Here is a brief excerpt from "The Beginning", the second article by Bob Stierwalt for the Railroads of Madison County Memory pages.

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Beginning a career on the railroad was a dream a lot of young boys had when I was a young man, especially as a locomotive Engineer. We knew that success as a fireman and after acquiring sufficient seniority we would someday sit on the right hand side of the big locomotives and pull the long freight trains through the countryside waving at kids and sometimes the pretty girls. I was provided that opportunity in the summer of 1953 when I applied for…

Bob Stierwalt became a fireman with the New York Central in the early 50s when he got the call to fire a run from Anderson to Elkhart. You can read about it at: http://madisonrails.railfan.net/stierwalt02_begin.html

If you like this memory, you might like to check out the other memory pages many of which take place on the NYC Michigan Division in North Central Indiana. You can find those at: http://madisonrails.railfan.net/memory.html