Topics and Titles of Hot Times Columns

Compiled by Dan Cupper

Joe Santucci has covered many topics in his Hot Times columns. Here are some of them, together with the colorful column titles he has used:

The mechanical side of railroading

  • “A tour through the cab”
  • “Cooking a locomotive” (to avoid stopping a train in a high-crime neighborhood, Santucci ran a locomotive that overheated)
  • “This is a recording” (locomotive event recorders)
  • “That new-locomotive smell” (a profile of the General Electric C44-9)
  • “Running on empty” (running out of fuel)
  • “The breaking point” (when a rail breaks)
  • “Our daily constitutional” (daily walk-around locomotive inspection)
  • “We take a dump” (rotary-dump hopper cars)

Operations

  • “Branching out” (branch-line operations)
  • “Working our way across town” (a three-part series on the complexity of moving a train through Chicago’s many junctions, crossings, interlockings, and interchanges)
  • “Life in commuter” (a four-parter detailing his experiences on the South Shore, Metra diesel, and Metra electric)
  • “We roll into the meet market” (passing trains on single-track railroad – known as meets – under various signal systems and operations rules)
  • “We ride my see-saw” (saw-by meets at sidings where both trains are too long to fit)
  • “Makeup and handling” (putting trains together and operating them under various conditions)
  • “We do the hustle” (the job of hostling locomotives)
  • “It’s a grand old flag” (flagging rules)
  • “We take a ride on the South Shore” (a three-parter on passenger and freight service of the CSS&SB)
  • “We take the alternate route” (detouring)
  • “The hits just keep on coming” (“hits” being slang for operational delays)
  • “Size matters” (size of crews, length of trains)

Social and work-life issues

  • “How we say it” (railroad jargon)
  • “Life on call”
  • “My big bag of tricks” (what he carries in his grip, or railroader’s bag)
  • “The eclipse of a loony (or lunar) night” (account of strange things that happened during a full-moon eclipse)
  • “We gotta eat” (packing lunches and eating them onboard, and making restaurant stops)
  • “Dating and the railroad life”
  • “The life of a railroad wife”
  • “Holidays on the high iron” (working on the holidays)
  • “We smile and say cheese” (taking railroad photos, and being photographed by railfans)
  • “So you wanna be a railroader”
  • “Hop on board and take a free ride” (hoboes)
  • “Toilet talk” (description of on-board locomotive restroom facilities)

Accidents and near-accidents

  • “Ride the rails, drive on the tracks”
  • “Aftermath of a collision”
  • “Stupid civilian tricks”
  • “We get bombed” (projectiles thrown at trains from trackside)
  • “We cut the competition” (grade-crossing accidents involving motor trucks)

Administrative issues

  •  “The three letters that railroad officials fear most: FRA” (on Federal Railroad Administration inspections)
  • “Media, law enforcement, and railroading”
  • “Railroad public relations”
  • “Locomotive engineer certification”
  • “The Hours of Service law”
  • “The whiz quiz” (drug testing)
  • “Why they pay those in charge to be in charge”
  • “Doing exactly what we are told, over” (obeying orders from management despite the consequences of doing so)
  • “How one word can make a difference” (a crew that had run through a yard switch was let off without discipline because one word in the disciplinary hearing charges was wrong, misidentifying the location of the track)
  • “We bargain collectively and strike out” (railroad strikes)

Fellow employees

  • “Excuses, excuses” (creative ways to mark off duty)
  • “Those fabulous 59ers” (new hires who don’t make it past their 60-day probation period)
  • “The new guy”
  • “Get me to the train on time” (employees’ adventures in reporting for work on time)
  • “Railroaders and politicians” (sex, greed, and fraud among railroad employees)
  • “Practical jokers”
  • “We are reunited” (reunion of C&EI/MP Chicago Terminal employees)

Weather

  • “Twist and shout” (tornadoes)
  • “Old man winter” and “The big chill” (cold-weather railroading)
  • “Heat of the moment” (railroading in extreme summer heat)

Santucci recycles and reuses some column titles, because new examples keep cropping up to provide fresh material. Among these are: “Cranial-rectal inversion” (questionable decision-making by either management or train-and-engine-service employees) and “When things go haywire” (self-explanatory).   

Railroad History is issued by The Railway & Locomotive Historical Society.
Published since 1921.

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