"... Recalls Glory Days of Steam Power"
Tri-City Herald
October 5, 1976
By Jim Dullenty, Herald Staff Writer
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He sits in his lawn chair sharpening a knife and dreams of the romantic days of railroading when steam was king.
He has seen it all, from railroading’s glory days at the peak of World War II, to the change from steam to diesel, to the merger of the great rail lines.
His name is Roy Plockelman, 62, a Pasco resident since 1934. He retired last week after 35 years with the railroad, most of that time as an engineer.
As he stepped down from the Amtrak passenger train he had driven on his last run, he could not help but look back to the years he spent driving freights and passenger trains and all the changes made.
When Plockelman went to work for Northern Pacific Railway in 1941, steam still drove the engines and a large crew was needed to operate the trains. He was a fireman and it was back-breaking work to keep the coal-fired engines going.
“I wish I had a dime for every ton of coal we burned in those hand-fired engines,” Plockelman says.
Plockelman was a fireman for about four years and then became an engineer. He likes driving passenger trains best, but about half his time has been on freights.
“Railroading lost some of its romance with the advent of diesel,” Plockelman recalls. “Steam finally lost out in about 1958. Of course diesel made the work easier and cleaner and we weren’t always having to stop for coal and water.
“But I always missed the steam,” he says.
Plockelman has long looked forward to the day when he could turn more of his attention to his avocation, cabinet-making and tool-sharpening, and to the thing he and his wife like best, traveling.
He works in a shop attached to his home at 1121 Bonneville St. in Pasco, but he says he doesn’t intend to be tied down to it. He has a lot of other interests, cooking and gardening among them.
Plockelman likes to cook what he calls, “good, plain American food.” And he maintains a large vegetable and flower garden in his back yard.
But railroading will always occupy a place in his heart and, in some ways, he’s discouraged by what he’s seen although he thinks it’s “still a good career.”
“We’ll see a lot of new equipment, and there will be more speed so railroads have a good future,” he says, lamenting however, the sorry state some railroads are in.
“Look at the New York Central,” he says of the bankrupt line, “the president of the railroad got more salary than the United States president.”
Railroads have “put too much money into too many officials and not into equipment and the working men.” As a result of the layoffs and changes, morale “is lower than ever.”
As an engineer, Plockelman has been aware of the condition of every foot of line and he says while Burlington Northern’s main line is in pretty good shape, the branch lines are not.
A Wisconsin native, Plockelman came here because his wife’s parents had moved here. He and his wife, Lois, were married in Pasco in 1935. They have two grown children.
Return to Old Newspapers Index
October 5, 1976
By Jim Dullenty, Herald Staff Writer
Return to Old Newspapers Index
He sits in his lawn chair sharpening a knife and dreams of the romantic days of railroading when steam was king.
He has seen it all, from railroading’s glory days at the peak of World War II, to the change from steam to diesel, to the merger of the great rail lines.
His name is Roy Plockelman, 62, a Pasco resident since 1934. He retired last week after 35 years with the railroad, most of that time as an engineer.
As he stepped down from the Amtrak passenger train he had driven on his last run, he could not help but look back to the years he spent driving freights and passenger trains and all the changes made.
When Plockelman went to work for Northern Pacific Railway in 1941, steam still drove the engines and a large crew was needed to operate the trains. He was a fireman and it was back-breaking work to keep the coal-fired engines going.
“I wish I had a dime for every ton of coal we burned in those hand-fired engines,” Plockelman says.
Plockelman was a fireman for about four years and then became an engineer. He likes driving passenger trains best, but about half his time has been on freights.
“Railroading lost some of its romance with the advent of diesel,” Plockelman recalls. “Steam finally lost out in about 1958. Of course diesel made the work easier and cleaner and we weren’t always having to stop for coal and water.
“But I always missed the steam,” he says.
Plockelman has long looked forward to the day when he could turn more of his attention to his avocation, cabinet-making and tool-sharpening, and to the thing he and his wife like best, traveling.
He works in a shop attached to his home at 1121 Bonneville St. in Pasco, but he says he doesn’t intend to be tied down to it. He has a lot of other interests, cooking and gardening among them.
Plockelman likes to cook what he calls, “good, plain American food.” And he maintains a large vegetable and flower garden in his back yard.
But railroading will always occupy a place in his heart and, in some ways, he’s discouraged by what he’s seen although he thinks it’s “still a good career.”
“We’ll see a lot of new equipment, and there will be more speed so railroads have a good future,” he says, lamenting however, the sorry state some railroads are in.
“Look at the New York Central,” he says of the bankrupt line, “the president of the railroad got more salary than the United States president.”
Railroads have “put too much money into too many officials and not into equipment and the working men.” As a result of the layoffs and changes, morale “is lower than ever.”
As an engineer, Plockelman has been aware of the condition of every foot of line and he says while Burlington Northern’s main line is in pretty good shape, the branch lines are not.
A Wisconsin native, Plockelman came here because his wife’s parents had moved here. He and his wife, Lois, were married in Pasco in 1935. They have two grown children.
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