A thread about the family stories you heard growing up, the little amusing tales your parents/relatives/family friends would tall you about your parents/siblings/general life that occured whilst you were still but a gleam in your mama’s eye and an itch in yer daddys groin.
Mine actually takes place a few years after I was born, back when my family lived in Vandenburg. My father was head of maintenance for I believe rocket slip #4, but I might be wrong there. Anyways, one of the slips, #5 I think, was right next to where the US Pacific Railway North South corridor ran, the tracks that the California Coast Starlight runs on. Now the rail company has right of way here, and keeps the rocket center apraised of their schedule, and the standing order is that there must be a 30 minute delay after a train has gone by before any rocket launches can occur. Also, Launch times are supposed to be secret, but any damn fool can see when there is a rocket on the pad and put two and two together so the reality of it is fairly far from secret as it were.
Anyways, a launch is scheduled with a 2 hour window, but a complication, near the begining of that window, a cargo train is due to be routed through, so orders come from on high, ‘No launch for 30 minutes after the train passes.’ Not really a problem, the train is actually due a few minutes before the launch, so the window is at most shortened half an hour. Launch time approaches and no train. Ok, they might have been delayed, no worries, plenty of time. Half an hour passes, and still no train, so they try calling the train co. ‘Nope, train left here, slightly delayed but not that much.’ Some consternation as another 15 minutes pass, they now have a 1 hour 15 minute window, which is really only 45 minutes cause of the 30 minute delay edict. Worried, they send a jeep with some MP’s down the track, thinking maybe the was a derailment or something. Well, about 12 miles up the track, the MP’s find the train. Stopped, just sitting there with all the engineers and crew waiting on the roof of the train to watch the rocket launch. Seems no one had told them what the wait was for. The launch went on as scheduled, and then the train did as well.
I do have a few questions to ask my father about this story as he related it to me, namely why didn’t anyone try calling the train? I know that even in the late 60’s/early 70’s the trains had phones that used the track or something to report to the main office. No idea why it wasn’t used here. I may also be a bit off on the times, and will have to ask father about those as well but he is currently helping my sister move to Boston.