Life in a Rail Town: Sherri

(A red and yellow Rock Island No. 1275 train locomotive, an open air freight car and a caboose sit on train tracks.)

[Abby Brown] Before the Rock Island Railroad went out of business in the 1970s, it made Eldon, Iowa, a community that shared the railroad life.

(A black and white photograph of a train depot and rail yard with six tracks shown. There are seven men, mostly wearing suits, standing outside the depot. A black locomotive is approaching the depot on one track and freight cars are waiting on another track.)

The town size may have gotten a lot smaller since the railroad closed, but there are still people who remember what railroad town life was like.

[Abby] This picture is so great because it shows Eldon in the heyday of the railroad industry, right? And you love this picture because you have a special connection to the railroad, right?

(A black and white picture of the Eldon depot and rail yard. The depot is on the left with about 8 sets of train tracks to the right with many train cars parked on different sets of tracks. Surrounding the depot and railyard are commercial buildings.)

[Sherri Beattie] Right. My grandfather, and my dad, and my uncle all worked for the railroad.

[Abby] Wow. And you have some really specific things here. Can you tell me about them?

[Sherri] I have my dad's railroad watch. And he passed that on to me. And it's very important to every railroader because they had to be checked by a jeweler to make sure they kept precise time. Because if they weren't on time, there could be crashes.

(Sherri holds out a circular, pocket watch about 2 inches wide, with a white face and gold rim. The handheld watch is attached to a gold chain.)

[Abby] And this is how they timed their rides in the train.

[Sherri] Correct.

[Abby] Okay. What else?

[Sherri] This is called a reverser handle or a railroad key. And you had to have it to get the engine to start. When you put it in you'd either have to put it in forward or reverse. And if it was in neutral, the train wouldn't go. And so if you took it out, it went into neutral. And so without this the train wouldn't move.

(Sherri holds out the reverser handle or railroad key. It is a long, dark, metal rectangle-like key with a square notch on one side.)

[Abby] And does this stay with the train or with the engineer?

(Abby points to the reverser handle.)

[Sherri] With the engineer.

[Abby] And so this is your dad's?

[Sherri] Yes.

[Abby] Wow. Okay. What else?

[Sherri] And then I have his stamp with his name on it. This they would use on the train orders. And they would have to stamp, and that would prove that they were there and that they did that job to get paid.

(Sherri holds her dad’s engineer stamp. It’s a small wooden block with rubber on one end that has raised letters, 4877 R. J. Hemm.)

[Abby] That's pretty cool that every engineer had their own stamp. Thanks so much for sharing.

[Sherri] Thank you.

Funding for FIND Iowa has been provided by The Coons Foundation, Pella and the Gilchrist Foundation.