Railroaders' Nostalgia > Getting qualified, living the low seniority dream

Late in 1997 (Christmas eve, to be exact) I was promoted to engineer on the Portland & Western. With that promotion, I was forced to a relief job based out of St. Marys that worked one day in Linnton on the Astoria line, one day in McMinnville on the Mac switcher, and three days in St Marys - one day on the HIllsboro switcher and two nights on the Brooklyn Hauler. That job go a pretty complete tour of the north end of the Portland & Western.

My hope was to be qualified on the Toledo and Eugene Haulers and, maybe, bid in the Albany Relief job; it was only 50 miles from my home instead of the 100+ miles the St Marys job was. That job worked Friday and Saturday on the Eugene Hauler that went on duty at 7 am in Albany. They built their train to Eugene usually out at Ashahr and there were days they had cars scattered around, most of them at Ashahr, some at Corvallis Junction on the Toledo leg, and once in a while at Granger. Those were the days when 100+ car train were very common because everything was going to Eugene.

Sunday and Monday were the Albany Relief job's days to go to Toledo - round trip in 12 hours or less - and then Tuesday night on the Albany yard switcher. Low seniority folks like me could hold that because of the days-to-nights schedule during its work week.  I stayed on the job longer than any other, I think 36 months, before a higher seniority engineer bumped me off in the Spring of 2002 so I bumped to the Mac Hauler, which wasn't too bad as it worked daylights and, by then I was living in Corvallis so the drive wsn't bad.

I was able to bid it in early in 1999 and took over as engineer on January 7th. I was fortunate to work with a good guy, Greg Wilson, who was the son of our beloved dispatcher Bill Wilson. Side note, Greg just retired, from what I heard, and the story I was told was that they asked him to do something off the wall and he quit, took retirement over inconvenience. I love it... The figure dressed in dark clothes walking ahead of the train, pre-hiviz vests, is Greg.

The photos were taken at UP Eugene yard in March and April of 1999, before the hump was shut down and UP ruined everything...er, downsized it.



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 10/28/25 21:54 by roustabout.

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More from inside Eugene yard.  Up had it but it still had the flavor of SP, with the East Tower and the famous Izzy Wetstein the old head yardmaster that ruled it.

Sadly, in three months all that would be shut down and the towers, bowl yard, and puzzle would all eventually be gone, memories and photos to look back at and think, "boy, those were the days."



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/28/25 21:55 by roustabout.

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Great story of no/low seniority; part of the job.

Also loved the views of the hump and the "puzzle" at the east end of the bowl. I miss those days.

Thanks Lou, great story.  Gray depressing Eugene.

Ah yes, the early days....extra boards, getting bumped, trying to figure it ll out.  For me, the best of times and the worst of times....now I look back fondly.  Thanks for posting.

How well I remember being the youngest engineer all through the 1980's. We had outlying jobs 3 at Bush brewery in Jacksonville, 2 sides to a local to Jax out of Waycross, a local out of Baldwin to Yulee, FL, a turnaround local Waycross to Brunswick, GA, 2 sides of a local Waycross to Fernandina, FL 3 switchers at Fernandina, 3 yaed jobs at Brunswick 6 months a year, an 6 the other 6. When you were the youngest man in Savannah, you would get displaced 10 or 12 times a day. You might make 6 days a half staying in Savannah. When the contract came out that you bid on a job and it was yours for a week,the ones that complained the most were those at the bottom of the list. They said you couldn't move around and were stuck on a job. My statement to them was at least you'll make a paycheck. They said I didn't know what I was talking about. I had to explain it to them. They said you've got enough seniority to work what you want. I would say I didn't hire out with 30 years.

Sam