My Dad and Grandfather Were Great Railroad Engineers

August 28, 2009

It’s easy to see why so many people share an interest in Model Trains after hearing so many wonderful railroading experiences from years gone by. Here is an interesting recollection from Elbert:

I was born into a railroad family. My grandfather had been an engineer for the East Carolina Railroad for many years. He lived in Goldsboro, NC. I have fond memories of him later in his life after he retired. He and my Dad (also an engineer for the Atlantic Coast Line) would sit for hours and tell stories. I was priveleged to sit nearby and listen. It was wonderful and exciting.

My grandparents lived in a house on a slight hill that overlooked the switching yard near the passenger station. On the cold winter day, I would sit by my grandmother’s bedroom window and watch the steam engines switching cars around and often the long columns of smoke which rose high above the steam engines were very white, especially when the wind was still and the air was cold. I loved to hear the sounds of the engines. I recall that in the passenger station there were restrooms and water fountains labelled either for black or colored. Even at age ten, I thought that was pretty ridiculous.

My Dad used to take me to the train yard in Portsmouth, VA often to help him “fire up” an engine on a Sunday afternoon. Sometmes he would sit me on his lap at the throttle and I would “help him” switch a few cars. Of course, he was very careful to do this on a Sunday afternoon when it would be less likely for a railroad detective to be snooping around the railyard. He would tell me he could get in trouble if caught with me in the engine. I recall having to duck my head a few times.

My grandfather was once praised in the newspaper as being the most talented engineer in Eastern N. C. because he could stop a passenger train exactly where he should at the station; thereby not using extra coal and water to back the train up. The paper said, “He could stop a train on a dime”.

I have always loved trains and I deliberately slow down at a crossing to watch a train go by. But the smells, sounds, and the feel of the ground shaking under your feet from a steam engine (and later diesel) passing by was always something very special!

These are the best memories of my childhood.