This evening I learned of the passing of Jack Wilson, an operating manager for Amtrak at Los Angeles. While you often hear of Amtrak managerial foul-ups and inattention to problems, Jack was one of the "good guys", and we really would have liked to have seen him in Chicago.I wrote a tribute to him over at Trainorders.com, which is where I learned of his death (today, 2/17, apparently of a head injury). He'd been retired for a few years.Let me tell you about Jack...I didn't know Jack at all as an Amtrak employee. But we were buddies back around his late teens (I have two or three years on him, age-wise), when he was growing up in Plainwell, Michigan. I will say that I learned a lot about railfanning by taking a few trips with Jack...we'd walk into towers and locomotive cabs like we owned them (and he might have--nobody ever kicked us out!), and--although I'd had plenty of cab rides and caboose rides in my own territory by that time--I took my first passenger trips of any size with Jack and the gang (various sizes) from the West Michigan Chapter of the NRHS...first diner experience, first dome rides, first ride behind steam, first times over a lot of railroads, first visits to many great railfan spots around Chicago. He had an old red Dodge that gave me my first experience at seeing three digits achieved on a speedometer. And yes, he knew his rules even then--signal rules for whatever railroad we were on or observing. I'll never forget how he quelled a riot on GTW's Mohawk one day when we were late (stabbed by N&W in Chicago for over an hour) and the coach's a/c wasn't working. If Jack heard someone complaining, he would be explaining, and pointing out how the crew was doing its darnedest to make up the time (which they nearly had, by Battle Creek). Two of us were holding the doors open at the end of the coach, trying to cool down the car without blowing everyone away. I lost track of him soon after I hired out for C&NW in 1971, though he turned up running a hobby shop in Wheaton, Illinois, for a time. He didn't like Amtrak back in the day (they took off too many good passenger trains around Michigan, but other places as well), but if that was the railroad that was going to hire him, it's no surprise to me that he gave it 150 percent. Requiescat in pacem, ol' buddy!
Carl
Railroader Emeritus (practiced railroading for 46 years--and in 2010 I finally got it right!)
CAACSCOCOM--I don't want to behave improperly, so I just won't behave at all. (SM)
Nice tribute.
Managers like that are far and few in between anymore.
It's been fun. But it isn't much fun anymore. Signing off for now.
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.t fun any
CShaveRRI lost track of him soon after I hired out for C&NW in 1971, though he turned up running a hobby shop in Wheaton, Illinois, for a time.
When was that, Carl? I remember a shop in Wheaton in Danada back in the early 90s. Nice guy ran it but I cannot recall the name.
C&NW, CA&E, MILW, CGW and IC fan
It would have been in the early-to-middle 1970s (I was married, but no kids). It was on College Avenue, in the stretch between Hill and President, not far from the CNW College Avenue station. We visited a time or two, but I never bought anything (not a modeler, and his "Buff Stuff" was stuff I either had already or could do without).
CShaveRRIt would have been in the early-to-middle 1970s (I was married, but no kids). It was on College Avenue, in the stretch between Hill and President, not far from the CNW College Avenue station.
Thanks. That was probably in the period when I was living elsewhere. Managers like that are rare in any endeavor.
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