IN RAILROAD SLANG, WHAT DOES A POCATELLO YARDMASTER REFFER TO?
Derisive term for boomers, all of whom presumably claimed to have held, at some time, the tough job of night yardmaster at Pocatello, Idaho
I spent a few years attending Idaho State University and I engaged in a lot of train watching there, but I have no idea what a Pocatello Operator is.
Back in the old boomer days, a lot of railroaders drifting around the country claimed to have been the Night Yardmaster at Pocatello (for Uncle Pete, I suppose).
It came to be sort of a password among the boomer fraternity . . .
Old Timer
It’s kind of like being trainmaster on the Lucien Cuttoff.
A derisive term for boomers…A job they claimed to have had…a tough job at Pocatello, Idaho.
no clue. well off to talk about this with my other railfan/ outdoor model railroading friends at an open house. Will find out, but not spoil it.
Derisive term for boomers, all of whom presumably claimed to have held, at some time, the tough job of night yardmaster at Pocatello, Idaho
The reason I said this is because I recently read a story called “The Yardmasters Story” from the August 1939 issue of Railroad Magazine. In the story a boomer in telling the yardmaster his qualifications, stated that he had been night yardmaster in Pocatello and trainmaster on the Lucien Cutoff. It then says that a boomer is not competant unless he claims to have held these two positions.