Thanks Dad [retirement]

Forty years of railroading isn’t an easy life, for anyone involved. While it’s been years since I’ve lived at home, we all, in a way, still planned our lives around when dad would be “in”. There were lots of sacrifices made on his part. Years of working all night and staying up all day to not miss out on something. Years of missing something so we could have shoes, food, flutes, cars, wedding dresses and toys for the grand kids. I wasn’t the world’s most gracious kid, hopefully though, he knows that I didn’t miss the fact that he worked hard because he loved us.

I didn’t really appreciate the career itself until I had boys of my own that fell in love with trains and railroading. Who knew the first time I would see my Dad on a moving train would be when I was holding my two year old shaking with both fear and excitement as Papa waved at us from the huge engine roaring by (at only 10 mph).

I didn’t know I’d be sad the last time my dad rode on the train but I was. It’s the end of an era so to speak. I didn’t realize that after the beginnings, there are so many endings. Thank you Dad.

Here’s some of the things he’s collected over the years.



I don’t really know if you would call this “collecting” but certainly he didn’t have us 40 years ago!
We missed you Carrie, Stephan, John Riley and Marley! Can you guess what the theme of our party was? We gave him an all expenses paid husker trip for his forty years of hard work. Not sure if it was really a fair trade off, but hopefully he will enjoy it!