Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1913-04-24
CONDUCTOR LIGHTCAP HAS
RETIRED FROM u. p. SERVICE

with the Union Pacific railway, thir-
ty-four OF those years as conductor
Of a passenger train between Kansas
City and Ellis, Kan, S. B. Lightcap
SIS Forst Avenue, has been retired
at the age of 20 years, with a pen
sion from the railroad company of
$64 a month for the remainder of
his life.
In the thirty-four years that he
was conductor out of Kansas City,
Mr.. Lightcap ran train for the
first ten years to and from Brook
Vile, 201 miles west of Kansas City.
The last twenty-four years he was
conductor of the Union Pacific pas
senger train that leaves Kansas City
each morning and reaches Ellis,
distance of 800 miles, at o'clock
at night. Returning, he left Ellis
at in the morning and reached
Kansas City about o'clock in the
afternoon. He would go from Kan
sas City to Ellis one day, return the
next day, lay off in Kansas City the
third day and go out to Ellis the
fourth, return to Kansas City the
fifth, lay off the six and so on week
after week, month after month and
year after year.
With pencil and paper you can
easily figure it up, as Mr.. Lightcap
has done, that in those thirty-four
years he has spent $500 hours, or
3,422h full days Of twenty four
hours, or nearly ten full years on
running trains, and in the same per-
Tod he has travelled 2,255,526 miles
on his trains. A little more figur-
ing 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
conductor of freight train on the
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 re-
quired to retire at the age of 20,
as the rules Of that company pro-
hibit the employment of any person
more than 20 years of age. y
Mr.. Lightcap saw many changes
In the methods of railroading. When
he went to Omaha in 1868 1t was \
from Pittsburgh, Pa, where he had
gone after being mustered out of
he Union army. He was in the
Fourteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry t
Ind was in every principal battle in t
he east from the second battle of
Bull Run to the surrender at Apo ]
nattox.
His first work with the Union y
Pacific was as an engineer in help
ng to build the bridge over the 3
river at Omaha. "a
Before that bridge was built a
rains were ferried over the river
t Omaha in the open months and g
rossed on the ice for two or three c
1onths in winter" he said last week. il
l used to. help lay the ties and rails CT
cross the river on the ice and saw n
ne heaviest trains cross for months .
{ time. l don't believe there has n
cen winter in the last twenty
ears when that could have been
one, which leads me to believe
lat our winters are not so cold as 81
ley used to be. Sc
"When l began railroading in =
ansas, in 1870, the U. P. was built y
My as far west as Wallace. 1t
cached Denver that winter. Many -
time my train was stopped by Il
erds of countless thousands of buff
loes crossing the track in front of r.
J. We had to wait to, let them
lss, as they would not get out of II
e way of the engine. 9
"a large part of our freight out 9
Kansas then consisted of buffalo y
des and jerked buffalo meat. 5
i've hauled solid trains Of thirty .
le cars of buffalo hides out of Sol y
non City.
when l began as a passenger 9
from Kansas City to Il
Abilene was the north
n end Of the long cattle trail from
sxas. There was not a house north 6
, the railroad. where the principal
Irt OF Abilene Is now, and / have