A lifetime of railroading: BNSF locomotive engineer has 67 years of service (so far)
By MIKE PAGEL
Staff Writer
Like many at BNSF, Locomotive Engineer KC Hill loves railroading. But there’s something unique that sets him apart—his seniority. That’s because Hill, based in Galesburg, Illinois, has been railroading since 1957. That’s 67 years of service … and counting.
When Hill hired on to the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad (CB&Q), a BNSF predecessor, President Eisenhower was living in the White House and Hawaii had yet to be officially recognized as our 50th state.
Since becoming a locomotive engineer in 1966, he’s operated steam as well as diesel locomotives, and currently runs freight trains between Galesburg and Kansas City. But railroading was new to him when he started in 1957 working in the wheel shop.
“I didn’t know anything about it, but I liked machinery and know a lot about it because I came from the farm,” he said. Today, in addition to his work, he likes his hot rod and motorcycles – anything that makes noise. He also piloted small planes for years.
Even though he has more seniority than anyone he works with, Hill tells others to treat him like a new hire. “I tell them, ‘I don’t know everything, I want you to coach me like I’m the new guy,’” he explained. “Then I’ll do the same for them, so we’re a team. That’s very important on the railroad -- to be a team.”
That teamwork is critical, he said, given the nature of the job. “I work with different crew and different makeup of trains every day. I might have a 70-mph train today and a 55-mph train tomorrow, Hill said. “But I like the versatility.” Galesburg, part of the Chicago Division, offers him that as well given it’s a major hub with six subdivisions touching it.
Hill is truly the iron horse of railroading—not just in his seniority, but his work ethic. Excluding his normal rest days, Hill has laid off only 10 days in his 67-year career. In those nearly seven decades, he has seen exponential change, mostly for the better, including what he now has to carry on board to work: an iPad instead of 15 to 20 pounds of paperwork.
“That has been a great, great change,” he said.
With so many years under his belt, Hill has a few unique experiences, most notably one that occurred during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. This was when Hill was in the U.S. Army (1962-1964), serving as a locomotive engineer at Fort Lewis Army Base in Washington state.
“Our railroad switched out two trains of missiles because there was an Army firing range [near the track in Yakima],” Hill recalled. “When President Kennedy said we needed missiles in Florida, my crew switched out those trains at Fort Lewis and sent them to Florida. I was on duty for 20 hours and had top-secret clearance… The trains were given high priority and had to go through 10 different railroads.”
That top-secret assignment is but one of Hill’s many stories.
Thank you, KC Hill, for your many years of service to the railroad and to our country.
