Hell Of A Way To Run A Railroad [Hardcover]

Early in Joe Harriss railroad career, one of his supervisors told him, You have to blow your own horn; nobodys going to blow it for you. Harris tried to live by these words. And in this memoir, he also describes blowing a horn of another sortthat of a railroad engineer. Hell of a Way to Run a Railroad recaps Harriss thirty-six-year stint working on the railroadfrom his debut as an electricians helper in 1969 with the Burlington Northern Railroad to becoming an engineer in 1974. In his thirty years working as a locomotive engineer, Harris hit twenty vehicles and killed three people with the train. With a focus toward safety, Harris discusses becoming a volunteer presenter with Operation Lifesaver, a program designed to help save peoples lives around railroad tracks. Including a comprehensive glossary of railroad terminology, Hell of a Way to Run a Railroad presents a fascinating look into the many and varied facets of working on the railroad with both passenger trains and freight trainsfrom the interesting locals to the quirky co-workers.