Railroaders' Nostalgia > Gary Lawrence

I received word today that retired Espee / Amtrak engineer Gary Lawrence has passed.  He was living the good retired life in Arkansas.  Gary worked out of L.A. for Amtrak for many years, running Trains 1 and 2, the SUNSET, to and from Arizona.  One of his "claims to fame" was that he was on the head end with Gene Haffey on the westbound SUNSET that had the incident with the "disturbed" track at Hyder, AZ on OCT 09,1995.

Rest in peace, Gary.     

CA_Sou_MA_Agent Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I received word today that retired Espee / Amtrak
> engineer Gary Lawrence has passed.  He was living
> the good retired life in Arkansas.  Gary worked
> out of L.A. for Amtrak for many years, running
> Trains 1 and 2, the SUNSET, to and from Arizona.
>  One of his "claims to fame" was that he was on
> the head end with Gene Haffey on the westbound
> SUNSET that had the incident with the "disturbed"
> track at Hyder, AZ on OCT 09,1995.
>
> Rest in peace, Gary.     

Thank you for the sad infomation, CA_Sou_Ma_Agent.

I worked with Gary many times; well, worked "behind him," as he was running the Sunset Ltd #2 and #1's 
I was assigned to as a regular OBS worker during our years together.

As a small little remembrance, I think Gary had the fastest record for the Running Time between Pomona and
LAUS on a #1. It was a quiet weekend morning, with all clear blocks, and good pulling units. We used to joke about it, but
he really did fly that morning. It was still dark, when the Sunset arrived at Los Angeles Union. I remember 5:56 AM, but no
matter- it was before the posted Arrival Time in the printed Schedule. Gary always went by the Rules; he was a great Engineer.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/15/18 09:52 by OldPorter.

I am very sad to hear of Gary's passing.  I worked with him as a fireman before he went to Amtrak and his brother Dennis was in my fireman's/engineer training class.  He was a first class guy. R.I.P. Gary.
Ray Sugg
 

I knew Gary well. He was a few classes ahead of me on the old SP. We nicknamed Gary "Chippendale."
Paul McGuffin

Sorry to hear of another SP fellow engineer passed away.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/30/18 20:29 by SanJoaquinEngr.

From what I undersand, Gary had a heart attack. 

I worked with Gary at Amtrak as well as living near him in Running Springs, me in Lake Arrowhead. He will be missed by many!