Hello from Rchard Burt

Discussion in 'New Member Introductions' started by friscomike, Apr 5, 2009.

  1. friscomike

    friscomike Administrator Staff Member Administrator Frisco.org Supporter

    Hello, Mike, and other railroading fans:

    I am F. Richard Burt, and live in Garland, Texas. I have been an avid arm-chair model railroader since 1947, but was able to start building my first N-scale real model railroad about 1-1/2 years ago. This is lots of fun, but it is also buffered by my experiences on railroads.

    My grandfather was a car man, and made sure that every car that came through Pine Bluff was properly oiled and treated with threat "waste." He spent 37 years with Cotton Belt, and retired as my hero in
    my early teens.

    My only time to ride Frisco was a night
    train from Memphis to Birmingham in early
    1941, just before WW-II started.

    I lived in New Orleans as a child, and again my senior year in high school. The rest of the time, we lived in central Arkansas, either Pine Bluff or Little Rock, where I was born. That was before the United States built good roads across the country, and we preferred to travel by train; besides we didn't even own a car.

    One of my earliest memories of being around railroads was when my grandfather took me to Pine Bluff to see the Cotton Belt building their new 800s, 4-8-4 Northerns. The ride around the turntable is still fresh in my memory. They said that they took a picture of me on the 805 sand dome, while it was still on the ground. Bummer; can't find it now.

    My father was an outstanding telegrapher, but when Postal Telegraph shut down, the market was overloaded with telegraphers, and he finally landed with Cotton Belt as a rod-and-chain man on their engineering survey crew. He worked from Illmo, Missouri to Texarkana, keeping the railorad where it belonged.

    By the time WW-II was over, I had been privileged to ride the rails from Pine Bluff to Miami (on to Key West), Pine Bluff to New Orleans (several times), New Orleans to New York City (Southerner), and Pine Bluff to Los Angeles and Fresno and back. For a kid from central Arkansas, my understanding of the rest of the world was much greater than most of the kids I knew in school, for I had seen much of it with my own eyes.

    Then, not counting riding Little Rock to Pine Bluff on MoP, I bought a one-way ticket from New Orleans to Abilene, Texas on the Texas and Pacific on the promise of a scholarship at Hardin-Simmons University, and had $25 cash in my pocket. That's faith in action.

    In 1963, I signed on with people designing and building the NASA Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston. I lived in Dallas, and commuted each week to/from Houston to get that job done. Riding to Houston was via Burlington's Texas Zephyr; returning to Dallas via Rock Island on heavyweight trains, with wonderful "home-style" cooking on the diner.

    In 1959, I signed on with the Texas and Pacific Railway as a switchman. Good people, good railroad. So, I had some real "hands-on" experiences.

    I'm a church organ builder, ...retired, but still manage to help a church get a new organ now and then.

    This is enough for now, but I will come back to inquire about Frisco in Texas.
    More, later.

    Appreciatively,
    Dick

    F. Richard Burt
    Brazos Valley Railway
    ...through the Heart of Texas
    my N-scale fantasy empire.

    http://mysite.verizon.net/BrazosValley

    BrazosValley@verizon.net
     
  2. John Markl

    John Markl Member

    Oh good grief !! Here I sit, with a shop full of shelving. Why didn't I think of that? Guess my guys will wonder what I'm thinking at work tomorrow as I stare at my inventory, mentally moving things around........:eek:
     

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