Re: Durango - January 29-February 15, 1952

Earl,

Regarding Durango engineers not letting their firemen run, in 1981, the first year of the Durango & Silverton, George Connor (a.k.a. S. Connor, Jr.), then assistant superintendant in charge of safety, rules, and training, told me that his father, Steve Connor worked for 20 years as a fireman before getting to run. George apparently thought that was not such a bad idea, and engineers on the D&S were told not to let their firemen run the engines until he, George, determined they were ready. I got in trouble for violating that rule on a regular basis, as I felt strongly that any trip on which a fireman did not spend some time at the throttle, whether it be uphill or down, was a wasted trip for the fireman. It seemed to me that a fully trained engineman, promoted or not, was far more valuable to the company than a fireman with five years firing experience who had never been allowed to touch the throttle.

A minor incident happened in the summer of 1981 that supported my opinion. In July, we had moved into a new home on Florida mesa, and I bought an Ashley wood stove to install in the living room. Rich Braden and I unloaded the stove from my truck and in humping it up the stairs into the house, I strained a muscle in my chest. The following morning I was called to run the 461 or 463, and I was in pain all day. Richard Connor (son of George Connor) was my fireman and had been for most of June and July, so, though still a green fireman, he already had some running experience. Just as we got down off the hill at Hermosa in the afternoon, something let go in my chest and I could no longer pull the throttle, nor could I handle the shovel, so Richard brought the train in single-handed. Granted, not that big a deal over flat or slight downhill terrain, but had he not had some throttle time prior to this, it would not have been possible for him to do it, and we would have had to stop until they could send someone out to relieve me.

In fairness to the old geezers of the 50's, if I were 70 years old (and I'm getting close to it), I don't suppose I would be overly anxious to shovel coal while the fireman learned to run the engine.