Railroaders' Nostalgia > Mad Dog Chronicle #303 Reflections

Reflections


On April the first in 1968 I started my management career at the Southern Pacific Transportation Company.  I was a cost analyst in the Bureau of Transportation Research (BTR), working on the eighth floor of the SP's headquarters building at what was then 65 Market St. in San Francisco.  In June I would enter the Management Training program along with eleven others.  Ten of us would complete the program.  Two others washed out before finishing.  Also in the 1968 class were R  I (Bob) Melbo and D M (Mike) Mohan.

While I was assigned to the BTR I also met R D (Rollin) Bredinberg
who was in the 1967 class along with R D (Rob) Krebs.

This was by no means my first exposure to railroads.  I rode my first train when I was three.  My father and my grandmother used to take us to watch trains frequently.  I liked to ride the F train from Berkeley to San Francisco.   I rode the F to high school in Berkeley until it was abandoned in favor of buses in 1958.  I had discovered Trains Magazine in the library of my middle school  I have been a subscriber to that periodical since 1955 and still read it.

Mad Dog Chronicle #1 tells the start of the rest of these stories.  [http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?18,712783]
  Now, forty six years later,
I am still active in the industry.  I was just asked to join a consulting team bidding on a job in Chile.  And I still do a little work for others in the railroad and port/intermodal industry.  This is an interesting time in a growing industry and rapidly changing environment.

I guess that I will have to admit that I am a rail fan.

mdo



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/27/15 12:32 by mdo.

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The photo is of the Key System F train at the last stop, my stop, at Solano and the Alameda, in Berkeley in 1958.

Great to see you posting again!
JB

Great to see you posting again Mike. Do you stay in touch with RIM or DMM?
And since I've asked, how about an update on RDB and RDK.

Larry Dodgion
Wilsonville, OR

Do we also get the promised trial land tribulations of SP mergers  where you said you "knew to much"  to comment 8 years ago  in these coming posts?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/27/15 16:33 by tomstp.

Nice to have you back.
the other JB

mdo Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I guess that I will have to admit that I am a rail
> fan.

It happens to the best of us, Mike. I'm looking forward to your further illuminations.

Chile?

EO

mdo's url does did not post as a URL (makes it difficult to get there on mobile--though I tried to copy it):
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?18,712783


There he posts links to 2 more mdo's.

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,714954
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,715006

Searching at TO I found no more--I was under the impression there are lots!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/28/15 11:01 by Chazcop.

Use the Search link from the bottom of the page, not the little 'Search' entry window at the top of the page.

Search using keyword "Mad Dog Chronicle"

select 'all words'

select 'all dates'

results are 15 pages.

If you search on Author "MDO"

select 'all dates'

results are 45 pages.

Mike,
Nice to see you back on the net. 

Nudge

After the Railroaders' Nostalgia discussion board was created, all of the chronicles were copied into that section of TO. Do a search on MDO as an author in that section for all dates and you will get them.

Nice to have you back.

Wow, I didn't realize Rollin Bredenberg had been in the industry that long.  That's admirable.

Frisco1522 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Wow, I didn't realize Rollin Bredenberg had been
> in the industry that long.  That's admirable.

I think Rollin unofficially started his rail career when he was 10 years old!  :-)

C


 

Carol Voss
Bakersfield, CA

Welcome back, sir!  It has been too long.
I, too would really like to kow the "dark
secrets", but siince you are still working
in this industry, you really cannot say anything
publicly --- yet.  Would you be willing to write it
ALL down, then  put it under lock and key, not
to be accessed and read for 50 years?  That
way, at least future historians -- and, yes, railfans --
wouold be able to know the true story. 

And I think it is rather brave of you to at last admit
that, yes, you are a railfan.  In your exalted position,
that could be seen as a negative thing -- which is really
too bad.

I really have enjoyed all of your Chronicles.  Thank you!