Railroaders' Nostalgia > Kansas City - Newton Passenger Fireman's Extra Board

In looking at wyemarsh's post on the Nostalgia & History board ( http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,3675117 ) titled “Santa Fe: 6 for a quarter………….. I noticed Santa Fe 304 and 308 locomotives on a couple of the postcards. I was just curious if I had been on either of these. In looking through my time books (I am missing one) I did find we had the 304 on train No. 3 on 6-18-72 and the 308 trailing on No. 4 on 6-21-72. Seeing the engineer’s name on these trips reminded me of the following:

In June of 1972 I was assigned to the Kansas City – Newton Passenger Fireman’s extra board. I, a Middle Div. fireman, would work with an Eastern Div. engineer since we operated over both divisions. I think this was standard procedure. My soon to be bride and I were planning on taking a motorcycle trip for our honeymoon so since I had to travel from Emporia to Kansas City to and from work she decided to ride with me on the motorcycle to toughen up her “bottom” for the long trip coming up. She would stay with a close friend in Kansas City until I returned from Newton.

The first day, after dropping off my bride-to-be I rode to the Union Station, parking my new motorcycle in the parking lot in front. I made sure I had it all locked up and asked the parking attendant to keep a close eye on it for me. Then went into the lobby and found my engineer. He mentioned that he would run the train over his division and I could run it over mine. That excited me as I hadn’t ran a passenger train before. After going down track side and out to the head house he said “you are promoted aren’t you?” I answered “no, I’m not”. I figured that probably killed any chance of me operating the train. But when we got to Emporia he turned it over to me.

After arriving Newton we went to bed for a few hours. I suddenly woke up from a sound sleep and thought “where are my motorcycle keys?” Got up and checked my pants pockets………..no keys. I’m feeling sick inside. Called my bride-to-be and TOLD her to get her friend to take her to the Union Station to see if she could find them around the motorcycle and to let me know. She called an hour or so later and said the attendant wouldn’t let them near the motorcycle…………. until they convinced him of the situation. There was the motorcycle all locked up but the keys were lying in plain sight on the seat. They left them with the attendant for me to pick up. It’s strange how a person’s subconscious mind works. Why would I wake up in the middle of the night thinking about the keys? Thank goodness the attendant was keeping an eye on everything for me.

I ran No. 4 to Emporia and the engineer ran to Kansas City. On the next trip it was the same procedure. On the 3rd round trip after arriving Emporia from Newton I was getting up to give it to the engineer when he said, “no, you stay over there and take it to Kansas City”. I informed him I didn’t know where I was on the Eastern Div., having only made the 2 previous trips eastbound with him. He insisted I stay in the drivers’ seat. I’m thinking well, with his help we can probably do it. Just then an older trainmaster, new to the div., climbed aboard to ride with us. I didn’t know how to handle the situation now. I was afraid to ask questions as I didn’t want the trainmaster to think I didn’t know where I was. Whenever I would see a permanent speed sign coming up I wouldn’t know if it was going to be a 35 mph or 80 mph restriction so would just start setting the air until I could read the sign. By the way, at this time the permanent speed signs were only 2500’ in advance of the restrictions. There wasn’t hardly any conversation in the cab except for calling out the signals. Was I ever glad when we finally stopped at the Union Station. That happened to be my last trip on that extra board.

A few months later I asked someone about that engineer and they reported he had passed away shortly after I had worked with him, that he had been suffering for some time from cancer. Hindsight, I’m sure he was suffering when I worked with him and that was probably why he had me run to Kansas City.

It was good we had toughened up our bottoms some before our honeymoon/motorcycle trip of 4490 miles. Since this post is becoming so long I’ll cover that in a later one, especially the Durango portion of it.

Mark Cole
Temple, TX

Great story.. All of us that were lucky enough to fire passenger.. remember the first time we got in the seat.. Mind is going a mile a minute.. remember not to spill the soup,, stretch braking.. try to maintain the schedule.. hitting the speed reductions perfectly etc..

Did you lay a few bucks on that parking attendant when you got back?

KskidinTx Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> After arriving Newton we went to bed for a few
> hours. I suddenly woke up from a sound sleep and
> thought “where are my motorcycle keys?” Got
> up and checked my pants pockets………..no keys.
> I’m feeling sick inside. Called my bride-to-be
> and TOLD her to get her friend to take her to the
> Union Station to see if she could find them around
> the motorcycle and to let me know. She called an
> hour or so later and said the attendant wouldn’t
> let them near the motorcycle…………. until
> they convinced him of the situation. There was
> the motorcycle all locked up but the keys were
> lying in plain sight on the seat. They left them
> with the attendant for me to pick up. It’s
> strange how a person’s subconscious mind works.
> Why would I wake up in the middle of the night
> thinking about the keys? Thank goodness the
> attendant was keeping an eye on everything for
> me.

> Mark Cole
> Temple, TX

Reminds me of the time I had parked my car at the Metrolink N Pomona Station and took the train to work. As a truck driver. Middle of the day I stopped for a bite to eat and suddenly went into a panic because I did not have my wallet. To make a long story short, I realized I left it in my car. I called Pomona PD and explained the situation. They sent an officer and sure enough he found it in plain view on my seat. This officer then did something amazing. He drove home, got a car cover out of his garage, came back and put the car cover on my car so that no one could see the wallet. That night when I returned the car cover to the station, he refused to take any money. So I mailed him a Home Depot $20 gift card the next day.

jst3751 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> KskidinTx Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
>
> > After arriving Newton we went to bed for a few
> > hours. I suddenly woke up from a sound sleep
> and
> > thought “where are my motorcycle keys?”
> Got
> > up and checked my pants pockets………..no
> keys.
> > I’m feeling sick inside. Called my
> bride-to-be
> > and TOLD her to get her friend to take her to
> the
> > Union Station to see if she could find them
> around
> > the motorcycle and to let me know. She called
> an
> > hour or so later and said the attendant
> wouldn’t
> > let them near the motorcycle…………. until
> > they convinced him of the situation. There was
> > the motorcycle all locked up but the keys were
> > lying in plain sight on the seat. They left
> them
> > with the attendant for me to pick up. It’s
> > strange how a person’s subconscious mind
> works.
> > Why would I wake up in the middle of the night
> > thinking about the keys? Thank goodness the
> > attendant was keeping an eye on everything for
> > me.
>
> > Mark Cole
> > Temple, TX
>
> Reminds me of the time I had parked my car at the
> Metrolink N Pomona Station and took the train to
> work. As a truck driver. Middle of the day I
> stopped for a bite to eat and suddenly went into a
> panic because I did not have my wallet. To make a
> long story short, I realized I left it in my car.
> I called Pomona PD and explained the situation.
> They sent an officer and sure enough he found it
> in plain view on my seat. This officer then did
> something amazing. He drove home, got a car cover
> out of his garage, came back and put the car cover
> on my car so that no one could see the wallet.
> That night when I returned the car cover to the
> station, he refused to take any money. So I mailed
> him a Home Depot $20 gift card the next day.

class act 3751......

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