On my last extra board call to work the Night Depot Goat, the usual runaround track across from College Park Tower was blocked by cars, so after we pulled our boxcar out of College Park Yard, the foreman elected to shove it to Campbell.

Once that we got onto the Vasona Branch, the engineer cranked-up the 2689's throttle so that we were doing a good 50 mph by the time we blew past the WP Crossing's stop sign. We whizzed through Lincoln Avenue at 60 mph, before the crossing gates, timed for 25 mph, even began to quiver. Nevertheless, we made it unscathed to Campbell to spot our car at 873.

After I lined the switch normal, we took off like a shot for the depot. As the speedo hit 45 mph (I was very nervous about all of this and was fixating on our speed) the foreman gave a start and yelled "BIG HOLE! BIG HOLE! THE SWITCH!" The engineer plugged it and we braced ourselves, because we now all saw that the 870 switch target was 'cocked' (at a 45 degree angle), meaning that we had run-through it previously. Miraculously, the 2689 headed into the spur and stopped a few feet short of the spur's concrete end ramp without going on the ground. Unbeknownst to us, there recently had been a rash of switch locks cut-off and switches misaligned in the area. After spending an unsettling month with this crew's high-speed antics earlier in my career, I'd had enough and bid-in the San Francisco Freight Brakeman Extra Board the following afternoon.