(Pocatello television station KIDK posted the following story by Hailie Brook on its website on February 3. Jim Lance is Local Chairman of Division 228 in Pocatello.)
POCATELLO, Idaho — Living legends of a locomotive era long gone are sharing their stories.
Men who worked the trains when Pocatello was a railroad hub are recording their memories for generations to come.
They call themselves “The Boys.” Their careers lived and died on the tracks.
“This is the last of a breed,” says Jim Lance, Chairman of Pocatello’s Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, “there will be no more when they’re gone.”
“The Boys” are engineers from the steam engine era. Retired from the railroad tracks, they’re now tracking their stories on tape…recording an era long gone.
“When you work for the railroad legends are built along the rail line,” says Lance, “these are the boys that lived it, these are the boys that were there and we can hear just how and what actually happened.”
Their stories span decades.
“Well…I’m hitting 92-years-old now,” says retired steam engineer, Woody Crawford.
They’re telling of triumphs and times of change.
“Oh, everything used to be railroads,” says Crawford, “everything was railroads, yes sir.”
They’re stories that would otherwise die with the brotherhood.
“If we don’t do it now, it’s going to be lost forever,” says Lance.
Now they’re here to stay…legends that will live forever.
If you’re interested in hearing some of the legends, you can find today’s recordings in archives of the BLET at the I.S.U. campus library.