Trackwalkers
In his 2009 book entitled Waiting on a
Train: The Embattled Future of Passenger Rail Service, James McCommons
writes, “So few intercity passenger trains run today that most Americans have
never boarded one.” Of course, there was
a day not so long ago when this was not true.
Just after World War II, so many people in the United
States were riding trains that one out of
every one hundred Americans worked in some capacity for a railroad. Trackwalking was one of those jobs that is no
more.
Trackwalkers were employed by railroads
to do just that, walk the tracks. Each
man walked his assigned section each day, looking closely at the track to see
if any problems had occurred since the previous day. Every morning “an experienced and reliable
man . . . walk[ed] over the whole section, to examine carefully all joints and
rails, and to look for broken rails and burned joint-ties.” The trackwalker carried tools and supplies,
such as a maul, wrench, torpedoes, and bolts, in order to make simple
repairs. The trackwalker also carried a
lantern since his work was often done at night.
If any track was found which necessitated a more thorough repair, the
trackwalker stuck red flags in the ground several hundred feet in each direction
from the problem area. He would also
attach a torpedo, a small dynamite charge, to the track near the flags. An oncoming train would cause the torpedo to
explode, creating an extremely loud sound, warning the engineer of a problem
ahead.
The
Missouri-Kansas-Texas (MKT) Railroad employed several area men as
trackwalkers. Two of those men were Mike
Daniel, Jr., and George Rogers, both of Hamburg. Both men, Daniel in 1925 and Rogers in 1932,
were struck and killed by trains as they inspected their sections of track.
The circumstances of Daniel’s death were
somewhat controversial. According to the
St. Charles Cosmos-Monitor, several area residents suspected that Daniel
had been murdered and his body placed on the track to look like an
accident. His body was found about 6:00 AM on May 8, 1925, two hundred yards north of the Hamburg
depot. Although it was known he had sold
some chicken the previous evening and also cashed a check, none of the $75 was
found on the body. Those who had seen
Daniel the night before his death stated that he had not been drinking. An inquest was held the day of his death, and
the verdict was that Daniel had been killed by a train.
Although there was some clamor in the
newspaper for a re-opened inquest, apparently nothing ever came of it. Daniel was buried in the Hamburg
Evangelical Church
cemetery. It is interesting to note
that, on his death certificate, Daniel’s cause of death reads “Accidental Death
Killed by Train,” but the word Accidental is a correction written over
another word. Unfortunately, the
original word is not discernible.
George Rogers was employed as a
trackwalker by the MKT Railroad on July
17, 1932, when he was struck by a train and killed. Rogers
was a long-time MKT employee at the time of his death, so it is possible he was
walking tracks at the time of Daniel’s death.
Rogers’ body was also found
at 6 AM, only about one-half mile from
where Daniel had been struck. It was
believed Rogers had sad down on the
tracks to rest and had fallen asleep.
The coroner stated that “practically every bone in his body was broken”
and death had been instantaneous. The
verdict of the inquest was accidental death.
Rogers was buried in Mokane,
Missouri.
The days of trackwalkers like Daniel and
Rogers are gone. At one time, however,
these two men, and thousands like them, were an important part of America’s
vast system of trains. The work they did
kept the tracks safe for the millions of Americans who took the train.
Sources:
Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History Museum (discussion.cprr.net/2005/08/
track-walker.html); Death Certificates (sos.mo.gov/archives/resources/deathcertificates);
Waiting on a Train (James McCommons); St. Charles Cosmos-Monitor
(microfilm); TRAINS Magazine (trn.trains.com/en/Railroad References).