train. It would get going very slowly. Now the chutes under the gondola car would be opened sequentially by banging on them with a sledge hammer. As the rock dumped out the tie would level it off. Like I said, the first car would have the tie chained in place while the train was stationary. For subsequent cars, we would jog along the treacherous railroad bed, grab a tie, place one end just over the lip of the rail, lift the other end high, and then in one fluid motion shove the high end down and try and shoot the tie across so it rested on both rails. Somebody else, observing that a tie has been successfully placed across the rails, would open a chute so that the train wouldn't have to stop. Often, though, this tie bridging effort failed. The train would have to stop, and the tie and gravel might have to be dug out from under the gondola car. Then the train would back up, we would chain a new tie, and off we would go.

I made myself a memory one evening. We were crossing a road and I was hanging off the side of a gondola car with one hand on the ladder. The sun was going down, it was warm, and I told myself to always remember that moment and what I saw and how I felt. I guess twenty years later I still do.

My problem was how to get off the Gravel Train short of quitting work. Fortunately dust interviened for me. You can imagine all the dust that envelops you as the rock pours out from the gondolas. The railroad issued us dust masks, but that necesitated a choice. You could wear the dust mask and escape the dust, or you could breathe. I chose breathing. But that meant my throat and lungs were subjected to choking dust. The Friday of my first full week of Gravel Train duty I threw up rather violently alongside the tracks. That weekend I went up to the Cities and got an appointment with the Student Health Services. I came away with a note to the Milwaukee that I be excused from Gravel Train duty. I took that to the Roadmaster first thing Monday morning, and severed all ties with the Graval Train. During my two summers on the Milwuakee I worked on all the gangs except the Bridging Gang. The Gravel Train was the *&a$%#*#))s6(*&#!! worst.