http://obits.lancasteronline.com/index.php?p=2502591
"Throughout the years Bill stayed connected with trains as a hobby. He was a ghost writer as well as an author for Al Kalmbach’s ‘Trains’ magazine in the early 1940’s. He was featured in ‘Railroad’ magazine in their ‘Interesting Railfan’ series. He wrote a series in ‘Trains’ in the early 1970’s about his experiences as a Pullman Conductor as well as an article on the Colorado narrow gage railroads. "
–Reed
I am sorry to hear of Conductor Moedinger’s death. I enjoyed his articles when they were published, and I have enjoyed re-reading, again and again, his accounts of his life as a Pullman Conductor. He gave us a good look at the trials and joys of his work.
I tried the link, and it simply led me to the Trains fourms website.
“+1” to what Johnny said. Frankly, I thought Conductor Moedinger had already passed on some years ago, so this is a bit of a sad surprise. 97 years with most of it traveling and being around railroads - nevertheless, I trust he’ll find Heaven to be the equivalent of Pullman accommodations. I knew of and still treasure his many articles in Trains - which many of us can quote snippets from - and that he was involved with the Strasburg RR in its early years, but I had no idea that he was that instrumental in getting it going. The entire railfan community owes him a debt of gratitude for all of his experiences, writings, and ventures. I’m glad he enjoyed it enough that he once asked, “You mean I get paid, too ?” - Paul North. P.S. - I just tried the link, and it did work to take me to the Lancaster paper’s obituary on him.
Looks like the past week has been a very rough one in the Northeast for Rail Fans:
Conductor William (Bill) Moedinger on Saturday nght Apr 24 at Lancaster, Pa
Mr. Sloan Cornell on Apr 20 @85 years, Tourist RR Operator at Indiana, Pa
Mr. Edward S. Miller on Apr 23 @ 90 years, Photographer at Pittston, Pa.
Obituaries in TRAINS Newswire on this date Apr24,2010
God Rest their Souls. [angel][angel][angel]
Early in his career, Conductor Moedinger was called to his superintendent’s office because he had not been picking his paychecks up. His assigned work (Philadelphia Broad St.-Pittsburgh) made it difficult for him to stop by the office where the checks were held–and he received many tips from the people whom he was able to seat in the parlor cars on his runs, which were heavily patronized (they were willing to tip heavily because of the comfort of the parlor seats and they did not have to share a seat with another passenger), and he was not suffering for lack of funds. In recounting this, he said that his answer as to why he had not been getting his checks just came out, without any thought.
I did try the link again, and it followed through this time. Thanks, Paul, for assuring me that it did work. I must not have held my mouth right the first two times.[:)]
I also enjoyed reading Moedinger’s stories of his years of being a Pullman conductor - including one of his early runs where he tells his supervisor where he can put the train… More recently I ran across his article on the East Broad Top from the first year of Trains magazine.