I was sent to Galveston temporarily, in 1971. I drove into the yard and noticed that the yard office sat up on pilings (yes, real pilings like you see under a pier). That was my first indication that they had not told me everything in advance. I went over to the roundhouse, where several men were looking into the turntable pit, at a large western diamondback rattlesnake. That was my second indication. My first night, on a switcher with GP7 2670, the Switchmen told me they did not step off of equipment while moving because the yard was full of rattlesnakes. That was complete confirmation. Later, when I was called for a freight train to Belville, I learned that they turned the turntable there, by tying a rope onto an old Ford pickup and pulling it around to the desired track. By that time, nothing surprised me.
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