Railroaders' Nostalgia > Cole’s Tales No. 3: Getting Started On The Railroad

On my birthday, March 8th, 1962 I turned 18 and was a senior in high school.  Took the day off and went to Newton, KS to apply for a job on the ATSF.  Went to the Trainmaster’s office first and filled out an application for a brakeman’s position.  They stated they would call me later when they would be hiring.  I then went to the Master Mechanic’s office and applied for a fireman’s position.

In April was called to take a physical and back x-ray for the brakeman’s position.  A few days later they called and said I had passed the physical but failed the back x-ray so couldn’t go to work as a brakeman.

After graduating from high school I was working for a farmer just across the road from where we lived.  One day in June my mother came out and got my attention and said the railroad had called for me.  I immediately went and called them.  It was the Master Mechanic’s office who were going to be hiring a few fireman.  I asked if the fireman’s position required passing a back x-ray examine and they said “no”.  Told the farmer “goodbye”, hopped in my car and went to Newton.

The Master Mechanic’s office at this time was in charge of engineers and fireman.  They informed me they were hiring 11 fireman and we would have to make student trips across the Middle Division’s First, Third, and Fourth District and also a trip on some local.  We also had to write the “book of rules” but it was an “open book” endeavor.  We wouldn’t be able to mark up until we had completed all student trips and had turned in our completed “book of rules”.

And by the way, they informed me there was a train on duty there at Newton going to Arkansas City and the power  for it was sitting just outside of the Master Mechanic’s office, if I wanted to knock out one of my required student trips.  I don’t think I had any grip, gloves, flashlight or anything else with me except for that “book of rules” and rule book and timetable they had just given me.

I went out and climbed on the lead locomotive at the same time as the crew was getting on.  I don’t remember any of the crew members except that Jerry Blazer was the fireman.  He was nice enough to give me his seat so I could see the railroad. Since it was a hot summer day we ran with the side doors open.  Jerry put some paper towels on the floor and sat on them with his legs dangling outside for most of the trip.  Giving up his seat for me was a mighty fine gesture on his part.  Jerry always was a fine gentleman.  After arriving at Arkansas City I had to wait 2 or 3 hours for a train going to Emporia.  At this time the north end of the old freight house (upstairs) was used as a lounge or bull pen for the train crews.  Several months ago I believe it was Lance that posted a picture of the old freight house.  There was a card game or two going on most of the time and others were just lounging around.  I imagine I was probably working on that blasted old “book of rules”.  I had seen and experienced many things that were new to me on this first day on the railroad.

All of the train crews had been telling me that whenever the railroad hired more than 1 employee at a time whoever completed their student trips and “book of rules” first got to mark up first.  The race was on!  Whenever our train was stopped or when waiting for another train I would be writing away.  I really don’t remember a whole lot about most of my student trips except  Ronnie Brammel was the fireman on my trip from Emporia to Wellington.  I threw this in for Dennis and Lance’s benefit.  Ha.  For my trip on a local I went out on train 73 from Emporia to Manchester where we met train 74 and I swapped trains.  Smokie Rogers was the engineer on train 74 and Clyde Shellenberger was the fireman.  Train 74 would make the side trip to Barnard before continuing on to Emporia so I got to see that portion also.

My final student trip was across the First District from Newton to Emporia in the middle of the night.  I had been up for over 50 hours and was standing up in the middle of the cab leaning on the five gallon water bottle trying to see out.  I fell asleep standing up and almost fell to the floor.  The brakeman or fireman saw what happened and one of them gave up their seat to me.  The next thing I knew they were waking me up as we were in Emporia.

After 4 or 5 hours of sleep I’m in my car going to Newton.  I informed the Master Mechanic people I had completed all required student trips and here is my “book of rules” and I’m ready to mark up.  They said I was the first one of the eleven being hired to complete everything but I had to wait for the other to finish up.  I informed them what the train crews had told me about “the first one done got to mark up first” and they said yes, that’s the way it had always been done before but this year they were doing it differently.  They were going to go by the dates the applications were submitted except one of the eleven had some previous railroad experience and he was going to get to mark up first.  They told me they would call me when everyone was done.  What a bummer.  I had almost killed myself for nothing!  Keep in mind that all the above was done without any pay.  I wasn’t on the payroll yet.  The one good thing out of this was I had applied for the fireman’s position ahead of all the others so I did get to mark up just behind the guy with the prior experience.

On June 16, 1962 I’m ordered to deadhead on train 73 from Emporia to Abilene, then on the local going from Abilene to Osborne so I can get to Salina to protect the 7pm Salina road switcher of the 16th.  Keep in mind deadhead time didn’t count against the hours of service at this time.  Even though I had been on a freight train from 3am to 4pm getting to Salina I was still “full rested” when going to work at 7pm and legally was good for 16 hours of work.  Some things were quite a bit different 53 years ago than they are today.

I have to admit that one of the main reasons I hired out on the railroad was for the money.  I was somewhat acquainted with Clyde Shellenberger.  He started on the RR in April 1959 and three months later had purchased a new ’59 Chevrolet,  Mickey Lang and Eddie Viar were sporting new vehicles as well as most other single railroaders.  Engineer MM Ballintine’s son had worked in a lumber yard during the summers while attending college for $200. a month but one summer went to work on the RR.  He only worked 1 month but made $1200.  That was twice as much as he normally made working just a third of the time.  It didn’t take a genius to see this could be a rewarding career.  This was great for those guys but it didn’t work out that way for me.

After getting marked up June 16th I worked until July 2nd and was furloughed for five and a half months.  Looking back on what I went through making the student trips and all the automobile trips between Emporia and Newton and then only getting to work 17 days (probably actually worked less than that) do I think it was worth it?  No!  But I did have my foot in the door and had my seniority established…….until it was arbitrated away in 1964.  Hopefully most of you had an easier time getting started on the railroad.  At least now I knew what I would like to do for a career, if they would only keep me employed.   See you later………………………….

Mark Cole
Temple, TX

Interesting tale. I see several parallels in your experience and my own. Railroads were concerned, justifiably so I believe, about
injuries; particularly back injuries hence the emphasis on the x-rays. I'm surprised that Santa Fe seemed to have a different policy
regarding back issues for trainmen and enginemen but as you say things were different back then. Writing of the 'Book' was done
only in the trainmasters office on the SP. Open book to be sure but those booklets stayed in the TM's control.  You got the one
cardinal rule of the railroad game right however; seniority is everything. Once you got your 'date' you pretty much just had to hang on for the ride.
Don't do anything stupid, keep your nose out of the bottle, show up on time and do some semblance of productive work. Do this and
you pretty much had a lifetime job....unless the lobbyists got their fingers involved such as what happened with the fireman-off debate in '64.

It's interesting how seasonal rushes vary in different parts of the country. I'm guessing here that the 'rush' that precipitated your hiring in July was agricultural
in nature. I think that railroads were much more affected by seasonal harvest cycles insofar as carloadings were concerned 53 years ago
than so today. In my own SP experience the seasonal rushes in the Imperial Valley of California saw crop rushes such as celery, lettuce, melons
etc. There would be a reduction of jobs after one rush ended and before the next one began. I remember reading want-ads in the Kansas City Star
for brakemen in November! That was a new one on me.  Where I worked, the hiring 'season' was in the summer and the lay-offs happened in the winter.
Again, I think the grain rush was on and Midwest railroads were hard pressed to get enough bodies together to make up a crew to move the traffic. I've been
retired for 18 months and worked my last years in the Pacific northwest but I don't think commodities today play the same role they did back 'in the day'.

Good read, Mark. Thanks for the memories.

Charlie

Good one Mark, mine too was simlar as I was up at Santa Fe's Los Angeles First Street yard on my 18th birthday but I was a little too honest and told the guy hireing I spent one night in jail as a MINOR (which did not give you a record but the local guy had all the power) and he said they didn't hire people with "records". I was resigned to a future without the railroad in it. A year or two later a local Santa Fe crew that I rode with regularly got in touch with a trainmaster (forgot his name) who called me and said be up at First Street the next day for tests and such. Like you I passed everything but the back X rays once again bringing my railroad career hopes down to nothing. A year later I attempted to hire out on the Los Angeles Junction Railway eventually getting turned down once again on by back. Eight years later in April '78 found out the railroad no longer did back X rays (I heard it was due to the many instances of women trying to get hired in train service that also had questionable backs and it was determined it was "discriminatory" as there was no quaratee of back problems) I headed up to Santa Fe's First Street yard once again waiting in an hour or so long line as at this time Santa Fe was only taking applications one Monday a month and was called to "write the book" the folowing month. The book had to be written only in the trainmasters office on 26th Street. Seniority was based on date of application. In Jan '79 there was a layoff of everyone down to me making me the bottom man working on the LA roster. LA had a very unique Los Angeles Yard "extra" board as it was a "show" board meaning they called no yard jobs but every on on the extra board had to show up at Los Angeles Hobart yard to see if they would work. Because "someone" had mentioned the railroad would pay very close attention to attendance I never layed off for the few months I was the bottom man driving to Hobart yard from home at least fifteen times a half working maybe five times in a good half. Looking back I probably should have layed off every monday through thursday. Unfortunatley the first few guys cut off were working more than me getting called for locals, roadswitchers and passenger jobs. I wish I would have been cut off! I went into engine service in May '79, promoted in Sept '80 retired in July '09 ending an excellent career with it's many ups and downs but MOSTLY UPS!
Joe B

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I went to work in the Freight Car Dept. at Topeka in Feb of '69 an a Carman Apprentice. I was 18 at the time, I'd been applying since Nov. of '68. I always wanted to work for Santa Fe, and since I wore glasses, this was the best I could do. Several years later, they relaxed the restrictions a little, so I decided to give it a shot and try for a transfer to engine service. At the time, you still had to start a Fireman first. After months of bugging Larry Wright Sr. in the employment office at the GOB, he finally got tired of hearing from me, and got me an interview with Ron Clemmons, the RFE in Ark City, KS. The wife and I took the trip down there, and met Ron in his upstairs office at the yard office, just north of the passenger station. When he saw Susan sitting there with me, he invited her up for the interview, saying "I'm glad you came too, you will want to hear this". The interview went well, and I believe he would have hired me, but things went south when he said "you might want to get used to the idea of moving to Oklahoma City, because your job will most likely be switching there because of the new GM plant"  We could both see the negativity in my wife's reaction. After riding home with here in the car, I decided to decline the offer, and try for something closer to home, like Kansas City. Six months went by, and Larry called again, and had arranged a meeting with the RFE in Argentine. The first thing out of his mouth was something like "You were offered a job in Ark City, but you didn't want it, these jobs are hard to get, you should have taken it". Well, I can't stand rejection, and went home with not much else. Another several months went by, and Larry called again, and said to call George Guthrie, the RFE at Emporia, Middle Division. I called George, and the conversation was very short. " Mr. Garrett ? I'm hiring four Firemen, if you still want the job, be in Newton tomorrow to take your physical". So, elated, I laid off my regualar job for personal business, got up early and drove out to Newton, stopping by Gene Blades office. He was the Cheif Clerk. He told me to go to some Dr's office and take my physical, and come back when I was done. I did get a good physical, but no back x-ray, but said he could not pass me because, I was still too far out for the 20/50 or whatever the minimum was now, without glasses. I was crushed to say the least. I went back to Blade's office, explained it to him, and got kind of an interewting response. "Well, Guthrie wants you, I'll call the Cheif Medical Examiner in Chicago, and see if we can get a waiver on that, and get back to you". So, I drove back to Topeka with my tail between my legs, and went back to work on the Rip Track, minus a days pay for the half. Again, several months went by, and they had hired all the firemen they needed at the time. Then one day in Jan. of '79, I was laying under an old hide car, on a piece of card board I'd laid on top of 3' of drifted snow that blew in under the car, changing air brake valves and the piston. It was about 0° degrees out, windy, and snow was blowing down my neck. I heard boots crunching in the frozen snow, looked up, and saw my bundled up foreman coming to a stop. "Garrett, George Guthrie at Emporia called and said if you still want that job, be out at Newton in the morning ready to go to work". "You better go down to the office and call him". And I did exactly that. Next day I got to Newton, and Blades told me the waiver had gone through, and they doing my paperwork.  He loaded me down with books, bulletins, and General Orders, and told me to go down to the roundhouse, and have somebody explain how to run a steam generator, because I would be working Amtrak once in a while. After I did that, I returned to Emporia, met Guthrie for the first time. It was in the early afternoon, and he wanted me to make a student trip on a 188 train, eng 5008, that was already ordered. He took me over to the passenger depot, and introduced me to the crew, Engr GR Summers, Fireman TL Smith, the Conductor Nelson Emory, and his two brakemen. Had a nice trip to Wellington, got my rest, and rode a 703 train back with DC Patterson. Next, I was supposed to make a trip on Amtrak 15 & 16 from Emporia to Ark City. Since I was still living in Topeka, I climbed aboard the lead unit, one of the 500's, with Charlie Madden & Bill Smith. I introduced myself, told them what I was doing, and it was the first of many trips to work or back with them. When we pulled up for the station stop at Emporia, the Middle Div crew had Swede Cornealson, and Bob Foster as his fireman. We all hit it off right from the start, and I'm still friends with Foster to this day. I never regretted doing a craft transfer to engine service. I loved that job, it's all I ever wanted do in the first place, but the eye sight problem set me back almost ten years. And looking back, it's a good thing I waited, or got delayed, because I would never have passed the back x-ray in the first place.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/16/15 15:49 by ddg.

Great story with some very poignant memories, I'm sure. You've certainly mentioned a few RRer's we've worked with in common:

Some time in '85 (I think) I caught a so-called emergency trip off the furlough board. A couple of these trips a month could easily let you make a house payment, or catch up 2 or 3 months on tardy utility or telephone bills. I believe the round trip was to & from Wellington. Jerry Blazer was the engineer. Upon arrival in Wellington it was Jerry's car (an old beater called a "roundhouse car") that took our crew up to the lodging. As was the custom, I reached into my billfold for the usual dollar bill to put into his gas & maintenance 'kitty' in the glove box. He would NOT hear of it! He absolutely refused to let me put in my dollar because he knew I was currently furloughed. I was really grateful because I was sliding irreversibly into reagonomics bankruptcy. And in 1985 a buck could still buy 2 or 3 packets of Ramen noodles. That's no exaggeration... 

Clyde Shellenberger scared the gee-willickers out of me when I first got to know him. He had that stout country-boy build, and along with a tough-as-nails countenance you just knew right off the bat that he was someone you didn't truck with (if you catch my drift). But I soon learned that underneath he was a fun-loving, very congenial person you'd enjoy working with any time. I shot a portrait picture of him posing behind the throttle one night and he thought I was the greatest for asking him if I could do so. I saw Clyde a couple of Middle Division reunions ago and he once again thanked me for taking that portrait shot...

Ronny Brammell was an enigma to me. It was kinda funny because I always got along great with his equally crabby brother Howard up in Abilene. I couldn't see any outward reason for Ron him to be so crabby, but I learned much later he was pretty sick. I never had any bad episodes with him, 'cause I just sorta "stayed out of his way". He thought I was a pretty good kid one day when I asked him if I could buy one of his bottles of home-grown honey...

Lance/199
SFe Middle Division class of 1978



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/16/15 15:51 by santafe199.

cewherry Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
Once you got your 'date'
> you pretty much just had to hang on for the ride.
> Don't do anything stupid, keep your nose out of
> the bottle, show up on time and do some semblance
> of productive work. Do this and
> you pretty much had a lifetime job

One day I was visiting with my insurance agent, Roy Johnson.  He had been a conductor until his insurance business took off and he couldn't keep doing both.  I think some brakeman had recently been fired and was the subject of our conversation.  What Roy said to me was almost word for word of your above quote.  What we couldn't understand was why some employees wouldn't abide by those brief, simple rules.  On the transcon out of Emporia the trainmen didn't even have to "do some semblance of productive work" as you stated as most of our trips were "step on - step off" at Emporia and just getting off at the final terminal.  A very small percentage of our trains required any work along the way, or that's the way it was in the mid '70s anyhow.  I'm not saying the trainmen didn't remain attentive, most did.  They just didn't didn't have to do hardly any physical work.
Mark