Would you have liked being a steam loco engineer ?...

[Anonymous]

It would be great until it became work. Then for 40 plus hours per week, it would be having to deal with bosses and management (true of any job), stressful job both physically and mentally, noise, heat, breathing bad air, and getting called at all hours of the day. As one who has had a bout with cancer (successfully so far), I don't think I would have survived the 34 years that I have so far been working if I were a steam engineer.

[Anonymous]

I guess it would depend largely on the era. If you mean back in the cowboy days when you had gunfights, train robbers, and Apache War parties everywhere no although shooting buffalo from the train may have been cool. Drive-by shooting HAHA!

[Anonymous]

I would have loved to have been a steam loco engineer but I wonder if my back would have held up from all of the shoveling of coal. My Dad told me, his grandfather made to engineer, but at his back's expense. I understood that, like anything, you paid your dues and worked your way up from the bottom. It was also a very dirty job, but I'm sure the conversion to oil fuel reduced the labor and dust. Seems like we glorify those days.

schaferv

[orsonroy]

Put me down for maybe. I've had the opportunity to have throttle time on three different steamers (SC&S 3, NKP 765, Hesston 242), and while it was an absolute blast, the thought of actually doing that day in and day out, dodging other trains (TT&TO), and not killing anyone scares the crud out of me.

[MidlandPacific]

QUOTE: On the other hand, if the loco was a superannuated, undermaintained traveling steam leak, serviced with bad oil and hard water, overloaded and slippery, on an overcast-night run in the Mojave desert in August, no way, Jose!

The one time someone let me touch a throttle was on a superannuated, undermaintained traveling steam leak, serviced with bad oil and hard water, overloaded and slippery, on an overcast and rainy June afternoon in the Andes.

And it ROCKED. It was unbelievable: one hand on the throttle, one hand on the brakestand (it was an old Baldwin, and the Ecuadorians didn't use seat boxes), swaying back and forth between the backhead and the cab wall. The whole thing shook, swayed, and rattled like something was going to come loose. I wasn't really running her, of course - the engineer was about a step behind me the whole time - but I still had the "I can't believe they pay people to do this" feeling.

But I can see how it would just get to be work after awhile. Particularly if you have to obey signals and stuff. And the pay wasn't all that great, either.....

[tomikawaTT]

Count that 'other' as a 'maybe.'

If every run involved a free-steaming, well-performing loco, adequate in speed and power for the job at hand, serviced with well-compounded water and Pocahontas coal, running in the cool of Autumn on a visually interesting route, a resounding YES!

On the other hand, if the loco was a superannuated, undermaintained traveling steam leak, serviced with bad oil and hard water, overloaded and slippery, on an overcast-night run in the Mojave desert in August, no way, Jose!

The more I learn about real railroading, then and now, the more I realize that it was (and is) hard, hot, dirty, dangerous WORK. (And the more I respect the people who did it then and do it now.)

[Anonymous]

Heck yes! Sometime this year I hope to get involved in Michigan Steam Railroading Institutes's Engineer for an hour program and take the throtlle of Pere Marquette 2-8-4 Berkshire #1225.[8D][yeah]

[Anonymous]

NO!

[Tracklayer]

When I was a kid, I thought one of the greatest jobs in the world must have been to be a steam loco engineer - or train driver as I called them back then.
But now I know there was a lot more to it than just sitting up there and driving the loco. It was a dirty, cold in winter and hot in the summer, dangerous, demanding job of having to stay alert and pay attention not only to the loco, but the entire train, signals and possible dangers down the line, etc... But in spite of all that, I'd still have to say YES!. I'd still want to be a steam loco engineer.

Tracklayer