In the 1970's and early 1980's I did get to ask many questions of several old timers. In addition to Marten Depew, whom Eric mentioned, there was John Bates, retired SVRy brakeman; "Shep" Sheppard, former Stoddard Lbr. Co. engineer; Norm Myers, former UP brakeman; Elvin Endicot; retired engineer on Oregon Lbr. Co., Rayoneer Inc., and Valley & Silets RR, and mostly Floyd Carpenter, who was the son of an SVRy engineer and who worked his way from apprentice machinist to General Manager. I learned a lot from these gentlemen, but now that they are gone I can think of hundreds of questions I didn't ask. If I could go back to then, that time machine had better stop time as well as go back. Otherwise My life would not last long enough.