Meet Bob Lettenberger, Trains Associate Editor in this Q&A with the Editors. Trains.com Unlimited Members can see the video in the Trains.com Video section.
Steve Sweeney: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another Q&A with the Editors. We are so privileged to have Bob Lettenberger from Trains Magazine join us. Bob, welcome.
Bob Lettenberger: Thank you.
SS: For those of our audience who do not know who you are, would you kindly introduce yourself and tell everyone a little bit about who you are and how you came to be with Trains?
BL: All right. I’m Bob Lettenberger, the Associate Editor of Trains Magazine, and I’ve been here just about a year. Previously, I was with the National Railroad Museum and there I wore a number of different hats. I was our Communications Director, Operations Manager, Education Director, I got to tell train stories, and it was cool. I had been with that organization for about 25 years, and it was time for a change. I was surfing the web, looking at the ads, and was like, “Hey, Trains Magazine is looking for an Associate Editor. Wait a minute, I went to J-school for that, I should know how to do it. That’s like 30 years ago, do I remember how to edit things?”
Anyways, I had filled out my application and it landed on Jim Wrinn’s desk, late Editor of Trains Magazine. And here’s where the story gets funny. I flipped my application about 10:30 at night, and the next morning about 8:30, I had Jim on the phone. “Hey, Bob. What did you send me?”
I’m like, “Well, Jim, I think it’s called a job application.”
“You really want to come work for me?”
“Yeah.”
Well, we talked for about an hour and a half. About 60 minutes into this conversation, I was having with Jim about coming here to Trains, he says, “Wait a minute, this must be a job interview. There are questions I’m actually supposed to ask you, we can’t just keep kibitzing about trains.”
SS: And that’s how you knew you were going to be hired, right?
BL: Apparently in the last 30 minutes, I must have said something worthwhile because here I am. It was for me a continuation of what I’ve been doing for the last 25 years — telling stories about trains. I did go to do journalism school, trained to be an editor, and working on those things called newspapers that we used to have, that was really cool, and I liked them. So now, we’re doing magazines.
It’s Trains, it’s the history, it’s what they do, and how they fit into our society. Not only historically, but where are they going today, what’s happening today, and where are we going for the future. To me, those are all cool stories to be telling. And guess what I get to do every day?
SS: That’s awesome. So, we ask the same five questions of every guest, and we go from there. So, if you don’t mind, I’ll start with the first question.
BL: I hope I get them right.
SS: I hope so too. So, what is your favorite railroad, present or past, and why?
BL: Hands down, Union Pacific. That’s kind of end of the discussion right there, mic drop, there it is. Why? The history. When you look at the Union Pacific, how they were formed, the people that were involved, the whole process, then the building of the Transcontinental Railroad and the whole story behind that – the chicanery, the business practices (both ethical and unethical), and the people that were involved, not only the people at the high level but those down there actually putting the track in – you look at the innovation of that railroad.
Think of some of the passenger trains like the City of trains. Think of some of the motive power: Challengers, Big Boys, the double-diesel locomotives, and turbines. You look at some of the innovations they’ve even done in the past few decades like the “Arrowedge” that sits on intermodal trains. It’s just incredible.
Also, you got to look at the only railroad that still has its original name out of the ones here in the U.S. Also, you kind of look at the Union Pacific not just because its big, but some of the good things it has done with its size. I think mainly of the Union Pacific Museum. It is a unique facility, and it tells the story of not only their railroad but railroading in a lot of respects.
Are there other ones that I like? Hey, I have a little soft spot for the Baltimore & Ohio since I grew up in Maryland. I wish somebody would have saved an EM-1. I like the Burlington a little bit, the Zephyrs are cool. So, there’s some little spot things here and there. But man, UP, that’s where it is.
SS: In the bag.
BL: In the bag, man.
SS: Bob, the second question, what is the best part about what you do?
BL: Best part about what I do is I get to play with trains. Okay, I don’t, though we do have model trains here, but we don’t have any big, full-size ones. But I get to play with trains, and I get to tell or help tell the stories of those trains. I think for me, that’s kind of one of the neat things is every time we start on the next month’s issue, or we start on a special interest publication, we ask, “What’s in the box, what’s going to come out of the box, and what rabbit hole is this story going to take us down?” To be able to see that on a monthly basis of what’s coming down the tracks and where is this going to take us is always the fun part.
The second part of that, which is just amazing to me, is wondering where can we, as editors, writers, or our art department, go with these things. How can we tell this story to surprise our readers every month? I didn’t think that the phrase “I’ve been a lifelong subscriber to Trains Magazine” would take on a different meaning for me. But now when I hear that and talk with people who have subscribed for 40, 50 and 60 years, I’m thinking now I’m one of those guys who’s got to help surprise that person every month.
I remember when I started subscribing for Trains Magazine going, “Holy cow, look at this!”
And you go back to that issue, how many times? Maybe the next one there wasn’t a story that thrilled you as much. To be able to be part of that surprise every month for the readers, man, that’s just cool.
SS: That is cool. I want to follow up on that. So, I was part of that just for a little bit, and it’s hard to surprise people sometimes because I’ll just say the Internet, the interwebs, Facebook, and all these other places. News by itself isn’t surprising people, how do you do it?
BL: There’s a difference in the formats. When you’re looking at the Internet and you’re looking at our News Wire. I look at David Lassen, our senior editor that does News Wire, and the effort that goes into that and to making sure that we’ve got what’s happening today right out front. There’s your quick hit. There’s the story, but it’s not the whole story because a lot of the things that we’re talking about on News Wire are still evolving. This is where the magazine then steps in to fill in the details and paint that back picture.
There’s also dozens and dozens and dozens of stories that are not contemporary. And to put them on Trains.com in say, 500-1,000 words, we’re giving you a nice dose of the story. In print, where we can go a little bit further in 3,000 words or so, there’s more rich details. So, the way I see it is that depending on how a reader wants to plug in to one of these products, there’s going to be details for them at those levels.
The trick, as you alluded to, is how do we keep all of that fresh, and I think it’s kind of a natural progression. News Wire is BAM, here it is, right now! And when we go to the Internet, great reference and maybe a little more detail. But then at some point, we get to print with some of the stories, and here’s the big dive into that subject. So, just keeping that in mind and what you can do in each one of those different platforms, that’s what keeps it interesting. That’s how I think using those platforms is what makes it interesting on both sides of the fence – editor and reader, to what are we going read about today.
SS: Outstanding. So, tell us about something exciting you’ve been working on lately.
BL: There’s actually a story that I’m working on right now about baseball stadiums from which you can see trains. Right now, I’m going to guess that a few people watching this are going, “Seriously? Really? What?”
Okay, hold on. Timeout. This is cool because right now you’re also thinking, “Wait a minute, let’s see. Angel Stadium in Anaheim, I can see a train from there. When I pulled out of Denver on the California Zephyr, I was looking right up in the in the stands in Coors Field.”
You’re starting to think about this and that’s what kind of happened to me with the story. Our author asked us to find illustrations to go with this. He had some great stadiums — not only Major League, but Minor League. I’m looking and going, “I haven’t heard of half of these places, I don’t know about this.”
I started digging into it and it turned out to be a really cool thing. There’s been this kind of explosion of the fun and activity around Minor League Baseball in the past decade or so. When I look at all these stadiums, gee, they got trains outside of them too, and all this goes around trains, and baseball — the American sport. And you look at people having fun and do it in these neat little stadiums, these little pockets and little corners of America. And what at first, I thought was going to be kind of a, “I don’t know about this story,” turned into something that is just so totally cool.
I’ll give you one example. Montgomery, Ala., big baseball town and home of the Montgomery Biscuits. One of the big things at the concession stands in the stadium is you get yourself a southern biscuit. Riverwalk Stadium’s outer buildings are kind of in the shape of an L, and they are an old freight house and offices for one of the smaller southern railroads dating to the late 1800s that have been transformed into the stadium. I’m looking at this thinking, “Here’s historic preservation just gone wild.” To top it off, it’s a line for CSX that goes out past left field. And the old story about the world’s longest home run is they actually have the potential for having that there, because if you belt one over the left field fence and there’s a train going by, there’s a good chance that your ball is going to land in the train and keep right on going. So that’s a really cool story I’m working on right now.
I think probably the experience since I’ve been here is this last summer. I was dispatched to Colorado and Wyoming to cover the Union Pacific Big Boy No. 4014.
SS: Must’ve been a hard job.
BL: It was man. A little backstory, before I came to Kalmbach, I worked for the National Railroad Museum up in Green Bay, Wis. There we have No. 4017, one of the eight Big Boys that are left. For 20 some-odd years, I don’t know how many thousands of tours and people I talked to around this locomotive and told them about the Big Boy. You get all the usual questions: Why is it so big, what was it like in the cab when it was running, and how loud was it? I’ve done a ton of research, but I never actually was in one that was operating. And, when people would ask me, “Do you think they’ll ever have one of these operate?”
“Probably not.”
Well, Union Pacific turns around 2019 and they do it. Then this last year as part of the assignment out there, I rode in the cab from Greeley, Colo., back up to Cheyenne. It was kind of funny, I was standing on the back on the gangway where I was positioned, and I’m just soaking this all in. Everything that’s going on around the sound, the visual, who’s doing what, how they’re communicating, what does it look like outside the locomotive as things are going by, and just standing there taking all this in. Ed Dickens, who’s the head of the Union Pacific Steam Program and was the engineer, turns around and kind of motions to me. I took a step toward him, and he says, “You haven’t said anything the whole trip.”
I’m like, “Yeah.”
He then asks, “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m just fine.”
He goes, “Are you having fun?”
I’m like, “I’m having the time of my life.”
“You got any questions?”
I answered, “Later, look, you guys got a job to do right now. Do your thing, I’m doing my thing.”
After so many years of describing this locomotive to be riding in it, it was incredible.
SS: Was it everything that you describe to museum patrons all those years?
BL: What I was describing to the museum patrons was a fraction of what it was. Now that I’ve been on both sides of the fence, been in several of the Big Boy cabs and now in No. 4014’s operating, I can describe it. I wrote a story about it, it was in published in Trains when I came back, but you can’t really fully appreciate it unless you experience it. It is everything that I can describe to you. It’s everything that I described to how many of those thousands of people. But until you actually are there, and you feel it, not only the temperature off of the firebox, but the movement, the vibrations, and the sound, it’s a different experience.
As I described it, it is a symphony being played out against almost utter chaos, but an ordered chaos. The signals in the cab alone between engineer and fireman. When Dickens was going to open the throttle up a little more, he’d look over his fireman and he’d go (making hand signals), then he’d make his move, and the fireman had a corresponding set of moves. The first response was a thumbs up in return. Dickens opened the throttle just a couple of notches more, the firemen had a certain set of moves that he made as well. Same thing from the other side of the cab. If there was something that the fireman needed to bring to the attention of the engineer, he’d point at something, make the proper indication, there’d be a responsive thumbs up, and then they both have their motions that they would go through.
SS: It’s fascinating.
BL: It’s just incredible. You also hear people talk about playing the whistle on a steam locomotive.
SS: And for someone who doesn’t know what we’re talking about, because a lot of diesel locomotives are push buttons, can you describe for us with as best you can what we’re talking about?
BL: On the steam locomotive, and the Big Boy in particular, it’s a four-chime whistle — four notes. We’re actually sending steam through this instrument to make the sounds. Depending on how far you have opened the valve with the chord in the cab, the notes actuate in a sequence. We’re going through a grade crossing: It’s a long blast, a long blast, a short, and then another long that is carried through the crossing. So, it started off with this quick, forceful opening of the valve all the way, shut it off, brief pause, and open again all the way. Then this time, instead of that complete shut off, it’s about three quarters of the way closed but then pulled a little bit to the side. And you got this low, rumbling note in between the first two long blasts. So, you get a little low rumble and then a quick pop, and you’ve got that short blast. Just a moment of silence, then full open again, and you’re carrying that through the crossing. But usually about middle of the crossing, you couldn’t describe it as like a pull, it was like there was a wiggle and a little body English here, you know.
SS: What does it sound like, Bob?
BL: I can’t even do it justice. I really can’t when I think about it, you know. Again, that’s one of those things that you can talk about it, you can describe it, you can write it, and you can use language that is so colorful and so vivid. But unless you’re standing there, you don’t see this. This was also something that I saw in that whole trip. It’s the perspective from which you are perceiving something like the Big Boy. One of the first things I learned that the view from the cab is just radically different than anything you’re going to see from the ground. And in respect to the whistle, you can hear that whistle for miles. But to get that full picture of motion, mechanical action, and sound, you got to be standing in the cab. If not, your perspective is something completely different.
SS: Bob, at Kalmbach, we do lots of different things whether it’s research, railfanning, taking pictures, modeling, all of those things, a combination of those things, and many more things. Of all of the things that we get to do as editors and writers at Kalmbach, what is it that you enjoy most of these things?
BL: Can I spend more time in our library? Please? The David Morgan Library that we have. If folks that read any Kalmbach product or looking at any Kalmbach product realize the resource that we have in our library here. I mean, incredible. I’ve been privileged to do research in some pretty nice, named facilities. But to look at the depth of the photo collection we have, to look at the books that we have to back things up, and to look at the primary source material that is there to verify things. Man, it’s incredible. Your jaw just hits the floor when you walk into the place. I think the thing for our readers to realize what goes into researching and verifying what they read, and the resources we’ve got to do it, it’s just amazing. Okay, we make a mistake every now and then. Everybody does. But, to know that a huge effort is being made with our resources that we’ve got right here, man, that’s incredible. If somebody is looking for me and they can’t find me, I’m camped out down in the library. That’s where I am.
SS: Bob, if you were working for the railroad, what railroad craft or position best describes you?
BL: Oh man. I don’t know if you want to trust me with a 20,000-ton train.
SS: So, not engineer.
BL: Probably not engineer. I’m not good at video games, so I’m not the guy that’s lifting the intermodal boxes on and off. That’s not me. Probably be a passenger conductor. I like to to work and talk with folks and tell them more stories about what’s going by them than they probably want to hear. You know, back to some of my earlier comments, I probably would be in communications, history and museum, that kind of a thing. I don’t see myself really in one of the operating crafts. If you got a museum, you need records or if you got a library, that’s probably where I’m going to end up. And again, if you think about it, there is not a subject that the railroads have not been involved with or have influence over in some way, shape or form. For the young man out there that’s watching right now that goes, “Yeah, but they never do anything with physical education.”
No, wait a minute, time out. All of them have occupational safety concerns, which are dealing exactly with that. So, the railroads really influenced everything in some way, shape or form. And to be able to record that and again, go back to tell those stories and make that material available, that’s me. I’m in the library or the museum. I’ll ride along in the cab.
SS: It’s been such a great conversation today, Bob, and it always is talking to you. Is there anything that I didn’t ask you that you think I should have? Is there anything that you’d like to reiterate or just something you’d like to add on top of our conversation?
BL: I think I had talked before about the idea of we have subscribers who have been reading Trains for 40, 50 and 60 years, and thousands of views on Trains.com. I used to be one of those folks that, “Hey, I read Model Railroader, Trains and Classic Trains, picked up a few Classic Toy Trains every now and then, and peaked at Garden Railways once in a while.” Now, I’m working in a building with some of these same folks that I’ve been reading for decades and going, “Wow, if I could model more like that, take photos more like that, or this is a story by such and such and I’ve loved his stuff!”
And now you’re working with those people and you kind of got to step back every day, look and ask, “Where am I, what am I doing, and what do the people who I’m trying to surprise as our readers are they expecting of me each and every day?”
At the end of the day, it’s a long, hard look to go, “Did you do that today?”
I got to consider myself probably one of the luckiest people around to be able to be where I am right now, doing what I am, and having as much fun doing it as I am. Oh, and I’m getting paid for this. Holy cow!
SS: Thank you, Bob.
