Railroaders' Nostalgia > A forbidden peek into the past.

In the 1960's and 70's, the railroad I worked for closed a number of regional offices and division points.

The CEO of the time was aware that when the UTU took over the BRT,BLF,SUNA and ORC, they were going to expand seniority districts. The CEO was intent on closing a bunch of crew bases before the UTU took over so that the railroad could simply dismiss the operating employees rather than relocate them.

A friend and myself were touring a part of the railroad where a crew base had been abolished some years earlier. At this location, the railway had a seperate administration building from the station. It was a quiet evening with no rail traffic expected, and we had a long chat with the operator. He mentioned that the administration building had been demolished a couple of years previously. He said that the basement of the station still contained files from the demolished building.  He had been instructed to gradually take the files to the garbage as they were long out of date. He was just about finished. By and large, they were old freight tarrif books.

However, there were some staff records from before WW2.  

As employees of a railroad, we were all fascinated what our employer included in the staff records. As we read them, we discovered it was both more and less than we anticipated.
Mostly it was simply hiring date, promotion dates and date of retirement. Leaves of abscence and injuries were included. However, for some employees there was much more. Details of their behavior and discipline record were included. Membership in Secret Societies and which Faith they were was mentioned, also if they had other family members in service with the railway. 

After reading the files, we helped the operator stuff them into a dumpster.

This all took place over 45 years ago. The station was demolished shortly after our visit, and the railroad is twenty five or thirty years abandoned.


 

Are you by any chance talking about Rock Island in Pratt KS?

My father & grandfather were engineers on Rock Island.

Posted from Android

petersja24 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Are you by any chance talking about Rock Island in
> Pratt KS?
>
> My father & grandfather were engineers on Rock
> Island.
>
> Posted from Android

Sorry, this was on CP in New Brunswick.