Russo Loco Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Earl Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > R Morgan is Robert Morgan, Eldon's cousin.
> > There was a another cousin, "Leon" who fired
> > for a while. Bob eventually left the
> Grande
> > because he saw no future there, and went to
> > work for the Santa Fe. Eldon told me they
> > both ended up earning about the same
> > amounts in the end.
>
>
> That's why I'm confused, Earl -
>
> Because it's pretty clear from John Gruber's
> article in
TRAINS that he met Eldon back in
> '67, SFAIK while riding on the freights from
> Alamosa to Chama and return on August 28 & 29,
> 1967, so I presumed that Eldon was the engineer on
> those trips. OTOH, Eldon was a Union Rep, so
> maybe the D&RGW had him ride along in the caboose
> with John Gruber to point out all the highlights
> of the trip and to introduce John to the rest of
> the crew.
Eldon was the Local Chairman of the BLF&E (Brotherhood of Locomotive Fireman & Enginemen) Which eventually morphed into the UTU. The BLF&E is not to be confused with the BLE (Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers). Being the Local Chairman didn't get you any points with management.....probably the opposite. If anyone escorted Gruber and Co., it would have been Road Forman Jim Pearce or the Trainmaster (who was I believe was Hubert Meek). The luck of the draw put Eldon on the right side of one of the engines that day. At that time Eldon had a turn on the Standard Gauge Pool and sent him to La Veta or up the Creede Branch. Much of the time he was firing diesels for guys like Benny Greathouse. Some days, he was senior man and ran while somebody like Jim Shawcroft was his fireman. Eldon told me when they called a train on the narrow gauge, if they were short an engineer, they'd pull the low man off the SG board and send him to Chama. That was how he got to go to Chama that day.
