Re: Union rules

Bob Shock was the senior hoghead in Durango from the early 1960s until he retired in 1968. He took the Silverton, which was a break from tradition from the earlier days when the senior heads, like Owen G. House or John Dieckman, took the switch engine. Steve Connor ran the second Silverton.
Shock told me during a 1980 interview that he did have experience running the little diesel in Durango so he must have caught some switcher turns somewhere. He also ran standard gauge diesels out of Alamosa.
Andy Payne once told me that one Silverton season he took a fireman's job on the Silverton rather than work the freight pool.
``After working the Silverton every day it ceased to be a tourist attraction,'' he said.