Railroaders' Nostalgia > The people you meet, part 2

For about the first seven years of the Willamette & Pacific, the regular crew on the Eugene Hauler was owned by two ex-SP old heads, Dick Kester and Bob Pauly. I am not sure who was the bid engineer since these two were very high on the roster at WPRR (Scott Pirie was #1 on the engineer roster but I think Dick was #1 on the conductor roster since Scott did not work  ground - but he may correct me). From the looks of these pictures, the engineer is Mr. Kester (Bob and Dick traded off running) and he seems to have things well under control, in fact, it made me think of the lyrics to the song 'Texas 1947,'  "...screaming straight through Texas like a mad dog cylone..."  If I remember, the breeze from this train knocked my hat off. They would come on duty at 0700, run out to Ashahr to build their train to Eugene, run down to the (then_ SP yard in Eugene and back as quickly as possible and, maybe, if they got back soon enough, they'd switch out a cut or two for the night crew.

When I did go to work at the WPRR, Bob and Dick were excellent teachers but Bob was a bit more blunt, if you can imagine that.  Sadly, Bob Pauley passed a number of years ago but Kester is still roaming around the area as far as I know.

The photos were taken on February 13, 1995.

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Precious memories Lou.... those were the days!!!

Great shots, Lou.

op11 Wrote:
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> Precious memories Lou.... those were the days!!!

Yes they were - hey, OP I was pretty close to your house!

Nice tribute and acknowledgement to their contribution.Bill Webb 

I "fired" for Bob Pauley while he was employed on the Espee on the Los Angeles Division. I distinctly remember firing for him on the All Cities Local out of West Colton on at least one trip. I was the regular fireman on the job at the time and Bob caught the engineer's spot off the extraboard. We ran out the branch to San Bernardino that day and after finishing our switching but prior to returning to West Colton, we went to "beans" there in San Bernardino. We had back to back SW1500's for power as was the usual practice in those days. I recall that I was closing up the windows and doors and Bob said not to bother with that (it was a hot day), so I didn't. When we returned from beans the trainmaster (Keith Keelin as I recall) was waiting for us and he ripped us a new one for not buttoning up the cabs on our units. So much for that idea Bob.

Anyway, thanks for your photos and stories. RIP Bob Pauley. He was a nice guy.

Tim Dickinson
La Verne, CA

You're welcome.  Working with Bob was always fun, even the time we broke in two with a 100 car train on the run to UP's Eugene Yard. He told me many stories of working for the SP, including his time on the ore trains from Eagle Mountain.

alcoc636 Wrote:
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> I "fired" for Bob Pauley while he was employed on
> the Espee on the Los Angeles Division. I
> distinctly remember firing for him on the All
> Cities Local out of West Colton on at least one
> trip. I was the regular fireman on the job at the
> time and Bob caught the engineer's spot off the
> extraboard. We ran out the branch to San
> Bernardino that day and after finishing our
> switching but prior to returning to West Colton,
> we went to "beans" there in San Bernardino. We had
> back to back SW1500's for power as was the usual
> practice in those days. I recall that I was
> closing up the windows and doors and Bob said not
> to bother with that (it was a hot day), so I
> didn't. When we returned from beans the
> trainmaster (Keith Keelin as I recall) was waiting
> for us and he ripped us a new one for not
> buttoning up the cabs on our units. So much for
> that idea Bob.
>
> Anyway, thanks for your photos and stories. RIP
> Bob Pauley. He was a nice guy.
>
> Tim Dickinson
> La Verne, CA

Dick Kester was always friendly towards railfan photographers as well.  He was able to remember all of our names, too!  Great guy.

Greg Stadter
Phoenix, AZ

Dick K turns up at our club in Clackamas from time to time. He only bids on road jobs. "I don't need to work any more locals,"