Wednesday, January 15, 2025

13 women kept SLO’s railroad running during WWII and went for the ‘manly’ jobs of railroad roundhouse crew,


women of the roundhouse crew at San Luis Obispo’s Southern Pacific railroad yard, put their desire to work at jobs hitherto denied them, before their aim to serve in essential wartime capacities.

The 13 grease-streaked, overall-clad feminine “roundhousers” who work right along with the men in the roundhouse, where engines are brought for general overhauling, repairs and checkups, as machinists’ helpers, when asked why they were at the hard, greasy work.

All of them, from the attractive twentyish Amy Warfield, still bubbling with enthusiasm of it all, having been on the railroad job only ten days, to the cheerful, vigorous Katie Nelms, a grandmother, gave synonymous answers to the inquiry, “Why did you seek work on the roundhouse gang?” Their answers were straightforward — they weren’t going to miss their chance of doing something they never had a crack at before because it had been acknowledged by men as being for men only!

None of the women had previously worked at mechanical jobs. The majority of them were former office workers, laundry helpers and housewives.

Ina Wansley, the first woman to be hired on the local crew, reporting there on Dec. 11, 1942, said of the men’s attitude when she made her first appearance among them in overalls and kerchief, “They made no secret of resenting me, but I went right on with my work, and when they knew that I wasn’t going to be fazed by their unwelcoming attitude, they assured me that neither they or the engines bite. From the very first they proved gentlemen, never using rough language around the girls, and always ‘Johnnies on the spot’ to give a helping hand with a heavy load.” 

Virginia Bruger, a lovely young soldier’s wife, who, if one were typing occupationally, would describe her as “the ideal secretary type,” said, “One of my girlhood ambitions was to get right into the heart of the whistling demons.”

Then there is Nellie O’Neal, wife of a civilian employee at Camp San Luis Obispo and mother of two children. On the roundhouse crew for the past 14 months, her duties vary from the supply department, to the office and back to the engines. 

“Engines fascinate me,” she said. “They’re all so different. To most persons they would appear identical, but when you get to know them, you find they are very much like individuals, needing specific care. Very much like children, I would say.” 

Although a member of the roundhouse crew, Evelyn Hobbs, a soldier’s wife, finds that her duties don’t differ much from those of the home-maker — instead of keeping the home fires burning, she keeps the engine’s fires up. Evelyn watches the fires on inbound engines, making sure that the steam is kept at the correct temperature, until they are brought to the roundhouse. 

There are others, Carrie Steele, mother of two children, the only woman boilermaker; Marjorie Wilson, wife of a soldier, who spends her days filling air pumps and dynamos; Elma Linn, a mother; Billy Mayfield, a soldier’s wife; Rose Silvera, Donna Simpson and Lena Martin, all hardy, cheerful workers — and punctual, too, according to Lester Jaeger, roundhouse clerk — and why not? Didn’t they get something they “wanted, but couldn’t have?”

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