His was a very perplexing, tragic case in that: (1) he had a very good marriage (so good a marriage that his wife only lived two years longer than he.neither of them made it even close to the age of 70), (2) had a lot of friends both in the workplace, and, in church both pre-retirement and post-retirement, and (3) did not fit the profile of having an "empty life" post-retirement. He never drank, never smoked.he had no vices other than golf (that being a bit of a joke, the golf gave him something to do post-retirment). This is a man who appeared to have good "genes" in that he always appeared to be a decade younger than his actual age. This is just one man, here, but a very good friend of mine lasted the above mentioned 4 years post retirement, and the last year of that with terminal cancer. All those new heart stents certainly reduce the damage to vital systems which allow for a more active lifestyle both pre and post retirement. Better medical care and technology seems to be playing a part. Hopefully, we are trending in the right direction. In fact many of the retired rails, especially the engineers I run into on the street report that within weeks of retirement they are sleeping better, losing weight and smoking less if they retain that habit. I would have to say the post retirement life span of just three years does not seem to hold true here in western MT. Increasingly high stress positions account the lack of rest, tense operating situations, particularly at grade crossings and increasingly onerouse enforcement of poorly instituted rules changes to cover the carriers butts. No regular sleep patterns, no regular meal periods and commonly a choice of high calorie, high fat, low fibre meals at the other end of the road. ![]() The railroader lifestyle offers almost all of the bad lifestyle you can imagine. His Air Force experiences haunted him greatly and I'm sure bought about his early demise more than his railway career. One of the men who trained me to operate a locomotive was of the pre-WW2 generation, and was the sole survivor of a Wellington bomber crew in the RCAF during the European Campaign. I was wondering if my appraisal of survivorbility of railway employment in the last few decades would be similar to that observed by other railroaders on this forum. They appeared higher than among railroaders. Having lived in a small railroad and forestry town for most of the years of my career, I was aware of the fatality rates for loggers, heavy equipment operators and construction workers. The 30 plus years of my employment disproved the myth of a shortened lifespan, as the post WW2 generations have had much better survival rates.Ī major factor was the general crackdown on alcohol abuse following a major collision at Hinton,Alberta in 1987, which also increased medical standards for employment. The wisdom of the day when I started on the railway was that the work and lifestyle would shorten my lifespan and that the railway industry was more hazardous than other industrial employment. Having said that, some are still around in their 80's and 90's, with a very few passing 100. There was alot of alcoholism, and other health problems. Alot of these people lived very hard lives, both from surviving the Depression and WW2. A significant number of them passed on very shortly following retirement. When I started my career, the pre-WW2 operating employees were just retiring at age 65. (Canadian railways have their own pension schemes rather than the US RRB.) I was able to retire on a full pension at age 55 with 33+ years of service. I'm a retired operating employee (locomotive engineer)of a major Canadian transcon.
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