Railroaders' Nostalgia > SP's "Vagabond Train"

This might be of interest to some...article was in the Southern Pacific Bulletin, Pacific Lines, from November of 1958:

Part 1

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Part 2

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Part 3

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Check out Bill and Kay Fisher's "Baggage Car With Lace Curtains". for further reading. Bill was an SP signalman on Donner Pass during WWII, an this is a pretty good retelling of their lives on the outfit cars.
I think you can still find copies out there..
SR

atsffan Wrote:
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> Especially with Jim Mahon and his wife on that
> first page.
> Very interesting article.
>
> Richard


When the Bear was a Cub

WAF Wrote:
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> atsffan Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Especially with Jim Mahon and his wife on that
> > first page.
> > Very interesting article.
> >
> > Richard
>
>
> When the Bear was a Cub

This is the position the "Bear" occupied when I first met him at Carne, NM. in 1959.
Was after he got his finger cut off but was 3 more years before he picked up the name "Bear" from his Uncle Freddy..

In Part 2: Is that a Michigan side-loader?
...Lorenzo

Thanks for sharing that. Not the type of story we see here everyday. Very interesting.

John

I called The Bear and tried to get him to make a comment. No luck so far. I am pretty sure it's not because he is afraid of JLY.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/23/14 16:18 by donnerpass.

donnerpass Wrote:
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> I called The Bear and tried to get him to make a
> comment. No luck so far. I am pretty sure it's
> not because he is afraid of JLY.

He has no reason to fear me.
We spent 30 years, 1958-1988, working together to keep the SP on the track and are close personal friends.

donnerpass Wrote:
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> I called The Bear and tried to get him to make a
> comment. No luck so far. I am pretty sure it's
> not because he is afraid of JLY.


Seriously? They were a 1-2 team on the Mountain for 20 years

There was a Bill the Bear Berry on Santa Fe; I wonder if they were related...

JLY Wrote:
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> donnerpass Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I called The Bear and tried to get him to make
> a
> > comment. No luck so far. I am pretty sure
> it's
> > not because he is afraid of JLY.
>
> He has no reason to fear me.
> We spent 30 years, 1958-1988, working together to
> keep the SP on the track and are close personal
> friends.
I was kidding! I think one of the things that made Bear unusual is his lack of fear . . . of anything. He had no fear of the union. He had no fear of being fired. He had respect but no fear of the mountain. And, he had no fear of his boss. This last one was probably a problem for management from time to time. However, to their credit, they recognized the value of having a "can do" guy by the name of Jim Mahon on the property. For some reason I have not been able to get him to post comments and stories on TO. I am pretty sure it's not out of fear.