Setting the bar for 2019

I’ve never been one for New Year’s resolutions. There are too many I should make, so I quickly run away and hide. But now that I have this very public blog, maybe listing a few will get me off the dime. Embarrassment is a great motivator. Of course, they all have to have that classic railroad flavor. Now that we’re already three days into 2019, here are a few I came up with:

• Organize my slides. I can hear some friends laughing. “Keefe, you’re not a photographer.” Not really, but like most railfans I’ve amassed a few thousand slides over the years, most still in their original boxes. And even if I’m decidedly a second rater with a camera, some of them are worth preserving. But also like many fans, I suspect, I’ve done a lousy job of keeping records. I have my work cut out for me. “Where was this? Why was I there? What direction is that train going? Help!”

• Get closer to finishing off my Amtrak mileage. One of the privileges of working for railroad magazines off and on for 40 years has been the chance to rack up most of the Amtrak system on my mileage map. I figure I have about 90 percent of the approximately 21,300 available miles. But those last ones are always the hardest to get. Tops on my list: the Silver Star from Raleigh to Savannah. I’ve been trying to find a way to get on this train since the late 1970s, when it occurred me that the Star was the “backwoods” way of getting to Florida, on CSX’s old single-track Seaboard Air Line, as opposed to CSX’s busy A line, the double-track former ACL. I dream of opening the curtains on a roomette window late at night and catching a glimpse of the charming depot at Hamlet, N.C. 

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• Read Harry Bedwell’s The Boomer: A Story of the Rails. Most of my life I’ve avoided railroad fiction, figuring there are always too many non-fiction books I still need to read. But after years of hearing how great this 1942 novel of the rails is, it’s time to take the plunge. I’m told Bedwell’s tales of boomer Eddie Sand really make vivid the gritty but romantic life of the railroader in a way no other book has done. Besides, David P. Morgan considered it essential reading. Time to catch up.  .

• Finish writing that book I’ve been muttering about for nearly 20 years. It’s not like I’ve been sitting on my hands the last few years. Since retiring from my regular job in 2016 I’ve managed to get my name on four books, one completely by yours truly. But the one I want to do the most, the one that holds the greatest personal significance for me — well, let’s just say it’s still out there, taunting me. I’m reluctant to provide details, but it has a lot do with the initials “NYC.” Maybe this will be the year I shut up and do something.

• Figure how what the hell Precision Scheduled Railroading is. I’ve kept the subject at arm’s length. World events are ugly enough. I’ve also suspected that E. Hunter Harrison’s big concept is simply a philosophical rehash of what the Nickel Plate was doing 60 years ago, but I’m probably not being fair. And I’m willing to learn. Maybe reading that new biography by journalist Howard Green, Railroader: The Unfiltered Genius and Controversy of Four-Time CEO Hunter Harrison, will help.

• Visit with my pal Ed King. Many of you know of Ed, a.k.a. “The Boomer,” a longtime Classic Trainsand Trainsauthor and columnist, Norfolk & Western steam expert, and someone who at one time or another took paychecks from N&W, Rock Island, the United States Railway Association, and Soo Line, among others. Ed has so many great stories to tell, some of which I try to convey in this blog from time to time. Ed and his wife Barbara live on a leafy side street in Largo, Fla., and their living room is a good place to sit for a spell, hearing the Boomer spin yarns about working in the tower at Rondout, Ill., or Virginian 2-10-10-2s, or that “little ol’ bald-headed S.O.B.” on the N&W. I’d love to get back down to Largo. Are you game, Ed? 

• Support my favorite railroad historical societies. I need to do a better job of staying up to date on my dues — or make special contributions — to those organizations that keep the flames burning for fallen flags. I’m a member of two of them, the New York Central and the Chicago & Eastern Illinois groups, both of which have deep personal connections for me. There are at least 100 more of them out there. Can you think of a better way to ensure that no one ever forgets there was a Rutland, or a Wabash, or an SP&S? I can’t. These organizations really deserve our support.

That’s what I came up with for this New Year. All of it is possible. How much of it is probable? That’s hard to say. I suppose I’ll check back with you at the end of the year for a full report. Meanwhile, I’d love to hear some of your own railroad-related resolutions for 2019. I invite you to add them to our Comments section.