Friday, May 28, 2021
I would like to extend sincere condolences to the family and friends of Cowboy, a man I worked with for several months in 1968 on the New Haven Railroad. He was the engineer, I was his yard brakeman on the 3rd trick, east and west hump, in the railyards of North Haven. He was known by everyone (with his ever present cowboy hat), and always treated me, a young, green RR worker, with patience and respect. He and I hit it off right away, maybe because of our similar last names...?
Anyway, I would like to share a memory of Chris. Because we worked the late night shift, we would both be drowsy at times. Chris taught me how to operate the humping engine (I think it was a model 500), so he could grab a few winks as we did our job of pushing long lines of boxcars over a high spot, or hump, where the conductor would unhitch cars that would then be directed to one of numerous, appropriate tracks. This conductor could signal us to stop by turning on a red light, visible to the operator who could be anywhere from 50 to 500 yards away. I was at the controls one night, fell asleep while pushing a long line of cars, the conductor signaled red, we kept pushing, and were responsible for a string of cars going on the ground (off the rails.) Bad move!
Anyway, I was lucky to not be fired, Chris got in some trouble as well, and we both got several "brownie points", along with letters reprimanding us! (I still have mine!)
Don't know if this was appropriate, but I'm pretty sure Cowboy would have enjoyed seeing my written memory of him. He was a good man who was living his life with gusto and joy! God bless him.
