Its Monday and Railroad Laboring?

TomPM

Another Fried Egg Fan
Good morning folks

One day left in summer around these parts. Tomorrow the kids are off to school on their new bikes they just got today. We are still picking up small and medium size branches from Ernesto. We got a lot of rain but no flooding in our immediate area from this one.

I spent time this weekend planting trees and adding foliage around the abandon road on the layout. That area is pretty much done now. I also spent some time running trains and trying to figure out the video feature on the digital camera.

Since this Labor Day here in the US I figure here is a good question:

Do you or anyone in your family work or have worked for a railroad or a model railroad company?

My father spent many years working for Baldwin Loc0omotive Works in Eddystone, PA as did my uncles and aunt. My father and uncles transferred to General Steel where they worked on building freight cars and trucks for Baldwins’ locos. In my job I do have the occasion to work with railroads. As a highway designer I am coordinating projects with the railroads in this area from time to time.
 

Glen Haasdyk

Active Member
My Wife's Grandfather was a welder and sectionman on the Canadian pacific railway for many years. I have pictures (not able to post) of him working on steam engines during WW2
 

RailRon

Active Member
My father was an electro engineer and worked some years for BBC (Brown Boveri Company) which developped and built electrical parts for Swiss electric locomotives.

My father in law was station master for the BLS (Berne - Loetschberg - Simplon, a big RR company), and later he had a job in the administration department of the BLS.

Likewise my grandfather was a station agent for the BLS. Since we lived in the same town, as a small kid I spent almost all of my free time on the station (and surely caused him a few gray hairs, I think, when I climbed all over the freight cars in the sidings... :eek:ops:). Unfortunately he passed away when I was only 12 years old.

And finally my great-grandfather worked as a conductor on (you guessed it) the BLS, too.

Ron
 

ezdays

Out AZ way
The closest any of us came to a railroad was riding on them. When I was growing up in NJ we rode them because we needed to get somewhere, now we ride them for the pleasure of the scenic trip, not as a means to a destination. Nope, don't even personally know anyone that worked for a railroad, well, except maybe from here on the Gauge. :wave: :wave:
 

UP SD40-2

Senior Member
my grandfather and great grandfather both worked for, and retired from Fairbanks-Morse. both of them worked for Fairbanks-Morse during the time they made Loco's:thumb: . they both were machinists that made the parts that made up the prime movers in those Loco's:thumb: . to be honest with you, neither of them were train nuts, but both of them considered themselves to be great craftsman that took pride in their work, and loved their job:thumb: . my great grandfather retired from FM shortly after FM stopped making Loco's. my grandfather retired from FM in '76. both have passed away years ago. -Deano
 

60103

Pooh Bah
My grandfather, at about the time he married, was freight agent for Pere Marquette in St Thomas, Ont. I don't knpw how long this lasted, as he returned to my grandmother in the Niagara Falls area. We do have a letter he wrote her ("Dear meal ticket...") in an envelope from "Pere Marquette in receivership".
 
I worked on the Heber Valley RR. Started out as a grease monkey in the shop hostling the steam engines and preparing the consists for their run. I worked up to brakeman and soon became a conductor. I made my way to fireman but wasn’t there long enough to become an engineer. Got some throttle time on an NW2 though. Oh man....what an experience!

Freelancer
 

MasonJar

It's not rocket surgery
Not that I know of, but it is possible someone in the family tree worked for the railways in England. I have a couple of circa 1930s CN luggage tags that belonged to my great-grandfather. He was English, but obviously rode CN sometime in his life. He later used the luggage tags for a trip to India. That address is still in the tag. It reads "Capt. Hamilton, Bombay, India". Can't use an address like that these days...!

Andrew
 

Big_Al73

New Member
My great-grandfather was a conductor for the B&O, and a Great-Uncle was a conductor for the Pennsy. My grandfather was a track gang, and my unlce worked for the Wheeling and Lake Erie. My Grand-father-in-law worked for Penn Central Trucking. I volunteer for the Buckeye Central Scenic Railroad in Hebron, Ohio while I was in college.
 
Top