Re: Operating personnel in Chama

I think it depended on who you were talking to and thier current situation. Some guys like the hostler jobs because they worked a regular shift and got to go home every night. Quite handy if your needed to be close to home (like when your wife is about have a baby). The hostler jobs paid about the same as a fireman but one didn't get any of overtime one got on the road. If you weren't getting much work off the extra board, hostling was better than nothing. As I understand it, if you were the successful bidder, the job was yours for the month, but if the Company ran short of men, they could pluck you off the hostler job and put you on a road job.

I remember Jim Shawcroft tellimg me he had the holster/night watchman job in Chama during the movie shoots on Oct, 1968. He said he made a small fortune being on duty nearly 24 hours a day. As he was under mechanical forces not the operating dept and the hours of service rules weren't in effect.

I would imagine getting the Chama hostler job in Chama when you had a family in Alamosa or Durango was not a popular job. I do know Eldon was Chama hostler for a few one-month stretches back in the 1950's.

Over in Durango there was a promoted engineer who "owned" the daytime hostler job. He didn't like running on the road, and was far enough down the roster to end up firing most of the time, despite some 30 years on the railroad. So, he bid on the hostler job. When business picked up, he was forced out on the road.