I was 19 and unemployed, living back at home with my Mom and Stepdad in Tehachapi. I had no real plan for my future, I just knew I needed a job. I needed to get out on my own for real and not rely on family to, pretty much, provide me with a place to stay. One day my Mom showed me a full page ad in the Californian. It said "Southern Pacific Railroad is hiring signalmen"...yada-yada.."Apply at the state unemployment office". So I did. I didn't know what a signalman was, but I assumed he was the guy who hung off the caboose and waved the lantern as the signal to stop or go..or whatever. I had always liked railroad lore, enjoyed model trains and had bugged the guys on trains a couple of times as they sat on the tracks downtown(I would later learn that it was called the "Tehachapi Crossover"), but I was no big railfan or anything, just a curious kid.

A week or so after I submitted an application, I was called for an interview. It was the most bizarre interview I ever had. I came to Bakersfield and was directed to the old Signal office which, at that time, was on the north side of the yard along Kentucky St. I met with one of the Assistant Signal Supervisors, a guy named Gray Tisdale, who took me in the back room and started asking what were obviously random and unrelated questions. It went something like this..

GT: "So, how did you hear about the job"?

me: "In the paper"

GT: "Ahhh, do you know anyone who works for SP"?

me: "No"

GT "OK, what made you want to apply here"?

me: "I have kind of always liked railroad stuff..plus I need a job"

GT: "Ahhh, OK, um..do you have any questions"?

me: "Yeah, what's a signalman do"?

GT "OH..well, we install and maintain the signal systems the trains use, we take care of the crossings and stuff like that" (At this point I am totally lost. Trains use signals?)

me "So you don't ride on trains"?

GT: "Naw, we just make sure they don't have to stop at red signals"

me: "They have, like, traffic lights?"

GT "Well, no,,well, kinda..It's hard to explain until you get used to it" (BOY, was he right!)

me: "So what will I be doing if I get hired"?

GT "Most likely putting in the new signal system out by Palmdale"

me: "What kind of work is it"?

GT: "Well, putting alot of underground cable and wires, putting in cases and buildings. It'll involve alot of digging, but we have backhoes and plows. There isn't alot of actual physical labor involved anymore" (LIAR!!!)

me: "OK"

GT "So, it sounds like something you'd be interested in"

me "Sure, why not?"

GT "OK, well, we'll call you when we need you"

I walked out thinking I would never hear from the RR again. A week or so later I went to work in a Carbon Plant in Mojave. i HATED it. It was hard work and extremely nasty conditions, but it paid well and most of the guys there were cool. Just after the second week I worked there I was called into the HR office and was told my services were no longer required. To this day I haven't figured out why I got canned. He said it was because I wasn't punctual, but I was generally the firt one there in the mornings, so I figured it was someone I must have pissed off(ME?). This was on Wednsday, May 3, 1979. I was bummed because I lost a job I really needed, but not too bummed becaue the job stank! I went to Bakersfield the next day to start looking for another job. I was staying with my sister when I got a call on Friday morning. It was Southern Pacific and they wanted to know if I could be in Palmdale the following Monday! And that is how my career with the Railroad began. I showed up at the big warehouse SP had leased for the duration of the project, went in and met my foreman and some of the guys I would be spending the rest of my working life with, got a hardhat, some gloves, jumped in the gang truck and began my career working with history.

Now that I was a full fledged "Assistant Signalman" I learned that we would be installing the latest electronic signal control system, called PMTC(Pulse Modulated Track Circuit)on the "Colton Cutoff" which had been built in the late 60s as a short cut to the huge classification yard at West Colton over the Cajon Pass. When we arrived at the jobsite we all bailed out and I will never forget the first order I ever received as a railroad employee, "Hey! Grab a shovel"! That was the first of many times I was to have had a supervisor be less than forthcoming with me(remember the guy who said the RR didn't do much physical labor anymore? HAH!). But what the hell, I was 19 and in great shape, what did I care as long I got payed? It still beat working on a drilling rig.

We were upgrading to PMTC from train order territory which is a train control system in which "Extra" trains were added to regularly scheduled trains that were designated by timetable. Orders were handed out by operators at specified locations along the line. They also had all pertinenet information such as slow orders or work on tracks and all trains were expected to be ontime at each station along the way. Thats why Railroad approved watches were always the best timepieces. Railroad employees were required to have timepieces certified every two years until the advent of quartz movements and digital timepieces in the early 80s. Operators typed orders onto special paper and tied them into strings that were then attatched to a "v" shaped, hinged holder called a Train Order Stand. There were two holders on the stand, one for the engine and one for the caboose. As the train approached the station the Fireman would hang out the window and grab the orders as he passed from the upper holder, the Conductor did the same from the caboose in the lower holder(unless it was a "Crows Nest" caboose, then the operator would reload the upper holder before the caboose got there)and if either missed the orders, the train had to stop and either back up or have someone run the orders out to the train. So you can see why the upgrade made sense.

My previous jobs had been, for the most part, in the oilfield industry, and while that industry has it's own unique history, the jobs I held were very mundane. There was no connection to the history of the oilfields when you were hauling sacks of cottonseed hulls to the mud tank for eight hours or scrubbing the drawworks of a rig. The Railroad was different. You are always in some sort of touch with the history and operation of the industry, no matter what you are doing, even just digging a ditch. Although technology and progress are a big part of the railroad, Many things were really "old school" when I went to work there. Microproccessors were in their infancy in general applications at that time and the vast majority of signaling then was still relay logic. Locomotives were a decade away from the computer driven CRT monitor display cabs they enjoy today and most of the "dinosaur" generation of management were still in charge and fighting the electronic and safety revolution at every step.

It's almost odd that I am a history buff and a railroad employee, but not a railfan. In my experience with trains in my everyday life I find them noisy, dirty behemoths and there always seems to be one in my way when I need to get something done. It's not like the movies or TV where you jump on the tracks between trains and hope for the best. To foul the tracks(to be withing four feet of them)you have to aquire, from the dispathcer, positive on track protection of which there are a few different types, and if there is a train lined up withing 20 or so miles of where you want to work, you are not going to get that permission, so trains can be a real hinderance in getting my job done. I like to say the the railroad would be a great job if it weren't for trains! It's also an interesting note, I suppose, that in 27 years with the railroad, I have ridden the head end of a train twice. Once from Bakersfield to Tehachapi and the other from Yermo to Las Vegas. I rode a caboose once from Tehachapi to Bealeville and have ridden an AMTRAK once!

Not being a fan of todays railroad doesn't mean I don't love the history of the place and I own dozens of books on different railroads across the country. When traveling I always look for abndodned rail lines or empty roadbeds and then search until I find the history of that road. It's amazing to see what used to exist as compared to what exists today. Like teh auto indsustry, the railroads once boasted over one hundred different companies. Today there are five major railroads in America; Union Pacific, Burlington Northern-Santa Fe, Norfolk Southern, CSX and Conrail. There are about a dozen short line operators today who run the lines the old railroads built and developed. You can say what you like about how the railroads made their bones by stealing and killing(and you would be right!), but without them, America would never have become what it is today. They blazed the trail for the development of the west beginning in the 1840s and are still the major transporter of goods across the country.

Back to the history thing! Back in the SP days, our bosses were called "Supervisors" as opposed to UP's "Managers". I always felt that "Supervisor" had a more stoic ring to it where my job was concerned than the more sterile and white collar sound of "Manager". My first Supervisor was a man named Bill Stokoe and he was a rabid railfan and the most complte railroad buff I have ever known. His expertise was in the signal history and he had a yard full of completely restored and functioning signal apparatus'. Entering his front gate on the corner of 'F' and Hayes St. in Tehachapi, you could get a clear or approach to diverging route from the two aspect colorlight at the gate to the Facing control semaphore signal halfway to his porch. His backyard had every manner of wayside signal and crossing warning system you could think of. When I first met him I was young and cocky and my primary interest in the railroad was as a means to support my bachelorhood and party animal lifestyle. His talk of history and railroad lore only made me think of him as a geek, which I would find out in the years to come, was a total misconception!

When I went to work out on the Colton cutoff, I really wan't working with much history as it was a relatively new line. Then one Saturday Bill asked if I wanted to go down and work on getting some trucks unstuck after a severe storm in the Soledad Canyon on the original line from San Francisco to Los Angeles. On that line, at a place called "Lang" which is now part of the city of "Canyon Country" there is a monument along the tracks commemerating the driving of the "Golden Spike" on that line. It was a great moment in Californias histroy, but most people as unaware of it today as I was in 1980 when I first saw it. At the time of that lines completion in 1876, it boasted the longest tunnel in the country at 6,996 ft. There were four other tunnels on that line when it was completed, but only two are still in use due to line changes over time. Bill was the one who told about all this history as we drove down from, and back to, Tehachapi, where I also lived at the time. I was starting to soften to this man who reminded me, till the day he died, of John Wayne.

In June of 1980 my job on the Palmdale gang was abolished and I "bumped" a job on the Tulare gang(I bumped a guy named Phil, who is today, a very good friend and co-worker)and went to work installing, for the most part, crossing warning systems on the branch lines in the ag areas between Fresno and Tulare and Coalinga and Porterville. It was fascinating to begin to understand the extent of the branch lines that were put in in the San Joaquin Valley just to serve the agricultural needs of the area. There was once a line called the "Visalia Electric" that ran trolleys as well as trains all over the central valley. Most of those lines are gone today, but there are remnants of them everywhere. We put crossings in in Exeter, Reedly, Porterville, Clovis and Visalia before I was laid off in August of 1980.

It was really not a big deal because I had been, in reality, a laborer the year and a half I was there and I could get a job like that anywhere. I workd driving trucks for a year and a half, then ran a backhoe in the oilfields. I was miserable in the "patch" again and I had pretty much forgotten about my railroad job when in January of 1984 I came home from work and my wife told me I had a message from some guy named Ray. That Ray was Ray Freeman(who very recently passed away)an assistant Siganl Supervisor in Bakersfield and he wanted to know if I wanted to come back to work. I didn't even ask what or whewre, I just said yes. The job was back on the Tulare gang and went back to work on January 24th, 1984 as a full fledged Signalman under a guy named Randy Taylor, who is my Manager today! I always say that this was the day I really started my career as a signalman.

SP still operated the branch lines then and we were doing the same thing I had done three years earlier, installing crossings on teh branch lines. I worked with a guy named John McIntyre who was my age and another big rail buff like Bill Stokoe. I learned much about history from him too. During this time I also worked, for the first time, with the huge rail and tie gangs fixing the signal equipment they tore up changing rail and ties(they STILL do that, I just don't have to follow them anymore!). Watching the modern equipment they utilize for todays projects, I can't imagine what it must have been like to have to do all that by hand the way the original builders and track crews had to back in the day!

During this time I really began to apply myself to learning all I could about my job, as my single days were behiund me and I needed to start thinking about a long term career. In May of 1984 a job opened up on the Tehachapi "peanut" gang(a term for a two or three man gang with no foreman). I bid the job and was awarded it. This began my time as an apt pupil of Bill Stokoe, who was the Supervisor in Tehachapi. We were a bit unsure of each other at first, but as he realized I was willing to learn and I realized he was willing to be patient, we struck a friendship that would see him mentor and protect me through some of the rough spots in my career and personal life. When Bill was dying of colon cancer in 1999, I asked him why he did so much for me. He said, "Well, something just told me you were worth saving". Considering all the reasons he had to get rid of me, I can honestly say that I owe my career to him. Bill was one of those men who would go to the ends of the earth for you if he liked you, if not, you were on your own and he DID play favorites, and for some reason, I became one of his "fair haired children". It seemed I could do no wrong. As I learned from him about signaling, I also learned about railroad history. It didn't seem so geeky now and I began reading anything on RR history I could find.

I began to learn, through Bill and books, that I was very much in the middle of railroad history working in Tehachapi. The line over the 4,000 ft pass between Bakersfield and Mojave is rich with histroy of all sorts. I don't know about now, but in the 80s it was the busiest single track mainline in the world as it serviced two major railroads(it still does). It's average 3.2% and maximum 3.4%(between Cable and Marcel)grades make it one of the steepest standard gauge roads in the world. The world famous Tehachapi Loop, that gains seventy seven feet of elevation in 4,400 ft. of track by looping around a hill and crossing over itself, was an engineering marvel when it was completed in 1876. It's still a pretty impressive sight. I was amazed at the people who came to see the Loop from all over the world. There are people who spend their entire vacations there! You can go online and watch realtime streaming video of the place! All over the "Mountain", as the line is called, there are remnants of the history of the railroad. The huge concrete blocks the watering towers for the steam engines used to sit on, the old "STOP" blocks(gone now)to tell engineers where to stop so their renders were under the spouts, abandoned tunnels and roadbeds from line changes, and a couple of "dumps" where they used to throw out broken dishes from teh passenger trains. I have found the pieces with the SP logo still intact and through Bill's contacts, had them made into jewelery(which unfortunately, my first wife has).

Even though I think trains are an intrusive cacaphony in my workdays, there is nothing quite like being in close proximity to a set consist of engines pulling an eight thousand ton train up the grade under full power at 20 mph. I think the only thing that would comparably shake the ground is a Top Fuel dragster! One of the other unique sounds of the railroad is the ear splitting squeal of steel wheels grinding steel rail to dust in curves. I swear it makes your ears ring! Working there gives me access to places that most people will never see, like the siding at "Cliff". So named for its perch on the edge of the mountain 1,000 feet above Tehachapi Creek a few miles above Bealeville and the half mile stretch between tunnels seven and eight between Cliff and Rowen that is inaccessible except by foot, train or hi-rail vehicle. In the spring it is truly one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen with the green grass covering the surrounding mountains and the waterfalls down in the creek a thousand feet below. It is also, when no trains are around, one of the most serene places I have been.

I have been an assistant signalman on a huge construction gang in Palmdale, Ca., A Signalman, Lead Signalman, Gang and Maintenance Foreman there. I spent time in Tehachapi on the gang covering an "extra" gang that changed out or transposed rail every day back before the time of continiously welded rail. Transposing was when one side of the rail was worn from the trains and they would swap the rail from the right to left sides and let it waer that side out before changing it out. I was the Tehachapi Maintainer for a few years, maintaining and troubleshooting from Cameron Canyon to Keene. I have been the Lancaster Maintainer with a district from Mojave to Palmdale. I have been a Foreman on a traveling gang that ranged between Fresno and the Cajon Pass and I am now a Maintenance Foreman who, at one time had a territory from Bakersfield to Cajon Pass and from Dagget to Las Vegas. I currently work from Bakersfield to Merced. It has been an interesting and challeging career(in more ways than one!), one that I have alternately loved, hated and been indifferent about, but through it all, I have enjoyed working with history.

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