Life in a Rail Town: Becky
What do you think it was like living in a town with a railway depot when people traveled by train?
Small towns had train depots when the railroad was thriving. These depots were where passengers bought tickets and waited for the train.
Description
(A narrow rectangular building painted white and red, with a concrete platform, sits next to train tracks. A locomotive sits on the tracks.)
[Abby Brown] Eldon, Iowa, is a railroad town. And you are from a railroad family because…
[Becky Taylor] Because my dad was an engineer on the railroad, and he drove trains.
[Abby] Oh, my gosh. So tell me all about it. These are some of his things, right?
[Becky] They are. This little suitcase is a grip; that's what the railroaders called it. And that's where he would take his things when he would take the train to another town.
(Becky places her hands on the grip. It’s a stiff, black leather bag with two handles on either side of a zipper closure. The handles are made of metal and are shaped like the letter U.)
[Abby] It was an overnight job. He was gone a lot, right?
[Becky] It was. A lot.
[Abby] Okay, so what's in here?
[Becky] So in here is a railroad lantern. All the railroaders had these, and they would use those to light whatever they needed and to signal to each other.
(Becky pulls the lantern from the grip bag. The lantern is a silver, metal cylinder with a black handle. The light bulbs are attached to the bottom of the lantern. The bulbs are protected by a metal cage that is attached to the lantern and open at the bottom.)
[Abby] And to be able to see, right? Okay, what else?
[Becky] Then the next thing. This is his - It's called a time book.
(Becky pulls out a blue paperback notebook. The notebook has red text in the upper right corner that reads “1978 Time Book.” There is a drawing of a clock on the cover.)
(Becky opens the time book to pages in the middle of the book. The pages are laid out with 5 columns, data tables with writing in the columns.)
But that's where they would put where they had been. Like from what town, what date, what time. What town they went to, like from Silvis to Eldon.
[Abby] And this was really important because. . .
[Becky] This is how they got paid.
[Abby] Yeah, we had to know how many miles they went.
[Becky] Right. Exactly. And because it says how many miles he went and how much he earned on that day.
[Abby] And just in his own handwriting.
[Becky] It is.
[Abby] That's great. What else?
[Becky] Let's see, what else do I have? Well, sometimes the train could be kind of dirty, and so they had these cloths. They called them grease rags because there was grease on the engine where they would wipe that off.
(Becky pulls out a rectangular piece of white fabric. The rag reads “Look”, “Think”, “Be Alert” “Rock Island”)
[Abby] But they use it for whatever they needed it for.
[Becky] Whatever they needed it for.
[Abby] And what else?
[Becky] And the last thing is my favorite thing. And this is a flare, but we refer to them as fusees. I think that's what the railroaders called them.
(Becky pulls a flare out of the grip bag. It is a red cylinder with a red cap on the top of the cylinder. There is a black, square tab attached about one-fourth of the way down one side of the cylinder.)
[Abby] Okay. And what was a fusee used for?
[Becky] They would put it along the track if there was a problem either with the engine or a problem they saw along the track to warn people there was a problem, that they were going to have to stop.
[Abby] Or send help. Okay. But at home…
[Becky] We referred to these as fireworks.
[Abby] And why?
[Becky] Because they lasted a long time, and they can be seen a long ways.
[Abby] Which is very dangerous and definitely should not happen. But it sounds like you have fond memories around it.
[Becky] We do. We do.
[Abby] You sound like you're so proud of your dad.
[Becky] I am very proud of him.
[Abby] Thank you for sharing.
[Becky] Thank you.
(A framed chalkboard hanging on the wall. The chalkboard reads Eldon, IA - Rock Island Train Bulletin. Under this are two tables. The first table says “Arriving Trains” The second table reads “Departing Trains”. Each table then has three columns. The first column reads “NO.” The second column reads “FROM”. The third reads “REMARKS”. Trains by their number, location and time are listed in each table.)
Funding for FIND Iowa has been provided by The Coons Foundation, Pella and the Gilchrist Foundation.