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Show 2 SALT FLAT NEWS, MARCH, 1972 7 FDBGxfins iI By R. N. Goldberger BURMESTER, UTAH: On a mild windswept Wednesday morning in late February, when dawn still hid east of an inky sky, a big boned woman, adorned in hair curlers awoke, kissed her husband goodbye, and regained the blanket lost five hours ago amid swirling dreams. About that time of awakening, in the salty desert of western Utah, a freight train had stopped suddenly in the night. Giant steam derrick makes wreck clean up easy "work as a set of trucks, (railroad wheels) is first replaced on die track. a car? Get it from Need i Train wrecks are great fillers of space, plugging a gap between renewed efforts to Vietnamize Saigon and the scoop that a housewife in New Jersey has found the national panacea to progressive drudgery in the name of progressive education. A train wreck affords the newsprint reader relief in a vast journalistic wasteland. A sudden break, rolling stock heaped upon the land, temporarily cutting that intangible sinew of America, the flow of commerce. It is odd to note that whenever these rolling monoliths go off the track, it seems always to be either in western Utah, Indiana, or some no name town in Mississippi. There are enough auto parts lying around to build a car," notes Brian Carson, an oiler with Shurtliff and Andrews Crane Contractors. To his partner and crane operator Von Larsen, wrecks are commonplace, at times striking close to home, like that last job in Carlin when a sister crane tipped over. Were the right em boys," mused Mr. . Ford Larsen. According to Larsen and Rent-A-Ca- r! f If you have a temporary need for a good dependable car, rent it from a good, dependable place LARSON FORD. Our tow rates include insurance. Awaiting the next gig, Chicago organist Dennis Kordelewski takes five. AS LITTLE AS . . . per Day Per Mile. RENTACAR Car-so- n, it takes about twenty-fiv- e minutes to right a fallen railroad car. Teamwork is the key, as contra ctors and the derrick crew from the railroad coordinate the action in this, the greasy ballet. BOOM DOWN BOOM UP. SWING LEFT BOOM UP intones Louis Arano, perched upon the 1909 steam powered railroad derrick. Arano is an interpreter, a link between two other bosses and the operator hidden somewhere in the cast iron recesses of the giant machine. These men are specialists, said Dick Harrison from Winnemucca, locomotive and engine chief for this wreck. Harrison, cigar held tight in his mouth, points out that each level of the railroad is represented at a train wreck, from top manage, ment down to gandy dancers. He motions to a mud-cake- d sedan on the sidelines, chock full of hard hatted executives and bristling radio antennae. with two-wa- y The derrick crew has eight men who, when not lifting their own weight, work in the yard at Elko. The crane can hoist thirty tons. Boom up boom down, the sledging of the wedges, the air tinged with vinegar, dripping steam, chomping cigars, boom 19, boom down. This is quite a show. Back to a roaring campfire, young Joe Waintersen declares keeping warm is the key to suchasten to cess, as his point out that his outer pair, of pants have caught fire. Wearing two more layers of trousers, Waintersen seems only mildly alarmed, remarking that the railroad feeds you real good. Like Joe, Tom Murray is also a contract employee from Cencor in Salt Lake City. Tom is a visiting fireman awaiting summer employment on the Union Pacific as a track man. Train wrecks bring together a talented ensemble of people from co-work- management experts to musicians. As work slows to allow an eastbound freight to clear, con- cert organist Dennis Kordelewski, warms his hands and reflects upon his career and that of his father, dance band leader Johnny Bomba. Kordelewski was just passing through from Denver in search of work; and had begun to look forward to returning to the East; where hopefully his talent would be rewarded with more than just a standing ovation. Clapping doesn't always fill a stomach. The red bricked homes of Elko and South Salt Lake await the passing predawn hours, until grimed eyes again cross a darkened threshold, where a doth coated woman rolled up in tomorrow's waveset awakes to her man's lips, rusty from a long Westemnight. Train wrecks yield a child's treasure chest of toys, as ruptured Santa Fe boxcar produced this springy parge of truck parts. SMST (HIM UBiegQMlil-T- i 68BS 8gg LARSON FORD THE SALT FLAT NEWS is published twelve times a year by the Salt Flats Publishing Corporation, a Utah Corporation. 5500 So. State, Murray P.O. BOX 11717 SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH 84111 Editor RICHARD NAHUM GOLDBERGER Feature Editor RICHARD MENZIES General Manager JESS GREEN Advertising Director DON W. OHMS 262-26- 11 ASSOCIATE MEMBER OF YHE HIE FEARLESS FORD DEALER IS NOT AFRAIO TO CUT PRICES." . - r . 3r For Advertising, Phone 485-210- 1 -- ft or 299-450- 4 - Train wrecks offer a break in die everyday routine and provide predawn entertainment for hardy spectators who happen on the scene. |