Steam & Excursion > "Headin' Home" with 8444 -- a series 5 of 10

Mike Boltin, far left, posed his Dining Car & Hotel troops for this portrait with 8444 at the Westfield auto facility in Houston. These are the guys who make Union Pacific passenger train specials, SPECIAL. Over my career at UP the DC&H crews always made me feel very welcome when I came on board to start yet another trip. I could never get any of them to call me by my first name. It was always, "Mr. Bromley". I understood though. Back in my Navy officer days I was used to being called mister. There are hallowed traditions, you know.

Mike's commissary office at the old Fox Park facility in Council Bluffs, IA was as much a UP museum as it was an office. I always liked to browse around there whenever I was there. It was fascinating. I should also note that the old CNW roundhouse at the new Heritage Park car shop in the Bluffs has an amazing collection of drumhead signs carried on the various specials operated over the years. I always thought they would be a great addition to the UP Museum in downtown Council Bluffs, but never acted on it. I thought it best to not mess with the car shop guys.

The DC&H people were famous for delicious food and lots of it. You never left the table hungry. That's one of the things that led to the installation of exercise equipment in a baggage car for the long distance officer specials.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/16/18 12:27 by Copy19.

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Great photo John. Yes Mike Boltin is on the left. I also recognize a few like Reggie, Wille James and the fifth from the right is Walter Dean after whom the Dome lounge is named. I know Wille was recognized on one of the cars too but not sure if it is still that way.

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/16/18 10:53 by Bob3985.

Hey John, Do you remember LaVerne? On a trip to the NW to operate an Oregon Symphony special from Portland to Bend and return, we were deadheading home, La Verne was working the kitchen and had a lot of leftovers from the charity trip. So when we got to Pocatello he invited us to dine on the train and cook the leftovers for us that night. Weelllllll, when we got finished servicing, checked in at motel and cleaned up, we returned to the train to find out that he made us VERY deep dish pizzas. One was meat, one veggie and one seafood. Surprisingly, we discovered his hidden talents as these were extremely good. La Verne was a really nice guy and I have more stories of our interactions with him.

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY

Bob3985 Wrote:
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> Hey John, Do you remember LaVerne?

Yes.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/16/18 12:28 by Copy19.

Bob3985 Wrote:
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> Great photo John. Yes Mike Boltin is on the left.
> I also recognize a few like Reggie, Wille James
> and the fifth from the right is Walter Dean after
> whom the Dome lounge is named. I know Wille was
> recognized on one of the cars too but not sure if
> it is still that way.

Still that way!  Nice to be able to put a face and some history with the name.  Photo taken 3/1/2018 at West Colton, CA.
GK 

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Thanks, John and TheNavigator, for the memories and the great pictures. I, too, appreciate having a face and history to go with the name.

The history of this car is here:

https://www.up.com/cs/groups/public/documents/up_pdf_nativedocs/pdf_willie_james_historical.pdf

Info from that page:
This car is presently named "Willie James", and was formerly the "Cabarton". She was built in 1949 by the Budd Co. as a 10-6 sleeper for the UP and named "Pacific Domain", so she is a sister of the PV "Pacific sands". I remember seeing her in the early 80s, as the "Cabarton" and she stood out because she was the only fluted-side car the UP had in their passenger-car fleet then.

She was given the name "Cabarton" back in 1980 by then-UP President John Kenefick, to honor a VP -Operations who was from Cabarton, Idaho, which was named for C. A. Barton, a long-ago local official of a local lumber company.

Here is a photo of this car taken in 1973 in Portland, Oregon, showing her original UP name, "Pacific Domain":

http://abpr2.railfan.net/abprphoto.cgi?june13/06-03-13/UP202_Pacific_Domain_Company_Service_Portland_OR_1973.jpg



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/16/18 15:07 by Margaret_SP_fan.

When the Bill Ritter was elected Governor of Colorado, they ran an inauguration train from Greeley to Pueblo CO. A group of us who volunteered with the steam crew went along to be car hosts. We left Cheyenne and had the Cabarton along with Willie James as the cook. We had breakfast and Willie had cooked enough food to feed a small army and just about anything you wanted. One of the guys in the group made a comment that I would like to have one of his breakfast again. He got his wish as it took us all night to get back to Cheyenne from Pueblo on the railroad. Good times and lots of stories from that trip.