(The following article appeared on the Akron Beacon-Journal website on September 2.)
AKRON — What kind of person would go down to the Amtrak station in the middle of the night just to see the trains?
“Me,” Steve McMullen answered before the question was even finished.
For three years, that was his job, working the graveyard shift at the “Amshack,” the train station behind Quaker Square. Then last month he got fired for letting other train lovers into the station.
But McMullen still goes back on his nights off — just to stand outside and watch the trains.
The 22-year-old Akron man is what they call a “railfan.” He loves everything about trains. The job he had was about the best he could imagine, and he’s sure he did it well.
Twice a night the trains came through, and McMullen helped passengers embark and disembark. He kept the station in order.
He brought his radio scanner and laptop computer to work with him to keep track of the train schedules. He installed his own electronic sign to program with arrival and departure information. He bugged his superiors to buy a new vacuum cleaner so the station could be kept clean.
And that’s why he was so upset when he lost his job. Ampco System Parking, which subcontracts to provide personnel for the city-owned facility, fired him for allowing nonpassengers into the station.
The visitors were people like him, railroad enthusiasts who jump at any chance, day or night, to watch trains. McMullen said he only allowed them into the station for a short time before, during and after Amtrak arrivals. The station is supposed to be locked during off hours, but is open to the public at boarding time.
“It wasn’t a big deal. It wasn’t a party going on,” McMullen said. “I did a great job, and other people have said that.”
Ampco declined to comment on McMullen’s firing. McMullen has contacted a lawyer and is planning to take his case to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. As far as he and his attorney are concerned, not only were visitors allowed to be at the station, but it would have been illegal to keep them out of a public building during its hours of operation.
A number of people, including some of McMullen’s fellow members in the Akron Railroad Club, have jumped to his defense.
One of them is J. Howard Harding, a retired transportation planner and regional director for the Ohio Association of Railroad Passengers, a group that advocates increased use of rail transportation.
“Steve is exactly what we ought to have more of. They hired someone who really cared about the job,” said Harding of Akron. “My concern is that he was not treated fairly. The quality of his work was ignored, and that’s something that shouldn’t go unnoticed.”
Akron’s Amtrak station is a model of how train stations should be run, Harding said. In many cities, the stations are not staffed; the doors operate on a timer and passengers are left to fend for themselves. McMullen often gave directions to the passengers or called cabs for them and spent his off hours cleaning and maintaining the Amshack.
It’s not like he did it for the money. He was paid $6.50 an hour for his midnight-to-8 a.m. shift. And even though he’s now making a couple dollars an hour more at a Streetsboro window frame factory, he says he’d take his old job back in a heartbeat if it were offered.
“I’ve been into trains forever,” he said. “Me and my grandpa used to go down and watch the trains in the old Broadway Limited days.”
The Firestone Park resident used to keep a model train layout at his grandfather’s house. He has a working set of crossing flashers in his house and an old railroad crossing sign. He owns a train scanner so he can listen to the conversation between engineers.
As a member of the Akron Railroad Club, he shares his enthusiasm with others in this little subculture. They often spend afternoons on Forrest Street in South Akron watching trains pass through, taken by the romance of an old slice of Americana.
They know the lingo, they know the look and feel of different types of engines and cars.
McMullen, who worked in the Amshack for “three years, 25 days and however many minutes,” would like to get another job that puts him in contact with the railroad, but there aren’t any options he’s aware of that wouldn’t require relocation.
So for now he’s stuck on the outside.
“I’m still down there every weekend,” he said. “Just to watch the trains.”