Coal Creek - Railroad Engineer

A Railroad Engineer
by 3rd Grade Students

George Last is an engineer on the Burlington Northern Railroad. He is holding a train couple that was found in the Platte River by the tracks in downtown Denver. It was very dangerous to couple the trains with this. You could get your fingers smashed very easily.
	When George first started working for the railroad he was a telegraph operator. Then he went to school to learn to be an engineer. This is the telegraph office in the Colorado Railroad Museum.
This is a watch used by the train engineer. It is a Hamilton Railway Special. The watch is important because the engineer needs to know when to go and to know where the other trains are to prevent crashes. Every day at 12 noon the engineers all over the United States set their watches so the minutes match the main clock in Chicago.
	The spikes and the tie plate hold down the tracks to prevent derailments. This spike (left) is called a jafery. It was made in 1880 for the Rio Grande and Southern Railroad in Colorado. The metal was extruded into a long piece and then cut into spikes. The tie plate (right) was used to hold the rail onto the wooden tie. It helped to hold the rail in place. It stops the rail from cutting into the tie. Click here to learn more about tracks.