My Railroad Days - Chapter 1

After arriving back home in Washington state I decided to apply for a position with the Great Northern Railway in Everett, Washington and my railroad career began October 10, 1968.

My first position with the railroad was as a telegrapher at Everett Depot. This job entailed handling messages, via Model 28 Teletype machine, to and from the Train Dispatchers office at King Street Station in Seattle. I was given on the job training both in Everett and inside the Dispatcher Office in Seattle King Street Station. What was ironic about this first job was that my father worked the same type of job in Winnipeg, Manitoba for a Canadian railroad when he was younger than I. The railroad labor forces each had their own strong union representation so benefits were great and pay was way above other industries in the Northwest.

After a few weeks I was told that my telegrapher job would lead to traveling to outlying railroad agencies throughout Washington, Idaho, and Montana as a vacation relief. Having just arrived home from the military I had no desire to be traveling for a living. Met with the local Freight Agent in Everett and was offered a transfer to the Yard Office Clerk ranks, which meant no traveling, and started out as a assistant janitor in the train depot. This was no doubt a job where some of my deck duty training in the Navy came in handy, especially when using the floor mops and brooms, and restroom cleaning tools of the trade.

After a few weeks on that job, I started working with the Division Master Gardner who was responsible for maintenance of the immaculate flower beds and lawns in the Northwest area. My title became Assistant Gardner (whoopie) and I worked each day, Monday to Friday, cutting the Everett train stations' lawns, and maintaining the flower beds that contained award winning roses, dahlias, begonias, fuchsias, and numerous other annuals that were started from seed in the railroads greenhouses in Monroe, Washington. The gardens and lawns were kept in immaculate condition similar to the golf course greens and course flower bed areas. I enjoyed this position and gained much knowledge of plants and planting techniques which came in handy when I purchased my first home.

It wasn't long until a position came open that mostly entailed unloading and reloading bags of US Mail from railroad boxcars in front of the train station as part of a general clerks duties along with keypunching IBM cards for railcar inventory controls. This job paid more, but I had to work the 11:00pm to 7:00am shift, but the boost in pay made it well worth while. Not much really learned on this job other than handling truck drivers that picked up and delivered this mail, and an attentiveness to duty that was similar to standing watch in the Navy. You see these rail cars were traveling on the end of the passenger trains in those days, and would be cut off the train in front of the depot on the main line. This meant being expeditious was mandatory as no other trains could go either direction until these boxcars were loaded or unloaded, as the case may be. The local Trainmaster in charge of train operations would have people tracking the total time this function took. He would then use this information to advise senior management of the delays the other freight or passenger trains incurred awaiting this mail operation. In those days the railroads took considerable pride in the on time performance of their trains. This performance will be discussed later in another chapter. During my tenure on that position I received high marks from my supervisor that allowed me to bid on higher paying positions that came up.

Worked yard clerk positions in the railroad freight yards verifying railcar inventories in the various tracks, maintaining Yardmaster records, and other odd jobs in the outlying yard offices. After a few more months, and continued success at keeping my supervisors impressed, the Freight Agent asked me to bid on a position that worked in his Freight Office on days, Monday through Friday. Again a decent raise, great hours, and office environment working with other railroad employees and freight customers. This was great work and allowed me the exposure I needed to get future advancement within the company. This office had mostly senior railroad employees, but there were three of us 'youngsters' as they called us. I learned an awful lot about how the railroads collected revenues, handled damaged freight car ladings, and just good general railroading knowledge. All this led to more money, weekends off, and meeting a great girl and getting married on February 14, 1970. This era will start out in Chapter 2 to appear soon.