This Front End Friday engineer is O. O. Martin from the Frisco OK City board. He was one of those people that attained legend status in his own time. A member of the 729th Railway Operating Battalion, an operator of steam locomotives, passenger trains, symbol freights, and a salty story teller. On Christmas eve 1981 we deadheaded to Tulsa on a bus and brought light engines out of Cherokee yard southward to Sapulpa to pick up a unit train that had gone dead between Oma switch and the Salpulpa crossovers. (Single track ABS up from Ft Worth and Single track ABS from OKC come together at Sapulpa to form CTC 2 Main Tracks from Sapulpa to Oma). Nearing the crossovers I was riding the head platform getting ready to step off and talk to the DS on the wayside phone which was about 1 engine length past the home signal. As I gave the stop signal, O O Martin rolled right past the "All Red" searchlight signal and stopped to let me off precisely at the phone booth. The instant I was down, "Double O" was smoothly backing out of the interlocking, and I working to get my heart rate back down.
D Townsend photos
