Gene Davis and Kate Schrader Interview

Gene Davis and Kate Schrader by Stephanie Hamilton

"The trains were similar to the ones we have now, only they had a small steam engine, wasn't very large, and they used some of those smaller engines, they called them "yard engines". And if they had a heavy train, say 18 or 20 cars, why they'd use two engines. I've heard said that some of them, that it would actually pull the train in two.  Well, The section foreman and the section crew maintained the railroad and uh, they would replace the ties, and in the summertime, they'd dig the weeds that would, yea, the weeds out of the tracks so that in the fall, why they wouldn't set so many fires, you see, that was a coal fired engine. They did set some fires. I don't remember any major fires where it set the mountains on fire. But ah, I don't remember if they did it all the time or not, but they used to have a, ah, man that followed the train, on a small motorcar. We called the small motorcar the train’s coat. But, he would follow, oh maybe a mile or two behind the train and if the train set any fires, he'd put them out."