Railroaders' Nostalgia > Cleaning out old stations - a moral dilemma

I must confess to a sin of great magnitude. In 1969, I was station supervisor for Santa Fe at Winslow, Arizona. The Supt. called me and told me to drop whatever it was I was engaged in and be at the Grand Canyon in the morning, to close the depot. "Tell the agent he can exercise his seniority", he said. I asked if we would still have to have the kangaroo court of time and motion studies and petitions and hearings before the Arizona Corporation Commission. No he said, this is very different - just do it quietly. OK, boss. Apparently, the National Park Service had cut a deal with the Santa Fe on a very high level and I was to implement that understanding!
I arrived at the station at about 900am, and met the agent. He and his family had been living in the agent's quarters upstairs in the depot, paying no rent and no utilities, really a good deal. I told him the depot was closed now - he could spend the day packing his stuff and loading it up, and I would clean out the depot. I started in the office, carrying armloads of files, tariffs, blank forms, the ticket dater, and boxes of tickets. Why the station at Grand Canyon had ticket stock was beyong me since the passenger train had been gone for nearly a year. Well I loaded up a baggage truck and a red cap cart of bagged and boxed stuff to send to the station at Flagstaff, where they would preserve the records. Included in the tickets were several boxes of card board tickets good for a free round to and from Williams to the Grand Canyon. Santa Fe had always offered such a trip if you traveled Chicago to LA on their trains.
About the time I started with Santa Fe in 1968, there had a been a major scandal in which some officers and officials had apparently taken bribes or payoffs, or owned parts of companies selling things to Santa Fe. Many supervisors were demoted or retired quickly. I was warned never to even take a pencil home, lest I be subject to criticism.
So here I am, closing up stations loaded with "treasures", and shipping the contents of stations somewhere where I know they will be discarded or appropriated. That's why I sent the ticket dater and the ticket stock to Flagstaff with the other mundane items. Occasionally, I would even find a max impression seal or some other small historic items. I was supposed to send them all in for keeping. I suppose nobody bats 100%, eh?
By late afternoon, I had cleaned out the station, the agent had departed with his family, I locked up but I thought I should eat dinner before leaving the Canyon, so I strolled over to the Bright Angel Lodge and liked the look of the place, so I decided to spend the night, and drive to Winslow in the morning. I asked at the desk if there was a room available. I presented my Santa Fe business card, and voila!, not a room, but a canyon view suite, compliments of Santa Fe's long time partner, Fred Harvey. Never did get a check for dinner either!. For a few weeks, I worried that it was a conflict of interest to accept the free room, until I was told that next time I went to the canyon, I should get a "Fred Harvey" pass from the Superintendent's Office.

TIOGA PASS

Norman Orfall
Helendale, CA
TIOGA PASS, a private railcar

I remember in the late 70's when the Mop was agressively closing agencies, escpecially ones out on the west end, I was telling the trainmaster we had at the time of my interest in railroadiana. He said" well why don't you start cleaning out some of the depots on the west end, if any says anything tell them to call me." Talk about a blank check, I went on a rampage cleaning out timetables, trainorders etc. I kept most of the paper and sold and donated some of the rest. My only mistake, I didn't make it all the way to Pueblo.

On the SP I saw a lot of stuff (but missed much more) that had to be rescued quickly or was headed for the dumpster. The typical SP employee did not want any of it and had the attitude "who would want that old junk". The California State Railroad Museum accepted a couple of good items, but somewhat grudgingly since they had to send 2 men and a small truck to Oakland.

I had 2 aluminum frame chairs in my office that I recognized had come out of an SP Daylight parlor car. I gave these to a very underpaid employee, who wanted them for his home but did not appreciate their history. There were probably 50 of the heavy duty heavily padded soft yellow colored vinyl over steel dining car chairs (with the pocket style handles on the back side) in the old conference room at 1707 Wood Street in Oakland. These all seemed to have disappeared at once upon the elimination of the Western Division as a separate entity. I never knew where they went and no one else cared. They were too heavy for home use but still had much life left in them. Perhaps they went to Roseville but I never saw them there - all their office equipment was much better.

When the G.O. closed in San Francisco I was told to go to the building and find a good desk, wall photos, and anything needed for my office. By then all the good stuff was gone but at least I was able to upgrade my old 1950s desk that was worn out and I got a nice, large framed photo of an SP diesel powered freight in the Sierras. It all remained behind when I retired. Had that photo been of steam, it would have retired with me!

Norm, did you just show up like the Grim Reaper and evict the guy and his family the same day, or did the agent have notice before your visit?

Todd Clark
Canyon Country, CA
Trainorders.com

NORMALLY, the company had to give ? days notice so employee could bump someone else with lessor seniority in same position.

As Norm stated, NORMALLY the company had to file notice with state PUC and hearings were held about the closing.



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 06/23/14 17:13 by WAF.

aronco Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ... So here I am, closing up stations loaded with
> "treasures", and shipping the contents of stations
> somewhere where I know they will be discarded or
> appropriated. That's why I sent the ticket dater
> and the ticket stock to Flagstaff with the other
> mundane items...
>
> TIOGA PASS

The ticket validator and ticket stock can be used to forge valid tickets. A good thief could probably produce tickets that could be used on other routes. In the travel business, it's called a "bust out". Thieves would still an agency's ticket validator and ticket stock, crank out expensive first class air tickets and sell them on the black market.

mapboy

Todd: No, the first I knew of the closing of the depot was the afternoon before. The station agent "bumped" a junior man somewhere the next day so he really didn't loose any pay. The next time I saw him he was relieving the agent at Clarkdale, Arizona for vacation. He told me he lost the die from the ticket dater when he took it up to the cement plant to stamp and date bills of lading. I had been watching that die as it read "Clarkdale, Ariz. SFP&P RR.". Do you suppose he was a fan too?
They're everywhere!

TIOGA PASS

Norman Orfall
Helendale, CA
TIOGA PASS, a private railcar



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/09/14 23:21 by aronco.