Marcus J. Ruef

travelingengineer · July 7, 2011, 3:24pm

I had the pleasure to dine and chat with Marcus J. Ruef, VP of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, a short while back, but have forgotten on which Class 1 RR that he himself had served as an engineer. Could someone please be so kind as to let me know the name of that railroad? Thanks very much in advance.

BaltACD · July 7, 2011, 4:08pm

Brother Ruef’s railroad career began the day after his high school graduation in 1973, when he was hired by the Penn Central Railroad as a block operator. He worked in the interlocking towers on their Metropolitan Region between New Haven, Conn., and Mt. Vernon, N.Y. In 1976, he entered engine service and joined BLE Division 77 in New Haven, working essentially the same territory. He earned promotion to Locomotive Engineer in September of 1978.

After The Northeast Rail Services Act (NERSA) divided the territory in 1983, he worked for Metro North. During his time in the Northeast, he attended college and ultimately graduated from Cornell University’s New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations with a BS in Labor Relations. In 1985, he transferred to Norfolk Southern, where he spent several years as an officer in their Labor Relations Department, and then worked as an engineer on the Washington District (where he currently hold his seniority and belongs to Division 143) working primarily road service between Hagerstown, Md. and Manassas, Va., until hired full-time by the BLE in 1997.

travelingengineer · July 7, 2011, 4:19pm

Ah, yes. Thank you, “BaltACD.” Marcus is surely a commanding force-for-good in the Brotherhood (to which my paternal grandfather belonged). I myself found him to be so very gracious with his time and knowledge, and certainly most amiable and engaging in our conversation.

daveklepper · July 8, 2011, 3:01am

Marcus Ruef is still a member of the Shore Line Trolley Musuem’s Branford Electric Railway Assocation, www.bera.org, , where he and I occasionally were crew together on an operating car, but more often he would be in the shop doing restoration or maintenance or working on the track. Often we would be roommates at the motel along I-95 in East Haven. Occasionally he still is able to visit the museum and his work on cars and track and in operations is reported along with the others to all the members.