EDWIN_M_SCHROEDER
Born: New Orleans, LA 1937
Grew up in Gentilly off Franklin Ave. near Southern Railway and Louisville & Nashville rights of way.
Interested in railroads since age 4.
- Watched L & N passenger trains head out of New Orleans from stadium where the Jax Girls semi-professional softball team played. My Mom, Dad, brother Rob and I would walk to the stadium from our home; always sat in the highest seats down the 1st base line so we could see L & N trains heading north and northeast out of New Orleans.
- first train ride - summer 1941 - on L & N, New Orleans to Waveband, MS
- next train trip - September 1942 - on Southern Pacific Argonaut - New Orleans to Los Angeles; many military on train.
- Dad worked for the United Fruit Company and was transferred to Long Beach, CA - German U-Boats were sinking more ships in Gulf of Mexico than in the Pacific
- Mom, my brother and I followed him out in September 1942
- late September 1942 - took Pacific Electric from Long Beach to Los Angeles to take Daylight to