Two of the replies we received are printed below:

Dear Editor:

In response to the Brother who did not want to hear about the past--well, my Brother, their fight was for us and our fight is for our future brothers and sisters. We always forget or do not want to hear about war stories, but let's face facts, they happened and will continue to happen till we get off our duffs and stand up! I, for one, am sick and tired of hearing that story! Merger after merger hurts us and like in the days past, the government helps these people. So get off your high horse and do something and remember this--Labor's Untold Story should be read in every high school across the nation.

Tom Nall

Westerly, RI

I just completed reading the October 1997 issue of the Journal. This letter is in response to the Editor's Note of page 5.

I wish to go on record in support of continuing an ongoing segment focusing on labor history.

When the series titled "Give Them A Rifle Diet" is completed, I would suggest focusing on the history of the BMWE...

Leon Fenhaus

Wakonda, SD

Fenhaus went on to suggest that excerpts could be taken from The History of the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes (1955) by Denver Hertel as well as the treasure-packed issues of past Journals. Rick Inclima (BMWE Director of Education and Safety) also alerted us to two other interesting sources--The Calcium Light, Turned on by a Railway Trackman (1902) written by the founder and first president of the BMWE, John T. Wilson and The Maintenance of Way Workers and the Maine Central Railroad, 1901 by Professor Charles A. Scontras, parts of which were published in the Bangor (Maine) Daily News on June 30, 1986. Professor Scontras has given us permission to publish his pamphlet in the BMWE Journal.

So beginning with this wealth of material readily available to us, we plan to periodically publish articles on BMWE labor history as space permits. Articles will not always appear on this page devoted to MofW ... Working on the Railroad.

We thought it fitting, however, to announce this new series on this page in tribute to those maintenance of way workers who went before us.

"The Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes is a railroad labor organization representing some 300,000 railroad maintenance of way workers in the United States and Canada. Maintenance of way workers are often referred to as the 'shock troops of the railroads,' for it is their job to keep safe the tracks, trestles, and bridges over which freight and passenger trains move swiftly to all parts of the continent.

"You have often seen them putt-putting down the track on a motor car or working in groups renewing ties, replacing rail, or refurbishing the right of way. You have seen them dangling from railway bridges and structures with paint brush or tool in hand, or repairing the thousands of buildings that make up our railroad system. They have no doubt often signaled you and your children safely across grade crossings with warning standard or red light. And you have seen them many times, I am sure, along the railroad right of way, operating cranes, ditchers, bull dozers, concrete mixers, and all the other modern machinery of present-day railroad maintenance.

"The work of the maintenance of way man is hazardous. In addition to the ordinary dangers that beset the worker who uses tools and machines, he must often work in high places, on bridges, trestles, and structures. And usually his work is done under the hazards of train traffic, on the main line where he must keep a sharp lookout for trains, or in busy railroad yards where the switching of cars is constantly going on.

"Our Brotherhood was formed in 1887 under the name of the Order of Railroad Trackmen. Organized first as a fraternal society, its objectives within the course of a few years became those of a labor organization, although fraternalism is still one of its basic principles. Amalgamation with other similar organizations of railroad workers in the years following resulted in the present form and name of our Brotherhood."

--Denver Hertel

History of the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes

1955

Photo ca. 1926 from June 1985 BMWE Journal.

Brother Guy G. Edwards, Omaha, Nebraska, who worked for the Burlington until his retirement around 1956, loves to tell about his early railroad experiences. And one of them revolves around an enlarged photograph he has (copy of which is published herewith) of himself and his section crew and their motor car.

His photo, taken about 1926, at Table Rock, Nebraska, is mounted on a piece of weathered barn siding. It receives a lot of comments from visitors who look closely at it. That's because they see this gadget angled out from the side of the motor car on steel rods.

Brother Edwards was the originator of this device--a gadget to scoop the ballast back up between the ties while the motor car moved along the rails. The round piece at the end of the steel rods came from a farm disker machine. And Brother Edwards "invented" it and put it to use way before the advent of ballast shapers and other track machines, some of which today have become marvels of electronics and computer technology.

As recalled by Brother Edwards, the Superintendent came by one day and asked him how he kept his railbed so perfect and was shown the ballast scoop gadget. Soon the Burlington had adopted the idea for all its section gangs.

Brother Edwards' daughter, Marjorie Limprecht, who provided this photo, says, "In those days, no one ever thought of patenting their ideas. People like my Dad were happy to be of service."

In the photograph, Brother Edwards is the man with his hand on the controls. He is living in a nursing home in Omaha, at the age of 93. The other person in the photo still living is the man on the far right; he is 80 years old, name unknown at this time, living in Humbolt, Nebraska. The man on the left was the late Elmer Boyle, and second from the right is the late Joe McNeely.

Records at Grand Lodge show that Brother Edwards joined the Brotherhood in 1936, and is a paid-up retired member of Lodge 1316, Burlington. [Grand Lodge records indicate Brother Edwards died July 23, 1987.]

"The purpose for which this book is published is to strongly impress upon the minds of all maintenance-of-way employes that if they wish to have their burdens made lighter and their lives made brighter--if they wish to have their many grievances properly adjusted--the remedy lies within themselves. Whining will not help them. Prayers and petitions will be alike in vain. The only source of relief is organization. The only remedy is united, persistent action. Such action can only be had where the men engaged in it are possessed of three sterling traits of character, to wit: courage, fidelity and fortitude--courage to undertake, fidelity to continue, and fortitude to endure.

--John T. Wilson

The Calcium Light

1902

What A Track Foreman Should Do

"I have read a number of letters treating on the subject, 'Shall the track foreman engage in physical labor, or shall he not so engage?' The one writer says he shall, while the other says he shall not. The synopsis of a rule found in nearly every book of rules, governing track foremen of nearly every road in the United States, is that the foreman shall engage in the work personally with his men. I do not know whether this rule means to take out his pick and shovel in the morning the same as one of his men and do physical labor alongside of them all day, or whether it only means that he keep moving among his men directing the work, and occasionally giving a helping hand where needed. I am not in a position to say. But I am forced to say that the rule requiring foremen to personally engage in the work with their men should not be found in any book of rules of any railroad. Sometimes the foreman can benefit the work by engaging in it himself, while at other times he accomplishes just the reverse; that is, his working does more harm than good. It all depends on the nature of the work and the kind of men he has whether it is beneficial or not for him to engage in the work or not to so engage.

"When surfacing track, for instance, a foreman's time is fully occupied sighting up his track and watching the tamping. Physical labor here is out of the question. He may find some time to fill in the ballast after the tampers, but if he has seven or eight men he will not find even time to do this. Again, at such work as renewing ties, changing rails, etc., he can work right along, and help his work along, and at the same time see that the work is properly done. The rule, therefore, requiring that he personally engage in the work should not be found in any book of rules, but it should be entirely left to him when and when not to work; he should be the best judge of this. The foreman who takes interest in his work and wants to get ahead of it will, whenever he can gain a point by so doing, pitch in himself without being told to do so by a company rule, while the foreman who does not care how little he accomplishes, and who is not inclined to work, will not work, in spite of fifty company rules. Examine his hands and they will be found as soft and tender as those of a mid-wife's and he generally takes more care of them (his hands) than he does of his wife, if he happens to have one."

Trackmen's Advance Advocate

(Forerunner to the BMWE Journal)

March 1, 1898