Western Railroad Discussion > Bruce Butler Retires at 81

I've worked with Bruce Butler for nearly 10 years. A fantastic guy that would never hesitate to climb off the locomotive to grab a switch to help you out as a conductor. A great work ethic that he would take a call even for the not-so-good jobs to help fill in when the regular employees could not. He covered for me more times than I can count. We've been through a lot over the years, the good, the bad and the ugly. But he always kept a pleasant attitude and was great to work with. We both enjoy the job of working for a shortline. There is a lot of stories in those years, such as this one of him posing with the Governor of Washington while the governor's wife takes a photo. Congratulations are indeed the order of the day!

https://railfan.com/long-time-pacific-northwest-railroader-pulls-the-pin-at-81-years-old/

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

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Thats a wonderful story, and certainly needed during these trying days.    Glad he made it through and got a little recognition in the process.
Must have been a very windy day for his send off.   Check out those trees leaning!

Nice photo and congrats to Bruce! ( don't think I want to work that long, but amen to our lil RR brother-- dynamite comes in small packages!).

That's wonderful. Thank you for sharing, Ted.

Worked thru age 81  !.   Musta hated his job !   Bet the railroad hated to see him go.  I retired at 67.  No way I could have lasted as long as he did.

tomstp Wrote:
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> Worked thru age 81  !.   Musta hated his job
> !   Bet the railroad hated to see him go.  I
> retired at 67.  No way I could have lasted as
> long as he did.

I think it all matters on where you worked. The working conditions on a short line are probably a lot different then what you have on a Class 1.
 

Nice story Ted! Glad you got work with such an excellent railroader. Hope Bruce is enjoying retirement.

Larry

Nice photo neat story and gracious of Governor Inslee to recognize Bruce.Bill Webb

spider1319 Wrote:
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> Nice photo neat story and gracious of Governor
> Inslee to recognize Bruce.Bill Webb

That photo was from 2015 from a ceremony celebrating a public-private deal with Highline Grain to rebuild 8 miles of the railroad to serve a new shuttle elevator at Four Lakes, WA. Bruce was selected to be the engineer for the special train that the Governor ran for a short distance to the event.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR