My grandfather hired on with the railroad when he was 13 years old. It was around 1915, he told them he was 17. Because WW1 was in full swing he got hired.
The tough old bastard was shoveling coal on a steam engine at the age of 13. By the time he turned 17 he was an engineer.
The good ole days. I have my grandpas railroad watch. I’m saving up to have it restored to original condition.
I suspect that even most Boomers don’t realize how major a part of American life that railroads were prior to the 1950s. If you wanted to travel any distance at all you did it by train. Passenger trains covered the country. Both of my WWI vet grandfathers worked for the Southern Railroad, although their paths never crossed.