Welcome to JFK in The Enduring Secret.

I'm your host, Jeff Crudell.

Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the podcast.

Today's episode is episode 34.

You know, I think you can tell from the last episode that there is something about railroads that I find fascinating.

That might not be that unusual. Really, a lot of people like railroads that I find fascinating. That might not be that unusual.

Really, a lot of people like railroads.

My oldest brother, Les, gave me a model railroad for Christmas one year.

And that train is still in the family.

I'm not sure if it still runs, but it's still in the family for sure.

And I still have some of the original track, too, that went with it.

And as for railroad men, well, my grandfather, that is, my dad's father, worked a good bit of his life as a railroad man.

He was a machinist for the New York Central Railroad, and he spent a great deal of

his time in the roundhouse. That roundhouse was in the town where most of my dad's family was born and

lived at the time, Ashdabula, Ohio. Grandpa was an Italian, born in 1901 in this country, but he wasn't the oldest, and he had older brothers that were born in the old country, in Italy, that is.

And in those days, as an Italian and a Catholic, you weren't necessarily on the top of society's totem pole.

But he was good with his hands, and when it came to locomotives,

back then, when a part failed, they didn't call up the parts house. They had to fabricate it

from scratch. I know that's hard to believe, but they really did fashion them individually,

each from scratch. My grandpa did a lot of that.

He worked on steam locomotives for most of his life. They would manufacture those beautiful

machines and runs of about 30 to 40 locomotives at a time. This was, of course, the extent of

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