story11258.xml

story11258.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2005-01-18

I started my September 11th, off getting a call at 7 am to be at work at 9 am. I work for the Norfolk Southern Railroad, then as a train conductor. I had been out the night before so the hour drive from my home in Cleveland, Oh to the train yard in Bellevue was longer than usual. Well at around a quarter after 9, while getting our paperwork for the train. The clerk comes running in, he says "the dispatcher just said over the squak box, that a plain hit the world trade center". We thought nothing of it, thinking it was a small private plane, that probelly crashed landed. It wasn' t till I was on my train gettimng ready to leave Bellevue and go 130 miles east to Conneaut, that my cell phoine kept ringing. People were telling me for the next hour that airplanes were highjacked, that we were under attacked, and all orther sorts of things. I had a 3 man crew that day; myself as the conductor, a engineer, and a student engineer. As we got started moving we tried to gather what was going on. We all had a great sense of fear, especially knowing that the railroad tyracks pass Hopkins International Airport in Cleveland. As we went along you could hear the commotion on the radio traffic, crews keying up the radio, playing radio broadcasts; god if there was ever a day that i wished i carried a FM radio in my bag, it was then. We had quite a big train that day and we never did make track speed, it took forever in a day just to go the 50 miles to Cleveland. Wow! Going through Cleveland it was a ghost town. The streets were empty, no people waving at the crossings, nothing. It was then that I knew something was wrong, I could not wait to get to the hotel in Conneaut. Around 7 that night, we finally were off our train and headed to the hotel. Conneaut is a very small town in northeast Ohio, we often joke "that, they role the sidewalks up after dark"; but on this day; when the streets are normally quite, everyone seemed to be at the 3 gas stations in town. They were stocking up on gas fearing price hikes and such. We ended up getting a 12 pack of beer to calm our nerves, and headed to the hoel. Then at the front desk, we heard The President would speak in about a hour. We ordered a pizza and all got settled in, then join each orther, waiting for The President to come on. Just as the pizza delivery man showed The President came on, we inviteed the delivery man in to our room, and we all were glued to the TV. It was like the old stories of people gathering around the radio in WWII, to hear FDR speak. After about a hour I retreated to my own room to get some rest. The railroad was still running trains as normal. So I had to get some rest for the trip back. (just as info, if the railroads were to shut down, the city of New York would come to a hault in 3 days, we are essental, to American commerance) I was scared and alone that night, I remember sleeping with the light on, here I am away from, with no friends or family, in a room all alone. I really was scared. I watched TV all night glued to CNN, and must have nodded off somewhere. The next morning we got called for deadhead, (a taxi ride home) I was so glad that I caught a deadhead, instead of a train. Eventually we got back to Bellevue on the 12th. I got in my truck and drove back to Cleveland. I was amazed, all the radio stations played patriotic music, and coming into Cleveland on Interstate 90, people had put flags on every overpass. Knowing that things were somewhat normal, I went to my moms house hugged her when I got home and spent the night on her couch. Thinking about it all if I had been called for 10am on the 11th, I would have miscalled and never shown, but at least with all the stress of the day, I was doing something I love; working on the railroad!