Re: NNG: So Who Are You?

I'm in the Witness Protection Program, but I know none of you fine fellows would turn me in, so ….

My name is Skip Luke, and I kinda live everywhere. Being a Boomer (the roaming railroad kind) runs in my blood, as my paternal grandfather was a telegrapher who worked all over the country, and on my mother's side we are descended from Bohemian Gypsies. I was born in Champaign/Urbana, Illinois, a busy railroad town back then, and division point for the Illinois Central, the predominant Midwest north-south line. I had several longtime railroaders in my family. When I was 3 years old, I remember my Dad taking me to the IC roundhouse every Sunday to watch them turn the big steam engines. I became a railfan at that early age and Dad's friends from the University of Illinois gave me lots of railroad and model railroad magazines, as well as a Santa Fe metal HO caboose. I did get to see quite a bit of steam and had a cab ride in an 0-8-0 switcher in the Champaign Yard.

Somewhere along the line I read about the narrow gauge in Colorado and became an early NG nut. I was fortunate to ride behind D&RGW 268 at the Chicago Railroad Fair in 1949, when I was 4. I still have a photo of that event. Our family went to Phoenix every August (ghastly time of year to go there!) to visit the grandparents and I would petition for a swing through Colorado every time, which usually was granted. I rode the Silverton (still Rio Grande) twice in the late 50's and once in 1962. I can remember freights arriving from Chama in the late afternoon, and played on 315 in the park across from the motel when we were in Durango. Also got to see some Santa Fe mainline steam in New Mexico and steam on the logging line south of Flagstaff, AZ.

My first real job was playing Bass guitar in various bands starting at age 15, and I have been a professional musician since that time, and in several areas of the country. When I was 11 I learned to telegraph, and also got my Ham ticket at 13 (I have been proficient in two different codes since then; guess that makes me Tri-lingual!) After high school I decided I wanted a railroad job, so got a telegrapher's job in 1964 with the Illinois Central. I was promoted to Wire Chief at the division relay office in 1967, Car Distributor in same year, and promoted to Train Dispatcher in 1968. The railroad consolidated the dispatcher's offices in 1969. Due to a foul-up changing the phones over, I was the last dispatcher to work at Champaign, where there had been dispatchers since the 1850's. I went to Chicago for a while but didn't like the big city, so went to Colorado and got into hardrock mining (a bit of a change!) Went back to Chicago at ICG's request in 1975, but still hated the city, and in 1976 went to Skagway, Alaska and a dispatcher's job with White Pass and Yukon. I liked the WP&YR but "Skagtown" was too isolated for me in the winter and I followed a blonde with great legs back to Montana and back to mining the next year.

Except for a short stint as dispatcher with BN at Glendive, Montana in 1979-80, I mined until I got hurt (again) underground at the big Sunshine Silver Mine near Kellogg, Idaho in 1984. I went back to school and got a degree in Computer Science in 1988 and moved to Boise, Idaho. I became a volunteer at Sumpter Valley Railway over in Oregon and did pretty much everything there, from digging fire lines and lining track to running engines. After a divorce I moved aboard my sailboat across from Seattle in 1998, and just sailed and hung out. I went into maritime service as a deckhand on a cruise ship, which led to Deckhand, Mate, and Engineer on a couple of ships out of Maine, and I crewed on a very stormy Atlantic Ocean crossing from France to Maine in early 2002.

In 2002 I went to work at the Georgetown Loop as Engineer until we moved out in late 2004. My last rail job was as switchman with Grand Canyon Railway in Williams, Arizona, from which I retired in 2007. I recently returned from a year-long sailing trip along the Gulf Coast from Texas to Florida, and will be returning to Arizona soon. Sorry this is so long. I had to leave some stuff out, such as racing motorcycles professionally, etc.

Skip Luke
Switchman (ret): Grand Canyon Railway;
Engineer (ret): Georgetown Loop RR Inc., Sumpter Valley Ry., Monticello & Sangamon Valley;
Dispatcher(ret): Illinois Central, White Pass & Yukon, Burlington Northern Ry.
Mariner, Musician, Miner