Mills retires after 44 years' service

Chesapeake and Ohio Historical Magazine, May 2000 by Fabro, Anthony

The "witching" for Floyd E. "Jack" Mills came on Halloween 1999: it was the last day of a long career for him at CSX. He accumulated 44 years of service with CSX and predecessor railroads, all at the Parsons Avenue Yard terminal in Columbus, Ohio. During his long career, he has seen many major changes at the terminal.

A native of Coming, Ohio, Mills grew up around trains. His father, Jessie Floyd (Jack) Mills, worked for many years as an engineer for the New York Central Railroad.

How Mills got started with the railroad in 1955, when he was 17, is an interesting story in itself. Mills recalls, "Well, I thumbed to Columbus to look for a job and walked into my uncle's car repair shop. My uncle also worked for the C&O as a conductor. Earl Lisk, now retired yardmaster, was there, and he took me to the railroad and got me my job as a clerk. I thumbed home, got my papers signed by my parents, thumbed back to Columbus and spent a few days breaking in. My starting date was October 10, 1955; yardmaster date: September 1, 1963."

The job of a clerk was a little different than what it is today. Clerks went from checking every cut of cars and carding every car, except empty coal hoppers and checking seals on loaded box cars, to no clerks in the terminals. "When I started we had Ohio Bell Teletype, then computer cards." he recalled. Today lists of cars are created with cameras and trackside scanners. Clerks mainly check in locals to get an accurate list of what they have pulled from the customers that they service.

Jack always sounded even-tempered on the radio and pretty much was the same in person, something to be admired considering how hectic the job of a yardmaster can be. Mills once commented about the yard, "The people that built this yard knew what they were doing. It was nearly impossible to get blocked in a part of the yard. Now with all the tracks torn out and out of service, you can't help but to get blocked."

Mills has probably seen it all when it comes to yard operations. Parsons Yard used to have a four-story yardmaster tower, but it was torn down in the early 1990s. Aptly named "High Tower," it gave the yardmaster a bird's eye view of the yard. Now the yardmaster occupies a ground-floor room with two small windows on the north side of what is called the "Blue Building," hardly a spot for the yardmaster effectively to view the yard.

Times have changed in the yard. In a conversation between yardmaster Don Meade and the author, Mills commented on how it used to be. "Years ago they used to really move in and out of the yard, and I mean move. The cars would rock back and forth so badly you wondered how they stayed on the rail."

"One of the darndest things I ever saw was when a train was leaving from the west end of the yard. It was moving fast when all of a sudden I saw the first car flip, then the second, the third, and the fourth, just like dominoes. What a mess."

Over Mills' tenure he has been a part of three mergers: the B&OIC&O/WM; Chessie System/Seaboard System merger; and the CSX split of Conrail with NS. Mills commented that the B&OlC&O merger was different from the Conrail split. "When the B&O and C&O merged, there were a lot more people involved. They combined things, and there were a lot of extra people whom they let go. That isn't the case with this (ConrailCSX NS) merger." Since the June 1, 1999, split, CSX has staffed two yardmasters on most shifts creating a "tag-team" yardmaster system. One yardmaster concentrates on radio and phone communications and the other concentrates on entering data into the computer such has train arrival and departure information and generating switch lists for yard crews. Mills felt that this was a good setup for the yard. "It seems to be working. We have a lot more yard jobs so it helps us to keep everything in order."

I've known Mills personally for more than six years. Two of Mills' traits, which I will remember most, are his possessiveness of his pens and his phone etiquette. I once borrowed a pen from his desk so I could write down some train information. Jack went to write something down and discovered his pen was missing. He felt around the desk, moved some papers, and then looked at me. I still had his pen. "You took my pen. I need my pen," he exclaimed to me. I quickly gave the pen back realizing I was keeping a master from completing his work. Another observation is Mills' phone etiquette - not how he answers the phone or what he says, but how he hangs it up. No matter how happy or angry Mills is, he hangs up the phone with a big SLAM! One time I asked him why he does this. "It's just what I do." Now for some reason I find myself slamming the phone when I hang it up.

Mills' coworkers realize they are losing a great employee. The day before Mills retired, several crew members came in and wished him good luck and said what a pleasure it was working with him. "We are losing a great man," said Trainmaster Craig Marcum.

As 14:30 approached, the newest yardmaster at Parsons Yard, Matt Kennaw, sat down at the yardmaster's chair and began going over the turnover sheet with Mills. The young yardmaster repeatedly mentioned, "Man, look at all of these empty tracks. I sure am going to miss you, Jack!"