On
The Steel Rails of My Life
Photo by Gene Stevens, at Union RR Museum
There is a special time in every
young boy's dreams
a time of summers warmth, a time of
worn out jeans.
To dream of steel rails and
thundering wheels
To stare down that old road and
wonder how it feels
To feel the steel rails and to hear
those thundering wheels
Rumbling down a road of steel from
Chicago to Wisconsin and everywhere in between,
Oh, Chicago and North Western part
of my boyhood dreams,
from this century's early dawn to
the backyard of my home!
My Dad he was a conductor, a time he
never did forget,
the green and yellow train, it
stayed in his dreams until the very end.
Looking back in time to the prairie
of my soul, green and yellow train take my weary body home.
To a young boys simpler life, gone
forever more, steel rail roll through the time to my home.
Green and Yellow Train
By Gene Stevens
When I sat down and wrote the green and
yellow train many years ago. I already knew how much influence that
railroads and trains had on my life. It reminds me a little bit of
the character George Bailey, who was played by Jimmy Stewart in the
movie, "Its A Wonderful Life". In that we have no idea how
our interactions and experiences affect us and others around us. We
are totally connected to our experience, and the things that cause
the experience are totally connected to us.
My earliest understanding of
railroading came from my Dad who had worked for a short time with the
Chicago and North Western railroad. He was both a Brakeman and a
Conductor in the 1950s, But he had to quit because my Mother had
serious health problems and he had to be closer to home to support
his family. Being gone days at a time and on layovers were becoming
impossible for him to do. So he quit the railroad. Sadly my mother
passed away a few years later. I was six years old when that
happened. Not having a mom was tough. And my Dad became, by
necessity, a very direct and present influence in my life in her
absence.
He had also served in the Navy in
World War II. So our time was filled with stories of his time in the
Pacific during the war, and the railroad. When he quit CNW he became
a Painter. A job which was hard and didn't always pay well. He always
told stories about his time with the Chicago and North Western
railroad. My guess is that it was his most favorite job. Because he
spoke of the railroad often. He told me about long cold nights of
being away, working in rail yards, being on top of icy box cars and
dealing with train wheels that had developed a "hot box",
when train wheel bearings would over heat. I think he really wished
he could have stayed with the railroad. This is because his eyes
would light up and he would smile as he spoke about his time on the
rails.
I was also really fortunate because my
Dad had a lot of trust in me, and when I got old enough to start
taking care of myself, he gave me a lot of freedom. I had older
brothers and a sister. But I was the kid brother, and we had ten plus
years between us, so they weren't always around. Which meant that my
Dad had to rely on me to watch out for myself. This left me free to
go out into the world pretty early.
Living in Chicago
Growing up in Chicago was a very
rewarding and filled with a lot of cultural stuff. And the steel
rails of the railroad played a major part in my experiences there. I
would frequently ride the "L" which was an elevated and
subway interurban commuter rail service which also included the
"Skokie Swift", which ran into the northern suburbs of
Chicago. The CNW also ran right through my neighborhood from the
north burbs into the Chicago loop. It carried thousands of commuters
back and fourth from their suburban homes to work in downtown
Chicago.
CNW Passenger cars, Photo by the Author, ILRM
I also watched the old green and yellow
train rumble by every day, multiple times per day. When the CNW
freight trains went through my north side neighborhood, I would
always wave to the train crew when the caboose went by and they would
always wave back. I would imagine what it would be like to work for
the railroad like my Dad did. I also got to ride the CNW commuter
line into downtown Chicago to shop and to go to the movie theaters.
And I had the pleasure of watching part of the Skokie Swift line
being built in the 1970's. I watched as track crews were laying down
and securing rails by hand. Those crews worked as if they were part
of one life force as their hammers swung in harmony together.
Chicago Transit Authority (CTA)
Interurban Service Street Cars
As the 20th century started
winding down the last of the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) street
cars would go the way of history. They were replaced by wheeled
trolley buses which were equipped with a panto-graph or a trolley
pole that ran off of electricity which was supplied by overhead wire
systems. They took to the streets of Chicago, replacing rail based
street cars.
They were an awkward and cumbersome street trolley. They
were so heavy that they shook apartment buildings as they bounced
along through the pot hole filled asphalt streets of Chicago. And
when the trolley pole would cross overhead wire electrical junctions,
the trolley pole would spark and leave a heavy smell of ozone in the
air. The L (elevated) service would continue to be a viable means of
transportation and still serves Chicago today.
The Navy and The Rail
In the winter of 1978 I followed in my
Dad's foot steps and I joined the Navy. I would eventually be sent to
Alameda California, which was the same place that my Dad had been
stationed during World War II. The railroad also played a big part in
my send off from Chicago. I was picked up very early in the morning
by Navy recruiters and taken down to the Affee's (Armed Forces
Entrance station). I completed my processing and was assigned to a
group of young men and proceeded to the train station in downtown
Chicago. We boarded a Chicago and North Western passenger train and
headed off to the Great Lakes Naval Base in North Chicago. We arrived
at Great Lakes and were met there but a gruff Company Commander. He
told us to keep our mouths shut and to follow him. That was the last
time that I rode a Chicago North Western Train.
Being a Cop and Operation Lifesaver
After serving in the Navy, I returned
to the Chicago area and lived in the northwest suburbs of Chicago. I
was home for a few months and I had been considering a career in law
enforcement. I came up through the ranks, and started out as an
Auxiliary Police Officer in Rosemont, Illinois and a Community
Service Officer in Arlington Heights Illinois. I eventually went onto
to attend the Chicago Police Academy as a full time Police Officer
with the Fox River Grove Police Department in Illinois. All of these
jobs had similar connections to the railroad because rail service ran
through the middle of each of these towns. As I worked traffic
details outside of the Horizon Center (currently known as the All
State Center) a rail line ran along Mannheim Road, and when freight
trains would come through interrupting the flow of traffic, as the
flow would be halted at Touhy Avenue and Mannheim Road.
In 1984, I went to work for the
Arlington Heights Police Department as a Community Service Officer.
At the time, we were assigned to the traffic division and provided
support for many traffic related incidents. This also included
responding to railroad grade crossing incidents. Arlington Heights
was literally divided north and south by the CNW rail system. It was
both a very busy freight and commuter rail corridor. I frequently
assisted on road grade crossing incidents.
In 1987 I was hired by the Fox River
Grove Illinois Police Department. Fox River Grove was referred to as
The Grove by locals back in the day. This title went back to an old
dance hall and amusement area that sat on the Fox River in the old
grove. It was very much like Arlington Heights Illinois, in that it
grew up along side the CNW tracks and was also divided in half by the
CNW railroad lines.
Fox River Grove had its own train
station, as did Cary, Illinois which was to the west across the Fox
River. The Grove had two and later three road grade crossings. The
two crossings on the west side of Route 14 were very busy. And I
learned a lot about the hazards of road grade crossings.
During my time there we had several
rail and road grade crossing related incidents with both pedestrians
and vehicles. It was a time that I learned great respect for the size
and power of trains and the damage that they could do to people and
things. One of the funniest things I remember about the railroad in
the Grove was that we kept getting reports of car windows being
smashed out of cars in the train station parking lot. This went on
mysteriously for a few weeks and I parked to watch the lot there for
a while, when a train went by pulling hopper cars of ballast and my
squad car was pelted by ballast flying off the open hopper cars. When
one hit the windshield of the squad leaving a mark. We then realized
that they ballast was the culprit.
In 1991, I took my next cop job in
Spring Grove, Illinois. They made me a fair offer to work there. It
was a good move and I became a DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education)
Officer. Then in 1995 I was camping in the far north of Wisconsin
when I heard a radio report about a train accident that occurred in
Fox River Grove Illinois. A very tragic accident at a road grade
crossing there. Seven young people were killed, and many other
injured while riding a school bus that was struck by a train. This
incident had a huge impact on the community there, and made the
surrounding area pay more attention to rail safety.
During this time, my involvement and a
lifetime obsession with trains would begin. I was sent to Operation
Lifesaver School. A program which was started and facilitated by
Union Pacific Railroad. It was a great honor for me to participate in
the program and I got to meet a lot of great people. I also got to
teach young people about rail safety. In 1998, I left law enforcement
and went into private security.
I had a lot of ups and downs with my
life and career since that time. But I maintained a love for rails
and trains .I would once again find myself wearing a badge. In 2014,
I was working for a school on the North Shore of the Chicago Area,
when I met a person who was a former railroad police officer and he
was heavily involved in the railroad. He was also involved with
starting up a police department for a shortline railway on the south
side of Chicago called Ag-Valley Railroad. He invited me to apply and
I was soon hired as a railroad police officer and later promoted to
special agent.
Ag-Valley was very interesting. They
manufactured animal feed and ran a rail yard operation at 100th
Street and Torrence. They had two Track-mobiles, many tanker cars and
two police vehicles. Though much of my time there was spent on foot
patrolling the yard and perimeter.
I loved the rail yard. I still
remember the smells and the sound of the yard work going on. The yard
was also right next to the Chicago Belt Railroad Line and trains
would come by frequently. For me, it was an awesome job. Ag-Valley
was pretty far from home (120 miles round trip) so I was there for
about a year and then took another part time cop job closer to home.
Donley's Wild West Train Engineer
In 2018 I found out that Donley's Wild
West Amusements Park in Union, Illinois was looking for an Engineer
for their train ride. The train at Donley's was a real train, in that
it is a scale replica of a CP Huntington Engine. Its power sources
was gas operated 4 cylinder flat-head engine that ran on steel rails
and pulled several passenger cars. I decided to apply for the job.
And much to my happy surprise... I got the job. I became a Train
Engineer!!
When I started working on the engine, I
was trained by the owner of Donley's Wild West Town, Mr. Larry
Donley. And it just so happened that the train was Mr. Donley's
train. And in my opinion, his love and dedication to this particular
ride went far beyond his attention for other rides and attractions
that occupied the amusement park. He loved running the engine and
took particular care of the mechanical functions of the engine. For
me, operating Mr. Donley's train was my dream job. The summer of 2018
turned out to be one of the best summers of my life.
Larry Donley. Owner of Donley's Wild West
CP Huntington Replica photo by Author
From the
outside, the job of Train Engineer on an amusement park Shortline
Railway may seem easy, but in many ways running the engine was real
work. The summer of 2018 was a typical hot and humid Midwestern
summer. The CP Huntington was a full ride-in engine and the engineer
compartment wrapped around the rear of the engines power plant and
the cooling system radiator sat behind the engineers seat. The
temperature in the operating position of the engine could reach over
a hundred degrees on hot day. Which made those hotter days pretty
uncomfortable. But it was well worth it. The engine was fairly
powerful and had no problem pulling four cars filled with passengers.
And the passengers were the reason for the job. I had a short spiel
that I would say to everyone before they would board my train into
the wild west. It went something this "All board! Are ya'll
ready to head West? Over the Illinois Prairie, across the Mississippi
River, onto Des Moines, Iowa, over to Blair, Nebraska, South to Dodge
City, Kansas, Santa Fe, New Mexico, stopping in Tucson, Arizona and
then straight to Tombstone, Arizona to find our fortune in the
Deserts of the West." That summer probably means as much to me
as my Dad's railroading experiences meant to him.
A group of my passengers, heading to the wild west
The Move to Iowa / Raccoon River Valley
Railroad
In late 2018, my family and I decided
to move to Iowa. I was 59 years old when we moved to Ankeny, Iowa
just outside of Des Moines. I was very happy to learn that I was just
a short drive from the largest railway museum in Iowa, the Boone &
Scenic Valley Railroad. I go there often to ride the train or to just
take pictures. I've learned a lot about local railroads and
interurban rail services which served this area over the years. And I
have continued to take a lot of train and railroad related pictures.
I also founded the Raccoon River Valley Railway as a way to convey my
photos to the public. You can find those pictures at Railway Photo
-Gene Stevens
Raccoon River Valley Railway founder
