Started turning wrenches as a squirt in my Dads’ garage and spent as much time as I could with my Grandpa, helping out and being in the way, in the shop on the farm. My Dad volunteered me to stick my arm into the depths of a Deering Cub gearbox to retrieve a dropped bolt, pliers, and a magnet while holding me up by my ankles. It kept from having to split the tractor. I was five.
I spent the first 23 years of my working life in a factory, building spray painting equipment and ended up maintaining the all the equipment in my department.
When the lights were turned off there, I was hired on as a small engine mechanic for a railroad equipment sales and service outfit. I think I rebuilt one Briggs engine before I was moved to the big, big stuff. I was told I would spend two years working in the shop before I was sent into the field. Let’s see, started this gig in March of 97 and did my first road trip in August of 97. They owe me 18 months. Which is exactly how long I have to go until I retire.
I have backgrounds in hydraulics, pneumatics, automotive DC, machining, welding, troubleshooting, and only have a piece of paper for the hydraulics. Everything else is self taught. This gig has taken me around the world. Railroaders are the same good natured guys the world over. Most of them will try to bust your balls until you give it back.
I do MOST of my own stuff. What I won’t do anymore are oil changes on the vehicles. It’s not the getting under the car, it’s the getting back up.
