Two Poplar Bluff women, who are retired locomotive engineers, will be at the Mo-Ark Regional Railroad Museum during the Iron Horse Festival on Saturday to discuss rail crossing safety and distribute Operation Life Saver materials.
Darline Thurman began working as a clerk in the Missouri Pacific Railroad office in St. Louis in 1968, transferred to engine service in 1976, became an engineer in 1978. She retired from Union Pacific Railroad in 2007.
Faye Stroud/Middleton started with Missouri Pacific in 1978 as a brakeman, worked 17 years as a freight train conductor, became an engineer in 1995 and retired from Union Pacific Railroad in 2005.
Steve Ray of Poplar Bluff, who retired in 2013 from Union Pacific Railroad, will also tell about his 33-year career as a special agent (railroad detective). He worked 10 years in Chicago before moving to Poplar Bluff in 1991.
During Thurman’s 29 years an engineer, she operated freight trains between St. Louis and Jefferson City, from Jefferson City to Osawatomie, Kansas, and from Poplar Bluff to Salem, Illinois, Dupo, Illinois, and North Little Rock, Arkansas. In 1993, she spent five months at Spokane, Washington.
Stroud/Middleton also operated freight trains between Poplar Bluff, Salem, Dupo and North Little Rock. In 1986, she worked four months in the huge Union Pacific yard at North Platte, Nebraska — the largest rail yard in the world.
Both women enjoyed being an engineer, saying “I loved my job.”
Husbands Gary Thurman and John Middleton were freight train conductors for 40 years. The women “waved” to their husbands when they went by on a passing freight train.
Representatives from the Air Force, Army, Marines, National Guard, Disabled American Veterans, Air Evac, Pack’s Ace Hardware and Verizons also will be present along with A. J. White’s steam operated car and his calliope.
The museum is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays.