My Steam Heritage

[Brakeman Hal]

I should have included this in my original "Brakeman Hal" introduction, but this may probably serve as my Hello and Goodbye post.

My Steam Heritage goes back to the early 1940's, during WW2, when I attended elementary school as a 6-to-8 year old.

I was born in Wheeling W. Va. in 1936, which is the home of Wheeling Steel, one of the Country's biggest Steel Production works.

My dad was a Locomotive Fireman for the PRR and fired 2-8-2 Mikados and 2-8-0 Consolidations on the long mainline runs hauling steel from Wheeling to East Coast Shipyards and Armament factories for the needs of the War.

The mainline crews were rotated and assigned to yard duties between the mainline runs of the mile-long freights.

If I happened to be out of school on the days when my dad had yard duty, he would take me to work with him!

I'll never forget climbing up into the cab of a hissing, clanking 0-6-0 Switcher and spending the day with the Engineer and Fireman while they worked at assembling another mile-long freight containing Steel for the War Effort!

After a few times in the cab, I got to know the function of most of the Levers, Valves, and Gauges on the back head of that old B-6 Switcher!

There are not many young boys who have had such experiences!

Thanks for listening...
Brakeman Hal

 

[Gary B]

Thanks for telling your story Hal. I always heard about my grandfather who worked on the NYC wrecker crew (He was the cook) My older brother would tell me about the steam engines going by the family home and that he thought the diesels were the old ones going away. By the time I came along ('55), my grand dad was gone and my family had moved away from the tracks. I always felt like I missed something.