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Classic Trains › Railroad Stories: The Way It Was ›

Railroader Stories

Plowing snirt in Nebraska
Feb 5, 2024

Plowing snirt in Nebraska

  The year was 1978, and I was an assistant roadmaster for the Burlington Northern out of Lincoln, Neb. Through…

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Reading switcher shoves frozen Doodlebug
Jan 11, 2023

Reading switcher shoves frozen Doodlebug

It could have been a Trains News Wire headline: “Reading switcher shoves frozen Doodlebug.” You won’t believe the story. I…

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Railroad mail service on the Burlington
Oct 27, 2022

Railroad mail service on the Burlington

I was able to secure part time employment with the railroad mail service on the Burlington during the mid-1950s. This…

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Railroad strike duty: the job nobody liked
Sep 18, 2022

Railroad strike duty: the job nobody liked

Anyone who spent much time at all as an “excepted” (non-union) employee could expect, sooner or later, to be required…

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The runaway train that didn’t
Sep 11, 2022

The runaway train that didn’t

Mountain railroading always gave the opportunity for a runaway train. In 1949, I was working out of the small town…

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Life of a railroad tower operator
Sep 11, 2022

Life of a railroad tower operator

I was working as a relief railroad tower operator on the Lehigh Valley in the late steam era. It was…

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Railroad Labor Strike of the Century
Sep 1, 2022

Railroad Labor Strike of the Century

Major railroad labor disputes haunted the nation during the latter part of the 19th century, highlighted by the “Great Railroad…

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Rock Island perishable traffic in the 1970s
Jul 28, 2022

Rock Island perishable traffic in the 1970s

Rock Island perishable traffic: One thing you learn quickly as a new railroad employee is that if you can hold…

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1950s EMD customer relations — a different take
Apr 22, 2022

1950s EMD customer relations — a different take

1950s EMD customer relations: At the height of dieselization circa 1950, the volume of orders pouring into Electro-Motive Division was…

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Chicago & North Western equipment testers used their own weight
Aug 3, 2021

Chicago & North Western equipment testers used their own weight

In 1981, I was Director, Freight Car Engineering, for Berwick Forge & Fabricating, a railcar manufacturer. The company decided to…

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Stopping up traffic on the Illinois Central during World War II
Jul 4, 2021

Stopping up traffic on the Illinois Central during World War II

  It was a warm, sunny day in May 1942. I was a stenographer-clerk in Missouri Pacific’s Traffic Department at…

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Flying on the Carolina Special
Apr 16, 2021

Flying on the Carolina Special

Around 1940, give or take a little, I was firing Southern Railway Ps-4 Pacifics heading the eastern leg of the…

Read more
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