Mary Byington

"...In the winter of 1943, I was happily helping on the family farm at Thurlow, Montana...My father (a Japanese) was home again from an internment camp in Missoula, Montanan, where he had been imprisoned for about six months as a suspicious alien. I was content just being home and on the farm but my father said it was time I started carving out a career of my own (in other words, get a job). He had an idea, having seen an advertisement in the Miles City Star that the Milwaukee Railroad was looking for Train Order Operators, male and female. The ad said the company would pay while they trained you for the work..."
Thus begins Mary Byington's recounting of her experiences as a train order operator for the Milwaukee Railroad. Courtesy of wartime views concerning individuals of Japanese ancestry her initial training was interrupted and she was asked to leave. She returned home, thought about her situation, and then wrote the president of the railroad to complain about her treatment and point out that the railroad still needed workers and that she was ready, willing, and able. A few weeks later she was asked to return to the railroad and finish her training.
Mary became a "rail" in May 1944 and received a series of assignments up and down the line at various stations as an apprentice. After this additional training she bid in on a third trick assignment at the station in McLaughlin, SD on the Trans-Missouri Division. The book 80 pages in length and is well written. The author provides interesting descriptions of the day-to-day workings of the railroad and the part she played in it. The nature of railroad work being what it is the accounts range from the ordinary to the exciting. If you have an interest in first person accounts of times and circumstances quite different from the present day I think you might find this book to be of interest. (Text Length - 52 pages, Total Length - 80 pages. 13 pages photographs,glossary, appendix)… (meer)