HIGH POINT, N.C. — The Amtrak Carolinian celebrated with bells and whistles, the High Point Enterprise reported.
The Harper family responded with cheers, balloons, prayers and a few tears.
That’s how Amtrak engineer Ralph Harper of High Point ended 30 years on the railroad Thursday.
First came the hugs from co-workers at West Point crossing off W. English Road. Then came the cheers and tears from family members.
Harper’s wife Fannie was the first to get the hugs.
Friends and family members, including children and grandchildren, waited as long as 30 minutes for the Carolinian to bring Harper, 60, to the crossing, the former site of a Southern Railway yard office.
Harper, a Thomasville native, boarded his first train at the crossing when there were still Southern Railway buildings at the site. Harper began his career as a brakeman, following a 10-year stint as a police officer. He also has been a teacher.
“This is where it started, and I wanted to quit here,” Harper said. “And I wanted my family here when I did it.”
As the years passed, Southern Railway became Norfolk Southern.
By 1986, Harper had moved on to become an Amtrak engineer. Along the way he collected two college degrees.
The railroad taught Harper how to handle responsibility.
“You have a great responsibility hauling 300 or 400 people,” Harper said. “That is an awesome responsibility.”
Train engineering also became more complicated as the years passed and railroads merged into giant organizations.
“I used to be able to go from here to Washington, D.C., on instructions I could put in my back pocket,” Harper recalled. “Now you have to take a bag of instructions with you.”
Speeds also have increased along Piedmont tracks. Some trains travel 50 mph or faster through communities where the speed had been 20 mph slower.
Harper also weathered the controversies surrounding the troubled Amtrak operation that Congress has revived several times. This summer, federal transportation officials agreed to another cash infusion to save the railroad from cutbacks and service closings.
“I already had my retirement in, so I did not have too much to worry about,” Harper said.
Harper said he would miss the friends he had made through the years.
“I value that above everything, and I will have the stories until I die,” Harper said.
Harper said he wants to teach at a community college.
“But I have to have some surgery on a knee first,” Harper said. “I’ll have to heal from that.”
Fannie Harper said she considered her husband’s career a blessing. She said she looked forward to spending more time with him. The couple has six children and 14 grandchildren.
“My dream had always been to marry a wonderful man who would take care of his family, and I could stay home and raise the babies,” she said.
Harper also received greetings and congratulations in a letter from High Point Mayor Arnold Koonce.
Editor’s Note: R.H. Harper is a member of BLE Division 14 (Washington, D.C.).