The Russian Mosin Nagant Forum

Saturday morning I’ll be out at a major auto show with this coach:


This is our restored Model 1204 1938 Yellow Coach that ran in Bisbee, Arizona for many years. I’ll be spending the time greeting attendees, answering questions and inviting folks to walk through the coach.

Now for a recent donation:





This 1929 Chevrolet Touring Car is Eddy. Eddy started life as a depot hack and taxi in Courtlandt, Arizona and served that capacity her entire working life. Her previous owner had her listed through our museum’s antique automobile sales program for over a year with no takers. Asking price was $50k-a steal considering the owner put over $100k into restoring the car. So she donated it to us. We were very appreciative of her donation. She runs, but is not currently licensed or insured. Eventually we will do that and get her on the car show circuit with the two buses.

Very neat!

I'd love to have that car!

Darryl

That looks like a fun job.

It is-otherwise I wouldn't be doing it. I'm a volunteer (everyone in the organization is). While at Old Pueblo Trolley, I have been a:

Streetcar Conductor
Streetcar Conductor Instructor
Streetcar Motorman
Streetcar Motorman Instructor
Streetcar Motorman Check Instructor (authorized to certify a Motorman for passenger operations)
Streetcar Training Department Manager
Power Dispatcher (operating the control system for the overhead catenary system)
Power Dispatcher Instructor

Presently I am a coach restorer, member of the Board of Directors, volunteer at large and (most recently) gift shop manager. That's just my list of occupations at Old Pueblo Trolley.

In high school and college, I was a volunteer and seasonal employee with the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum. There I was a:

Trainman
Brakeman
Flagman
Conductor (passenger and freight service)
Conductor Instructor
Conductor (qualified on foreign railroads-Norfolk Southern Railway and Chattooga and Chickamauga Railway)
Train Crew Supervisor (managing and scheduling trainmen for operations)
Ticket and retail salesman
Commissary agent (onboard food concessions sales)
Tour Guide
Office assistant
Shop laborer
Car washer
Track maintainer

I was there ten years and while I worked primarily as a passenger train conductor, I spent a great deal of time working in every department and learned how each department worked. I also had the privilege to learn these skills under the tutelage of pioneers of the railway preservation movement in the United States that started in the 1960s (TVRM was founded in 1961).

Managing the train crews was somewhat complex as some crewmen were cross qualified as enginemen. Those schedules had to be coordinated with the Mechanical Department schedule. I had to take into account availability of volunteers and qualifications-some were not qualified to run as conductor over one or the other of the foreign roads. Only our best conductors were so qualified due to necessity-we were the only private passenger operator permitted to operate passenger trains on any Norfolk Southern lines-the only public passenger train operator being Amtrak. Our relationship with NS goes back to predecessor Southern Railway in 1964-literally back to our founding.

My work schedule on the railroad was typically 5-7 days a week, especially once I started moving up in the organization. I've worked more route miles than many people will ever ride on a train. The railroad doesn't work if everyone doesn't do their job to the best of their capabilities. That railroad ran like clockwork. That's teamwork for you.

RR folks seem to be a happy bunch.....

Once you join, you become part of the family-literally. Back when I was with TVRM, we worked hard and had a good time off the clock-no alcohol or drugs involved of course. When you work in train operations, you hold the lives of others in your hands. You must be able to trust your fellow railroaders and they must be able to trust you. You see your fellow railroaders more than you see your wife and kids and the job always comes first. When you work on the railroad, you are working in an extremely dangerous environment. Everything around you will maim or kill you if you are inattentive to what you are doing. I have seen potential tragedies averted only by the alertness of a railroader. I have had to address dangerous conditions. I've discovered dangerous conditions on other railroads and remained on the case until the dangerous conditions were corrected. That is a professional obligation.

Frankly, I'm not impressed by the equipment a railroad museum or tourist railroad has-it's the people that run the railroad that I'm interested. TVRM had some of the finest railroaders I ever knew and our successes proved that. TVRM was one of the keystone organizations that saved operating steam locomotives in the United States. Had they not been there, most likely there would be no operating steam locomotives ANYWHERE in the United States of America today and nothing like Union Pacific's Steam Program.

I took a ride on the Essex steam train in Essex Connecticut week before last. There is at least one operating steam engine in the northeast on that line.
The engine and cars were all 1920's, and in nice condition, I know commercial operation having worked in a very dangerous industry for 35 years. I saw nothing on that line that rang alarm bells, the crew were keeping a close eye on everything, and the equipment looked to be in good operating condition. They even had the near impossible to get into bathrooms on the cars operational.

That would be the Valley Railroad in Essex. I’ve never been there, but having been in the industry as long as I have, I know their reputation. They are a first class operator.

I remember the old railroad coach toilets well. No retention tanks in my day-everything emptied right on the tracks. Our company had cars built between the 1920s and 1950s. Everything onboard worked, toilets included. However, they were kept locked on our local train as the travel time between the stations on our line was only fifteen minutes and the toilets had to be locked while the train stood in the station. On the longer trips, the toilets were available for use. Locking the ladies toilets was always a hassle as trainmen had to bang on the lounge door, announce their presence and block it open while locking or unlocking them. On most passenger coaches, the pay phone sized toilets were entered off a small lounge with seats and the wash stand. These also usually had a separate dental basin. Both sexes had a lounge, but the ladies lounge was always the larger of the two. The Pullman sleeping cars also had showers and changing areas provided. The Pullman sleepers and the coaches required different keys to operate the locks.

The only coaches that had toilets that opened directly to the aisle were former “Jim Crow” coaches. On a regular passenger coach, the men’s and ladies lounges were located at opposite ends of the coach, each having two toilets. On a Jim Crow coach, each end had a single toilet for each sex. Most Jim Crow coaches were either scrapped or integrated post-segregation. In most cases, integration simply meant removing the partition and signs. Our company had two of them. One has the partition removed but the old floor plan with the paired men’s and ladies toilets at both ends. The other was removed from passenger service but used for maintenance of way duty and retained all of the Jim Crow features. Both are in service now, the car with the partition having been fully restored to its appearance as a Jim Crow coach (complete with the WHITE and COLORED signage). Both cars have signs posted that explain their histories. As a conductor, whenever one of those cars was on my train, I would take additional time (whenever possible) to provide historical commentary to the passengers riding in the cars about their history and segregation and the railroads. I never received a negative comment about either coach. In fact, I would sometimes receive positive comments about the fully restored coach-often from black passengers. One black school teacher commented to me at the conclusion of her class visit that she appreciated the fact that the railroad had preserved the coach. As she put it, it’s one thing for the students to see pictures in a textbook or a movie. It’s entirely something else for them to interact with a genuine artifact of that era, especially when put in context.

Some pictures, the rest is video that I don't have ready yet.