I began my career with the Bangor and Aroostook Railroad in 1964, on a rail gang in Blackwater, Maine.  My job was to keep the new rock ballast away from the rails enough so the electromatic tamper/liner could clamp onto and hold it, while tamping the ballast under the rail. I did this with a pick ax.  I learned about railroading from the track up.

I stayed with the crew in the camp cars, made up mostly of French Canadians, and I began to learn to parle de francais. The conditions weren't the greatest, but the food was good and there was plenty of it.

In 1965, I worked for my father, who was Agent at Island Falls, Maine, as a damage inspector. I inspected box car loads of starch in 50 pound bags that were being unloaded.  I also worked at the Starch Factory, where the constituents of Gerber baby food was made. I observed the unloading to make sure that the damage to the bags of starch wasn't happening in Island Falls, as opposed to at the origin or while in transportation.

In 1966, after high school, I went to work as a student Agent/Telegrapher. My father, Paul, started the training process at Island Falls, where he started with his father, Neill,  20 years before. I traveled around the railroad, training with other Agents at places like Sherman, Patten, Millinocket, East Millinocket, and No Maine Jct. So I could get a senority date, my father called in sick, and I went to work. I copied my first train order on October 14, 1966, under my own signature at Island Falls and became at part of BAR history. 

The following day, Saturday, my Brother-in-law and I were hunting in the fields just outside of Island Falls, a community of about 500. We heard the fire whistle and headed for town. We saw a plume of smoke coming from the Starch Factory. There were railroad tracks leading from the main line to the factory. On the tracks there were three box car loads of starch placed for unloading beside of  the burning building. I ran into the building and called the Chief Train Dispatcher from the Laboratory phone and asked the Chief what I should do. He told me to move the cars anyway I could. I got in my car and turned the corner only to find a small bull dozer on the back of a truck. I knocked on the door of the house where the bull dozer was parked, identified myself, and told the owner why I needed his bull dozer and that the railroad would pay him for using it.  I rode back with the man and he unloaded the bull dozer. We hooked a cable from the dozer to the coupler of the lead box car, and I climbed up the ladder and released the brakes off the cars.  I manned the hand brakes, as we hauled box cars to safety.

So within 24-hours after I worked my first day as an Agent, I received a commendation from Superintendent of Transportation, Herschel P. Lee for my action. This started my career on a very positive note.

 I worked at Derby, which was an Agency connected to the freight car shop and local shippers in Lagrange, Milo, Brownville and Derby and also the Canadian Pacific Railway interchange at Brownville Jct. At South Lagrange there was an old tower where levermen once shuttled trains between the main line and the Medford cut off through a small section of double track. My father, Paul, worked there in 1952 when my brothers were born and at this time it was equipped the old Armstrong hand throw levers. I even worked there once, copying  train orders and contacting trains for the dispatcher.

 I worked as Agent at Searsport, West Seboois, Packard, Patten, Oakfield, Monticello, Bridgewater, Houlton, Limestone, Caribou, Ashland, Van Buren, Madawaska, and Frenchville.  I worked with chemical plant operations, lumber mills, paper companies, potato farmers, lumbermen, food processors, and seaport operations. I became qualified on the Maine Central Railroad Operating Rules and worked with the MEC dispatcher in Portland, while working at No Maine Jct. I also worked at the BAR General Offices in Bangor, as a part of my training, spending time in the mail room, the auditor's office, car accounting and distribution, damage prevention, freight audit, and car accounting.  In September 1970 Amoskeag Corporation purchased the BAR, and started eliminating most of the Agents jobs. This was perhaps the greatest mistake that the railroad could have made.  It was the Agents who kept the railroad, a part of community affairs, and once they were gone, the railroad ceased to have an idenity  and it began to die.

I worked for the Bridges and Buildings Department as a painter until the bridges in northern Maine became so icy that we could stay on them safety, which was about the second week in December 1970.  I left the BAR entirely and within a few days, I started my career as a Telegrapher with the Canadian Pacific.

Both of my twin brothers, Kirby and Kevin, worked for the BAR.  Kevin was a trainman and conductor.  He left the railroad because the noise of the locomotives and wheel flanges was damaging his hearing.

Kirby was a sectionman, inspector and foreman in the track department.  He recently completed 30 years of back breaking work, and left the now Montreal, and Atlantic on a disability.

In January 2004, my father was a diagnosed with cancer and although he fought hard to live, he was ushered out of this life in the arms of my brother Kirby at our father's home in Milo, Maine on January 4, 2005. I was fortunate to be able to see him about a week before he died and I bought him a railroad watch for Christmas, which he loved. I also had a chance to tell him how much he taught me and how that knowledge served me for all of my career in the railroad industry and in government.  My life seems emptier now that he's physically gone, but I think of him often.