Retired Dallas Yardmaster Marlin Spears called the other day. He lives in Grand Prairie and his phone number is 672-264-1804. Marlin has always been up to date on what is going on on the railroad. Retirement hasn't changed him any in this regard. We chatted a while and he gave me Howard Withers phone number.
Howard Withers, retired Car foreman and Electician at Dallas retired in 1982. Howard hired out in 1941 in the Backshop in Fort Worth as a crane operator. (The present Diesel shop is what used to be call the Backshop in the steam days.) He asked to become a Setup Electrician. When Dallas got their first six Diesels in 1946 and 1947, he was forced there as the youngest man. Howard retired as General Foreman in 1980.
Howard's brother, Charles, now deceased, worked as a Railway Mail Clerk and ran on both the Katy and the Texas Electric out of Denison.
Howard lives at 8630 Craig Dr, in Dallas. He says, "Come by and We'll drink a cup of coffee together and discuss old times, or just give me a call. My phone number is 214-391-3873."
Bobby wants to remind everyone that the Mineola Old Timers' Reunion is on the 14th of June this year. It is always on the Second Saturday in June. It's held at the Mineola Civic Center. Every one usually brings a covered dish.
Bob says, "It was 49 years ago on the April 13 that I went to Longview to start in engine service as a hostler. We'd get these Missouri Pacific 1100's that came out of Palestine that we'd have turn. They were so long that you had to balance them just so on the turntable or it would bind.
"Back in those days, everyone worked at two occupations until they got enough whiskers to hold a regular job. I was living like a hunted animal, trying to keep my seniority at both the Texas and Pacific Railroad and American Airlines.
"I remember my first trip as a road engineer. Walter Jackson brought the train in to Mineola. My conductor was Charles White. The head brakeman was E.M. Bradshaw and the rear man was R.P. Stedrey."
You can almost feel the excitement in the tales these fellows swap. What do you bet when that meeting is over, Luby's has to call Hulcher to clean up the place. We can almost visualize busted air hoses, turned-over boxcars, knuckles and drawbars all over the place. It probably takes all day just to pick all the Form 19 train orders and switch lists.
Boyd Pulliam is President of the group.
Cy is a locomotive engineer at the Crest Yard in Fort Worth. 4-97