William J. Brotherton

Burlington Northern Adventures is Mr. Brotherton’s account of the four years he spent as an extra board brakeman and conductor working for the Burlington Northern in North Dakota between 1979 and 1982. The role of an individual on extra board is that of a substitute which means you don’t know when you will work or where you will work. It means you are on call 24/7, you get no paid time off, you will definitely be working holidays when other railroad workers want to take time off, and, if you have a family, you can expect to be away from them for long periods of time. The amount of time an individual can expect to remain on extra board depends on things such as the seniority of the people with whom you work and the state of the business of the railroad on which you are working. When Mr. Brotherton signed on with the BN he was told he could expect a minimum of 7 years on extra board before he had any chance to have regular work.

The book is 157 pages in length and is divided into 5 chapters with each chapter split into 6-8 titled subsections. The Chapter titles are:

1) Hopping Freights and Other Adventures – details of the authors experiences in and around trains when he was a boy growing up in Atlanta and ending with his description of attempts to gain employment with the Southern Railroad and his decision to move to North Dakota and work for the Burlington Northern.

2) Grand Forks, North Dakota – stories about his training and his first train assignments as an extra board brakeman.

3) Furloughed – his life after his first layoff and some of his adventures of picking up extra board work on the BN in Minot, North Dakota in the dead of winter. He spent 3 months on the extra board in Minot before being recalled to Grand Forks. His only contact with his family back in Grand Forks was by letter and telephone.

4) Back to Grand Forks – rail adventures after his return included an engine fire, dynamiting a train (slamming a fast running train into full emergency stop) to avoid some teenagers who were playing chicken with his train by deliberately parking their car on the grade crossing, and his first and last trip as an extra board conductor.

5) A Promotion to Trainmaster – furloughed again in the spring of 1981 with no extra board work to be found anywhere on the system the author took a job as a truck driver and then as a roughneck on a drilling rig before he was called back by BN. BN sent him to trainmaster school and he worked the yards in Denver, Colorado. It was there that he decided he didn’t like the direction his life was taking so in 1982 he left the employ of the BN and started down a path that led first to a job as a wastewater treatment engineer and ultimately a degree in law.

In closing he says, “Today, as I look out on the Burlington Northern & Santa Fe main line from my law office, I think about the good times with the railroad and disregard the bad. I only wish the railroads to have the greatest success. It’s a special breed that makes railroads succeed, and I will always have a great deal of respect for the hard working railroad employee, toiling at an often thankless job.

I just hope that a trainmaster’s lot is easier today than it was twenty-plus years ago.
Somehow, though, I doubt it. “

I think Mr. Brotherton’s book is a well written description of late 20th century railroad life and it is a welcome addition to my library. (Text Length - 157 pages, Total Length - 159 pages.)… (altro)