Railroaders' Nostalgia > How I Dressed For Retirement From The UPRR!

I Retired From The Union Pacific On September 30th, 2014!
I Originally Hired Out With The SOUTHERN PACIFIC LINES On
June 12th, 1973 and Will Always Be An eSPee Employee!

My Final Run On The Railroad Was A Round-Trip To West Colton
From Gemco (Van Nuys, Ca.) and Return. I Worked Monday 09/29
On Tne LOF74-29 To WC. On 09/30 My Very Final Run Was On Tuesday's
LOQ35-30 With The UP2400 On The Point! Here Are A Few Pictures
Of That Trip:

1.) Lead Locomotive UP2400
2.) Rear Locomotive UP2250
3.) West Colton Yard Heading To Pepper Ave.

(NOTE: I Have No Stinking "Yellow Vest" On. The Best Part
Of My Final Trip, I Was Written Up For NOT Having My PPE Yellow
Vest High Visabillity Outer Wear On! LOL!!!)

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At The Retirement Party!

1.) Arriving In Full S.P.Co. Freight Brakemans Uniform!
2.) The Back of My OshKosh Jacket.
3.) Retirement Awards.

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Congrats, Starship Conductor, on the occasion of your retirement and for your 41 years!! of dedicated service.
You look extra sharp w/ the hat and SP freight brakeman's badge, Oshkosh B'Gosh striped coat ( I have one that I plan on wearing on my last run, too!) and big smile!
Thumbs way up dept--not wearing one of those reflectorized "Caltrans roadway worker" vests.
Thumbs down dept-- dumb official actually writing you up on your last day?!? Too bad, so sad... shame on him/her!

Enjoy your retirement, sir!!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/03/14 11:11 by IC_2024.

4.) My Wife Barbara and I.
5.) Me and the eSPee Caboose I helped to paint SP4612. This Caboose can be seen
On the "Saugus Local"! The Saugus Crew also did a lot of the painting!
6.) The FTX I got for NOT wearing my Yellow Vest on my last trip! LOL!!!
Of course I hadn't worn my Yellow Vest for the last 3 trips. I'm a
Railroader, not a Cal Trans worker! What the heck are these vests
protecting us from, runaway rail cars? hahahaha1



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/03/14 11:47 by StarshipConductor.

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I actually was hoping to be written up for not wearing the Vest!
A memory I will always remember and a memento for my RR collection.
The great part about it, the Manager is probably the only one I really
like and would do almost anything for. And that's rare on today's
railroad's. She was/is the sweetest lady!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/03/14 01:42 by StarshipConductor.

Driving out of Gemco Yard as an Employee for the last time,
I had to stop and take one more picture!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/03/14 01:43 by StarshipConductor.

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Congradulations on your retirement. After that many years you no doubt remember the GOOD ole days so I,m sure it was a bittersweet feeling to leave the yard that one last time. Thanks for the pics and enjoy your time off!

Congratulations and thanks for sharing.

IC_2024 Wrote:
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>
> Thumbs way up dept--not wearing one of those
> reflectorized "Caltrans roadway worker" vests.
> Thumbs down dept-- dumb official actually writing
>

Mark, they insist we wear those things on motorcar trips these days, sad...

Congrats, buddy!

I would have worn my old SP Conductor/Brakeman hat on my last day at Anthrax, but by then I was an engineer and my head was too swollen to fit.

Enjoy retirement!
-E.O.

Good for you on your retirement!!! And I'm so GLAD that you didn't wear the stupid VEST on your last trip, either!!! :-P Well, since you said the mgr that wrote you up for it is a "sweet lady," I guess she just used that failure up on you knowing it didn't make a darn--as opposed to using her failure quota on somebody with a lot of time to go.

But again, congratulations!!! :-)

Steve,

That was a very nice "non-party" retirement party we had for you. I just got done wrapping up your enlargements of the "broadside" caboose shot and the caboose shot of you standing under the bay window, and I'll take them to the post office tomorrow. You should have them on your doorstep (or switch stand) Monday. I'm also sending Mike a couple of the "Cabooses Prevent Disasters" bumper stickers I made up, way back in 1988! He asked if I still had any, and I dug out a few to adorn the freshly painted hack. I'll have those in the mail to him, too. Nice to see you posted a couple of them, and even used the one that Sherry took (me on the left, Harry and you with the nice SP patch) from her very low angle! The one I shot of you in front of the Gemco Yard office door, as you made your grand appearance, turned out better than I thought it would. Charlie noted today, on the FaceBook posting, that he looked like the Wolfman stalking you! LOL! I still think you should have signed your FTX failure with: "Mickey Mouse", after all, at 0140 hours you were already RETIRED! BTW, I'm going to be on Let's Talk Trains in the morning, telling stories from my rail tales (Saturday, October 4th, TODAY) and I'm going to mention that you finally pulled the pin! Boy, 41 years... and you still have most of your brain cells intact... and I stress, MOST of them! I asked Tim Kline (Pigpen) how long he's been retired and he said 7 years. 7 years! That was the last time I had been at Gemco, at his retirement party. I would have guessed maybe 4 years... time flys! Gemco hadn't changed, EXCEPT that the UP cut down THE tree! Gemco without GM was bad enough.... but now, the tree gone? What next? Now, get aboard the Loose Caboose and cruise around the Bay and Delta (of course, bring Barbara) with Sherry and I, and enjoy life after the RR!

Take Care, Stay Safe, Have Fun!

Larry



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/04/14 01:44 by SPLoopConductor.

SPLoopConductor Wrote:
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> Gemco hadn't changed, EXCEPT
> that the UP cut down THE tree! Gemco without GM
> was bad enough.... but now, the tree gone? What
> next? > Take Care, Stay Safe, Have Fun!
>
> Larry


WHAT? The TREE is gone? How can GEMCO possibly carry on without that beautiful shade tree? That was a staple of GEMCO!


V

SLOCONDR

Atta Boy Steve for dumping the yellow vest! You went out in style it looks like. The official should be ashamed of herself on the FTX. She gets the "Will live in Infamy" award. Could that be the same Charlie Rogers listed as part of the crew that I knew in 1979? I remember him on a yard job at the shops throwing a railroad lantern at the yard forman from the side of a cut of cars. They had been harassing each other and I think it was just payback. Anyway congratulations to you and a well deserved retirement. All the best to you and your lovely wife.

Ray Sugg

A BIG Congratulations on your retirement.
I see they cleaned up the Saugus 4612 caboose for you.
Live Long and Prosper.
TAH

Red Wrote:
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> Good for you on your retirement!!! And I'm so GLAD
> that you didn't wear the stupid VEST on your last
> trip, either!!! :-P Well, since you said the mgr
> that wrote you up for it is a "sweet lady," I
> guess she just used that failure up on you knowing
> it didn't make a darn--as opposed to using her
> failure quota on somebody with a lot of time to
> go.
>

She probably knew that it would make your retirement even MORE special!!

Ray,

Yes... the same C.E. Rogers.

V,

It's gone... I was shocked to see the tree gone! It wasn't hurting anybody, or anything. It was just as it was for those many, many years, cut down at the beginning of summer I was told. Another very sad UP reality... the rape and pillaging continues... and the beatings will continue until morale improves! What a sad outfit that calls itself a railroad.

Take Care, Stay Safe, Have Fun!

Larry

Getting FTX'ed on your last day on the Union Pacific almost sounds like standard operating procedure. I know of a number of guys who had requests made of them to allow a manager to take a failure on their last day just so the manager could fulfill his quota. In fact right now we have a guy retiring very soon and he's already been asked by a local manager if he'll allow him to get a "major" failure on his last day because he needs one. That's probably what this manager was doing regardless if you agreed to it or not; pretty hard to protest it when you're retired.

Congratulations on getting out - I like the "no (stUPid) vest" option.

RB



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/09/14 00:13 by Railbaron.

Awesome, congratulations and best wishes for a long and healthy retirement.
JB

Congrats, Steve. Sorry I missed you on your last day. We left on our train just as you went on duty. Hope you sneak back in and finish lettering the SP caboose. That would be too cool seeing it back in all it's glory.-BMT