Trackwoman Number Two: Revision of Four Years of Track Life

By Frances Armstrong Wood

You will enjoy reading this book about the exciting adventures my husband, Cliff and I had living in an outfit car on the AT&SF railroad tracks. We lived a rough life being moved from one job site to another. We traveled from the coast, valleys, desert and the mountains of south California.

The crew consisted of Indians of the Navajo tribe who had a contract with the AT&SF Railroad Company to work as laborers. There were other members of the crew including the foreman, his wife, and laborers. Cliff and I tried to be of help to the crew when they needed us. Sometime they needed transportation or they were sick, plus many problems that did occur. We were there to guide them.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Feb 10, 2012
• ISBN: 9781469753416

Frances Armstrong Wood

Frances Armstrong Wood, a retired author has been educated in journalism by working for three large newspapers. She has previously published five books, Four Years of Track Life, Twenty Years in Korea, Legend of Pigeon Road, Julia's Impeccable Man and Trackwoman Number Two. She has one son living in Rohnert Park, California and she resides in Barstow, California. She is a member of the Barstow Museum and has been inspired by Cliff Walker, who is a Creative Writing teacher at the Barstow College.

Book preview

Contents

Dedication

Introduction

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty One

Chapter Twenty Two

Chapter Twenty Three

Chapter Twenty Four

Fred Harvey House Restaurants

Harvey Girl Poem

Bibliography

Dedication

The story of my life on the Santa Fe railroad track, especially for this book, is dedicated to my son, Robert. I appreciate his assistance on the computer plus some of the editing of this book. Robert has always been there when I needed him.

Also I wish to thank my loyal friend, Cliff Walker, who has inspired me to write books and also to teach me some of the tricks of the trade.

In addition I appreciate the help I received on my computer by Oran Pearson, a Christian friend in my church.

I owe a debt of appreciation to my friend William Watilo. It was Bill that sanctioned my book and gave me courage to keep on writing. Bill was the one person that called me a track woman. The reason for the title of this book came from Bill.

My extended family, in the beginning, encouraged me to write the story of my experiences on the track. When I had finished writing my stories there was enough to publish a book.

I give my thanks to all those readers of my books. I have so many loyal friends since my first book was published. Many of my former friends have come forward to wish me well in my world of true stories. A simple thank you is in order from my heart for my readers.

Since my Four Years of Track Life was published, I have received emails as far as Korea from a man that had secured and read one of my books. This book, Twenty Years in Korea, is a fictional story based on real.

After my first book, I was made aware that I shared my notoriety with forty five other writers of books in the Amazon Book Stores. My name was common and so I added my middle initial to my second and third books.

Still, there was another writer with the same pen name, Frances A. Wood. I had to further identify myself. Now In the future my books will be written by Frances Armstrong Wood. My fourth book is titled Julia’s Impeccable Man. All books can be ordered by Amazon Book Stores and by Barnes & Noble Book Stores. There are some libraries that have my latest books on the shelf. The San Bernardino County Library in Barstow has Julia’s Impeccable Man and can be read with a library card.

Frances Armstrong Wood

Introduction

Track Woman Number Two is a revised book of Four Years of Track Life which was an autobiography by Frances Wood.

My husband, Cliff, and I lived on the tracks of the AT&SF (Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe) railroad. Cliff was a heavy equipment operator on a floating crew and did the maintenance and installation of the new welded rail railroad track. We were moved along the track from Los Angeles, California to Albuquerque, New Mexico every thirty days or more.

I was free to travel and it was a pleasure to fix meals, shop and just to be there when Cliff got off work. We tried to look after the less fortunate members of the crew. We assisted the workers as they called on us for help.

During the four years, we made most of the railroad stops along the track from Los Angeles to Needles. One major project in Williams, Arizona was a million dollar job.

The AT&SF was known as the Santa Fe at the time we spent on the track. The company merged with another railway company and is called the BNSF today. There are no more passenger trains, only freight trains. There was a time when the Santa Fe had two passenger trains. The El Capitan, which was the deluxe passenger train, the other was the Chief. They both had super dining service. All the waiters wore white coats and gave the look of elegance. They furnished real butter, cream, cloth napkins, tablecloths, real silver and china. The service was excellent. There were lounge cars for the passengers to play card games and listen to music. A long ride would require a bed or a compartment that was provided on this train. The El Capitan had a dome car with a glass top and the view was fantastic either day or night.

At the train stations, there were Harvey House restaurants serving special foods. The waitresses were known as Harvey House girls and wore black and white uniforms. Fred Harvey was the founder of The Harvey House Association. Today, Amtrak furnishes pleasant train rides, but there are no existing Harvey Houses.

The freight trains of today have no caboose cars for the crew that run the trains. Once there was a fireman in the cab with the engineer, but no more. There were brakemen at one time and they rode in the caboose car.

There was another train in the days past; they called it the Grand Canyon. It ran from Los Angeles to Chicago. The employees could ride on it. You had to sleep in your seat. The dining cars were not provided. A railroad pass was necessary to ride this train.

We were grateful for the gratuities that we received from the Santa Fe rail road.

Chapter One

Decisions, Decisions

Cliff, our son and I were living in San Bernardino, California and Cliff was unable to find a job. Just one month prior we had arrived in California from the state of Tennessee. We were desperate without an income. Cliff went to the labor union and the only opening was breaking up concrete with one of those air hammers. That would have been something he should avoid with his posterior dislocated shoulder.

A man, in the trailer next door to us, came home for lunch and told me of a job at the AT&SF railroad. I called the union to locate Cliff to come home to apply for the job that was open. What a blessed thing to happen in the nick of time. He made it home in time to apply for the job. The job was for operating heavy equipment for track maintenance.

Cliff was not a heavy equipment worker, but he convinced the railroad engineer that he was the man for the job. It was the best job available at this time and gave us the needed income. So Cliff went to work on the track and it was then the fun began in our lives.

The state of California socked us for two large penalties for expired licenses on our trailer and