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For many years drinking water on SP locos and cabooses came from five gallon jugs perched atop water coolers that didn't cool. Then, in 1984 crews began to get sick en masse, including at Tucumcari, where I was braking at the time. Luckily for me, I managed to escape what certainly was dysentery. A fellow trainman from Los Angeles claimed that all Pacific Lines caboose water bottles were cleaned by a single LA carman. Moreover, the trainman claimed that he had personally witnessed the cleansing process: After picking up a hose end out of the surrounding mud, the carman proceeded to stuff it down the water bottle's throat to hose out the interior. If this story was not made up, it certainly explained the mini-epidemic. To me, the tale appears just too SP SOP to dismiss.
Anyway, after vociferous protests from the unions, SP began substituting six-packs of bottled water on both the cabooses and engines. Save some putrid sulphur water I drank out of a Ryegate, Montana tap 50 years ago, this was the worst H2O I have ever encountered. As bad as the bottled water was, it was a boon to bored T&E crews. Almost immediately, it was reasoned that these little (6 oz.?) bottles would make fine projectiles when heaved at crews of opposing trains. A initial host of broken windshields (in those days you could nearly fracture a windshield with a nasty glance), soon prompted perpetrators to begin removing lids before hurling their fluid greetings.
Personally, I developed a fair degree of accuracy in hitting the mark later on, thanks to practice opportunities presented by frequently passing opposing commute trains on Caltrain. I say in all humility that my hook shot was phenomenal. For awhile my wife owned a flock of laying hens that provided me with absolutely superior ammunition. My favorite recall of this was when I passed an opposing train also doing about 70 mph one evening. I managed to land a perfectly aimed splat on the opposition's windshield, which was followed by, "Caltrain #__ to the Amtrak Police! I just got egged north of Sunnyvale!", in turn followed by, "Hey Ed, did you see who did it.?" I set to laughing so hard that I almost blew my station stop at Sunnyvale. Working for the railroad was fun. - EO
Perhaps the appropriate safety message should have read BYOB.
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