LE VERN DRAPER
Union County resident for 87 years AN ORAL HISTORY
Interviews in July & August, 2002 at his home in Union OR
Interviewer: John Turner
UNION COUNTY, OREGON HISTORY PROJECT Affi liate of the Oregon Historical Society
2004 (revised from 2003) UNION COUNTY, OREGON HISTORY PROJECT An Affi liate of the Oregon Historical Society
A non-profi t, tax-exempt corporation formed in 2002
In collaboration with Eastern Oregon University Cove Improvement Club History Committee Elgin Museum & Historical Society Union Museum Society
Purposes To record & publish oral histories of long-time Union County residents & To create a community encyclopedia
Board of Representatives Alice Alexander, Cove Merle Miller, La Grande & Union Gerda Brownton, La Grande Shirley Peters, Elgin Dorothy Swart Fleshman, La Grande Jerry Peters, Cove & Union John Turner, La Grande John VanSchoonhoven, Cove
Eugene Smith, Executive Director Jennie Tucker, Executive Assistant
Cooperating Faculty, EOU April Curtis, Theatre Robert Davis, English & Cornerstone Program Rebecca Hartman, History
Contributors Union County Commissionersʼ Transient Tax Discretionary Fund Frontier Motors Meyer Memorial Trust The Observer First Bank Wildhorse Foundation Charles & Joyce Coate Dennis Cross Florence Davidson Peggy Delaney Betty Drummond Helen & Pat Fitzgerald George & Dorothy Swart Fleshman Doris Foster Clayton Fox Camille & William Hawkins Kevin Loveland Thelma & Emery Oliver Marj Parker Helen & Elmer Perry Anita & Roby Pipes Retired Boise Cascade Employees Lyle Sanderson Jennie Tucker Bernice & Gary Webster Gerald Young
Currently Active Volunteers Gerda Brownton Dorothy Swart Fleshman Tom Madden Carol Summer John Turner Patty Turner Arlene Young
For a list of people whose interviews are available as edited transcripts, call 541-975-1694 or write P.O. Box 2841, La Grande OR 97850 or e-mail [email protected]
copies of transcripts are $4.00 each + shipping & handling Preface
Much of the history of a place is stored in the memories of people who have lived there. Their stories may be told to family members, but, unless someone makes a special effort to record these stories, they become lost to future generations.
Each of the historical societies in Union County, Oregon has begun to make that effort. Tape recordings exist in several locations, some of them transcribed in written form, others not. A more ambitious and thorough effort seemed necessary so that more of the oral history of Union County could be captured and preserved.
The Union County, Oregon History Project, begun in 2002, is making that more ambitious effort. One of its principal purposes is to collect as many oral histories of older Union County residents as possible and to make them available in both taped and written form. This edited transcript is part of the series of oral histories to be produced by that project.
About the Interviews and This Edited Version
The interviews with LeVern Draper took place at his home in Union. At age 87, Vern walks with a cane but still drives his car. His memory of events and ability to recall details are remarkable.
The interviewer was John Turner, a volunteer with the Union County, Oregon History Project. He completed two one-hour interviews on July 21 and August 9, 2002 with short, follow-up interviews on November 6 & 24, 2002.
Heather Pillingʼs full transcription (available for research purposes) presents the literal con- tents of the interview. The edited version presented here differs from the literal transcription in the following characteristics;
- reorganization of content
- deletion of some extraneous comments
- omission of false sentence starts and other normal speech fi llers that detract from readability
- normalization of pronunciation and grammar in conformity with standards of written English.
LD designates LeVern Draperʼs words, I the interviewersʼ.
CONTENTS
Early Years in Union, Oregon 1 Finding Employment 2 Becoming a Railroad Section Hand in Very Cold Weather 2 Initial Work as a Railroader 4 Interim Work as a Bulldozer Operator 4 Beginning Long-term Work with the Railroad 5 Work as a Flagman 5 Work as a Fireman on Steam Engines 6 Technical Aspects of Steam Engines 7 Railroading during World War II 10 La Grandeʼs Importance to Transcontinental Traffi c 11 Working with La Grande Yard Staff 11 Performance Tests 12 Job Insurance 13 Seniority 13 Taking Tests in the Rule Car 14 Assignment as a Conductor 14 Becoming Eligible for Military Draft 15 Wartime Rationing 16 Railroad Time-keeping 16 A Snowslide at Meacham and Everlasting Gratitude 17 Racial Discrimination in Huntington OR 18 More about Cabooses 18 Return to Freight on the Joseph Branch 19 A Little Girl and a Doll 20 Back to Passenger Service 21 End of Union Pacifi c Passenger Service 25 Whistling at Crossings 26 Most Unpleasant Railroad Experience 27 Refl ection on Railroad Work 27 Lifelong Interest in Flying 27 Relaxed Flight Instruction 29 A La Grande “Bombing Run” 31 Fighting Eastern Oregon Fires from the Air 31 Origins of Eastern Oregonʼs Lightning Storms 32 Experiencing St. Elmoʼs Fire 32 The Anthony Lakes Fire 33 Saving a Bulldozer and Two Lives 34 Vernʼs Own Plane 35 Hazards of Flying Near Redʼs Ranch 35 Retirement Years 38 Index 42
Early Years in Union, Oregon they called the gulch--below Grand- dadʼs place--in a little, old, boxcar-like I: When and where were you born? house.
LD: The 17th of March, 1915 in High I: How old were you at that time? Valley. My name was Dick LeVern Draper. My dadʼs name was just Dick. LD: Four. When I got old enough to vote, they got it all mixed up and the courthouse I: Did you start school in Union at the suggested that I change it to LeVern Mayfi eld School? Dick. That way it didnʼt mix me up with my dad. LD: No. My folks were strict Seventh-Day Adventists; there was a Seventh-Day I grew up here at Union and went to Adventist school where the parking school here. I graduated from high lot of the Mormon church is now--on school in 1932 in a class of thirty-one. the corner next to Elm. I went through Now only about eight of us are left. eighth grade there. Then the Depres- sion was on, and Dad wanted to send I: When did your grandfather come? me to the Gem State Academy, which was a Seventh-day Adventist school LD: My grandfather came, I think, in 1862. in Caldwell, Idaho, but we didnʼt have He had a thousand acres in High Val- the money. So I went to the high ley [a few miles northeast of Union]. school here at Union as a freshman at At one time he had a dairy and made age thirteen; I graduated when I was butter. I donʼt know how they stored it seventeen--the youngest and smallest so it didnʼt get rancid, but they hauled boy in the class. The night I graduat- it by six-horse team and two wagons. ed, I didnʼt weigh one hundred pounds They peddled it around the mines up and I wasnʼt fi ve feet tall. Old Claude around Cornucopia, Cooprum, [about Cadwell said, “I got a little guy here fi fty miles southeast of Union] and for the last diploma.” (I was the last Idaho. one in the class to get my diploma.) I had begun to fi gure I wasnʼt going After Granddad had the dairy, he had a to get one. Then old Claude put his bunch of sheep. My dad, when he was arm around me. I used to shovel snow younger, was more or less the camp for him at his hardware store--clean tender. Granddad had cattle, the ranch his sidewalk in front of the store for a in High Valley, and about two hun- quarter. Thatʼs the way I bought my dred-forty acres, I think, of timberland school supplies. It was the big, square, beyond the breaks of Little Catherine. white house right across from the Methodist Church. I: Did your father take over afterward? I: You ended up to be 6ʼ3”, though. LD: No. You see, after my dadʼs mother died, Granddad married again, but she LD: Iʼm 6ʼ3” and at one time I weighed only lasted a year. Then he married a two hundred-forty pounds. third time. Dad would never put out very much information, but there was I: Did you do any outstanding thing some friction in Union in 1919. We while you were going to high school? used to live down in the gulch--what
1 LD: No, I wasnʼt big enough to be in any put the mail on the train, carry lug- of the games or athletics. Sometimes gage, and stuff like that.” I worked I was water boy for the football team, there, I think, about three or four but that was about it. Just normal months, and then things started going school activities. I did play trumpet in to pot and they started laying off. the high school orchestra. Then I got a job working for an old Finding Employment orchardist here by the name of Weaver, who had a prune and cherry orchard. I I: When you were in high school, did worked for him until I went to work on work at Hot Lake [former sanitorium the railroad. southeast of La Grande]? Becoming a Railroad Section Hand LD: It was after I graduated in 1932. I forgot when W. T. Phy [the doctor who in Very Cold Weather owned the sanitorium] died, but then his son Mark took over. They had a I: What was your fi rst job on the rail- guy there by the name of McPhearson, road?
I think it was--a Seventh-day Advent- th ist. He used to come to the church LD: I went to work on the section the 26 here at Union. One Saturday night he of December in 1936. The snow at come to the house--you could hardly Telocaset [nine miles from Union] and fi nd a job doing anything--and he on the highway was about to the top of asked me if I wanted to go to work. I the hill at Telocaset, so the track was said, “Yeah, you bet.” He said, “Pack plugged from there the rest of the way your suitcase. Iʼd like for you to work to North Powder [sixteen miles from as a bellhop--to help clean the lobby, Union]. help in the bathhouse, meet the trains, I worked for a Japanese section fore- man, George Kobioshi--a nice guy to work for. He never got rough on any of the men. Heʼd say, “Come on boys, letʼs do it this way.”
We worked twelve-hour shifts. If we worked over twelve hours, we got time and a half. The railroads on the section at that time paid straight time for the fi rst twelve hours. We made some-thing like $2.50 or $3.00 a day in a twelve-hour shift--around 30 or 40 cents an hour.
So that we didnʼt have to come all the way into Telocaset, he assigned me and another guy from Union to take care of the section of track at Crooks. LeVern Draper at graduation Thatʼs a passing track this side of Telo- from Union High School in 1932 caset--between Telocaset and Union. Photo courtesy of Le Vern Draper Going west, there were Telocaset,
2 Crooks, Pyle, and Union Junction. We federal law, they exchanged crews out took care of the switches at Crooks. there. It was the deepest snow I ever saw in this country. The snow at Telocaset I: How did you get from one place to the was clear up to the cross arms on the other? On a motor car? telegraph pole. LD: We walked, though several times heʼd Telocaset was a helper station at that put me on a train that was going to time. It had a coal chute and a water dead-end at the passing track. My tank. Some of the engines were coal fi rst train ride was from Telocaset to burners, some oil. A tank car was Crooks. I had to clean the switches hooked up to steam to keep the oil hot before a train could head into the pas- for the helper engine. sing track at Crooks. The snow had drifted in till the brakeman couldnʼt We had to keep the switches open into throw the switch; they had to stop and these tracks and the Y at Telocaset. wait for me to clean the switches out. Several times George would even call The brakeman swept the points, but the some of us into his house, where it was section men had to dig the snow out warm, to eat our lunch. Outside, it was from underneath and clear it back with ten or twenty degrees below zero. a shovel. We carried a shovel, a pick, and a broom. We had to pick the ice We ran out of places to plow snow, so where they threw the switches because the railroad sent a clamshell with a they couldnʼt throw the switch till we bunch of gondola cars. They loaded cleaned that ice out between the switch six gondolas full of snow from around points. George put me on the engine the depot so weʼd have a place to pile and said, “Vern, youʼll have to work more snow. I guess they hauled them by yourself down there. You stay there off somewhere to sit and let the snow and work till youʼre relieved.” I think melt out of them. That was the way it was along about midnight before they got rid of some of the snow. One another guy showed up. In the mean- afternoon in a blizzard, you couldnʼt time, I tried to keep those switches see twenty feet in front of you. A fel- open, walking from one end of the low we called Red Henry and I were passing track to the other, cleaning the supposed to clean the west switch at switches. Telocaset to let the snow plow out. Plowing down in the storm, they I: Was the reason for having passing missed a derail, shoved the dozer over tracks to allow a fast train to go by a the derail, and derailed the front wheel. train that didnʼt need to be as fast?
In those days they had what they called LD: Or opposing trains, like a westbound a re-railing frog. It had sharp points on train meeting one going east. The dis- the bottom edge; when they were put patcher would time them and predict in place, they had to be spiked down passing time and put out train orders. with a track spike. One of them had to If it was a superior train, the inferior be underneath to guide the wheel back train would wait at various passing on the rail. We worked there, getting tracks to a certain time on the sched- that thing back on the track for twenty- ule. They were supposed to clear the four to thirty hours. Since train crews opposing train, the superior train, by at could only work so long on account of least ten minutes.
3 I: Is it true that, when the war started, ance to transportation service. I hired Mr. Kobioshi went back to Japan? out on the road the 21st of February, 1937. LD: No, that isnʼt true. He was interred in a concentration camp. He never did I: Was that the date that determined your go to Japan to my knowledge. I think seniority on the railroad? he was a loyal American citizen at that time, the way I understood it. LD: My seniority date was established the 13th of March, 1937. Then they got I saw George in later years when I was another slump and I was cut off. I working on passenger service out of was on the board [a place where each Portland. A Japanese man grabbed me workerʼs nametag was placed on a by the arm, and I about jumped out of hook, in priority order, for the purpose my uniform. When I looked around, of assignment to crews]. I got up to he said, “Vern, how in the world are take an out [i.e., assignment to a crew] you? You donʼt recognize me?” I and got cut off. I couldnʼt work again didnʼt. He said, “Iʼm George Kobio- till the summer of ʼ39. shi.” I said, “Where are you going, George?” He said, “Iʼm going to ride Interim Work as a with you tonight.” I said, “Youʼre welcome to ride with me anytime you Bulldozer Operator want to.” LD: I worked for ranchers driving a Cat We had quite a visit. He was going to [Caterpillar bulldozer] and whatever Payette. After he had gotten out of the job I could fi nd. When I got cut off internment camp at Nyssa, or Vale, or the railroad in ʼ39, I went to work for wherever it was, he acquired a little Burt Shelton in a logging camp, driv- ranch between Payette and Weiser [all ing Cat and then as a grease monkey. I towns in Idaho]. He raised onions and worked at Pondosa [21 miles southeast sugar beets. He said, “I tell you, Iʼm of Union]. That was when Pondosa much better off now than I was carry- was still a very active mill; they had ing a pick and shovel on the railroad.” a big gyppo contract out there op- posite Thief Valley highway at what I think they called Fisherʼs place. That Initial Work as a Railroader gyppo contractor got the job logging that area. I worked for him until he LD: There was a conductor named Bill shut down; I had four V8 Cats and six Driskell who came out; he was my trucks that Iʼd grease, service, and fuel fi rst wifeʼs auntʼs husband. George K. up. told another guy and me to go in the caboose and get warm, dry our gloves, I: Would you explain what a gyppo is? and try to get dried off a little bit. Bill said, “Vern, what are you doing wal- lowing around out there like a damned hog in the snow? If you want to work on the railroad, why donʼt you go to train service?” I said, “I didnʼt know how to get in, Bill.” He was the one that helped me. I talked to George, and Vernʼs nametag for the “board” he give me a transfer from mainten- Original courtesy of Le Vern Draper
4 LD: A gyppo is more or less a contractor, of the train; heʼd go back a half mile who bids on a job for logging so much and place two torpedoes. A torpedo timber. The logs are all fi gured on an was a little piece of powder in a device estimated scale by a guy called a that clipped on the rail. If he wasnʼt scaler. His scaling stick, called a dipple recalled by his engineer, heʼd proceed stick, gives a fairly close estimate, us- on back another three-quarters of a ing markings at eight, ten, twelve, and mile and place two more torpedoes. sixteen feet, I think. But a lot of times Then he could return to the fi rst torpe- the logs donʼt saw out, or maybe they does and wait there until relieved or saw out a little more than what the called in by an engineer. The engineer scale says, depending on the length of called him in, if the fl agman was east it. of the train, with fi ve long blasts of the whistle. If he went to the west, heʼd In those days most all logs were cut give four longs. They said the reason sixteen feet, six inches so that, when for that was there were more people in the lumber went through the edger in the east than in the west so that they the mill, which took the bark off, it whistled more to get them to come in then went out on the greenchain, where from the east. saws cut it exactly to sixteen feet. Work as a Flagman Beginning Long-term Work with the Railroad LD: It was an interesting job. I have worked as a fl agman quite a bit. In LD: I was called back to the railroad in July handling the trains off the hill from of ʼ41. I worked, I think, six weeks and Kamela toward Pendleton and Kamela got cut off again. After two weeks, I toward La Grande, we used to use a was called back again. retaining valve to help the engineer maintain constant air pressure. It held As the younger men came on the ten pounds of air against the brake board, theyʼd assign us to an outside cylinder so that, if the engineer had to point. I was assigned to Reith Pendle- release his brakes to recharge the train ton [a railroad yard two miles west of line, he still had some brake against Pendleton, used for car storage, the train to stabilize his speed until he switching cars, and icing reefers--now could make another application. We called Pendair]. I switched in the used to stop fi rst at Meacham to cool Reith Pendleton yard from the latter the wheels for ten minutes and then part of August of ʼ40 till February or again at the passing track called Huron, March of ʼ41 before I had seniority seven miles down the track. enough to get back to La Grande. One night in a snowstorm, the engi- I: What did a full train crew consist of? neer whistled me out. Whenever he stopped and wanted to protect the rear LD: A full crew on the main line included a end of the train, the engineer whistled conductor, a fl agman, and two brake- one long blast and three short ones. men. In those days, whenever a train Iʼd go out for about fi ve to ten minutes stopped, if it wasnʼt on the passing while they looked the train over. If ev- track, the rules were that the fl agman erything was all right, usually weʼd go would go back and protect the rear end again in ten minutes. They called me
5 in, and, when I turned to come in, there before I get my highball [a hand sig- was a helper locomotive coming down nal, meaning proceed]. I want to show the hill behind us. I left three torpe- you something.” We could see where does and a red fusee [warning devices, this cougar had come up along the side called fl ares when used on highways] of the train, stopped at the step of the on the track. caboose, walked around the caboose in between the rails, and followed my When I lit the fusee, I saw a fl ash of tracks out when I went fl agging. It was eyes down the track toward the ca- in the middle of the night, but I wasnʼt boose. I had a little white lantern, so scared. Iʼd gotten left down there sev- I could see it was an animal. When I eral times, but that was one time that I got there, a cougar had come around actually saw the animal when I threw the back of the train and walked in my the light of a red fusee at it. tracks--followed me clear out about thirty or forty feet behind me when I: What year was this? I stopped to put the torpedoes on the track. I lit an-other fusee and threw LD: Probably in ʼ46, ʼ47, when we still it at the animal. The cougar jumped had steam engines. I think we got out of the track and went down into the steam diesels in ʻ51 or ʼ52. When Meacham Creek. I looked where he diesels were fi rst being introduced, the had stepped in my tracks; I could lay train might need additional power. It the palm of my hand right in his track might have two or three diesel units and see the front of his track all the plus a steam engine on the head end or way around my hand. at the rear of the train as a helper; each would have its own crew. I: He was a big cougar! Work as a Fireman LD: When I got back to the caboose, I hol- lered at the conductor, Denny Dough- on Steam Engines erty, “Hey, Denny, come here. I want to show you something.” “What do LD: I enjoyed really enjoyed riding on the you want?” I said, “Get down here old steam engines, called mikes. They were noisy and dirty. Some of them were still hand-fi red when I went to work in ʼ37. My problem was that I always worked right-handed with a shovel, and that put my rear end over in the engineerʼs face and he didnʼt like that. He wanted to make me turn the other way, but then I couldnʼt hit the fi re door with the shovel.
I: Did the brakemen have to shovel?
LD: We did. When going up a hill, a fi re- man would throw a shovel full of coal in; it would go “poof, poof,” and it Fusee, a kind of fl are, used as an emergency signal by railroaders was gone. It wasnʼt anything to go Photo by Eugene Smith through thirteen or fourteen tons of
6 coal from Union to Telocaset. Some of of increasing effi ciency]. The front the engines had stokers; some didnʼt. engine was on an oscillating plate But the stokers were good because the so that, when the engine was going fi reman could pile the coal up in the around a curve, the front engine would back of the fi rebox and then take a big, turn under the front of the engine and long poke and break that pile down the boiler would still stick out straight and push it to the round [a pile over as it came around the curve. With this the grate] in the fi rebox. It would heat oscillating plate, the engine would go evenly and keep the steam up. Other- back and line up with the boiler on the wise, if he got too much piled up back straight and level track. Most of them there, it wasnʼt hot enough to keep the were what they called 2400- or 2880- steam up. type engine: two pony trucks, four drivers, and no trailing trucks behind. Technical Aspects of I: That was the size of the engine? Steam Engines LD: Yes. The other engines were the 3500 I: Someone asked me what a Mallet [pro- and the 3800 series. The 3500 had nounced MAL-ee] was. Could you fi fty-one-inch drivers. The 3800 had explain? sixty-six-inch drivers, or fi ve and a half feet. The old engines carried LD: A mallet was two engines in one. The about 190,200 pounds of steel. Some original Mallets were called sleds. The of the 3800s carried 320,000 pounds front engine was a scavenger engine of steel; some didnʼt have quite that because the hot steam went to the back much, but they were a faster engine engine, and then, when the cylinders than the 3500. on the back engine exhausted, the gases would go into a chamber in the front engine. The cylinders on the front engine were about one and a half times the size of the ones on the back engine. About thirty-fi ve to forty miles an hour was their top speed.
I: That would run the drivers?
LD: Yes. They claimed that was cold steam running the front drivers. They had a valve or a kind of throttle so that, if they needed a little more steam in the front, theyʼd open that valve, which was called the Blue Goose because it was usually painted blue.
As I remember, they had converted most of those old sleds to oil burn- ers by the time I went to work. When Vern and a Mallet [pronounced MAL-ee] they converted them, they said they steam engine, ca. 1942 “simpled” the engine [that is, a means Photo courtesy of Le Vern Draper
7 I: Until fi nally they came out with a Huntington. We always designated that 9000, wasnʼt it? they were the Short Line and we were the OW. In those days they used only LD: The 9000 engine was a 2-12-2, I think: steam engines. thatʼs two pony trucks, twelve drivers, and two trailing trucks. The 9000 had Those engines had a lubricating sys- three cylinders. The two hot cylinders tem that, as the cylinders worked back were on the side; the front driver had a and forth, tripped a little trigger-like connecting rod and a cylinder in be- device that squirted oil out of the lu- tween that was underneath the engine, bricators onto the glide rod, where the in between the rails--a scavenger cylin- side rod was connected to the piston. der. After the steam exhausted from The 9000s were all on the short line. the main drive, the cylinders outside Here they used the 2-10-2s on passen- would activate the third cylinder in- ger trains; I believe they were a sev- side. It was bigger in diameter than enty-two-inch driver. They were really the ones on the outside. slippery engines; the wheels would spin on the rail when they were trying The front drive shaft was like a big to start, but, once they got going, they crank. The center cylinder sat up even could really keep rolling. with the front of the boiler. It was a really rigid engine--rigid enough that it I: What was about the biggest size that could knock the track out of line. They they could run? did run it in here a time or two, but we had too many curves that were over LD: The 3800 and 3900. They tried to eight degrees, especially between here bring in 4000; that was a big boy that and Huntington and also west of La worked out of Cheyenne--the biggest Grande, and it knocked all the curves steam engine made. They got it to out, so they had to regauge a lot of the Huntington and didnʼt have any prob- track. lem, but when they started to come west of Huntington it wouldnʼt go When the outside temperature was through the tunnel at Weatherby [about cold, all you could see was the head- two hundred yards long, with a curve, light and steam coming out of those east of Baker City]. The air pump things as theyʼd come out of the and everything was out on the front of roundhouse at Huntington. You could the engine--a 4884-type engine. If I hear the 9000s coming into Hunting- remember right, thatʼs an eight-degree ton, once they came across the Snake curve in the tunnel at Weatherby. They River, all the way up the river into started through with an offi cial riding the yard. They made a funny kind of on the running board to see. When “ch-choo, ch-choo” each time they they got about half way into the tunnel, exhausted. the front of the engine oscillated but the boiler wouldnʼt. They didnʼt have Huntington was a division; at one clearance enough to go on through and time this wasnʼt Union Pacifi c but had to back out. They had to build a the Oregon-Washington Railroad & special track, a Y, at Huntington to get Navigation Company. We worked on the thing turned around so it could go this end under the old OWR & N rules back to the short line. and special instruction. The Oregon Short Line was from Glennʼs Ferry to That was the only time that they ever continued on p. 10
8 5000 class steam engine Photo courtesy of John Turner & Richard Hermens
7000 class steam engine Photo courtesy of John Turner & Richard Hermens
9000 class steam engine Photo courtesy of John Turner & Richard Hermens
9 brought a 4000 here. The 3900s, I LD: Yes. The armed guards were like think, were eighty-one-inch drivers, guards in the service, I guess. They used on passenger trains like the Port- were supposed to control the bridges land Rose, till they brought the 800s-- and tunnels. The Weatherby tunnel called the 8444 now. It had eighty- had a guard at each end. The tunnel one-inch drivers and was a 484-type between Telocaset and North Pow- engine. der had guards, as well as the tunnel between Meacham and a passing track I was on a cherry train one time when called Huron down the Meacham John Ward [engineer] was on an 8400. Creek west of Meacham [near the Going across Baker Flat, I clocked him western edge of the Blue Mountains, one hundred and two miles an hour. east of Pendleton]. Right out of La That engine was riding like a rocking Grande and at Hilgard, where there chair--just bobbing along. He started were bridges, there were guards. slowing down about fi ve or six miles Most of them were colored guys, and out of Baker so he could take water at they were tough. Baker. In those days, they had rock fences Railroading during World War II where there was a chance of rock slides. If a rock came down and pulled I: Tell me about the conditions of work- the plug on the fence, it held the block ing for the railroad during World War signal on the train and weʼd have to II. stop. If it was a yellow semaphore block, we could go on by at reduced LD: We had a lot of troop trains. Business speed. But if it was a red one, we had picked up. When we were called to to stop. Then the brakeman on the work, we fi gured it would be sixteen head end would have to walk ahead of hours before we got to the other end of the train to see if there was an obstruc- the line. tion on the track, such as a broken rail or one of the rock fences that had We worked by train order. The dis- fallen. patcher had so many trains to move as best he could. Sometimes weʼd sit One night, after leaving Meacham, we in the passing track for three or four had a red block come up just as we hours, waiting for opposing traffi c to started to leave. I had to fl ag the block go by. down the canyon toward Huron. When I got down to the bridge--in those days The chief dispatcher would get a we wore a brakeman badge on our hats notice, or line-up, out of Omaha or so that they knew we were railroad Pocatello. This way they knew the employees--a guard wasnʼt going to let number of trains they were going to me walk across that bridge. I told him, run that day. Each train was desig- “According to our rules and regula- nated by a number or a symbol. tions, I have to.” I had to produce evi- dence in addition to my badge on my I: At the beginning of the war, werenʼt hat that I was a brakeman; I even had there armed guards on all the railroad to show my brakeman card, my watch bridges in case of saboteurs? card, and anything that pertained to the
10 job to certify that I was a brakeman. time. The hours and service would He didnʼt let me go by myself; he hardly ever let us double on through walked across the bridge and through La Grande, except in a case of emer- the tunnel with me. gency.
I: If one of those lines had gone out, I: How many hours could you work? wouldnʼt it have tied up the transporta- tion from Omaha to Portland? LD: Almost every trip was sixteen hours.
LD: It would have tied traffi c up in every Working with La Grande Yard Staff direction because the dispatchers might put out a fl at meet. For example, a I: When you were working out in La train leaving Meacham would meet Grande you knew Leo Miller? an eastbound train at Huron; an order would state that #257 will meet #260 LD: When I was fi rst hired out in 1937, at Huron; #260 couldnʼt leave there Leo was in charge of the board as head until we showed up. Thatʼs a fl at meet. manifest clerk. In those days they If something went wrong, such as our werenʼt handling that many trains. He breaking in two or a guard not letting was in charge of calling the crews, a brakeman go through the tunnel, it sending out a call boy [the call boy, would be delayed. The train might a man, notifi ed crew members of an have to sit there three or four hours assignment] or giving him instructions. with a lot of freight that should be Leo was in charge of how we were moving and would delay other trains. called to go either west or east. It was imperative that we tried to make the meets as close as possible. I: When you were called, how much time did you have, generally, before you La Grandeʼs Importance had to be on the train? to Transcontinental Traffi c LD: Usually, we had about an hour. I: Is it true that La Grandeʼs location, with hills either way coming out of I: They had the regular board and the La Grande, kept the railroad division extra board? point in La Grande? LD: Yes. LD: Thatʼs right because we worked both ways out of La Grande. We worked at I: The extra board was used to fi ll the chain-gang freight service--fi rst in and spaces for men laid off the regular fi rst out. Supposing I came in from board. the east part of the state. Iʼd go to the bottom of the board. As they called LD: In those days the crew consisted of a the crew, Iʼd move up, and the next conductor and three brakemen--the crews that came in would go on the head brakeman, the swing [or fi ll-in] board behind us. Maybe Iʼd go west brakeman, and a fl agman. In the early toward Reith and Hinkle the next trip. days of railroading, a brakeman car- We never knew which way we were ried a brake club, about three feet long going to go until we were called. La and shaped like a baseball bat, which Grande was a defi nite terminal at that he used as a lever to assist the engineer
11 in braking the train. The engine crew they pulled some of the demerits off. was an engineer and a fi reman. The If we were cut off for over six months, rules of the railroad--and also the state we had to take the exam to go back to law--required a fl agman to protect the work. rear end of the train. The fl agman had to have at least six monthsʼ experience Performance Tests in Oregon to work as a fl agman on a train. I: What were some of the tests like?
Later on, as business picked up, the LD: One was called a red lantern test. The railroad made Leo chief manifest clerk. offi cial would put two torpedoes--the Dick Lindsey was assistant manifest clamp-on device with powder in it--on clerk, working under Leo. By the the track a half mile from the lantern. way, Dick used to have a dance band When the engine hit it, it would ex- that played for Unionʼs Saturday night plode. The offi cial would go back dances and at the old Zuber Hall [in La Grande]. one and a half miles from where the lantern was, because of the speed of Leo was in charge of assigning clerks the train going downhill, and place two to different jobs in the offi ce--calling more torpedoes. A lot of times you crews, the manifest of trains, and sup- couldnʼt get stopped in a mile and a plies like switch lists. We called them half. It depended on how the engineer wheelers--lists of all the cars, the could handle the air or what had taken engine, and the conductorʼs and engi- place before we hit the furthest away neerʼs names--for each train that was torpedoes. handled through the yard. If a train was switched or made up, this wheeler Sometimes the offi cials made mis- was made up from La Grande to Hun- takes. I almost got fi red one time. At tington, say. It had several lines; for the top of the hill east of Baker, where the train crew that handled it from La it breaks off to go east toward Hun- Grande to Huntington, the conductor tington and Idaho and west into Baker, would fi ll out “La Grande to Hunting- we cut out our helper at Encina and ton” and sign the engineerʼs name and started down the hill. his name to it. When the offi cial used a red lantern, I: Who was in charge of the train? he was supposed to leave a note on the lantern that said, “This lantern must LD: The engineer was in charge of the be replaced; then you may proceed at engine; the conductor was in charge of restricted speed”--which was fi fteen the train, and his word was law on how miles an hour for the fi rst mile. As we trains moved. If there was any delay, came around a curve, this red lantern the conductor had to make an accurate was sitting at the edge of the track. report of delays or anything that hap- Bill, the engineer, saw it fi rst and went pened. to emergency. As fast as we were rol- ling, it took awhile for the train to stop. I: Wasnʼt there was a demerit system? We passed by the light.
LD: Yes. If you got thirty demerits, you If it had been a legal test, all of us stood to be pulled out of service unless would have been fi red. As soon as the
12 train slowed down enough so I could that train that that red light was on the be dropped off, I walked back to the track. Second, you never put a mes- light. There was no note on it. sage on that lantern as to how it was to be handled. I donʼt blame Draper for I saw a car sitting over on the highway. throwing that lantern over the train. I I just wound up and I threw that lan- would have, too.” tern just as far as I could throw it over the top of the train. It made a beautiful red light going out across there. Job Insurance
When we went into Baker, I cut the I: Is that why all you railroaders had job engine off and Bill went to the water insurance? So you had somebody that tank. The train masterʼs name was Lee fought for you to get your job back? Carroll. He said, “Draper, youʼre fi red. Get off the property. You canʼt even LD: Thatʼs right. I took job insurance out ride the train into La Grande. Youʼll quickly after that. In the 40 years I have to get home anyway you can.” worked, I drew job insurance twice-- I said, “Thank you, Lee.” The gen- once for derailment and the other for a eral superintendent, M. C. Williams, breakage. who was with him, stood there and listened. When Carroll went into the I: Was it serious when you get fi red but telegraph offi ce to call another brake- not that serious because they looked man to take my place, I started over to around for somebody to blame? the restaurant to get something to eat. Mr. Williams called me and he said, LD: Oh, yes! They always had to hand “Just a minute, Draper. I want to talk down. Maybe I shouldnʼt say this, but to you.” He said, “Why did you throw I felt that a lot a times some of things that lantern over the train?” I said, that the offi cials pulled went beyond “Mr. Williams, if you donʼt know, Iʼm the book of rules and also their test not going to tell you.” He stood there standard. and he looked at me for a minute. He said, “Youʼre not out of service. Wait LD: I was stuck there till they cut me off, till I get hold of Carroll.” He called and I bumped back on the chain gang. Carroll out of the offi ce and told him, “Youʼre not going to fi re Draper. Iʼve Seniority got a notion to fi re you.” Boy, old Lee reared up and said, “He destroyed I: Was that where seniority came in? company property, and they got by the light without stopping.” Mr. Williams LD: Your seniority let you place yourself said, “Carroll, you put Draper back to on some job that a lesser seniority man work right now.” He turned to me and was on. You selected a job that you he said, “You go over to the restaurant wanted to try and get on, and then, if and get a meal. Iʼll be over there in a you had seniority, you made applica- little bit.” tion to be put on there. They called it bumping. When I got cut off, I Carroll said, “Why are you putting him checked the board, and I couldnʼt hold back to work?” He said, “That wasnʼt a branch job [one off the main line] so a fair test.” He said, “First thing, you I couldnʼt bump there. didnʼt put out any torpedoes to warn
13 I: Was seniority, then, very important for assigned as a ticket conductor on a you to continue working? passenger train.”
LD: Seniority and time were the most im- Assignment as a Conductor portant things on the railroad. LD: They gave me a letter. I was to make Taking Tests in the Rule Car two trips with a guy named Mahoney that was on the Portland Rose. He LD: Let me tell you about the rule car, handled the Pullman section of the where each of us had to take the book- train, and Mel Gallberts had the coach of-rules examination every two years. section. I was to learn coach work, The trainmen and conductor had to and then I was to make one round trip take an examination that usually lasted on the Streamliner. I had to make nine about an hour, in two sessions. One trips all together. He said, “You make session was on the book of rules; the a time slip just like you were working. other was on train orders. They used When you complete it, bring your let- a projector to throw a schedule on a ter and the time slips to me and Iʼll OK screen or theyʼd throw a train order at them.” us and require us to explain what we could do with that train order. I was the youngest ʻ37 man. In those days, you had to have fi ve years to be For example, we had to explain promoted to a conductor. When they whether we could make it to the next promoted to conductor, they promoted station or whether we should stay in a down; that included me in 1942. The previous station. If a train was supe- passenger train business had picked rior [i.e., took precedence over other up because of the war; there so many trains], it would wait, say, at Hot Lake, passengers that one conductor couldnʼt to a certain time. If it wasnʼt there at handle everything. A passenger coach the designated time and we were in the was supposed to seat forty-eight passing track, we couldnʼt leave. people, but, after I had learned a little about conductor work, a lot of times In the rules car they wanted to make weʼd have sixty or seventy people in sure that the train crews and the en- one car. gineers understood how to read and interpret the orders--what they could I started out on The Idahoan. It came do and what they couldnʼt do. out of Pendleton at 1:00 in the after- noon, and Iʼd work it until we met When I came out of the rules car, the Section 17, which was the coach sec- crew dispatcher said, “The train master tion of the Portland Rose. Wherever wants to see you upstairs.” I thought, we met, they had to stop and let me off “Oh, boy, now whatʼve I done?” I to get on the other train, and then Iʼd went up there, and in walked in Ben work back to Pendleton. That didnʼt Johnson, the assistant superintendent. work out too well because it took all He said, “Draper, do you want to be a the time of two conductors to check passenger conductor?” I said, “I tried a train just from Huntington. We had to learn what I could, and I guess if I to check every passenger going into had a chance I could learn it.” He said, Pendleton because Pendleton was a “Weʼll fi x it so you can learn it. Youʼre division point, and there were so many
14 soldiers and sailors. Walla Walla had and trucks, I could get on with the Sea- an Army base, Pendleton had an Army bees [a military branch that involved base, and Farragut had the Navy base. building airfi elds and other such proj- We had to make sure everybody was ects] and get a pretty good rating. So checked, and anybody going to Spo- I laid off and went to Portland because kane or up that way got their ticket there was no recruiter in Pendleton. back. Several times I found passengers The Navy recruiter said, “Yeah, you riding in the ladiesʼ or menʼs lounge bet, but you gotta be cleared through with a ticket that didnʼt have a punch your draft board.” mark in it. Theyʼd come all the way from St. Louis or Kansas City on the When they classifi ed a man, the draft train and had never been checked, but board had to notify his employer; my we had to check everyone. draft board notifi ed the railroad that I was put in 1A. Where I was working Many a time, I punched the last ticket on passenger--and I worked steadily--I while we were going by the hospital didnʼt lay off. I hardly ever laid off. I at Pendleton. Then Iʼd have to sit in was taught, when you went on a job, the train for maybe forty-fi ve minutes you worked the job, and thatʼs the way or an hour, making out my passen- I always tried to work. ger count and report to go to Omaha. It was really a workout. The older The Navy said, “Itʼll be eight to ten conductors got off from it because it days before you know whether you get was tough and they could make more to go or not.” After I came home and money on freight. Every trip was tried to set things up so I could go, I sixteen hours, so they were making got a card from the draft board: “4A the maximum amount that they could for the duration with no reclassifi ca- make every trip. tion.” The Navy turned me down. I was frozen to the job on passenger service. Becoming Eligible for Military Draft I worked as a passenger conductor for about three years--till the war was LD: When I was assigned a passenger slot, over, anyway. Of course, when the I was single and had been reclassifi ed war was over, that broke that freeze, 1A [the most vulnerable military-draft but I couldnʼt hold anything but chain- category] by the draft board. I thought, gang freight [the method of moving from my experience in driving a Cat nametags up on the board, resembling
The rule car at the La Grande depot Photo courtesy of John Turner & Richard Hermens
15 a chain gang] as a brakeman. I couldnʼt There were standard clocks in all the bid off the passenger job as a conduc- stations that would be electrically set tor back to a brakeman job. from the national observatory in Wash- ington, D.C. at 12:00 noon, 9:00 a.m. Wartime Rationing here. When we went to work, we had to check our watches with the standard I: During the war, did you experience clock and sign on the register that we any diffi culty with rationing? had checked our watch and that it was within ten seconds of the standard LD: No. There was a lot of stuff that was time. scarce, of course, but I was single and ate in a restaurant most of the time I got my watch from Jack Peare, the then. It didnʼt have much of an effect designated watchmaker in La Grande. on me, though I couldnʼt go into a He had a standard clock that was set restaurant and order a steak or any- the same as the railroad clock. Ev- thing like that. Usually I got fi sh or ery fi fteen days, we had to go in and maybe once in a while some chicken. have him check our watches to make The restaurants had a lot of fi sh, for sure that they were within ten seconds some reason or other. of the standard time. If we missed a fi fteen-day watch check, it was thirty I: Werenʼt shoes rationed? demerit marks. If we got too many demerit marks, we might get pulled out LD: When I was on passenger service, I of service. I lucked out. I got only one had to wear polished dress shoes all set of thirty demerit marks when Iʼd the time. To get dress shoes was some- been on a work train and couldnʼt get times a problem; I had to go to the in to have my watch checked. When ration board and get a slip to get shoes. I explained where I was, I had to go upstairs and tell the trainmaster; he I: If you had a car, about how much gas pulled the demerit marks off. were you allowed?
LD: Five gallons of gas a month, I think. I had an A-stamp [the lowest category of allowable gasoline; B-stamps allowed ten gallons; C-stamps allowed fi fteen] and parked my car most of the time. Once in awhile somebody would have a little extra gas or get a little bootleg gas. I didnʼt have time to use it for anything else.
Railroad Time-keeping
I: Speaking of time, I think every rail- roader carried a railroad watch. Vernʼs gold railroad watch, for which he paid $5 down and a total of $62; LD: My watch was a 992 Hamilton. I still still runs after sixty-fi ve years have it. I carried it for forty-one years. Photo by Eugene Smith
16 Time on the railroad was a very impor- It was my turn after I’d been working tant thing. If your watch was off and outside, throwing switches. I rode the you missed one of those meets that had rear end of the caboose as we backed a time wait on it or if you didnʼt get down the hill from Meacham to hit this in the clear for a passenger train, you snow slide. It was probably around could get pulled out of service. 10:00 or 11:00 at night. We didn’t see it till we were right into it. When the A Snowslide at Meacham and snowplow stopped, Howard jumped off the caboose. I told him, “Look out, Everlasting Gratitude there might be a hole in that snow.” As he went up over the top of that slide, I LD: Here’s a story about one of the last saw his fl ashlight disappear. winters that we had very deep snow at Meacham--1945 or ‘46. The snow was Following his tracks, I had gone prob- somewhere between eight and twelve ably eight or ten feet when I saw the feet deep on the level there. The high- refl ection of his fl ashlight in the snow. way looked like a canal, where it had been plowed. I couldn’t quite reach him, so I smashed the snow down and dug it I was called to go out on a railroad back with my hand until I got hold of snowplow from La Grande to keep his hand and pulled him out. His the track open. Along toward the later glasses were full of snow; he could part of January, we had a warm-up hardly see. When I got him in the thaw--half snow and half rain. We caboose, he said, “By golly, Vern, that had plowed down to a station called was worse than I thought. You saved Duncan, where there was a Y, so that my life. I thought I was done for. If we could turn and plow back up to you hadn’t followed me, I would have Kamela. been there when they plowed the snow out.” While we were there, the operator came out and said, “The trainmas- Through the years it didn’t make any ter wants you back at Meacham. A difference where along the railroad I snow slide has come down.” Below ran into Howard Burnett. He always Meacham about a mile is the High came over and shook hands with me Bridge. The track out of Meacham is and passed the time of day. His wife on the south side of Meacham Creek; and mine had worked as telegraphers High Bridge crosses over and puts the and were friends. track on the north side of Meacham Creek. The slide was about a mile The last time I saw Howard was when below Meacham. I was on passenger out of Portland. He had gone up the ladder to vice-presi- The trainmaster’s name was Howard dent of operations out of Omaha. He Burnett; he had just been promoted to had his own private car, his own chef trainmaster. He was a good offi cial and waiter, traveling in a luxurious and eager to see this snow slide. We style. When I got to Union Station took turns on the caboose: one brake- from where we went to work, here man would put on his warm clothes were offi cials, all walking around stiff- and be outside for about an hour, while legged. When the train pulled in and the others rode in the caboose; then Howard got off, he completely ignored we’d trade. all those offi cials, had a great big smile
17 on his face, shook hands with me, and was one of the best places along the told me how good it was to see me. road to eat. The food was good and well prepared. Most of the cooks in His wife, Evaline, asked about my wife the restaurant had been dining-car and how she was. She shook hands chefs. and give me a big hug. The other of- fi cials looked at me as if to say, “What The Pullman porters went all the way in the world has he got that we haven’t through. The chair car porters would got?” get off at Huntington; the ones that come on the Portland Rose east would Racial Discrimination work the Portland Rose back into Port- land. I can’t ever remember them not in Huntington OR feeding the chair-car porters. I: Did you notice that in Huntington some restaurants had signs that sug- More about Cabooses gested racial discrimination? I: There are no longer cabooses on LD: The signs were “All white help,” but freight trains. What were the purposes they used to feed the porters. They of a caboose when they were in use? wouldn’t hire any colored people to work in the restaurant. At one time the LD: That was our home away from home. railroad had the Beanery in the depot We had our beds and all our work at Huntington; it was operated by the clothes for any kind of weather. It was railroad’s dining-car and hotel depart- a place for the crew to ride on the back ment. The porters and everybody ate end. The cupola had a seat on each in there at that time. When I fi rst went side; the conductor usually occupied to work on the railroad, the Beanery one side and the fl agman the other. In those days we had to watch closely for hot boxes. If we saw fi re or smoke coming out anywhere along the train, we were supposed to stop the train. We had an air valve in the caboose, so that we could set the air just like the engineer would. We had to take an examination on air to know how much to set. If it was something drastic,
Cafe signs in Huntington OR empasizing a racist attitude, 1940s Photo courtesy of John Turner & Richard Hermens
18 we opened the valve wide and put the Return to Freight on train to emergency and waited till it stopped. the Joseph Branch
I: How did you communicate with the LD: When they pulled the passenger trains engineer from the caboose? after the war, I had enough seniority to go on the branch line from La Grande LD: By hand signals, provided by the rule to Joseph--a local run. I bid a job on book. If you moved your arm, or your the Joseph branch. It was a travel- lantern, in a circle, that was “back up.” ing switch engine. After we worked If you wanted to go ahead, you raised out there awhile, we knew what the your hand up and down. If you wanted shipper wanted and how they wanted him to stop, you moved your hand their cars spotted and set up. Weʼd back and forth down low. get offi cials out there who tried to get it otherwise; they got us in dutch with I: How do you get the engineer’s atten- the foreman of the Bates Lumber saw- tion to see a hand signal? mill in Wallowa or Boise Cascade in Joseph. At the time it was one of the LD: We usually busted the air hose and put best jobs--six days a week and one day the train to emergency to wake him up! off.
I: But if things were going normally, JT: Did you go up and come back in the you couldn’t signal him because he same day? wouldn’t be looking around to see the signal, would he? LD: To start with. Then they changed it to going up one day and back the next LD: Engineers and brakemen were required because there got to be so much busi- by the rules to look back every so ness. Several times we came in with often to make sure that everything was seventy-fi ve or eighty cars of lumber. OK. Harris Pine in Pendleton was shipping between eighteen and twenty cars of logs out of Joseph every day.
Also, they used to ship black marble out of Enterprise to Union Carbide to make fl ashlight batteries. A lot of times weʼd leave Joseph with twenty-fi ve or thirty cars and pick up fi ve cars of black marble in Enterprise.
Grain growers were shipping wheat from Lostine, and at Wallowa weʼd get a bunch of sheep that needed to be loaded out at lambing time.
Bates also had a little sawmill at Look- inggglass [near Elgin]. Weʼd take Steel caboose (replaced wooden caboose) empties from Wallowa to Looking- Photo courtesy of John Turner & Richard Hermens glass, switch them out there, and the
19 next morning pick them up to take didn’t make any difference what time them back to Wallowa. of night; if she heard that train, we’d see a fl ashlight at her window. In the I: Did you ever let any fi shermen off and mornings, she’d be out on the porch, then pick them up coming back? waving at us when we went by.
LD: Yes. Weʼd load them on a fl at car. We In the Brunswick Café at Elgin, where even loaded people that were going to we often ate, there was a bride doll on drift the river--stopping at Rondowa a punch board. We asked the lady who and helping them unload their boats worked there how much that doll was and get in the water. We didnʼt travel worth. “Oh, I can’t sell it,” she said. very fast; ten to fi fteen miles an hour “It’s on the punch board.” We asked was about all the track would allow. how much was on the punch board. The fi shermen weʼd dropped off from We punched out the whole board, but Rondowa up toward Vincent and Mi- the number for the doll wasn’t on it. nam, would be looking for us. Weʼd The lady was bewildered about it and alert them with a whistle coming down said, “I don’t know what I’m gonna through the canyon, pick them up, and do.” So we talked it over. The six of bring them back to Elgin. us on the crew told her we’d give her $30 for the doll and why we wanted I: Great time! it. She wrapped this doll up and tied it beautifully when we picked it up. LD: Oh yes. During hunting season, weʼd load a bunch of hunters on the fl at car The day before Christmas we went to with their camping outfi ts. I did that a Joseph and started back early Christ- lot of times. We unloaded them wher- mas morning. Dave Rose was the en- ever they wanted to get off, and theyʼd gineer and I was one of the brakemen. stay out there all hunting season. We When we got down to there where hauled a lot of elk and deer out of these folks lived, some of the other there. guys acted like they were afraid they’d get in trouble. So I carried the doll out A Little Girl and a Doll and handed it over the fence to little Gale and her father. She was four or LD: Another memory I have of the Joseph fi ve years old. As she ran across that branch line is about a little girl. Her fi eld, with snow eight or ten inches folks had bought a piece of ground deep, her long, blond hair waved in about a hundred yards off from the the wind, her mother behind her. With railroad track and about a mile and a tears streaming down her face, she half from Enterprise toward Joseph. said, “You are the most wonderful They had moved a house onto a foun- guys I ever saw in my life. You’ve dation and had it set up early in the made Gale’s Christmas. She lost ev- fall. While they were getting it fi n- erything she had in the fi re; if it hadn’t ished, they had a fi re that destroyed been for you boys getting this bride part of the house. doll and giving it to her, she wouldn’t of had a Christmas present.” The little girl--her name was Gale Ashenbrenner--would always wave Years later, a woman got on the train at us when we went by at night. It in Portland with a ticket to Enterprise.
20 I said, “Do you happen to know a girl four to six coaches and three to four there by the name of Gale Ashenbren- Pullman cars every trip. We left Port- ner?” She said, “She’s one of my best land many times without a vacant seat. friends. How did you know her?” I The mail was handled on the trains, told her about the doll. She said, and they had RPO, or the Rail Post “You know, that’s Gale’s pride. She Offi ce. You could mail a letter on the wouldn’t part with that doll for any- train out of La Grande or Baker, and thing in the world.” it would be delivered in Portland the next morning. When they killed the Another time my wife and I were in passenger train, they pulled the RPO Enterprise with the motorhome and cars off. found Gale. She worked for the Forest Service at an information bureau by The City of Portland, the Union Pacifi c the courthouse. I said to my wife, “I’m streamliner, connected with two trains going over to see which one’s Gale.” I in Portland. It was the most superior said, “Is one of you ladies Gale Ash- train on the track. Freight trains had to enbrenner?” She said, “I am.” I said, be in the clear by twenty minutes at the “Years ago, when you were a little, last station on the employeeʼs schedule bitty girl, some guys gave you a doll where time was shown. If you de- for Christmas.” “How did you know layed it, boy, youʼd better have a good about that doll?” I said, “Dave Rose reason or you could be pulled out of and I were the two guys that carried service for it. the doll across the fi eld to you that morning. On Christmas morn-ing of I: Sometimes during the war and the har- that year--it was in the ‘50s--you gave vest season for fruit, didnʼt the railroad us a big hug and a peck on the face. have fruit cars intermixed with the pas- You made our Christmas for us.” She senger cars? said, “And you made my Christmas for me.” LD: Yes, on the Portland Rose and the Idahoan but never on the streamliner. Back to Passenger Service The Portland Rose sometimes would have three or four cars of cherries or I: What did you do after working on the fruit. In those days at Hinkle--when Joseph branch? the McNary Dam went in, they moved the yard from Reith to Hinkle--fruit LD: I went to Portland on passenger in cars would come down Yakima, Wen- December of ʼ60. The Harriman fam- atchee, Walla Walla, and Milton-Free- ily was in charge of Union Pacifi c. water. They put them on the head of Roland Harriman was chairman of the the train, ahead of the RPO car, and board and Averill Harriman, an ambas- then theyʼd ice them: cut the ice and sador, was also on the board. Passen- add so much salt and so many blocks ger trains were number one--superior of ice--whatever it took to fi ll the bun- trains. If you delayed a passenger kers up. I think they put 100 pounds train, they wanted to know why. The of salt on each side to help refriger- trains were on time; people knew ate the car in order to keep the fruit theyʼd get to where they wanted to go. in good condition when it reached the fi nal destination. I worked on the City of Portland from Portland to Huntington; weʼd have I: Changing the division point to Hinkle
21 was really what did in the La Grande I: Tell me more about your experiences roundhouse, wasnʼt it? as a conductor.
LD: No, the diesels were what really did LD: Many times, like on The Idahoan go- in the roundhouse. A lot of times, ing into Pendleton, I handled as high as a steam engine would come in on a four hundred and fi ve hundred through freight train; on the passenger trains tickets, in addition to the tickets that the steam engines went through. Iʼd give back and the cancellations for people that got off, got on, and ran to When they ran the steam engines, they catch another train. We used to haul had to go through the roundhouse, a lot of people in the Meacham Creek where a crew with grease guns would Canyon. They didnʼt have roads or lubricate the side rods and the drivers gasoline so theyʼd ride the train out to and check them all over while they La Grande for supplies, and weʼd pick were unloading and loading the mail. them up. Some of them had passes. I had to make a record of all the passes. I: Were those crews called car toads? I got turned in one time for carrying LD: The car toads were the car inspectors. people without proper authorization. The others were roundhouse grease When I fi rst went to work on pas- monkeys. They used a heavy, graph- senger service, I was working with an ite-like grease on the side rods, applied old-time conductor, who said, “Vern, with an air gun, made by Almight--a Iʼm going to give you a few pointers type of grease gun. There were usually to cut your work down. For offi cials two guys--one pulling the trigger and and section men and the water-service the other guy feeding a stick of grease gang--people that ride the train all the into the gun to force it into the side time--get their pass numbers and mark rod bearings and the sides where the them in your book. When they get on cylinders went in and out of the piston to go to service the water down in the housing. canyon, theyʼll tell you where they
Offi cial delay report for train #25 fi lled out by Vern on October 30, 1976 Original courtesy of Le Vern Draper
22 want to get off. You just hat-check putting me right up against the blaze them for Huron, or Meacham, or Peli- because I was responsible to make sure can, or Gibbon [places between La that everybody had the proper trans- Grande and Pendleton], or wherever portation authorization. they are going.” I said, “Youʼll just have to pay a cash We stopped at Union Junction, North fare.” Oh, she got mad. There was Powder, Haines, Baker, and sometimes a roundhouse foreman there; he said, Durkee, a fl ag stop. Old Bob said, “You can carry her on my pass as my “Just mark their pass down, and then, wife.” I said, “Your pass doesnʼt have when they get on, you know who they your wifeʼs name on it.” You see, are. When you get to your desk, you there were A passes and B passes: an can take the number out of your book A pass for a semi-offi cial and for him and write on your passenger report alone; a B pass could cover the em- where they were going. It will save ployee or his family, and it was good you a lot of time out in the car, and you on some trains, not on others. An A can sit down and do a lot of it.” pass was good on any train because it was for an offi cial. There was an operator [telegraphic] who got on at La Grande. Sheʼd been He said, “You can carry her on my partying and didnʼt get a pass back to pass.” I said, “Mister, your A pass Huntington. I was going east on #26. isnʼt good for her to ride.” I made her If she had come to me on the platform pay a cash fare because she put me and said, “I didnʼt get a chance to get right up against it, and she turned me a ticket or a pass,” I would have taken in. her. But she waited till she got in the car full of people, and, as I checked, The trainmasterʼs name was Bruner. she said, “Youʼll have to carry me. I He followed me through the train and didnʼt have a chance to get a pass, watched every move I made--rode all and youʼll just have to carry me to the way from Pendleton to Huntington Huntington.” Anything like that was with me. I didnʼt know Iʼd been turned
A sample train order Original courtesy of Le Vern Draper
23 in, so, remembering another thing that the back that we stapled to the other old Bob had taught me--that, when coupon and sent it in to the auditor. you picked up some local tickets, you should keep an extra one in your pock- Bruner didnʼt understand why I was et and then if you got in a tight spot cutting those extends. He didnʼt know you had something to show--I always anything about that. So when we had two or three extra tickets. I made got to La Grande, I unloaded a lot of sure I turned them in before the expira- people; I knew most of the people that tion date to have an alibi in case I got went to Huron and Duncan and Gib- caught. bon toward Pendleton. They couldnʼt get out of there except on the train. Bruner counted every passenger, and, Theyʼd have their groceries and stuff, when I got into Huntington, he wanted so Iʼd load them fi rst. Then, if I had to know what my passenger count was. any room, Iʼd take through passengers. When I gave it to him, I had a record I had a bunch of water-service gang of tickets Iʼd punched, cash fares, and men that came through, and they told everything. I exceeded what he had me where they wanted to go; I hat- counted on the train. checked them.
He didnʼt say anything about my be- Coming into Pendleton, Bruner said, ing turned in, so the next day, when I “Have you got a minute to talk?” I was called for #25 to come back here, said, “I guess so, why?” He said, he was on the train and followed me “Letʼs wait till we get off at Pendle- all the way through to give back the ton. You were turned in for carrying tickets and to check me. You see, the passengers that didnʼt have proper Idahoan had three Pullman cars in ad- transportation. You never asked me for dition to eight to ten passenger cars. my pass.” I said, “Iʼve got your pass.” A conductor had to cut what we called He looked at me strangely; I took my an exchange or extend check. Tickets book out of my coat pocket and said, on a passenger train were local and “Hereʼs your pass, A-number so and interline. A local ticket was one that so”--I forget what his initial was-- was issued on Union Pacifi c or just “Bruner.” He stood there, looked at over the Union Pacifi c line. An inter- me, and said, “How about a certain line ticket was one that covered two or one, like going to Duncan?” “Oh, three lines--like those coming out of hereʼs his pass number.” I had put it Kansas City on Norfolk and Western, on the 3618, the passenger report. He or on the Rock Island from Kansas said, “I donʼt know how you did it.” City to Denver, or on Union Pacifi c I had three or four passengers that from Denver to Seattle or Portland. didnʼt have tickets, but I had tickets in We had to cut this exchange check on my pocket to cover for them. I knew a coupon that was on an interline ticket what I was doing so that I could cover so that Union Pacifi c would get their up and make everything work out all revenue from, say, Denver to Portland. right. Great Northern and Northern Pacifi c, in addition to Union Pacifi c, were run- When I got off at Pendleton, he said, ning out of Portland to Seattle. These “I donʼt know what your system is, extends were good on any of the trains. but you show more people on the train It was like other tickets, only it was then I counted.” I said, “Did you count an exchange. There was a coupon on all those that got off at Pendleton and
24 that I gave their tickets back to?” “I We used to go into Portland and get didnʼt understand why you were giving transferred to the Southern Pacifi c. their tickets back.” I said, “Theyʼre At that time, Southern Pacifi c ran the getting off at Pendleton. They may Shasta Daylight south out of Portland ride a bus out of Pendleton, they may fi fteen minutes after the City of Port- ride passenger train, maybe theyʼll ride land got there. The Portland Yard was a car. So what? Thatʼs their ticket.” controlled by an interlock system. He said, “Oh, forget it, Vern. Just go Telegraphers and operators handled ahead the way you are.” the switches. They had a tower on the east side of the Steel Bridge on the Another experience was kind of funny. Willamette River and also one on the I had cut an extend and went back to west side. Theyʼd handle the switches the Pullman, where a lady was playing to put the trains in and out of the yard. cards with a group. I walked up to her If they didnʼt want the trains to go in, and said, “Are you going to Seattle?” theyʼd hold a block red on it, and we She said, “Yes, I am.” I said, “If youʼll had to stay there. They werenʼt blocks give me your claim check, Iʼll give you that we could fl ag. They were blocks your ticket from Portland to Seattle.” that were positive, and you had to stop “Thatʼs all right, young man. You tell and stay till the one that put the block the conductor to come back. Iʼll give red gave you authority or cleared. him my claim check, and he can give me the ticket.” I said, “Lady, I am the We were right on time with the City conductor.” She reared back, looked at of Portland, with eighty-some passen- me, and said, “You? A young whip- gers to transfer to the Shasta Daylight. persnapper like you a passenger con- They held us thirty-seven minutes on ductor? Why, passenger conductors the east side of the Willamette River. are old, grouchy men with big, fat bel- We sat there and watched the Shasta lies!” pull out with empty seats and nobody in the diner. The people on our train End of Union Pacifi c saw their train going south and they werenʼt on it. Iʼm telling you, the train Passenger Service crew took an awful going over--a lot of unhappy people. LD: When they killed the passenger train, I was on one of the fi rst trains that Sometimes, they would put the City came into Portland after the Harri- of Portland in a passing track between mans released it and Chase Manhattan Troutdale and east Portland and put out Bank took over. When the bank took a fl at meet to hold us out there till they charge, they immediately started to ran a freight train out of the Albina kill the passenger train. They wanted yard. I went to the phone several times the freight, but they didnʼt want the to call to see what was going on. The passenger service. They said it wasnʼt train wasnʼt even made up yet when feasible; it took too many employees we were there. In twenty minutes we to operate the passenger train: Pullman could have been in the station and on porters, chair-car porters, and a dining our way home. crew--a steward, four cooks, and usu- ally four to six waiters. The train crew I think it was six or seven years after was a conductor and two brakemen. they pulled the passenger train off The bank said they werenʼt making when Amtrak started through there. enough money from it.
25 Of course, they didnʼt use the standard I: It seems, as the highway is blocked railroad uniforms, so, after I went in on both ways from La Grande during the the last City of Portland, there would wintertime, it would be quite an advan- be no reason for me to keep the uni- tage to be able to have rail service form. Thereʼd never be any chance to going either east or west. work a passenger train after that. The museum at Union had a year when LD: At one time that was the only way to they were celebrating the railroad. I get over the mountain in the winter- gave my uniform--the one I wore on time. Iʼve seen a lot of times when the last trip into Portland on May 1, the highway was closed between La 1971. We piled anybody on that could Grande and Pendleton, even La Grande get on the train that morning going in. and Baker, and the only means of When we got to Hinkle, a bunch of transportation was the trains; they kept people wanted to ride the train for the rolling. The way the railroad killed the last time. There was standing room passenger train was the saddest thing. only by the time we got into Portland. We were late but not too late, and there Whistling at Crossings was quite a reception. A picture in The Oregonian showed me, unloading the I: What is your opinion about requiring people as the train stood there in the train engineers to whistle at crossings? terminal at Union Station in Portland. Now, thereʼs no passenger service LD: I think that is something that should either way--no way for people to ride never be stopped. People holler about the rails at all. The railroad thinks they that whistle. I saw a time and time have a big thing. They have a promo- again in Pendleton, where whistling tion every so often that theyʼll bring was against the cityʼs rule, coming some of their equipment in and maybe down there on the main line by the go out to Union Junction and let old depot, we hit several cars on Main people ride the train out and then take Street. They would see that train com- them back in La Grande Central-- ing and say, “I can make it.” Theyʼd only about ten or twelve miles one pour it on. When the train hit the cross- way. To me that wouldnʼt be much of ing, ka-wham. There used to be storage a train ride. tracks just to the west of Main Street; I donʼt know how many times I saw cars plastered up against those box cars in the storage tracks that trains had hit.
I : You seem to be saying, though, the drivers were trying to beat the train. How would a whistle slow them down?
LD: It could warn them that we were closer to the crossing than they actually thought we were. The engineer was re- quired to blow two longs, a short, and Vern as conductor on the City of Portland passenger train,1971 a long. The last long whistle was to be Photo courtesy of Le Vern Draper continued into the crossing.
26 I: Would they try to go through the on the railroad. When I hired out at gates? the railroad, men were railroad men. They knew how to switch cars; they LD: They didnʼt have gates then. knew how to handle trains; they knew how to tie hand brakes. But they got Most Unpleasant a bunch of offi cials that came out of college and never made a student trip Railroad Experience as a brakeman or moved up through the ranks. They didnʼt know the A-end I: What was the most unpleasant part of from a D-end on a boxcar. And then your working for the railroad? theyʼd try and tell us how to do the LD: Being on call all hours of the day and work. night for freight work. Lifelong Interest in Flying I: Sleep was always interrupted? LD: While I was railroading, I had learned LD: You had to sleep days; you had to to fl y as a hobby--something I always sleep when you had a chance. I donʼt wanted to do. When I hired out on know how many years I worked that the railroad I thought that was the I was never home for Thanksgiving best thing. It was the best job a person or Christmas. You never could lay off could get. Yet I was always interested around the holidays. Anything you in fl ying. wanted to do, you had to plan it to be at some time other than when it was I: Tell me about the fi rst time you rode special. I told the wife when I retired, on an airplane. “I can go to bed and I donʼt have to sleep with one ear open to the tele- LD: Iʼll tell you, it was one of the great- phone.” It seemed that the majority of est thrills of my life. When I was a the calls at night were between 12:30 little kid, we lived west of town here in the morning up till about 3:30 to in Union. The fi rst planes to come 4:00. in here were JN4s, bi-planes, selling hides at stock-show time. I climbed When I was on passenger runs, I could up on the highest post I could fi nd so mark the calendar a year ahead and I could watch those airplanes fl ying know what days Iʼd be home. I knew around over town. I slipped and tore whether I was going to be home on a the seat out of my pants and conse- holiday. I made a trip every four days. quently got paddled for being up there That eleven years was about the nicest on the pole. As I grew up, every time job I had. The best paying job I had, I had a chance to go see airplanes I though, was on the Joseph branch; that grabbed it. was a mortgage lifter. My dad subscribed to Popular Science Refl ection on Railroad Work magazine that had an article on fl ying an airplane--pictures of how it came in I: Is there anything else that youʼve ever to land and the position of the controls. wanted to do other than the railroad? I read everything I could fi nd. After Lindbergh fl ew the Atlantic, I read LD: Not till after Iʼd worked a long time every book I could about Lindbergh
27 and anything that pertained to fl ying. I They told us that we had done a very really ate it up. good job and to get in the plane. We got in the back seat of the plane, and At a stock show during the Depression, the pilot sat up in front. They made two guys had a Curtis Robbins that sure the seatbelts were fastened, fi red they landed alongside the highway just up the engine, and taxied out. outside of Union. I asked my mother if I could go out and see the airplane. It was one of the greatest thrills I ever In those days, if I went any place, I had had. When we took off, we were sit- to have permission from the folks; I ting there, watching the ground disap- couldnʼt just jump on my bicycle and pear below us as we climbed out. I go somewhere; I had to have permis- just couldnʼt believe. It was a dream sion. She said, “Yeah.” She didnʼt put more than anything. They gave us a on any restrictions like “You be back real good ride, advertising for the stock by a certain time.” show. They fl ew all around Union and over to La Grande, to Imbler, When I got out there, they were taxi- and back. I imagine we were up for ing up to where they wanted to tie the twenty-fi ve or thirty minutes. I know plane down. They had to go to La it didnʼt seem very long, but it was a Grande to get gasoline from Standard real thrill. Oil. In those days aviation gas was brought in fi ve-gallon tin cans. They When we came in to land, I was all wanted to make arrangements for addi- eyes, trying to see whatever he did, tional gas while they were here for the but with him sitting in front of us, I stock show. They told me and another couldnʼt see how he handled the con- kid, Kenneth Faust, if weʼd get shov- trols, except I could see feet moving a els and fi ll in the ditches that had been little bit. He landed; I thanked him and plowed ditches to irrigate the alfalfa started for home because I fi gured Iʼd fi eld, theyʼd give us a ride. I went over really hit it. Before I got home, I met to Roy Wheelerʼs ranch and borrowed my mother coming to meet me with a a shovel. Kenneth and I tamped those handful of switches. She warmed my ditches till the fi eld was as smooth as it back from my ears to my tailbone. She could be. said, “Iʼll teach you to disobey me.” I tried to tell her I hadnʼt disobeyed The guys werenʼt back from town yet. her, but she said, “When your dad gets So I took the shovel back over and home, heʼll give you another one.” give it to Roy Wheeler. Then I went back out there and waited till fi nally My dad was a strict one on work. If they showed up. The Standard Oil work was satisfactory, that was fi ne man came out with a car and four fi ve- with him. When Dad got home, she gallon cans of aviation gasoline. They said, “I want you to give this kid poured two of those cans, one in the another licking. He disobeyed me.” wing on each side. Then they inspect- Of course, Dad didnʼt know anything ed the ditches. about my being on an airplane ride. I didnʼt have a dime to my name and The guy named Alexander was going couldnʼt pay for a ride. He said, to stay on the ground, and the other “Whatʼd he do?” She said, “He went guy was going to take us kids up. for an airplane ride.” Dad said, “Beu-
28 lah,”--he very rarely called my mother told my wife, “Move over. I want to by her fi rst name--“Iʼm going to fi nd talk to Vern. I have a proposition to out the boyʼs side of it before I pun- make you.” I said, “Eldon, I canʼt go to ish him.” She said, “You just do as I work. I broke my arm on the job, and said. He disobeyed me and I want him I have a claim against the company for to have another licking.” Dad turned pay while Iʼm off.” He said, “Who in to me and said, “Son, how did you get the hell said I was going to pay you that airplane ride?” I went into detail anything? Iʼll teach you to fl y and you about how they offered us a ride if fl ag for me. I wonʼt pay you anything, weʼd fi ll in the ditches. Before I got and you wonʼt pay me anything.” through, he said, “Did you do your work good?” I said, “They said it was Thatʼs the way I learned to fl y. For all right and they were well pleased. most student pilots it takes at least They told us to get in and theyʼd give eight to nine hours before theyʼre us a ride.” He turned to my mother qualifi ed to land and take an airplane and told her he wasnʼt going to whip off. He soloed me in four hours and me because Iʼd worked and earned my forty-fi ve minutes. ride and I was entitled to my pay. Boy, it was kind of an unhappy place around LD: So then I started fl agging for him when there for a while. he was doing crop dusting. The eight swaths of the plane when he sprayed Relaxed Flight Instruction with a spray boom covered approxi- mately forty-fi ve feet. Iʼd start fi fteen LD: I got to be real good friends with the feet in from the fence, carrying a big, fellow that taught me to fl y. He was white fl ag on a stick. I could carry it one of those men that pioneered the air in my left hand, with my right arm in tanker service to fi ght forest fi res. a sling, and I could hold it up so he could see it. He would line up with me I: What was his name? at a point at the other end of the fi eld. When Iʼd see that heʼd lined up with LD: Eldon Down. He was a funny little me, Iʼd take fi fteen steps, or forty-fi ve fellow. Maybe heʼd talk, maybe he feet, over and heʼd go on by on that wouldnʼt. If he wanted to talk to you, swath. Heʼd make a turn and line up heʼd talk. If he didnʼt, heʼd just sit and with me again going the other way. I look at you. was fl agging the fi elds for him so that there werenʼt any skips in fl ying back I have to tell a little incident about and forth. We started at daylight and Eldonʼs teaching me to fl y. I told him work till about 8:00 or 9:00, till it be- I could learn to fl y. He said, “Get your gan to get hot and the spray wouldnʼt permit, then.” In those days there was settle in; then we quit. still an air-identifi cation zone between here and Pendleton on account of Han- I learned to fl y in a Veronica Champ, ford, so you had to have a government a little sixty-horse airplane--Putt-Putt, card with your picture and your fi nger- I called it. It was fun to fl y. Weʼd fl y prints on it. I still have one of them. out and look at a fi eld, and heʼd show After I got my student permit, I went me where he wanted to go. After Iʼd out in car with my arm in a cast; Iʼd soloed, Iʼd fl y out and take a map and had an accident and broken my arm. map fi elds, and then Iʼd practice ma- He followed me out to the car and neuvers to get ready for a check ride.
29 A lot of that time I never logged gree turn to the left, looked back at because I fi gured he was fl ying the air- that runway, and there it was way, way plane. I was just starting out and didnʼt down there. I thought, “What in the know anything about it except to push world are you, a stupid idiot, doing up the throttle and take off. Come to fi nd here? You donʼt know anything about out, I was doing all the fl ying, and he it, and here you sit and the runwayʼs was sitting in the back. He said, “You way down there.” Then I sweated come out this afternoon. I want to ride some more. The fi rst landing I made with you.” So I went out about 4:00, was pretty good. The second landing when it began to cool down. wasnʼt quite as smooth, and the last landing was what youʼd call a bas- LD: We climbed in the Champ and went ketball landing: I dribbled all the way through a bunch of maneuvers--like down the runway and got it stopped. I stalls, slow fl ight, minimum control started to get out, but he give me a sign speed--just learning to control the air- to keep the engine running and got plane from all attitudes. We went back in. He said, “Thatʼs pretty good, but I in, shot a couple of landings, came want you to smooth up your landing.” around, and he said, “Make a full stop And he signed me off. landing.” I fi gured my lesson was over for the day. When I came in, just as I After that, heʼd give me a map and fl ared it out to touch down, he hit the send me out to map the fi elds so he throttle wide open, hit the stick, and didnʼt have to go. Thatʼs the way I made the wheels hit the runway. We built up my fl ying time. I worked for bounced that plane about thirty or forty him till my arm healed and went back feet in the air. He said, “Take over and to work on the railroad. That fall we land it.” I grabbed the power, got it were elk hunting near Redʼs horse all set up, and landed, still with plenty ranch. He checked me out going into of runway. He said, “OK, letʼs taxi Redʼs--another tricky place to get in back.” and out of. I fi gured the lesson was over. When LD: The next year we were out hunting we got to the taxiway to go to the west of Anthony Lake. It had been hanger, he said, “Let me out. Now you go up and make three touch-and-go a miserable day, snowing and every- landings, come in, and Iʼll ride with thing. Weʼd seen a few cows, but there you again.” I started to sweat. Iʼm were no horns. I had a camper on the telling you, my shirt got wetter all the pickup; we were sitting in the camper time. So I taxied up on what was 2-9 while I was getting ready to cook din- then. Now they call it 3-0: thatʼs the ner. He said, “Vern, I got a proposi- magnetic heading of the runway. tion to make.” I said, “Donʼt want to turn you down.” He said, “No, I donʼt I: At the La Grande airport? think youʼll turn me down when I tell you about it.” He told me about the LD: Yes, at the La Grande airport. So I Forest Service wanting to start using took off. That Champ was a sixty- aircraft to fi ght forest fi res and that horse engine, and without him in there he had made a bid on some B25s at it just hopped off--didnʼt take very Davis Molison in Tucson. He said, long to get airborne. So I climbed up “Iʼm going to need co-pilots on all four hundred feet, made a ninety-de- these tankers. All you have to have is
30 a commercial license.” Thatʼs all you four gallons of gasoline and twenty- needed in those days; now you have to fi ve gallons of oil on each engine. We have a commercial license, as well as grossed thirty-eight thousand pounds instrument and multi-engine rating to on take-off. fl y co-pilot on tankers. He said, “You use my airplane”--I had to build up to When we dumped that slurry, we had 300 hours--“and Iʼll help you get your it hooked up with an electric switch. I license. Iʼll give you the fi rst co-pilot could dump fi ve hundred or a thousand seat.” gallons or stagger them, depending on what the fi re boss demanded. It A La Grande “Bombing Run” had a vent scoop on the top--I think a twenty-seven-cubic-inch air scoop. LD: I made a trip to Tucson with him to fl y When weʼd open those doors and get co-pilot on a B25 to begin to get ac- rid of that load, weʼd get rid of twelve quainted with the airplane. When we thousand pounds in three seconds. The got back, we scared the people at La change in the attitude of the air-plane Grande half to death. We lined up in put on a G load--the power of gravity kind of a military formation and came pulling against you when the airplane across the valley at about a hundred is in negative confi guration. The most and fi fty or two hundred feet--right we ever pulled was two-and-a-half Gs. over La Grande--made a big turn, and The plane, if I remember right, was then peeled off to go into the airport to dressed for six negative Gs (the down land. Those big old props were really pressure on the wings and the pres- growling. sure going up) and either nine or ten positive Gs (the pressure underneath A neighbor lady came out and told my the wing that holds the airplane in the wife, “I think weʼre being bombed. air). Several times we used that G load Those looked like bombers and they to help get us out of a tight spot. The were fl ying so low. I hope they donʼt Forest Service would allow us to fl y hit anything very vital.” Bernice, my fi ve and a half hours a day. Before the wife, said, “Donʼt worry, they wonʼt. summer was over, I had accumulated They just a bunch of idiots coming pretty close to a hundred and fi fty home.” hours of engine time. The fellow I fl ew with, Howard Fighting Eastern Oregon Fires Mayes, was a B17 pilot, who had from the Air
LD: After I got my commercial license in 1960, a lightning storm came through and set the fi rst big fi re at Anthony Lakes. We started using borate then-- a crude of borate soap chips, four pounds to a gallon of water. A gallon of water weighs eight pounds; that made a mixture weighing twelve pounds. We carried one thousand gal- B25 performing test of simulated borate at La lons, or twelve thousand pounds. The Grande airport airplane carried nine hundred-sixty- Photo courtesy of Le Vern Draper
31 fl own thirty some missions over Ger- the Grande Ronde Valley and watch a many during World War II. He storm out toward Elgin or over toward brought in a B17 several times pretty Wallowa. That storm has passed, un- badly shot up. He had been shot down less itʼs a freak storm, and youʼll never behind the lines and spent a year see any more of it. The next one will through the underground getting out of be coming out of the Elkhorns. Germany back into England. He was one of the sharpest guys to fl y with. The lightning had set a big fi re up near He taught me how to land and take off. Missoula, Montana, right on the breaks where the Salmon River turns west If we had a load, Iʼd fl y it out to where from Idaho down to Riggins. Then it the fi re was. I knew the country turns left to the River of No Return. around here, so theyʼd tell me where From there down to Riggins there the fi re was, and weʼd just take off and are no roads. The fi re they called the go. Heʼd take over when we made Elbow Fire was right on the top of the the drop. I made the drops, and heʼd ridge, above where the Salmon River fl y it back. Then weʼd load up, and makes a turn toward the west. Weʼd heʼd take off the next time. After weʼd been fl ying on that for about four or made the drop, Iʼd fl y it back, land fi ve days--just one load right after the and load up, and then Iʼd take off the other. The fi re was spreading. next time. Thatʼs the way we worked. I learned quite a lot about fl ying old Experiencing St. Elmoʼs Fire engine airplanes from him. LD: We were coming back from there the Origins of Eastern Oregonʼs night the electric storm went through Lightning Storms and set the Anthony Lakes fi re. As we came into the Grande Ronde Valley, LD: The lightning storm that set the An- over Mt. Harris, the lightning fl ashed thony Lakes fi re was one of the most over the airplane, and it almost blinded vicious storms--until we had one here me. I was fl ying. We picked up St. about a month ago--that I ever saw. Elmoʼs Fire--just one big arc of fi re all I fl ew a lot of charter fl ights and for the the way around those big propellers. Forest Service for a lot of forest fi res. I Sparks were fl ying off the tips, and fi re learned that a lot of our electric storms was running all through the cockpit. generate around John Day. The heat If you moved your hands or fi ngers, comes off the desert there, the Abert the little blue fl ames would run up and Desert, is blown by the wind into the down your arms, your hands, your pant mountains north of Burns, where the legs. You couldnʼt feel a thing, but timber and the cooler air are. That you could see that fi re running up and meeting generates electric storms that down. Itʼd make your fi ngers glow. will start at the Strawberries [mountain Then youʼd touch your control and range] and move over to the Elkhorns you couldnʼt feel anything, but if you [another mountain range southeast of moved your hand, you could see those La Grande] right into this area on out sparks fl y off your fi ngers. to the northeast. Most all electric storms move from the southwest to- I: Was it injuring you in any way? ward the northeast, though a few move from west to east. You can sit here in LD: No, we werenʼt grounded. If we had
32 been, it would have killed us. The between each one. Iʼd give anything if magnetic compass was spinning Iʼd had a picture of it, but I didnʼt have one way, stopping, and spinning the my camera; I had sent my movie cam- other way. Thereʼs a gyrocompass in era on a DC3 to get pictures of drop- an airplane that is run off a vacuum ping smoke jumpers in Hells Canyon. thatʼs nonmagnetic, and that thing was I do have a four-hundred-foot reel of spinning so fast it was a blur. All the dropping slurry on the fi re at Anthony instruments went goofy. Howard said Lakes and moving pictures of smoke to me, “Well, buddy, go ahead and land jumpers jumping out of a DC3 over it. Weʼve got to get it on the ground, Hells Canyon. but you stay in the cockpit.” To start with one day there, the For- When we got taxied up to the gas est Service designated each fi re with a pump, he dropped the escape hatch number--like the fi re dispatcher is 2-2 so there wasnʼt any way to touch it. and Glass Hill is maybe 2-0-4. Point He was a small man--about fi ve feet Prominent would be something else, six or seven inches and Iʼm six feet depending on the area. three inches--so we looked like Mutt and Jeff, working together. Anyway, When it gets really hot, the lift to get he got down, and, before he touched off with a loaded airplane is equiva- the ground, he just folded his arms lent to taking off from a runway of six and dropped through that hole in the thousand to seven thousand-foot eleva- bottom of the airplane to the ground. tion instead of twenty seven hundred Then he picked up a ground wire, and, feet. Grossing thirty-eight thousand when he touched the landing gear of pounds on takeoff, weʼd use every bit the airplane and grounded it, there was of the runway to get off. Sometimes a spark about as big as the palm of my weʼd pull the gear up to keep it from hand that jumped off that landing gear. hitting the fence when we went over He went around various places touch- the end of the runway. ing that airplane with the ground wire. We were fl ying by a lookout, and one He said, “OK, buddy, now you can get of the ladies that was in the lookout out.” called the fi re dispatcher at Baker and said, “Uncle Etchway 2-2.” He said, We gassed it up the next morning, and, “What is it?” She said, “This is 2-0-4. when I prefl ighted the airplane before I have a complaint to make.” He said, we took off, there were two or three “Whatʼs your complaint?” She said, little black arc marks up to the tip of “I donʼt like these big airplanes fl ying each one of the propeller blades, where so close to my lookout. It rattles the static electricity had gone out to the windows.” Mayes, the pilot I was fl y- tips. ing with, didnʼt say anything.
The Anthony Lakes Fire When it was my turn to fl y out next time, he said, “Old buddy, Iʼll fl y this LD: When the Anthony Lakes fi re started, time.” I said, “All right.” It didnʼt it was fi ve fi res burning together--look- make any difference to me. He was ing like fi ve big arches as we fl ew over captain, and, if he said he was going to it. The smoke went up and made an fl y, he was the boss. As we took off, arch, and the sun was shining through we saw an engineer parked off the road
33 right the end of runway 3-4 in a brand were afraid somebody would walk new pickup. When we went across, he into a propeller. He said, “Say, you had slid down in the seat till I could came awful close to my new pickup.” look right down his throat as he was I said, “Rosy, nobody but an idiot looking up. Iʼll bet those propellers hoghead would park right off the end missed that pickup by inches. of the runway because he didnʼt have a brakeman to lead him around. If one of Weʼd have to make about two-and-a- those engines had caught just as we half turns here in the valley out over went over your pickup, weʼd have a fi eld to get elevation enough to get taken you and your wife and your new up. Mayes always wore gloves when pickup right along with it.” he fl ew--why, I donʼt know. I donʼt like gloves when Iʼm fl ying. Heʼd put Saving a Bulldozer and Two Lives those gloves on, pull them down, and take hold of the control. He reached I: You were going to tell me about when down to the throttle and added another you dropped on a Cat [bulldozer] up couple inches of manifold pressure-- there at Anthony. thatʼs adding power--and eased that plane over a little bit closer to that LD: When we took off, two Cats were right lookout when we went by. Just before off Anthony Butte, plowing fi reline. we got to it, he reached over and got They got in the smoke and fi re, and the hold of the prop controls. They were Caterpillars died. The chase plane--or a constant speed prop, and you could the birddog plane, as we called it--that change the pitch by changing the con- was circling around called us. Our trols. He pulled that prop control back plane was #21. They said, “2-1, thereʼs and came back up to cruise. Those big two Caterpillars trapped in the fi re old fourteen-foot props went “Rrrr.” down there. If you can pick ʻem up, hit He said, “Buddy, Iʼll bet that rattled ʻem.” her windows.” We never heard an- other peep out of her. So we circled and circled, and all we could see was the top of a snag stick- Later years I was at the Elks temple, ing up out of the smoke. As we made and guy named Merrick said, “Vern, one circle, I happened to spot them, Iʼve got a question I want to ask you. away from this snag. I told Howard, “I What happened at Glass Hill?” He had picked up the two Cats. Theyʼre right heard about it and remembered. He down there.” I pointed out the snag. said, “I never did hear the outcome of He made another turn and pulled to the what you crazy bums did.” So I told right of that snag so it was on his left, him what happened. He said, “You and he spotted them down there. We know, she never let a peep out of her. used this snag as a spot to drop on and I bet it broke every window in that just hoped weʼd hit them. We went up lookout!” over Anthony Lake, put fl aps on, and slowed up. We were supposed to drop The engineer that had parked right off at about one hundred forty miles an the end of the runway--his name was hour; we called it knots, which would Rodenburger: how did he get by the be pretty close to one hundred sixty guards? They had guards out to keep miles an hour. We slowed up, came people off the airport because we were down, and, just as we got there, he so busy, with so many airplanes they give me the sign, and I dumped it. The
34 chase plane said, “Boy, that looked like and rescue. That greater power didnʼt you cut a hole in the smoke. Go back increase the speed any, but it give me a and get another load and drop it right little more power to climb out of can- in the same place.” We went back, yons. And it was a fun airplane to fl y; loaded up, and dropped it. They fi red you could get a lot of enjoyment out of those Cats up and drove them out. it, but you didnʼt want to get too com- placent and think you had it mastered Later that fall I was working out because it would bite you. It would of Portland, living in a trailer park. spin with you, Iʼll tell you that. One of my neighbors and I got talk- ing about airplanes and fl ying, and I Hazards of Flying Near showed him the moving pictures I had Redʼs Ranch taken of the Anthony Lakes fi re. He told a guy who worked in the shop I: You said it was interesting to fl y into where he did; he wanted to know, if Redʼs horse ranch. What were some of heʼd come out, could he visit with me. the obstacles that you run into? I said, “Sure.” He came out and said, “I was hoping someday Iʼd get to meet LD: I was turned in for fl ying too low. the guy that saved my life. I was driv- Redʼs horse ranch sat right in the bot- ing one of those Cats that died in the tom of the big Minam canyon. To go smoke. I thought we were dead. We in there took eighteen minutes in a had buried ourselves in the dirt under- 206, and I fl ew a Cessna 206. It had a neath the Cat that was a little bit damp 300-horse engine on it, and itʼd cruise and cool to get what little air we could. about around one hundred forty-fi ve When you guys came in and dropped to one hundred fi fty knots. Iʼd climb that, you painted us the color of that at eighty and ninety knots out of La borate from end to the other. Iʼve never Grande. To go over Moss Springs, felt anything so good in my life. You we had to climb up to six thousand guys saved our lives and Iʼll never one hundred feet. If we went over by forget it.” That was one of the things Point Prominence over Rock Springs, that meant a lot to me from working we still climbed to six thousand one that summer--that I had helped save hundred feet. Then we had to drop and somebodyʼs life and that they were work our way down into the canyon. able to live and tell about it. Redʼs was at thity-six hundred feet. Going over Moss Springs, as soon as Vernʼs Own Plane I broke over the hill toward the little Minam and we turned down the little LD: I owned my own airplane. I fl ew it Minam, it was probably about four over two thousand hours. When I lost or fi ve miles. Iʼd put the nose of the my physical ability to fl y in ʼ97, I had plane down and lose about a thousand accumulated almost fi ve thousand to fi fteen hundred feet till I crossed hours of fl ying time. the hogback--the divide between the little Minam and the big Minam. The I: What size airplane did you own? summit was forty-fi ve hundred feet. I cleared it at fi ve thousand. Weʼd make LD: I owned a little two-place Cessna 140. a thirty-six-degree turn over Redʼs, I put a one hundred fi fteen-horse light lose another thousand feet, fl y about combing in it and fl ew a lot of search two and a half miles down the river,
35 and get our speed down to approach even try to go in there. There just was speed, which was around seventy-fi ve no air. The plane would drop right out or eighty miles an hour. from under us.
There was a wide spot down there Iʼd come out late one day, making one where we turned back up the river. more trip more than I should. I fought Weʼd line up with Minam River that airplane almost to where the high- Lodge, which was north and south. way goes to Wallowa before I got out Redʼs was northwest and southeast. of the canyon with that three hundred- When we let down, we had to be over horse engine. A time or two, I didnʼt the Minam River strip to about forty know whether I was going to make it. or fi fty feet off the ground. The Mi- It felt like that plane was starting to nam River makes a bend between the drop out from under me, even using all two strips, and we could get all kinds the power I had. Itʼs a tricky canyon. of air currents there. We didnʼt know Itʼs claimed a lot of airplanes whether we were going to get a lift or a drop. We had to be on the power so When I was working for Mike Trin- that, if we got the lift, we eased off on dell at Baker, he said, “Take all the the power. If we got a drop, we added seats out of the Dual Six, Vern. This a little power but not enough to change guyʼs got a lot of equipment.” He was our approach speed. We made about referring to a man who had fl own into a forty-fi ve-degree turn and set down Portland from Ft. Worth, Texas and on the runway--a one-way strip. We had driven a rental car to La Grande. I landed up the river and took off down never saw so many cases of bows and the river. There was no going around. arrows and camoufl age clothes in my Once we started to land, we had to life. That 206 was piled full. land. We took off down the river and just hoped we didnʼt pick up tailwind He wanted to go to Redʼs Ranch. I coming down the Minam. After 11:00, didnʼt know he was a pilot, but, when if it was very hot, we didnʼt want to we went in there, I noticed he watched every move I made. I went over Moss Springs, put the nose down, went down
Vern with his Skyhawk 172, which he used for Vern with his Cessna 140, ca. 1989 instructing potential pilots, ca. 1989 Photo courtesy of Le Vern Draper Photo courtesy of Le Vern Draper
36 the canyon and into Redʼs, and landed. FAA wouldnʼt ride there with me. When we got unloaded, he came over “Well, youʼre fl ying kind of low, arenʼt to me, shook hands, and said, “That you?” I said, “No, I donʼt think so. was a very good demonstration of han- Not any lower than I have to.” He dling an airplane.” He handed me his said, “Youʼve been below two thou- card that said he was a senior captain sand feet over the wilderness area.” I of Southwest Airlines--checked out said, “OK. You tell me something, in 747s and everything. Heʼd fl own Greg. How am I going to go in and from here to the Orient and all over. I out of Redʼs and stay two thousand looked at his card; his name was Mark feet above the wilderness area?” He Thomas. I said, “Mark, I feel I was said, “I was afraid youʼd ask me a silly on the wrong side of the airplane. If question like that.” I said, “You asked Iʼd known I was fl ying somebody like me a silly question so I want a silly you, Iʼd have put you in the left seat.” answer. Why?” He said, “Some guy “No, you wouldnʼt. Iʼm going to tell gave the tail number of your airplane you something, Mr. Draper. You can and said you were two thousand feet have all of this you want. I wouldnʼt lower than he was.” He was sitting in put an airplane down in here if you Horseshoe Basin to the north of Moss gave it to me.” Springs, and he said I was two thou- sand feet lower than him. I said, “If I When I fl ew him out, he watched every was two thousand feet lower than him, move I made again. He got out and Iʼd have been plowing up the trees in said, “You can have that. I wouldnʼt go the little Minam canyon.” Greg said, in there for anything in the world.” “Just donʼt aggravate him too much.” I said, “Come on, take a ride with me And I got turned in for fl ying too low! someday.” “No,” he said, “to hell with Flying over wilderness area, an air- you.” plane isnʼt supposed to fl y belowtwo thousand feet. Iʼd made seven or eight I fl ew another guy out. He had a six- trips in there. I canʼt tell you how point bull--a beautiful rack of horn. many I made in there because I logged When we went to load it in the 206, between six and seven hundred trips, the only way I could get it in was to and then I fl ew a lot of trips after that. turn the horns toward me in the seat I got tired of logging each trip in my and lay it kind of on edge. When I put log book--so many trips into Redʼs or it in, the nose gear went right down on Minam River Lodge. the sitter right to the point. I thought, “Boy, thatʼs going to throw too much When I got home, my wife said to forward CG [center of gravity]; Iʼve me, “What have you done?” I said, “I got to offset it.” He wanted me to fl y havenʼt had any close calls or any- the whole six-point bull out at one thing. I donʼt know. Why?” She said, time. I said, “No way! I can bring “The FAAʼs hot and they want to talk eleven hundred pounds out, but thatʼs to you.” Before I had a chance to call all, and I wonʼt take any more than the FAA guy, Greg Sines, the tele- that.” I wound up with a little more phone rang. He said, “Vern, what are than that. you doing up there?” I said, “Going in and out of Redʼs. Why?” I tried to I put a hindquarter in the back, which get him to ride with me so he could put the tail down to the ground. I see what we had to put up with. The thought, “Boy, now I am into it.” So I
37 tried moving it, and that didnʼt change Minam River strip, I had about two anything. When they cut the animal, hundred feet elevation so I kept going. they made one front quarter a little We hit a little rough air and that stall smaller than the other. We raised the warner let out a squall. My passenger head and cape and slid that front grabbed for everything he could fi nd. quarter about halfway under the head Thank God, he didnʼt grab the yoke so it would change the CG in the air- [i.e., control wheel]. plane and the tail would come up. With him in the front seat with me, When we got to La Grande, I had to that gave me enough forward CG to fl y that airplane to the ground. I handle it. couldnʼt glide it because I had so much weight I had to use power all the way At that time there was a bog hole right down to the runway. When I got it in the middle of the runway. I had unloaded, I said, “Are you going back about eight hundred feet to get off. It and help me load the rest of it?” “No, was getting late in the afternoon by the to hell with you,” he said. “Iʼll pay time I got all that stuff loaded. But if I you for whatever it is to get it out of went in that bog hole, I knew I was there. Just you get it out.” stuck. We had a way to taxi up to a dog leg at the extreme end of the runway. I Retirement Years took every bit of it I could get. I wound that engine up with all the I: Youʼre still living in Union after all power I could, and I didnʼt put any these years. You must have liked it fl aps on. Flaps are used to help lift the over here. airplane; we had ten, twenty, thity, and forty degrees of fl ap. We usually used LD: When I moved back from Portland, I ten to twenty degrees of fl ap to get out had a doublewide trailer; I couldnʼt put of there. I held it without the fl aps and it on my own property in La Grande. I got up to about forty miles an hour in was at Sundowner [a trailer park in La the fi rst eight hundred feet. Just before Grande], and my wife at that time was I got to the bog hole, I put on ten sick--she had heart trouble--and she degrees of fl ap and held a little back didnʼt like it there. We found this va- pressure on the control. I was kissing cant lot in Union; I bought it and Iʼve the top of the water with the main been on this corner thirty-two years. I gears, and I went across to the other set it up for home. side. Just before I got there, I went another ten degrees, and then, by the The railroad gives full pension at thirty time I got to the other side, I had years of service and sixty years of age. enough speed that I could begin to fl y. I wanted to retire; the offi cials we had werenʼt railroad men. They didnʼt The air was rough. An airplane has a know how to operate a train. stall warner so that, if you drop below a certain speed, that thing will bellow After my wife died in ʼ75, I didnʼt see at you to let you know that youʼre too any use in retiring. I remarried--to a slow. That stall warner was squalling woman Iʼd gone together with years all the time. So I thought, “If Iʼm ago. Sheʼd been married and her hus- going to lose it, I can set it on the band had died; my wife was dead. We Minam River strip and hope I can get renewed acquaintances and got mar- stopped. By the time I got over the ried late in the fall of ʼ75. I worked a
38 year so sheʼd be covered. We fi gured Iʼve traveled a lot. Iʼve been in every what it cost me to make a trip--road state west of the Mississippi except expense, union dues, job-insurance Louisiana and about ten states east fees, income tax, and everything. I of that river. Iʼve been as far east as called the railroad retirement offi ce; Nashville and Iʼve been to South Bend, they gave me an estimate of what I Indiana and as far north as Jasper, would get. When we sat down and fi g- Alberta, Canada, clear across to Win- ured, I was working for $25 a month. nipeg, and back into the States. I spent I said, “Thatʼs enough of that.” So I about three weeks in Canada and saw gave the company notice that I was Banff, Lake Louise, and all that area. going to retire. I took my pension the Iʼve been to every point of interest that 31st of October in ʼ76. Up to now Iʼve I could fi nd. been off twenty-six years, and I donʼt regret a minute of it.
39 Standard Union Pacifi c Railroad retirement letter, 1976 Original courtesy of Le Vern Draper
40 Union Pacifi c Railroad retirement congratulations in the form of a playful telegram, 1976 Original courtesy of Le Vern Draper
41 Index Symbols board (crew call) 4, 11, 13 board, punch 2 2400-type engine 7 boiler 8 2880-type engine 7 Boise Cascade 19 3500 series engine 7 bombers 31 3800 series engine 7, 8 bootleg gas 16 3900 series engine 8 borate 31 4000 series engine 8 test of simulated, photo of 31 4884-type engine 8 boxes, hot 18 5000 class steam engine, photo of 9 brakemen 3, 5, 6, 10, 15, 17, 19, 20, 25 7000 class steam engine, photo of 9 branch line, Joseph 19, 21, 27 747s 36 breakage 13 8444 series engine 8 bridges 10 9000 class steam engine 8 broom 3 photo of 9 Bruner 23 9000 engine 7 Brunswick Café 20 A bull, six-point 37 bumping 13 A-stamp 16 Burnett, Evaline & Howard 17 Abert Desert 32 Burns OR 32 air, handling of 12 butter 1 airplane, Curtis Robbins 27 airplanes, fl ying of 27 C airport, La Grande 30 caboose 4, 6, 17, 18 Albina yard 25 steel, photo of 19 Almight 21 Cadwell, Clark 1 Amtrak 25 cafe signs, photos of 18 Anthony Butte 34 Caldwell ID 1 Anthony Lakes 30, 31, 33, 34 call boy 11 Ashenbrenner, Gale 20 camp athletics 2 internment 4 authorization, transportation 23 logging 4 B car, railroad fl at 19 B17 31 fruit 21 B25 30 gondola 3 Baker OR 10, 12, 21, 22, 26, 33, 36 icing of 21 Baker Flat 8 private 17 band, dance 11 spotting of 19 base toads 21 Army 14 Carroll, Lee 12, 13 Navy 14 Caterpillar bulldozer 4, 34 Bates Lumber 19 Cats, V8 4 batteries, fl ashlight 19 cattle 1 Beanery 17, 18 Cessna 140 35 bellhop 2 Cessna 206 35 bi-planes 27 CG (center of gravity) 37 blizzard 3 chain-gang freight 15 block red 25 Chase Manhattan Bank 25 Blue Goose 7 check, exchange or extend 23, 24
42 chefs, dining-car 18 derail 3 Cheyenne engine 8 derailment 13 Christmas 20, 21, 26 desert 32 church, Mormon 1 Dick, LeVern 1 chute, coal 3 diesels, steam 6 citizen, American 4 dining crew 25 City of Portland (name of passenger train) 21, 25 diploma, high school 1 clamshell 3 discrimination, racial 17 clerk, manifest 11 dispatcher 3, 10 clock crew 14 railroad 16 ditches, fi lling in of 28 standard 16 division, railroad 8,11 club, brake 11 division point 21 coal 6 doll, bride 20 burners 3 Dougherty, Denny 6 chute 3 Down, Eldon 29 compass, magnetic 32 dozer 3 concentration camp 4 draft board 15 conductor 4, 5, 12, 13, 18, 22, 23, 25 Draper, Bernice 31 passenger 15 Draper, Dick LeVern 1 ticket 14 Driskell, Bill 4 Vern as, photo of 26 drivers 21 contractor, gyppo 4 51-inch 7 cooks 25 66-inch 7 Cooprum OR 1 front 7 Cornucopia OR 1 dues, union 38 cougar 6 Duncan OR 17,24 count, passenger 14, 23 Durkee OR 22 coupon 24 crew, train 3, 14 E dining 25 Elbow Fire 32 train 5, 11 electricity, static 33 Crooks OR 2, 3 Elgin OR 19, 20, 32 crop dusting 29 elk 20 crossings, whistling at 26 Elkhorns 32 cupola 18 Elks Club 34 cylinder, brake 5 Elm Street 1 cylinders 7, 8 emergency 12, 18 D Encina OR 12 engine, railroad dairy 1 helper 3, 12 dances, Saturday night 11 scavenger 7 dance band 11 slippery 8 Davis Molison 30 steam 6, 21 DC3 33 switch 19 deer 20 engineer 12, 19, 26 delays, report of 12 England 31 demerit Enterprise OR 19, 20 marks 16 examination, book-of-rules 13 system 12 Denver CO 24 F department, dining-car and hotel 18 FAA 37 Depression 1, 27 Farragut ID 14
43 father and mother, Vernʼs 28 H Faust, Kenneth 28 fees, job-insurance 38 Haines OR 22 fences, rock 10 Hanford WA 29 fi ngerprints 29 hardware store 1 fi re, Anthony Lakes 32-34 Harriman, Averill & Roland 21 fi reman 6 Harriman family 21, 25 fi rebox 6 Harris Pine 19 fi reline 34 hat-check 22 fi res, forest 30, 32 Hells Canyon 33 fi re dispatcher 33 Henry, Red 3 Fisherʼs place 4 highball 6 fi shermen 19 highway, Thief Valley 4 fl agman 5, 18 High Bridge 17 fl ames, little blue 32 High Valley 1 fl aps, airplane 37 Hilgard OR 10 fl at meet 25 Hinkle OR 11, 21, 25 fl ight instruction 29 hogback 35 fl ying too low 36 hole, bog 37 football team 2 Horseshoe Basin 37 foreman, roundhouse 23 hose, air 18 Forest Service 20,30,31,32,33 hot boxes 18 frog, re-railing 3 Hot Lake 2, 14 Ft. Worth, Texas 36 house, boxcar-like 1 fusee 6 hunting 30 photo of 6 Huntington OR 8, 12, 14, 17, 18, 21-23 red 5 hunting season 19 Huron OR 5, 10, 22, 24 G I Gallberts, Mel 14 gang, water-service 22, 24 ice 3 gasoline Idaho 1, 12, 32 aviation 27, 28 Idahoan, The (name of passenger train) 14, 21, 23 bootleg 16 Imbler OR 28 Gem State Academy 1 income tax 38 Germany 31 inspectors, car 21 Gibbon OR 22, 24 insurance, job 13 Glass Hill 33, 34 interlock system 25 Glennʼs Ferry ID 8 gloves 33 J gondola cars 3 Japan 3,4 Grande Ronde Valley 32 job, branch 13 grandfather, Le Vernʼs 1 job insurance 13 Great Northern 24 Johnson, Ben 14 greenchain 5 John Day OR 32 growers, grain 19 Joseph OR 19, 20 guards, armed 10 Joseph branch line 20 gulch 1 jumpers, smoke 33 guns, grease 21 guys, colored 10 gyppo 4 K gyrocompass 32 Kamela OR 5, 17 G load 31 Kansas City 14, 24
44 Kobioshi, George 2-4 Northern Pacifi c 24 North Powder OR 2, 10, 22 L Nyssa ID 4 landings, touch-and-go 30 O law, federal 3 La Grande OR 5, 8, 10, 11, 16, 19, 21, 22, 24, 26-28, observatory, national 16 35, 36, 38 offi cials, railroad 17, 19, 23, 27, 38 license, commercial 30, 31 offi cial delay report, copy of 22 lightning 31, 32 Oil, Standard 28 Lindbergh 27 oil burners 3 Lindsey, Dick 11 Omaha NE 10, 14, 17 line-up 10 onions 4 Little Catherine 1 orchard locomotive, helper 5 cherry 2 logging camp 4 prune 2 Lookinggglass 19 orchardist 2 lookout 33 orchestra, high school 2 Lostine OR 19 orders, train 13 lumber 5 Oregon-Washington Railroad & Navigation Company 8 M Oregon Short Line 8 mail, handling of 21 Mallet 7 P manifold pressure 33 passenger trains, pulling of 19 marble, black 19 passes, railroad 22, 24 Mayes, Howard 31 A 23 Mayfi eld School 1 B 23 McNary Dam 21 numbers 22 McPhearson 2 Payette ID 4 Meacham OR 5, 10, 16, 17, 22 Peare, Jack 16 Meacham Creek 6, 10, 17 Pelican OR 22 Meacham Creek Canyon 22 Pendleton OR 5, 14, 15, 19, 22-24, 26, 29 meet, fl at 11, 25 pension, railroad 38 men people, colored 17 railroad 27, 38 Phy section 22 Mark 2 Merrick 34 W. T. 2 Methodist Church 1 pick 3, 4 mikes 6 piston 8 Miller, Leo 11 plane, chase 34 Milton-Freewater OR 21 plate, oscillating 7 Minam canyon 35, 37 Pocatello ID 10 Minam River 19, 35 point, division 14 Minam River Lodge 35, 36 Point Prominence 35 Minam River strip 38 Point Prominent 33 Missoula MT 32 pole, telegraph 3 monkeys, roundhouse grease 4, 21 Pondosa OR 4 Moss Springs OR 35-37 Popular Science 27 Mt. Harris 32 porters 17, 18 Mutt and Jeff 32 chair-car 25 N Pullman 25 Portland OR 4, 10, 15, 17, 18, 20, 21, 24, 25, 34, 36, Norfolk and Western 24 38
45 Portland Rose 8, 14, 18 semaphore 10 Portland Yard 25 seniority 4, 5, 13, 19 pressure service constant air 5 chain-gang freight 11 manifold 33 passenger 4, 15 propellers 32-34 train 4 Pullman 21, 23 transportation 4 pump, air 8 Seventh-day Adventist 1, 2 Pyle OR 2 Shasta Daylight 25 sheep 1, 19 R Shelton, Burt 4 rail, broken 10 shoes, polished dress 16 railroad 2, 4 shovel 3, 4 railroad watch 16 signal Rail Post Offi ce 21 block 10 rationing, wartime 15 hand 18 ration board 16 Sines, Greg 37 recruiter, Navy 15 sleds 7 Redʼs horse ranch 35-37 sleep 26, 27 going into 30 slide, snow 17 Reith OR 11, 21 slurry 31 Reith Pendleton OR 5 smoke jumpers 33 report, passenger 24 Snake River 8 restaurant 15 snow 3 Riggins ID 32 deep 16 River of No Return 32 deepest 3 Rock Island 24 Southern Pacifi c 25 Rock Springs 35 Southwest Airlines 36 rod, glide 8 speed, approach 35 rod, side 8 spike, track 3 Rodenburger 34 Spokane WA 14 rods, side 21 St. Elmoʼs Fire 32 Rondowa OR 19 St. Louis MO 14 Rose, Dave 20 stall warner 38 roundhouse 8, 21 standard, test 13 rules, book of 13 Standard Oil 27 rule car 13, 14 station, helper 3 photo of 15 steam 7 runway 37, 38 Steel Bridge 25 steward 25 S stock show, advertising for 28 stokers 6 Salmon River 32 store, hardware 1 sample train order, copy of 23 storm, electric 32 sawmill 19 strawberries 32 scaler, timber 5 Streamliner 14 school 1 sugar beets 4 Seabees 15 Sundowner 38 seatbelts 28 switches 3, 25 Seattle WA 24 cleaning of 3 section keeping open of 3 coach 14 throwing of 17 foreman 2 system, lubricating 8 Pullman 14
46 T Union Station 25 tailwind 35 V tank, water 3 tax, income 38 Vale OR 4 team, six-horse 1 valve telegraphers 17, 25 air 18 telegraph offi ce 13 retaining 5 Telocaset OR 2, 3, 6, 10 Vernʼs gold railroad watch, photo of 16 tender, camp 1 Vern and a Mallet engine, photo of 7 test, red lantern 12 Vern with his Cessna 140, photo of 36 Thanksgiving 26 Vern with his Skyhawk 172, photo of 36 The Idahoan 22 Veronica Champ 29, 30 The Oregonian 25 Vincent OR 19 Thomas, Mark 36 W throttle 7 ticket wagons 1 interline 24 waiters 25 local 24 Walla Walla WA 14, 21 timberland 1 Wallowa OR 19, 32, 35 toads, car 21 Ward, John 8 torpedoes 5,12 warner, stall 38 track, passing 3,5,10,14,25 Washington, D.C. 16 track, regauging of 8 watch train, inferior 3 Hamilton 16 train, passenger 14,16,24,25,26 railroad 16 train, superior 3,14,21 watchmaker 16 trainmaster 16,17 water boy 2 trainmasterʼs 23 water tank 3, 12 trainmen 13 Weatherby OR 8 trains, freight 18,25 Weatherby tunnel 10 trains, Passenger 21 Weaver 2 trains, passenger 8 Weiser ID 4 trains, troop 10 Wenatchee wa 21 train master 14 wheat 19 train order 10 wheeler 12 train orders 13 Wheeler, Roy 28 train service 4 whistle, train 5, 19 travel 38 wife, Vernʼs 38 Trindell, Mike 36 wilderness area 37 Troutdale 25 Willamette River 25 trucks, pony 7 Williams, M. C. 13 trucks, trailing 7 work, section 2 trumpet 2 World War II 10, 31 Tucson 30 tunnels 10 Y U Y (railroad track) 3, 8, 17 Yakima WA 21 uniform, railroad, Vernʼs 25 yoke 38 Union OR 1, 2, 6, 11, 27, 28, 38 Union Carbide 19 Z Union Junction OR 2, 22, 26 zone, air-identifi cation 29 Union Museum 25 Zuber Hall 11 Union Pacifi c 8, 21, 24
47 48