Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1935-07-28
BY w. H. SHIPPEN, JR.

CIV We HAVEN'T come 10 Tic
A end of the road yet, Ell,
w Harry AIRY vet IVES agreed
Harry, with cheerfulness which be-
lied the ominous notice In the An
napolis station behind them. What
time you got?"
The Basil brothers, Conductor Yves,
So, and Motorman Harry, IS, COM
pared old-fashioned railway time
pieces, which agreed to the minute
1:40 pm.
Five minutes yet" said Yves. They
replaced the watches precisely from
long habit, West in the vest under his
alpaca coat and Harry in his striped
overalls. 1t was all routine to the
brothers, routine as timeless as the
railroad itself.
The two could no more conceive of
the day when their interurban would
cease to leave Annapolis on the An
napolis Junction run than they could
conceive of quitting the only job they
had known since boyhood. Neither
could credit the notice, which said
the receivers would end operation of
the Washington, Baltimore & An
napoliS Railway on August 20.
Deans of $50 Employees.
As conductor and motorman, the
last for II years, the brothers have
been operating the same interrrban
on the apolis-Junction run, con-
Meeting with the Washington Balti-
more electric trains. They are deans
of the $50 W., B. g. A. employees, whose
jobs will end August 20, but unlike
the others, they refuse to believe the
end Is in sight.
The pair are railroaders and the
sons of a railroader who stocked q
woodburner on that same section Of
track, the second oldest in the world,
before either of them was born.
This railroad is going on" de-
clared Yves, or rather. Uncle Yves, as
he has come to be known. ut has
served this section since 1848, and it
can't quit now; folks need 1t too much.
How are the working people going to
get to their jobs, or the kids to
SCHOOL,"
That's right" Harry said. ''The
railroad will go on :. it always has"
Motorman Harry Basil at IS is as
rugged and almost as spry as the day
his father signed papers permitting
him as a minor to take a job firing
on the old short line" between Balti-
more and Annapolis in 1888.
Mostly, he is called Harry, but old
timers know him as Hopper" since
the day as a boy he chased grass
hoppers over the countryside to offer
the pet hooking bird Of friend.
Learned New Type Cars.
In 1897, young Yves obtained job
on bridge gang on the short line"
Both brothers went to the old Annap-
oils, Washington & Baltimore Railroad
in 1908, while it was operated by
steam, Harry as an engineer and Yves
as a conductor. Harry learned how
to drive the new-fangled cars when
the line was electrified several years
later and reorganized as the w. B. g. A.
During the Civil War, the old
Annapolis & Elkridge Railroad car
ried Union troops from Virginia and
Washington to Fort Severn when
Northern generals feared an attack
from that quarter. The old railroad
ran from Annapolis to Annapolis
Junction, now Fort Meade Junction,
and once bore hundreds of Confederate
prisoners to the camps at Parole, just
outside Annapolis. The father OF
Harry and Yves was railroading In
those days, stocking the old wood
burners and heating the boilers for
daily runs.
In his Al years of railroading,
Harry said proudly, he never killed q
man, or even a horse, mule or COW.
One or two dogs have met death
under his wheels, he admitted, and q
few chickens, but these accidents were
unavoidable.
In reminiscent mood, he told how
midshipmen returning to the acad-
envy in forbidden "cits" after a holi-
day in town begged him to slow down
so they could change before the cars
deposited them at the academy, or
how they jumped from the cars in the
early morning hours to dart through
gate two" in the hope the guard