Railroad Retirees – August 1962

Do companies still acknowledge the retirement of longtime employees with a special ceremony or reception?

I'm not so sure these days. For one thing, people seem to move around a lot and don't rack up decades of service at one employer like they used to in the old days. 

U. S. Steel used to show how much it appreciated its workers by making their retirement a special occasion, with a big formal dinner, a group photograph and newspaper coverage.

The railroads were another special case. Workers often stayed a long time, and their retirement merited newspaper coverage. Two gentlemen both from Lorain County are great examples of this, both retiring around the beginning of August 1962.

James F. May of Lorain retired from the B. &. O. Railroad back on August 1, 1962 after 46 years of service. His photo (shown below), with many of the members of his yard crew behind him, appeared in the Journal on August 1, 1962. The caption notes, "He joined the railroad Dec. 8, 1915 and was promoted to engineer Aug. 20, 1920, serving as engineer both on the road and in the yard."

Meanwhile, in that same edition of the Journal, Charles "Red" Hoag of Wellington had just retired the day before from the New York Central Railroad after 50 years and two months of service. He was the subject of a nice article written by Eleanor Foster.

As the article notes, "Red started working for the railroad when he was 12 years old. He filled and cleaned 56 kerosene lamps daily for the signals."

He had a variety of roles during his railroad career, as clerk, ticket agent in Wellington, freight brakeman, and conductor.

Rail service was already winding down during the course of his long career, going from 36 passenger trains in 24 hours down to seven, and 11 passenger trains stopping in Wellington daily being reduced to two.

Sixty years after this article, Amtrak is the only long-distance passenger railroad in the United States. And you don't see anyone retiring from the railroad being profiled in the newspaper.

That is, if you even see a newspaper.