Re: [CBQ] Steam Helper Service Article

["Jpslhedgpeth@aol.com [CBQ]" <CBQ@yahoogroups.com>]

Thanks Don..back in my Trainman and trainmaster days  5000 tons and 100 cars was a big train.  

Speaking of old timers...When I started braking on the Q in 1956 there were lots of engine and trainmen with seniority back to the early 1900's.  Some of those guys just didn't want to quit.  And a good share of them..once they found out that you were not a complete KLUTZ and were really trying to do  good job things improved and then when they discovered that you knew something about the railroad, which I did, they would open up and the STORIES would come out..Some of which might have been true.  I

I loved working the branch line locals which Earl Currie in his writings referred to as "Retirement jobs" and they were where lots of the old heads would prefer.  They were, generally all daylight work...no train orders to worry about and low speed...some paid some good overtime as well.  

My favorite conductor was Merle Caldwell who was age 48 in 1958.  He hired out in 1928 right out of high school and was  rules expert and just a genuinely nice guy.  He would ply me with "tales of the rails" as we rattled along through the weeds in the dark hours of the night.

Pete

-----Original Message-----
From: Don Brown dbrown02@rochester.rr.com [CBQ] <CBQ@yahoogroups.com>
To: CBQ <CBQ@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Fri, Aug 25, 2017 10:35 pm
Subject: Re: [CBQ] Steam Helper Service Article

 

Well, since we have located you....or you have located us....I'm glad I said something charitable about you, rather than the opposite! :-D

BTW, you are not alone in noting the incredible wealth of information those old timers contributed to that publication.  Looking at the issues from the 1940's, you had men who had hired out in the early 1900's or even before the turn of that century.  What WOULD they think of today's railroading?  The chorus of "Harrumph"s would be deafening! Yet I think on another level they would have to be impressed by trains of 14,000 tons or even more. 

On 8/25/2017 11:26 PM, Jpslhedgpeth@aol.com [CBQ] wrote:

 

WELL WELL WELL...Ah do Declah...I guess I did write this diatribe...Tell me Don..when did I do this????   I did offer the caveat that what I knew I took from the old RAILROAD MAGAZINE.

I'll read this over and see what I said.  Just as I said in he original...I'll take questions with answers either "made up"  or taken from what I recall from RAILROAD MAGAZINE.

Pete...I guess the real Pete is ME.  

-----Original Message-----
From: Don Brown dbrown02@rochester.rr.com [CBQ] <CBQ@yahoogroups.com>
To: CBQ <CBQ@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Fri, Aug 25, 2017 9:26 pm
Subject: Re: [CBQ] Steam Helper Service Article

 

Relax, Pat!  You're among friends here and you have made it abundantly clear in several posts you are not the author.  Nobody's going to accuse you of swiping it.  I WILL thank you for posting it, so much of "how things were" back then are lost forever and it's good to see resources like this perpetuated.  I'm sure the author went to the trouble of writing it exactly so it COULD be passed along through the years.  He, and you, have done us a service.

On 8/25/2017 9:14 PM, 'Patrick Homan' homanfamily@fuse.net [CBQ] wrote:

 

Here is the original posting  I would like to hear from the actual author as I want to make sure all know this is not my work.

                                                                        Pat Homan

Virus-free. www.avast.com

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Posted by: jpslhedgpeth@aol.com

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