Railroaders' Nostalgia > Jim Denton, SP ATM

Maybe some of you people will remember Jin Denton from your SP Days. He worked around Bakersfield, Los Angeles & Oxnard.
He passed away a few days ago from an Aortic Aneurysm. He was 77
RIP.








4460

Sorry to read of Mr Denton's passing. Although I didn't know him, I found that he was the ATM at Oxnard
in 1977 and his name shows up on SP's Western Region TT in 1981, again as ATM at Oxnard---otherwise
I know nothing of the man. Perhaps you could fill us in on his career. 

Condolences to his family and loved ones.

Charles Wherry 

cewherry Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Sorry to read of Mr Denton's passing. Although I
> didn't know him, I found that he was the ATM at
> Oxnard
> in 1977 and his name shows up on SP's Western
> Region TT in 1981, again as ATM at
> Oxnard---otherwise
> I know nothing of the man. Perhaps you could fill
> us in on his career. 
>
> Condolences to his family and loved ones.
>
> Charles Wherry 
Pretty long time to stay a ATM. Didn't survive MDO's ATM officer cuts in late 1981



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/11/23 12:48 by WAF.

Jim Denton was a pretty good ATM. He hired out in Bakersfield as a clerk. He didn't bother crews as long as they did their job. He returned to Bakersfield after the cut .

Posted from Android

Jim was the Chief Clerk to the Superintendent at Bakersfield in 1976,  when Bob Thruston was the Superintendent in LA.  There were two vacancies that occurred on the Coast at the same time, and Bob wanted to promote Jim (with a clerical background) to one of the spots.

Bill Giles had just taken over the TM's job and moved it from Santa Barbara to SLO, and Bob asked Bill if he would take a newly promoted ATM. for one of his assistants. Bill wanted to move the other ATM position from SLO to Oxnard where there were crews going on duty.

The other newly promoted Assistant at Surf was George Erickson, who had been a brakeman.

Bill agreed that he would take a new clerical type for one vacancy, provided he could have a "strong" type for the othert spot.  So, George E was moved to Bakersfield where he was near a couple of other officers, and George T was moved from C of I to Surf. 

I didn't know the intricacies of that for a couple of years, all I heard were complaints from several other fellow ATMs who wanted the job at Surf. I got off at Tweedy about 4am and went home to bed, and about 930 MLI called and had my wife wake me up, because they had to know right now!   I finally got a little more awake, and talked Mike into letting me drive up to Lompoc and take a look around. Needless to say, I took the job!

A little trivia:  Jim Denton wasn't cut off, he went back to his seniority at Bakersfield.  His replacement was another one of Mike Burke's followers,  Mike Kemper.  
Kemper showed up at Oxnard with his couple of year old  pink Cadillac Seville and a credit report so bad that he couldn't get a landline phone connected bcause of no deposit.  He ended up renting a space on a boat in the harbor, and leaving the radio handset on the PBX channel all night.  About three weeks later, on a Friday afteernoon, Kemper drives up in a brand new pink Cadillac. Friday afternoon is important, because Monday morning a tow truck shows up with his old Caddy and takes the new one off the Depot platform in front of everybody.  Kemper was one of the first to be cut off..

Being the ATM at Surf, while being qualified on the Hump at Industry, and being qualified at Gemco was a bad thing..
G

George had forgotten about Kemper.he only lasted a few months. As I remember he came from Sparks and was a yardmaster. He rode Amtrak from Oxnard to SLO with a crew and they all decided to party in the lounge car..

Posted from Android

Jim, your memory is excellent.  The party with the Clark brothers wasn't limited to Amtrak.
G

ExSPCondr Wrote:
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> Jim, your memory is excellent.  The party with
> the Clark brothers wasn't limited to Amtrak.
> G

I wrote a sanitized version of the event. The conductor was the infamous Jack Blakeman.

Posted from Android