Illinois Central's "Hot Cut"

Illinois Central's “Hot Cut”

- By Tom Parker

North Yard transfer job with IC GP-7 8963 and SW-7 403 passes through Central Station in July 1968 . Note southbound “City of New Orleans on adjacent track.

Photo by Phil Gosney and used with permission

I happened across the above photograph on Mike Condren's website and and it immediately took me back to the early days of my railroad career over forty years ago.

I first became acquainted with IC 8963 working a data processing (keypunch) job at Johnston Yard. Aside from telegraph operators at Central Station and Johnston Yard, the “IBM Room” in the “Big Office” was the only interface between the Memphis Terminal and the IC's telegraphy based information system. Interchange cuts and and the “Woodstock Switcher” had to be punched into IBM cards each night and transmitted via telegraph to the IC's computer in Chicago. (Records of transfers between the yards and industrial moves were 100% pencil and paper and were not transmitted to Chicago.) IC 8963 was the engine assigned to the “Woodstock Switcher” and after a few days typing “IC 8963” four times a night the number began to stick in your head, even after forty years.

8963 was usually tied up on the North Yard
Engine Track behind the yard office

Phil Gosney's picture is what was the afternoon transfer to North Yard. There were three of these transfer jobs, one for each shift and operated seven days a week, The jobs went to work at South Yard and would take track 9, where the North Yard cars were classified to North Yard. 8963 was probably on its way back to North Yard after being serviced at the Johnston Roundhouse. Its usual home was the engine track behind the North Yard office.

After the transfer job yarded its cut, it would double together tracks containing blocks of cars destined to South Yard and “A” and “C” Yards at Johnston Yard.

Map showing yard locations

This Southbound transfer was known as the “Hot Cut”. A number of Memphis' largest industries such as Humko, Firestone, International Harvester and Kimberly Clark were located in the North Yard territory. Additionally, the aforementioned “Woodstock Switcher” operated out of North Yard and cars from Dupont, W.R. Grace and other Woodstock industries were added to the mix.

Companion to the “Hot Cut” was the “Hot Sheet”. Issued by the Superintendent's Office each day and updated frequently, the “Hot Sheet” was telegraphed to all the yard offices on the terminal, listing cars requiring expedited handling, many of the on the “Hot Cuts”.

At South Yard, "City" loading was set out and the "Hot Cut" proceeded south to Johnston Yard taking the “North” and “South” cars to Johnston's “A” and “C” Yards respectively. At all three yards, the cars would be switched immediately upon arrival and the loading would move on the very next train, interchange or industrial cut, many times within just a few hours after the leaving North Yard.

My dad was an engineer for the Illinois Central. In the years that he worked for the IC, he probably sat at the throttle of a majority of the IC's engines, but 8963 is the only engine that I can definitively say he operated. More than once, he got stuck with working the night switcher at Woodstock.

IC GP-7 8963 was built in 1953. It spent most of the 1960's assigned to the “Woodstock Switcher” operating out of Memphis North Yard. It was rebuilt in 1978 by VMV at Paducah, KY into a GP-8 and renumbered IC 7973. It was sold to Steel Processing on May 26, 1993, and presumably scrapped. 

 Reprinted from the June, 2009 Memphis Buff

Note: The above photo of IC 8963 is available as a post card in the Museum's gift shop.