Railroaders' Nostalgia > Seeking records of a Daylighter's service

I'm doing a bit of research into the service of my grandfather (Elwyn Hall) and great-grandfather (Emil Beck). Both worked for Southern Pacific's Coast Division out of San Francisco in the 1920-1940s. I have all of my grandfather's timebooks (Elwyn) so I have good records of his day-to-day activities running Daylights to San Luis Obispo and back, but I don't have much for Emil. Emil passed away many years before I was born and Elwyn died when I was a teenager; long before my interest in trains took off. I have a few collectibles, name badges off their lockers, Emil's engineers cap, an oil can, lantern, brother hood of locomotive engineer cards, Emil's daily carry revolver and flask and a few other odds and ends.

I'm looking for suggestion on what other information about their service might be out there in archives -- I just don't know where to look. Any advice welcome.

Thank you!

There was an Emil Beck in San Jose local pool 6 in the 1950 or 1960 era.
E. J. Beck fireman date 6-12-20. Promoted 8-13-36.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/26/14 23:25 by Exespee.

The Emil Beck was very likely the same as the one you found in the San Jose pool. He passed away in 1958, so it is a possibility. Plus Emil is not a very common name. With regard to the E. J. Beck, that is a match -- Emil John Beck. I had the 1936 date for when he was promoted to engineer. I didn't have the day or month, and the fireman date is new. Where did you find these? Do you know if there are any Southern Pacific employee records available in archives anywhere?

Many Thanks!

I found this in an old seniority roster. Other than that I don't have anything. Have you tried the Calif RR Museum in Sacramento. I kind of remember someone saying that they had a lot old old SP records.

Though it will cost you to join, ancestry.com has an online collection of California Railroad Employment Records, 1862-1950
SP's records can be accessed at: http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=2046

Immediately below is Ancestry's description of the SP part of collection. Further below is a list of California Railroads (plus V&T) represented in the archive. Ancestry is a cheap resource for railroad research, since it also has scads of old newspapers online, amongst other things.

Hope this helps.

- E.O.


Source Information
Ancestry.com. California, Railroad Employment Records, 1862-1950 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. This collection was indexed by Ancestry World Archives Project contributors.
Original data:

California Railroad Employment Records, 1862-1919. 579 volumes. California State Railroad Museum Library, Sacramento, California.
About California, Railroad Employment Records, 1862-1950

This collection of employment records from railroad companies operating in California includes pay lists, blacklists, and seniority lists. Many of the employees on these lists were Asian immigrants who came to build the railroads. This collection contains payroll records for the Southern Pacific, its subsidiaries, and additional railroad companies. It also contains the San Joaquin Division Seniority List from 1878-1917 and the Blacklist Book from 1887-1892, which contains employees who had been blacklisted from working on the railroad, as well as records from the Sierra Railway Company of California from 1899-1937. See the browse menu for details on the list of available records in this collection, listed by company or division, then year.

Between 1862 and 1919, railroads changed life in California. The Central Pacific Railroad and Union Pacific completed the first transcontinental railroad, linking Sacramento and Alameda with the East Coast, in 1869. In 1876 the Southern Pacific ran the first train from San Francisco to Los Angeles. The Southern Pacific also completed the second transcontinental railroad in 1881, linking Los Angeles with San Antonio and Houston.

The index of these records is searchable by name, date, and railroad, and the records contain:

Name
Occupation
Pay date
Roll date

---

Ah, this is perfect. I do have an ancestry.com subscription so I should be able to access those records. Off to check now.....

The SP had a (usually) monthly employee publication entitled "Southern Pacific Bulletin" which included documentation of marriages, retirements, deaths, etc. of employees and their families. I have a fairly complete collection going back to the 1920s. If you can get me the month and year of his retirement and/or death, I'll check those issuses for any mention of him.

Mark

Slightly OT, but Ancestry does have a free trial period, plus several free weekends a year for various single-topic collections, and they also run specials on membership a couple of times a year (last year's was something like $50 for the year.)
FamilySearch.org is also a good resource. The Mormons have a much better search engine, so it's easier to look someone up and find what documents are available through links to Ancestry. FamilySearch is free.
There are also free weekends, usually around Veterans' Day and sometimes Memorial Day, on Fold3.com, which is for military records.

E. A. Hall had a 7-2-36 date as a Coast Div. fireman. Not promoted in the '39 Timebook roster.

Sphogger

OHCR1551 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Slightly OT, but Ancestry does have a free trial
> period, plus several free weekends a year for
> various single-topic collections, and they also
> run specials on membership a couple of times a
> year (last year's was something like $50 for the
> year.)
> FamilySearch.org is also a good resource. The
> Mormons have a much better search engine, so it's
> easier to look someone up and find what documents
> are available through links to Ancestry.
> FamilySearch is free.
> There are also free weekends, usually around
> Veterans' Day and sometimes Memorial Day, on
> Fold3.com, which is for military records.

I've been advised by a friend that many libraries have a subscription to Ancestry.com, but then you have to do your research at the library. Also, the Family History Centers at some LDS churches have computers and access to Ancestry.com. You do not need to be a member of the church to use their facilities or resources, but again you have to do your research at the Family History Center.

mapboy

A look through the Southern Pacific Company Black List is an amusing read.

My favorite reason so far for dismissal is "Worthless".

It depends on the library. Some have access through their webpages.

Many libraries have all sorts of subscriptions, discounts etc. It's always worth a look. Columbus, OH's system doesn't even require that you live near town to have a card and online access.

It looks like Google Books has scanned and indexed all of the Southern Pacific Bulletins. I only found one hit for Emil Back, Vol 42-43 on p. 35 which Google says has a 1958 date. More here:

http://books.google.com/books?id=-YIqAQAAIAAJ&q=%22emil+beck%22+southern+pacific&dq=%22emil+beck%22+southern+pacific&hl=en&sa=X&ei=sVYsVLXiBpCQoQSCw4LgAg&ved=0CB8Q6AEwAA

As you can see from the link, the Google Book result only gives you a very small snapshot of the excerpt from the SP Bulletin. I can see his name printed there but not enough of the text to get a sense of context. If you have this volume and could look up this entry, I would appreciate it.

Thank you.

sphogger Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> E. A. Hall had a 7-2-36 date as a Coast Div.
> fireman. Not promoted in the '39 Timebook
> roster.
>
> Sphogger

That checks out with my notes for his fireman service. My grandfather (E. A. Hall) didn't talk too much about his SP service before he passed away in the mid 1990s, but he did mention one story three or four times. He worked as a fireman on the Daylights between SF and SLO for quite a few years and knew the route well. The day of his engineers test (I have no idea what is involved with this. I'm guessing some sort of practical), he was in San Luis Obispo getting ready to head north. They were some sort of mix up with staffing and his examiner, another engineer, had to jump off and go work the helper over Cuesta Grade. He was left to run SP4444 over the grade on his own direction. After they got north of Cuesta grade, the examiner rejoined him for he rest of the trip. He said that everything well but he was scared to death.