My 2nd cousin John worked for the SOuthern Pacific for many years. He started as a lineman working on signal, telegraph and telephone circuits. Eventually he would end up in managment and was a VP over the SP's microwave operations. One of the last things he did before retiring was to put together the spinoff of the microwave into a company called SPrint.
I remember him taking me around the Englewood yards in Houston. Extremely busy place, one I always think about during discussions of the basic safety rule "expect movement on any track, in any direction, at any time"
He passed away about 6 months before the UP started talking aquisition of the SP. I doubt he would have liked seeing what the UP did to SP.
I used to ride the Rock a lot when I was a kid. I would ride the Twin Star Rocket from Houston Union Station(now MinuteMaid Park) to Duncan, OK to go see my grandparents. After the Rock quit running passenger service out of Houston, I rode the Texas Cheif up to Paul's Valley, OK for such trips. I don't really remember all of the reasons why, but I liked the Rock better. Maybe it was because the Conductor and Chair car attendant always remembered my name on the Rock. And once, when I was travelling alone as a kid, I got to ride in the cab for a while somewhere after Dallas (Bowie I think) ending at Wauxahatchi. The crew decided at Wauxahatchi that they better put me back in the cars so my grandparents would not see me get out of the locomotive when we arrived at Duncan. Interesting that they were more worried about what my family would think about me being in the cab than what the RR would think.
I lived about 4 blocks from the Katy line heading west out of Houston, and used to enjoy watching all the assortment of cars and power. MKT's Eureka Yard was a few miles east of home.
Then around 1965 we visited Colorado for the first of many summers and I discovered the Narrow Gauge.
Now I live 25 miles west of DUrango, volunteer at the D&S and own two speeders, one of which can run narrow or standard gauge. And I am part of the volunteer MOW gang for D&RGRyHF between South Fork and Creede.
I should mention as part of my family RR history, my father did Involuntary track work for the Deutsch Bundesbahn in Munich as a POW during WWII. He thinks anyone who does track work for free without a gun pointed at them is certifiably insane.
Philip
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/26/2008 09:38AM by Philip H. Walters.
