For you railroaders

[Steam man]

The Railroaders Memorial Museum ( in Altoona) Railroaders Callboard. They could use some more South Jersey railroaders on the board and I just entered my father's name and info. It's a searchable site and a neat idea. Check'em out @ http://callboard.railroadcity.com/

[Don Lee]

Good idea. I just added my father and grandfather.

[Steam man]

Don,
Thanks for reminding me, I have to add my grandfather too!! DUH! He was a conductor on the ACRR/PRSL and was killed in an accident at Bulson Street yard. I think we can add ourselves also, as I see quite a few active or still living railroaders on the Call Board.

Warren

[Don Lee]

I'll probably wait until I retire (788 days to go, not that I'm counting) to add my name. Counting mergers, I already have 8 railroads to lay claim to. Who knows in the next 2 years there may be a dozen more.

Don't forget to include family friends that were railroaders. I just added Eddie Fell.

I wish I knew more about my great grandfather. He was a passenger conductor on the Camden & Atlantic. There has been a Lee in railroading now for 106 years that I am aware of. If I knew when he hired out, I could add several years to that. Maybe I could trace ancestry back to the beginning of railroading in South Jersey.

[Steam man]

WOW!! Eddie Fell! Now theres a name from the past,he was a nice guy and a blast to talk to . Story goes he an excellant engineman and was one of the few enginemen who could take an E-6 with 14 P-70's out of Broadway and not miss a beat. Cap Green was another who could do that too. And on the Lee name thingy, my great grandmother's maiden name was Lee and up to when I got furloghed we were a railroad family for many generations. Maybe we could be related? Did y'all come from the Lee's of Virginia (yup, them Lee's)?

[Don Lee]

Warren,
Eddie Fell was a very close friend. What he didn't know about South Jersey railroading probably wasn't worth knowing. Unless there is a branch of the Lee's that I'm not aware of, I think my lineage is pure Yankee. Sorry bout that. I have other ancestors that I guess could be connected to railroading, but were never railroaders. My father's maternal grandfather was killed when a steam valve failed on a tug boat that he was delivering to the PRR for use between Cape Charles and Norfolk. My mother's multiple great grandfather started a ferry service between Phila and Camden. His name was Kaighn and the place he landed in Camden became Kaighn's Point. I'm sure he passed long before railroads and the ACRR were created. Another of my mother's relatives was David Baird. He was a political croney of General Sewell, who was a WJRR director.

[Don Lee]

Steam Man,
I see on the call board that your dad retired in 1988. By the late '80's local freight agents were as scarce as Block Operators. Was he able to retire as the agent at Williamstown Jct?

[mitch kennedy]

Mr. Lee and Mr. Avis-I'd like to recommend Bob Koenig. At last report ( a year ago or more) , he had to leave his home near Tuckerton because of ailing health and the beginning of Alzheimer's. I got my first cab ride with him in 1968 at -where else-Magnolia in the cab of the 6004. I, and my whole generation of railroaders, owe so much to you and your preedecessors. I've had the privelege of working with the old CN men, now retired, whose fathers and grandfathers went back to the original Grand Trunk of New England. The loneliest feeling in the world is 3rd trick up here in winter with 200 miles of dark territory and tonnage trains going thru it... even with computer-assisted dispatching . Its the old timers (I'm a young 50+) that keep everything moving, not us pups!
Mitch

[Steam man]

Steam Man,
I see on the call board that your dad retired in 1988. By the late '80's local freight agents were as scarce as Block Operators. Was he able to retire as the agent at Williamstown Jct?

Don,
Sorry,but I just noticed your post. My Pop left the railroad as the agent at Williamstown Jct, but he took disability first due to health problems. I think it would have been 1984 or '85 when he went out.