Re: Women At Work by Tom Cardin

Her name is Marty Fischer (Marty was short for Mary Margaret). Her husband Russ was also an engineer. Marty worked for years in the snack car, then went braking, firing and was promoted to engineer.

She was damned good too.

I recall when she was just promoted to fireman, one of the engineers thought she shouldn't be doing "man's work". One day on a doubleheader, Marty was firing for me and the other guy was on the helper. We were quite obviously doing about 3/4 of the work. Coming up to Coxo, I said to myself, lets give this guy a ride. I dropped the Johnson bar down about 2 notches, then 2 more. We rocked up the hill at about 18 mph with the guy ahead of us wondering what was going on. Marty was on the deck swinging the scoop, the steam gauge leaning against the 195 mark. We were slowing losing water, but I figured, we'd make Coxo without trouble. I shut down for the sag at Coxo siding, the safety valve lifted with a pleasing roar. All the guy ahead could do was look back and give a an evil stare. Marty crossed the cab and said in an apologetic tone "sorry, I didn't mean to pop it off...".

Russ and Mary went off in 1989 to get the Grand Canyon RR going, then they worked shortlines in NM and TX before moving to Illinois. Mary retired from railroading to raise her two daughters. Russ works for a class 1 road now.