Have any family photos of railroad workers? Come across any images of roundhouse, track gang or trainmen in your local area you think should be shared? That’s what this thread is about. Not the railroad barons like Vanderbilt, Gould, the Van Sweringen brothers or C. P. Huntington, but rather the local folks who made the railroads great. From laying down the rails to keeping everything moving let’s honor those who made the things and railroad lines we enjoy talking about!
Here’s a photo I just came across. It shows a group of track layers who helped build the new New York Central right of way in and out of the Cleveland Union Terminal in 1929.
Four men stand trackside, in front of a small railroad shed. Ed DeLong, Pennsylvania ticket agent, and Harry Ferguson are two of the four. The men at either end hold lanterns and appear to be laborers. The two men in the middle are dressed like office workers, jackets and ties, a straw boater on one, a derby on the other.
“New Canadian Flag for display in Cleveland headquarters of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers was presented to Perry S. Heath (right), grand chief engineer, by three Canadian officers of the organization. They are George B. Trimble of Winnipeg (left), William J. Wright of Montreal and John F. Walter of Ottawa. The new “maple leaf” flag planned to be raised over the Parliament Building in Ottawa on Feb. 15” 1965
“Betty Klaric, Marcella Marlow, Marilyn Euter, Jon Fleischman, 1953 Locomotive Engineers Journal” - The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers has always been in Cleveland. These ladies worked on the Union newspaper.
Amusing anedote: A taxi driver shared about his ancestor. He worked in the coal mines in the East. He had no shoes, and when asked why, “I couldn’t afford them.” This new fangled outfit called a railroad was coming to the area and needed workers. He signed up and was scoffed at by fellow coal workers. He got he last laugh. Because of seniority his friends in the coal mine could not get a high paying job like he had. endmrw0315251433
Here stands my grandfather, Francis Xavier Tobin, Agent, Boston & Maine Railroad, Barre Plains, Massachusetts. He didn’t build any railroads but he helped run them. Four of his five sons all worked for railroads.
Here he is again when he later worked for the Boston & Albany. Barre Plains barely had a population of 500 but was served by two railroads, until the B&M was abandoned. The B&A was on the Ware River Branch.
He’s walking with my sister Linda, age 5 at the time. Francis X died a year or two later, before I came along. I don’t know what the occasion is for all the fellows on the RS-1?
There is a picture that sums up much of the wonder of cutting-edge railroading in the late 1890s that was a nearly full-page cut in a ‘history of signaling’ that Union Switch & Signal published – J.P. Coleman in his long coat, black bowler and thigh-high boots perched on an equipment case in deep snow during the installation at either Boston North St. or South St. station in 1897, with a gloriously competent ‘master of the universe’ grin. I will see if I can find my copy in storage… in the meantime, I’ll bet Ed knows exactly what it is!
