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End Of An Era, Last Local Engineer Retires

Railroad engineer Chip Odom boards the engine for his last south run to Jackson before retiring on Oct. 26. Ironically Odom made the run in an old Illinois Central engine that Canadian National Railway continues to use after purchasing IC in 1998. “We still have a few out there,” Odom said about the IC engine. “But when I looked on my paperwork when I went to work and saw the engine number, I said ‘man I can’t believe that,’” he said about the familiar engine.

By David Howell

Editor


WATER VALLEY – October 26, 2017, will go down in history for Water Valley’s rich railroad heritage after Chip Odom, the last local engineer, retired following a 41-year career. It’s the end of an era that started before the Civil War and continued through the golden age of steam railroading from 1890 to 1930, as Water Valley trainmen held seniority on freight and passenger operations, and hung on through multiple generations in the decades that followed. 

Chip’s father and grandfather were both part of the legacy, as were hundreds of other Water Valley trainmen. There still remain a handful of local railroad men who work for Canadian National (CN) Railroad but Chip is the last local engineer, the last one with his hand on the throttle.  

His career started in 1976 only a few years before the last train would come through Water Valley on March 12, 1982. 

“When I went to work on the railroad, I figured I would have a job right here, I really did,” Chip said last week as he reflected on his career.  He started in the maintenance department before transferring to transportation department as a brakeman. In 1979 he transferred into engine service and was promoted to engineer the following year after completing training.  But even as an engineer, Chip’s low seniority meant he continued to work as a fireman to have a regular run.

“When they abandoned this Water Valley track I actually had a regular job on the old 41 and 42 local as a fireman,” Chip recalled.  

Ironically when he shifted to the Grenada line and he saw the same thing happen as Illinois Central Railroad (IC) slowly shifted their rail traffic to the Delta line that also leaves from Memphis but stretches through Marks, Greenwood and Yazoo City en route to Jackson and on down to New Orleans.

“When I first started working in the Grenada District it was a high-speed railroad. Amtrak ran 80 MPH and freight trains ran 50MPH,” Chip  said about the stretch of track that runs from Canton to Memphis that ultimately shared the same fate as the Water Valley line.

It was the Delta line were he would spend more than half of his railroad years, taking a trip from Memphis to Jackson, laying over, and running back to Memphis the next day.  All in all, he logged a few million miles on the tracks, first working for IC before CN acquired ownership of the company in 1998.

Now known as the Yazoo Subdivision, Chip said he knows every little bump and dip in the track and could often feel when there was a problem area along the way. 

“You might hit a bad spot, it wouldn’t seem right, so you call the dispatcher and report it,” Chip explained.

It was a grueling job as Chip missed many holidays and family events and spent countless nights in hotels between runs. 

“It was tough, some of  my early days I had to work Christmas. Holidays didn’t mean anything, Fourth of July, Labor Day, I had to work all of them. Sometimes you may be home eight hours and then you would go out again, and that was seven days a week,” Chip said about the work schedule. 

But it was a job he loved.

“I don’t have any regrets,” Chip said about his career choice that started when he was 18 and just out of high school. 

His father, Wallace Odom, asked him if he had thought about what he was going to do after graduating.

“He said, ‘I will get you a job out there on the railroad if you want to go to work,’” Chip recalled.  “That is how that came about, been here every since.”

He has seen a lot during the career – derailments and accidents, tighter government regulations and new technology as the engines got larger and more powerful. 

“The engines are much more high-tech. When I first started running, it was just a throttle, with forward and reverse,” Chip said. Back then the engines had around 1,700 or 1,800 horsepower. 

“Now they are all computerized. You actually have a computer sitting in front of you,” Odom explained. The engines now muster 4,000 horsepower and up and most even have air conditioners. 

“They are quieter now, with the windows shut, you can actually carry on a conversation,” the veteran engineer added.

He also saw the crew size shrink from five men to two men. He worked during a brief era when CN used super trains to move freight, four or five engines pushing and pulling 200-plus cars with trains that could stretch for more than two miles through the Delta.

There was a derailment in the mid-1990s where 13 or 14 cars turned over in the Big Black River Bottom near Bentonia causing nearby residents to be evacuated after hazardous material leaked from the cars. 

“It’s wasn’t the crew’s fault, stuff like that happens,” Chip explained.

He was hospitalized in another accident after his train stuck a log truck at a crossing. He suffered a head injury and doesn’t recall anything about the accident.


A Dedicated Wife

But his wife, Cathy Odom vividly remembers that call.

As a railroad wife, she remembers many calls at all hours of the day and night as Chip was summoned for work or for problems that may affect his schedule. 

“It is a big adjustment, it was not the normal life,” Cathy explained about the railroad schedule where she would often only see her husband for a few minutes as she was leaving for her postal route and he was coming home after a long night on the railroad. And many evenings as she returned from her day’s work, he was getting ready to head off to work.

“You get used to being woke up in the middle of the night,” Cathy recalled. “There was fast departures, we would run, run, run to get him out the door. And a lot of days where you can’t plan anything, he would sit by the phone waiting for the call to go to work,” she explained.

“She is the rock,” Chip said about their marriage and raising their daughter with his erratic schedule.

Cathy was working at BorgWarner with Chip’s mother when the train collided with the log truck.

“We got the call and went to the Grenada hospital. They moved him from Grenada to Memphis in the ambulance and he stayed three days in the Med. He doesn’t remember the wreck, he can’t tell you anything about it,” Cathy added. 

After a 13-year stint at BorgWarner, Cathy delivered mail in Water Valley for 22 years. Only five days after Chip retired, she also retired from the post office on Oct. 31. The couple, both 60 years-old, will embark on a new chapter.

“I am looking forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas, not having to work around my schedule,” Chip said. They already have a trip planned to the beach with their family. He also plans to catch up on some work around the house and enjoy more time hunting and fishing.

Aside from the holiday trip, Chip plans to stay close to home.

“I told Cathy I have been traveling all of my life, I would kind-of like to sit around the house for a while,” he said. 

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