Listening for that whistle

Answering an advertisement started my love of the railroads.

I saw the ad in our hometown newspaper, The Palouse Republic. The ad was seeking people to apply for menial labor on our section of the Northern Pacific Railroad. The section ran from Palouse to Tekoa, about 50 miles of track.

I was a junior in high school, but 16, the minimum age suggested in the ad.

The track foreman, Bill Fisher, did...