@Railrunnin posted:31 years. That is a lot of iron under those wheels. Congratulations Collin.
Care to share one odd or funny thing that happened to you while on the job? Every single railroad worker has a few - some that can even be told.
Paul
I got a funny little story from my very first day on the property in Kenova WV.
I got called on a local the J-13 , with Engineer Mike L. , Conductor Bobby T. , Head Brakeman Carl W. and myself as trainee / Rear Brakeman.
Well the conductor was also an Ole Time Baptist preacher and when he was outlining what our task was for the day he sounded like he was giving a sermon in the crew room. He explained to me , it being my first day on the job I was to ride around with Engineer Mike who had already walked to the engines and observe and take in as much of the yard's layouts as possible because we were only gonna be given 10 days to train before being marked up on the brakeman's extra board.
So he instructed me to walk over the hill to the diesel track , since at that time Kenova still had laborers on duty to fuel and sand the units .
Well Engineer Mike had already walked around the units and was knocking off the handbrake as I approached the lead locos steps . He was like "Come on board little buddy you'll ride around with me today . " . So I climbed aboard .
He followed me into the cab and made his acquaintance introducing himself and I likewise while he was bending over explaining he was fetching his required earplugs out of his grip and doing so must have accidentally knocked the independent brake off .
So the diesel track being on a slight downward slope at Kenova the units started rolling downhill and Mike mumbling around about not finding his earplugs didn't notice we were rolling towards other tied down units and then looks up and says " Hey , why do I have a feeling we're moving ? " and being green and thinking the whole time I yelled out " We are and look out we're about to crash ! " .
Mike slammed the independent brake back on just before we coupled up ! And Mike just set back down and explained it would have been a bad start to my first day if we would have slammed in to those units .
Maybe not as funny as it sounds , but all I was thinking " Oh my gosh what have I gotten into ? " .
But Engineer Mike became one of my best friend's on the railroad and is nearing 90 years old now and we still keep in touch . Conductor Bobby passed away a couple of years ago in his late 80's , and the head brakeman that day had to retire a few years early due to health problems about 10-12 years ago .
I had some fun times and yes have some funny stories about working on the railroad . Everyday was a surprise waiting to happen it seemed .
