This is an edited excerpt from an article originally published in Railroad Heritage (Number 50, Fall 2017).
After I finished high school, a buddy of mine, a mentor really, helped me procure a job with the Illinois Central Gulf Railroad as the third-trick operator at Palestine, Illinois. I had a job in the railroad business, which was something for a young rail enthusiast, but it would be so only for a short time. Looking back now I wish I had embraced more the nuts and bolts of the position, but there was really not much for me to do for six or seven of the hours that I worked each night.
When I came to work at eleven PM, the second-trick switch crew was signing out. They would brief me on their work in such a way that precluded me from even having to walk a line of cars to document its arrangement, which I would have happily done. For the remainder of my shift, my chief duty was usually nothing more than staying awake until seven the next morning when the day shift arrived. It is no wonder that railroading experienced a sea change just a year or so later with the Staggers Rail Act.
While employed with the railroad I was able to leverage my insider status to bag a couple of cab rides between Palestine and my hometown of Bloomington, Indiana. On one trip, I made some vertiginous images while crossing the Tulip Trestle near Solsberry. On the return trip I rode in the caboose, which had a different kind of charm—and is an element of railroading that no longer exists.
After nine months on the railroad I decided to quit and go off to college. Many people thought I was crazy to leave such a relatively well-paying job, but I had always intended to continue my studies. And there was never any question as to what my field would be: photography.
Two images by Richard Koenig; taken during the winter of 1978-79.
