Back in the steam days north bounds sometimes had to double Mont Hill on the Springfield District (IC), coming up out of the Mississippi River. An engineer on one crew was noted for stopping at the bottom of the hill on every trip to double the hill, claiming he didn’t have enough power to take the entire train up the hill. Of course, they also got paid extra for the double, but the trainmen got tired of it as they had to do all the work outside in the weather and wanted to get back home sooner. So one night they hatched a plan.
After making his regular stop on the bottom of the hill, and getting a highball from back in the train, he marched up the hill to the siding atthe top and stowed the first part of the train, as usual. After drifting light back down the hill, he almost dropped his teeth, because waiting for the second trip up the hill was the conductor with only the caboose. He had taken the whole train, minus the hack, right up the grade. Thoroughly chastened, the Hogger never again doubled the hill unless it was for a good reason. – Skip Luke