Edit post

Edit your reply below.

Post Body
Enter your post below.
Sure brings back memories, but of a much earlier era! My dad was a Railway Express driver, so I spent a lot of time in and around the IC passenger station, and had a lot of bacon and eggs with him in the tiny restaurant at the north end of the station during the 1940's. Earlier, he had been the Southeastern Express (Southern Ry.) agent with an office just north of the Sou pass station and probably about just under where the McCord St overpass is now. I remember my dad occasionally working express off the 'Mike & Ike' doodlebug and also telling me later about working the late shift and hearing the German POW's on prisoner trains singing military and nazi songs. The best memories of Centralia railroading I have are of visiting the IC roundhouse during the summer of 1954. We had long since moved away, but my dad still new a lot of the local people, so he contacted a hostler who got us into the roundhouse on a Sunday afternoon. Naturally the hostler let us walk all the way around and out to the turntable pit, etc. But the real capper was being allowed up into the cab of a 2600-class 4-8-2 that had just finished getting the full treatment (Class 5?) which also meant a full repaint including the driver tires painted white -- just like an AF model loco! Well, it gets better! Under the hostler's coaching, I got to move this loco off the turntable and down to the coal chute and penstock. Of course, the hostler did the spotting for this, but he also let me ring the bell and blow the whistle, when needed. Not sure anymore, but I believe that it might have been the same weekend that we got into the much smaller 'Q' roundhouse at the NW edge of town and into the cab of a 2-8-4 or a 2-10-4 while a hostler was starting to lay in kindling and oily waste in the firebox to get a fire going. The worst part of all this is that sometime after getting married and making our first big move, all the b&w pictures and their negatives from those two roundhouse visits got lost!
Tags (Optional)
Tags are keywords that get attached to your post. They are used to categorize your submission and make it easier to search for. To add tags to your post type a tag into the box below and click the "Add Tag" button.
Add Tag