This guy, Willbert Kendall, had a job for 11 years as a railroad employee "crossing watchman" to stop traffic at the crossing at Hoover Ave ... he was the last one in Ann Arbor, and finally retired, replaced by the machinery and flashing lights, in Dec 1940
https://aadl.org/N017_1210_001 describes the situation
The top photo is the old Milwaukee Road depot on Everett Street in Milwaukee. The locomotive on the left is Hiawatha passenger power, facing east, most likely getting prepared to take a train to Chicago. I worked with a guy, George, who was first out on the switchmen’s seniority roster, with an employment date from the 1920s. George told of growing up in a neighborhood close to the depot, where he became fascinated with all the train activity. He became a fixture there and became acquainted with the trainmen handling the trains and switches. One fortuitous morning he was standing about, watching the trains when the Stationmaster came out of the depot cussing up a storm because one of the regular switch tenders didn’t show up for work. He approached 14-year-old George and asked if he wanted a job, to which George replied in the affirmative. The way George told it, the guy barked at him to get to work, with the paperwork to be done later.
ReplyDeletevery cool story!
DeleteIf you click the link, you will get the page that has the info on the photo. I'm just not going to post all that for every photo, I'm not interested in all the places and times and names, but the images are terrific!
And stories? LIke yours? Fantastic! So that's why I post stories and photos, and not much location and date info
Great history from Rik and I will go to th elinks to find out the loci of these pix. Love them.
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