Re: Surface Transportation Board STB and narrow gauge

The C&TS was under Railroad Retirement from its beginning to around 2000. When George Bartholomew took over he began the process to get out from under RR Ret. It was simply a money saving deal. From the git-go he told us he only paid RR Ret to people who worked for "real railroads". It was fortunate that his core of people in Chama stood up to him and told him they would go elsewhere if they lost their RR Ret. So, he backed down, but quietly began the process and was granted an exemption from the RR Ret people about 2000. By then most of his "trouble makers" (like me) had left.

When I was working for the C&TS in 2001 I found a copy of the report from the RR Ret stating it was their opinion that the C&TS should have never been part of the system to begin with, stating that it was not part of the General System of Transportation. I as I read through the report I began to get more and more concerned that all the years I had but into RR Ret was going to be trashed. The very last page of this 20+ page report stated that every employee that had contributed to RR Ret in the past would get credit for their months of service and their wages would be applied to any future RR Ret wages and months worked.

I breathed a great sigh of relief.

It was my understanding the in the beginning, Scenic Rys. sought to get into the RR Ret program to give the employees some sort of benefit as they could not afford to provide anything else to the employees. Whether this is true or not, I cannot say. All I can say is I am thankful for the years of service credit I put into RR Ret while in Chama.

I reach my 360 months of service on January 2, 2019. On that day I will call it quits after 41+ years in the business.