Galesburg Railroad Museum Commemorative Brick

A REFLECTIONS OF A RAILROADER'S SON

OCTOBER 1, 2003

My father Dwight P. Atwater was an employee of the CB & Q Railroad and later the Burlington Northern for 46 years. During most of the years he was a section foreman in the maintenance of way department. In the small community of Ipava, Illinois where we lived most of that time he was viewed as a person with a good job and a job that he could rely on. There were many section foremen as the maintenance of the track was very labor intensive and it also required that "extra gangs" come in during the summer to assist in large projects such as bridge rebuilding and similar projects. I remember that they came in their own railroad cars with their families and the cars were left on side tracks while the laborers, most of whom were Mexican, worked on the job. My father often took me with him to work, a practice which today I'm sure would be totally against the rules. I remember at lunch time they had with their lunches hot peppers which they seemed to eat with relish. They were always trying to get me to eat a pepper and I did on one occasion, but one that was not repeated. While I was out of school in the summer I loved to go to work with my dad and was able to find many interesting things to do while the section gang was working. I often fished in a creek if it was close and remember picking wild asparagus and wild strawberries along the track. This was before the days of spraying chemicals to kill the vegetation. I remember being allowed to ride in the locomotive of a "steamer" and the engineer telling me to look out the window and as soon as I did so he did something to make a lot of ash and smoke come out of the fire box. He thought this was a big joke and I remember both he and my father laughing as I tried to clear it out of my eyes and hair. A special treat was to be allowed to "run" the motorcar which I believe was a Fairbanks Morse. It was belt driven and to start it several of the section gang had to push it and get it rolling and then my dad would engage the clutch which would turn the engine over and it would start. Sometimes this would take several attempts. I was always glad to hear the engine start as that meant that we would be moving down the track and dad would say "are you ready to take her". As I remember the motor car had a lever in addition to the throttle which had four positions, each position getting more difficult to shift up to. The first position was for power and was used for hauling ties or other heavy things behind the motor car. The fourth position was for high speed or at least the fastest that a motor car could go. I did not have the power to get the lever up in fourth but dad would help me and I always hoped that the men on the motor car were not watching as I wanted their respect. I was always something to anticipate, the trip back in to the station at the end of the work day. I remember getting in trouble with my father once although I think the other men on the gang thought it was funny. Our motor car was on a set off from the main 'track and a train had gone by and I observed that a highway close to where we were working had flashing signals and that traffic coming from both directions stopped at the crossing to let the train pass. On the motorcar were lots of tools and it occurred to me that the train was metal and there was a bar on the motor car which they used to gauge the width of the track and it could be laid on the tracks. I thought that it would be fun to see if I could make the lights come on even if there were no train coming. I took the bar and headed down the tracks unseen by my dad or the men working. I got close to the crossing and laid the bar down and the lights came on and waited for the traffic while I lay in the weeds by the track. It didn't take long for cars to begin stopping and they would look but could not see a train. I would then sneak up to the track and remove the bar and they would proceed across. I thought this was great fun and probably would have played this game all afternoon if someone from the section gang had not looked down the track and saw what I was up to. My father arrived and escorted the bar and myself back to the motor car where I was told to remain the rest of the afternoon. Out family ran a grocery tab at the store which dad or mom would go in and pay each time he got his paycheck. The grocer would always give dad or mom some candy to give to my sister and myself when he paid the bill. This is as far as I know the only time that they ever charged anything as the rule in our house was if we don't have the money to pay cash we don't by it. My mother was a school teacher and she was concerned that the language used by the railroad workers would not be appropriate and that I might take up swearing and bad language. I remember that on stormy and rainy summer nights that my father would have to get up in the night and run the tracks in the motor car to be sure that none of the track or a bridge had been washed out. I asked my mother why dad had to go and she said that there was a section foreman who dad knew that did not go out after a storm and the track had washed out and when the train went over the wash out it derailed and the engineer was killed. I was always proud that my father would do this even though I worried about him until he came home. We had to come to Galesburg which was evidently the division headquarters about once a month so that dad could turn in his reports. Our whole family came on the trip and it was exciting to come from the small town of 650 to the large city. I saved my money as I liked to go into the "dime" store and buy something to take home with me. It was also great to eat in a restaurant that had a lot of things on the menu to choose from. I believe that the superintendents name in Galesburg that dad gave his reports to was Ed Gehrig. Dad asked me if I was going to work on the railroad when I got out of high school but my mother had other ideas and said that I should go to college, which I did. I however, did end up working at a bank in Galesburg for 40 years and became a part of a great railroad town. My father passed away in January of 2003. In all the years that he worked for the railroad he did so with great pride and I never heard him say a bad thing about his job or the railroad.

Submitted by his son.
Charles R. Atwater
1240 N. Academy Street
Galesburg, Illinois 61401

309-343-2641