Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1913-02-22
Tales Of the Oldest Conductor.


thirty-four of those years as con-
Kansas City and Ellis, Kans., S. B.
sic Forest Avenue, has been
retired at the age of 10 years, with
pension from the railroad company of
S64 month for the remainder of his
life
In the thirty-four years that he was
conductor out of Kansas City, Mr..
ran a train for the first ten
years to and from Brookville, POI
miles west of Kansas City. The last
"a years he was conductor of the
Union Pacific passenger train that
leaves Kansas City each morning at
10 o'clock and reaches Ellis, a dis
tance of 303 miles, at 8 O'Clock at
night. Returning, he left Ellis at 6
in the morning and reached Kansas
City about O'Clock in the afternoon.
He would go from Kansas City to
Ellis one day, return the next day.
lay off in Kansas City the third and
go out to Ellis the fourth, return to
Kansas City the fifth, lay off the sixth
and so on week after week, month
after month and year after year.
FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON.
With pencil and paper you can
easily figure it up, as Mr.. Lightcap
has done, that in those thirty-four
years he has spent S2,620 hours, or
3. .442 1-2 full days of "A hours, or near
ly ten full years on running trains,
and in the same period he has travel
ed 2, ,255, 500 miles on his trains A
little more figuring will show how
many times this would have taken
him around the earth or to the moon
and back.
And for nearly ten years before he
became conductor of a passenger
train he was brakeman and then
Union Pacific west of Kansas City.
When Mr.. Lightcap retired he was
the oldest conductor in years of
service on the whole Union Pacific
system, and, so far as he knows, in
the United States. He was required
to retire at the age of 10, as the rules
of that railway prohibit the employ
ment of any person more than 10
years of age.
Mr.. Lightcap saw many changes in
the methods OF railroading. When
he went to Omaha in 1868 it was
from Pittsburg, Pa, where he had
gone after being mustered out of the
Union Army. He was in the Four
teenth Pennsylvania Cavalry and was
in every principal battle of Bull Run
TO the surrender at Appomattox.
His first work with the Union
Pacific was as an engineer in helping
TO build the bridge over the Missouri
River at Omaha.
TRAINS OVER THE ICE.
Before that bridge was built
trains were ferried over the river at
Omaha in the open months and eros
sed on the ice for two or three
months in winter he said last week.
Il used to help lay the ties and rails
across the river on the ice and saw
the heaviest trains cross for months
at time. 1 don't believe there has
been winter in the last twenty
years when that could have been
done, which leads me to believe that
our winters are not SO cold as they
used to be.
TRAINS STOPPED BY BUFFALOES.
When began railroading in Kassas,
in 1870, the U. P was built only as
far west as Wallace. 1t reached
Denver that winter. Many time
my train was stopped by herds of
thousands of buffaloes cross
ing the track in front of us. We had
to wait to let them pass. as they
would not get out of the way of the
engine.
"A large part of our freight out of
Kansas then consisted of buffalo hides
and jerked buffalo meat. 1 have haul
ed solid trains of thirty-one cars of
buffalo hides out of Soloman City.
"When began as passenger con-
ductor from Kansas City to Brook
Vile, Abilene was the northern end
Of the long cattle trail from Texas
There was not a house north of the
where the principal part of
Abilene is now, and l have seen
thousands of Texas cattle grazing
there. In all of the country for miles
east of Abilene, where rich farms
are now, there was not settler and
the sod was unbroken. Salina was a
very small village and in all the coun-
try west of there a pillow had never
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