I had planned to go to work for the DL&W RR, as a Hostler Helper in the Hoboken Terminal, and was already accepted for starting as soon as I graduated from High School (1959). My mother had other ideas, as she didn't want me to go "working on the railroad" has my father and grandfather had done.
I was "forced" to attend college, in order that I could obtain a "good job". However the "railroad blood" was in me, so I went to work for EMD on June 1, 1962, delivering new locomotives. During late 1964, I was drafted into the U.S. Army (while deliver new units to an all steam narrow gauge portion of the N de M in Mexico). I returned to EMD on January 2, 1967 and continued my career on the locomotive side of EMD's service organization, retiring at the end of 1998.
While in the Central Service Dept. of EMD, I was assigned to work with the Chief Mechanical Officer of the American Freedom Train, i.e. former SP GS-4 #4449, beginning in the summer of 1975. I have subsequently been a crew member on 4449 ever since, plus working as a contract Fireman with the UP Steam Crew from the early 1990s thru October of 2010, when Steve Lee retired from the UP.
