Railroaders' Nostalgia > Beautiful Sounds

   This goes way back to when the Southern Pacific and other railroads still operated their own passenger trains, and Amtrak hadn't come on the scene yet.  I was working as a brakeman on #99, the "Coast Daylight,"  and the conductor and I were collecting tickets.  We came on this man who had one of the old-fashioned boom boxes up to his ear, and the only sound it was making was static.  It wasn't loud enough to annoy nearby passengers  He had the most beatific smile on his face.  The conversation went like this:
"May I have your ticket, Sir?"
"I don't need a ticket, Mr. Conductor.  I'm doing the Lord's work."
Now this conductor was an old head passenger man, and was a master psychologist when it came to dealing with passengers..."Well Sir, the Southern Pacific is run by a collection of sinners, and they demand their pound of flesh.  You'll either have to come up with a ticket, or buy one, or you will have to leave the train."
Mr. Boom-box saw the logic in this, so he reluctantly bought a cash ticket to Salinas, I think it was.
Every time I walked past him, there he was with the boom box still up to his ear listening to static. and that same smile.  He evidently heard something in that static no one else did.  What he did when he got to Salinas, this scribe knoweth not.

Brian Black
Retired SP/UP Trainman
Castle Rock, CO

Now that was a quick thinking conductor! And a very funny story… 😁

Posted from iPhone

santafe199 Wrote:
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> Now that was a quick thinking conductor! And a
> very funny story… 😁
>
> Posted from iPhone

I didn't work passenger all that much, but the few times I worked with this guy, I really enjoyed it and learned a lot.  I wish I could remember his name.

Brian

Great story Brian..

John Brown was the conductor on the same train and had a similar situation. A young man hopped on the train at Santa Barbara. JB asked for his ticket. The young man said the Lord told me I could ride this train to San Luis Obispo for free ! JBs come back was kid the Lord just sent me a message and said to kick your ass off at Goleta! JB radioed the engineer and told him to stop at Goleta.

Posted from Android



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/17/25 18:02 by SanJoaquinEngr.

I was riding on Amtrak when I was a sophomore in high school with my dad on the Crescent a year or two after Amtrak took over operation from the Southern Railroad.   A drunk pastor got on in Philadelphia and started preaching and telling us we were going to hell.  The conductor came through and collected his ticket and told him to keep it down.  The guy tried the lord's work line and the conductor wasn't having it.  He told him to keep it down or he would be put off.  The conductor walked through the car and then propped the end door open.  We were in a heritage fleet car, so the track noise was much louder anytime someone opened the door.  My dad grumbled about the noise, but I was onto the Conductor.  I told my dad he was going to come back through and catch the guy preaching.  I was anxious to see the drama because I had never seen anything like this.  

Soon the guy started up again.  I kept looking at the end of the car where the conductor had propped the door open.  After about 20 minutes the conductor magically appeared and the guy was in midstream with his sermon.   None of us had seen him come back in the car, and since the door was open, he caught the guy red-handed.  He told the guy to stop or else.  The guy told the conductor, "You are going to hell."  Without missing a beat, the conductor said, "And you are going to Newark".   We pulled out of Newark and I saw the guy sitting on the bench on the platform.  
 

SanJoaquinEngr Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Great story Brian..
>
> John Brown was the conductor on the same train and
> had a similar situation. A young man hopped on the
> train at Santa Barbara. JB asked for his ticket.
> The young man said the Lord told me I could ride
> this train to San Luis Obispo for free ! JBs come
> back was kid the Lord just sent me a message and
> said to kick your ass at Goleta! JB radioed the
> engineer and told him to stop at Goleta.
>
> Posted from Android

Hey Dag, did the guy come up with a ticket or buy one?  If not, I wonder how he liked downtown Goleta.

Brian

tehachcond Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> SanJoaquinEngr Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Great story Brian..
> >
> > John Brown was the conductor on the same train
> and
> > had a similar situation. A young man hopped on
> the
> > train at Santa Barbara. JB asked for his
> ticket.
> > The young man said the Lord told me I could
> ride
> > this train to San Luis Obispo for free ! JBs
> come
> > back was kid the Lord just sent me a message
> and
> > said to kick your ass at Goleta! JB radioed the
> > engineer and told him to stop at Goleta.
> >
> > Posted from Android
>
> Hey Dag, did the guy come up with a ticket or buy
> one?  If not, I wonder how he liked downtown
> Goleta.
>
> Brian


No Brian..JB opened up the vestibule and kicked the passenger off at the old depot.

All of this reminds me of an episode on NJ Transit with my old boss from the MARC Train Service.  John Kopke was our CMO at the time, about 1997, and I was the Asst. CMO.  We were going to attend a couple of days of meetings at NJT in Newark, and John still had a home in New Jersey.  So, he suggested we go up on Amtrak  and stay at his home rather than coming back to Baltimore each day.  We used our Amtrak NEC Train Permits for the ride to Newark, but I went to buy an NJT ticket in Newark, he stopped me.  "Just stay with me and we will ride for free" he said. 

Now I had some success getting a free ride on SEPTA by politely asking the conductors if my Amtrak document was good enough, but I had been turned down one time and just paid the fare.  I presumed this was what John was going to do on NJT, well....not exactly.  John was a very tall imposing man, who some people referred to the guy who "looked like Dracula".  His family background was Romanian, but he has since passed away, so the resolves that.  In any case, he had worked for PRR, NJ Transit and Amtrak and had a rather imposing personality, which I think was a big part of the results.

On the NJT train and we encountered the conductor collecting fares as we worked our way toward the front of the train looking for seats.  John pull his wallet and shows the conductor his 1967 PRR Pass, and announces that he is the CMO of MARC and I am his assistant!  The conductor just looks at the pass for a minute, then me, then John, shrugs his shoulders and without a word, walks by us.  The next morning going he other way, different conductor, same story, same result.  These men were middle-age, but I don't think old enough to have worked for the PRR, and I don't think either Conductor knew him.  We never talked about it again, but I was impressed what he could do with a long-expired PRR pass.

Travel with John was quite a treat, especially to Europe and Japan on trips related to our Car and Locomotive procurement's....but that is another story.