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University Daily Kansan
Years on the tracks . . .
Conferring with his crew, Dale Coggburn looks over the freight list, which he has done for 28 years.
A good engineer has to have a feel for the track
By WALT BRAUN
Staff Writer
Dale Cogburnbull is a railroad man. Yet his clothes are clean. His face is not soot-smudged and he doesn't wear a red handkerchief around his neck.
Cogburn, who began working as a fireman for the Union Pacific Railroad almost 28 years ago, says that the days of the grimy engineer with the red handkerchief are gone forever.
"Old Casey Jones wouldn't even know the place if he came back today, he says." When I was hired as a fireman in 1980, my job was to keep the fire burning and the steam level up. Now a fireman is an apprentice engineer."
Coghurn, who now operates diesel engines at the railroad station in North Lawrence, spent the first 27 years of his career in the railroad yards in Kansas City, Mo., and on the trains in eastern and central Kansas.
"I don't go on the road as often as to, but I get to see my family more," he says. "The best thing about working in a station is that I start here every morning and I finish here every night."
Finishing at home every night was only an occasional luxury for Cogburn until he began working at the Lawrence station 10 months ago. Last year he bought a 70-cubic farm near Baldwin where he raises horses.
Coggish says he enjoys the run between the Kansas City and Salina the most.
"the thing I liked best was looking ahead at open track and being able to think my own thoughts," he says.
"I've always been a fan of the tracks."
Those old engines will go 75 to 80 miles per hour with a light load."
Coggburn says that in 20 years as an engineer, he has never dalerned, but he did hit a truck once.
"luckily, no one was hurt," he says. "The people had gotten out in time. The two things I feared most on the road were hitting gasoline trucks and school buses. I just don't think I could have hit a school bus and walked away the same man. If I had ever hit a gasoline truck—or one had hit me—I wouldn't have walked away at all."
He says that it is almost impossible to avoid collisions on the track because trains often need more than a mile to reach.
Cogburn says that in his years with Union Pacific, working conditions have greatly improved.
"The work is fairly clean now, the pay is good and the job is fun," he says. "Even when we spend the night on the road at night."
Although the work done by a railroad crew is occasionally easy, Cogbuzz saws, the men earn their pay.
“There might be days that aren’t too tough,” he says.
“But for every day that’s easy, there’s another day when it’s hard.”
"I have an advantage over many of the men because at least I'm inside."
Coggburn says advances in technology, especially in communications, have improved the railroads and made them more efficient.
"There is much more communication between the locomotive and the station and among locomotives than once there was," he says. "We have a better idea of where we are, what's ahead and what's behind us now."
Cogburn is optimistic about the future of the railroads. The energy shortage is giving the railroads another chance, he says, because it now costs 20 to 50 times more to haul cargo by truck or air then by train.
"Another advantage is that the tracks are already here, and most of them are in good shape." he says.
Coggburn says railroad employees can now acquire better and more sophisticated training than he had received when
he says that improved technology has lightened the engineer's work load, but not his responsibilities.
"Now a man can become an engineer in two years," he says. "There is classroom training with visual aids and computers."
"There is less physical work," he says. "But strength doesn't make engineers. A truly good engineer must have a feel for the engine and the track. He has got to know what he can do with the load he carries and be able to think miles."
Coggburn, who attended the University of Missouri at Kansas City, says he enjoyed college, but didn't like to talk about it.
e every time I tell someone I went to college, they ask me I didn't do something else. She says, "I'll tell you my idea. I did."
Cogburn, who says he expected to work eight more years now, also wanted to work for the railroads and had an application.
"I suppose that if I had complained about my job every day, he'd lean in another direction," Coggburn says. "But if I hadn't liked my job, I wouldn't have kept it for 28 years."
Training is continual for Lawrence police
Bv HANNES DEAR
Staff Writer
Training doesn't end when a policeman receives his commission—it continues every other month for eight hours, as the officers once again become students, according to Roy Demory, community relations officer for the Lawrence Police Department.
The officers must attend an in-service training session on a regular on-duty basis, Demory said. The department requires that every officer have 40 hours of training a
Lawrence's training sessions have been held for several years and are not required by law. Demory said it was expected that the federal government would soon require a minimum number of training hours a year for all police departments.
Demyr said the department invited various people from the community and from KU to direct the sessions. For example, he said, has some Haskell students are asked to talk with officers about problems in their campus counter and how to avoid or cope with them.
In addition to local instructors, the police academy in Hutchinson sends instructors to
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TOMORROW: A MUSICAL MYSTERY BICYCLE TOUR, sponsored by the Mt. Oread Bicycle Club, will start at 6 p.m. in South Park. The SUA FILMS, "Sabotage" and "Young and Innocent," will be at 7:30 Admission. Auditorium in the Union. Admission is $1.
TONIGHT: A BICYCLE SCORE ORIENTERING RALLY, sponsored by the M. Ortec Bicycle Club, will start at 6:30 in South Park. An ICE CREAM SCOAL BICYCLE MEETING, sponsored by the M. Ortec Bicycle Club, will be at 7:30 at South Park.
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teach new legal concepts and to demonstrate new equipment in the police field.
Officers also attend specialized training schools, which are held in Hutchinson and on the campus of the University.
Lawrence officers have attended schools to study subjects such as homicide reporting, crime prevention, management and drug education.
Nine officers are now certified in Crash Injury Management, Demory said, the same course that ambulance workers must pass to be certified. So far, Demory said, officers have participated on a voluntary course and would like to see all officers become certified.
Every officer must qualify four times a year, Dermay said, to carry a firearm.
A special tactical squad trains about eight hours a month, Demy said. The squad, consisting of two 4-man teams and one superintendent, is instructed on how to load the vehicle into the crane in and on situations in which additional and heavier weapons are necessary, he said.
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