Re: Employees in '70

Hi, John -

IIRC - and being a Senior Curmudgeon, my memory is not perfect and I took only very few notes -
there were three or four paid employees during the last few months of 1970. One of them was the
night watchman in Chama, Eddie Martinez, who I believe lived in the depot at that time.  I'm also
pretty sure that Sid McKinney was paid, as he was responsible for the operation of #483 and there
probably would have been some serious liability issues if an unlicensed person was running the trains.

I'm also fairly sure that fireman Richard Braden was a paid employee by the time I worked as a volunteer brakeman on Extra 483 East on October 16, 1970, but I'm unsure as to whether brakeman / student fireman Herb Owens was a volunteer or was paid. (Eddie Martinez was the conductor for that trip, but was probably being paid only his night watchman's wages.)

Was there also a watchman in Antonito, to prevent vandalism after the equipment was turned over to the Commission by the D&RGW on Sept. 1, 1970? (See [ngdiscussion.net].) Was engineer Ben Greathouse a paid employee or a volunteer? Why isn't my name on the list of volunteers, even though I worked a whopping two days on the track crew - September 2 and September 6, 1970?   Since even The JéBeeWex claims not to know, perhaps only The Shadow does.  I presume that the leaders of the restoration effort were too busy "Gettin' 'Er Done" in 1970 to write down every little thing that was done or the name of every foamer like myself who worked only a day or two, and that the list represents those who were around long enough and played a significant enough role to become known to those leading the effort.

- Russ