Railroad Memories: Chip Syme's Railroad Career and Penn Central in Minerva, Ohio

I had the privilege of sitting down with retired Penn Central/Conrail/Norfolk Southern locomotive engineer Chip E. Syme for an exciting interview about his career. Conducted inside Leetonia Tower in Leetonia, Ohio, this interview was recorded in two parts, first on September 17, 2021, then on July 23, 2022.

Sit back and listen as Syme recalls his notorious railroad career spanning four decades, three different railroads, and constant change.

Born James Edward Syme II on October 31, 1949, "Chip" grew up watching New York Central and Pennsylvania Railroad trains in Minerva, Ohio. Syme was hired as a locomotive fireman by Penn Central on June 14, 1969, out of Collinwood Yard in Cleveland, Ohio. Exercising his seniority, shortly thereafter, Syme bumped down to the Penn Central yard five minutes from his home in his hometown, Minerva. At that time, Minerva Yard still had a gravity hump where brakemen would ride the side of the cars over the hump to set handbrakes. Promoted to engineer on July 24, 1972, Syme bounced back and forth between the fireman extra list and engineer extra list, working out of Minerva and then eventually Canton, Ohio. Syme shares how he was the fireman on the last-ever run to Lisbon, Ohio, over the former Erie Lackawanna’s Niles-Lisbon Branch. He recalls derailments he witnessed and tells of one that he was even involved in on the Chicago Line in Sandusky, Ohio! While working for Conrail in 1981, after Syme could no longer hold a job in Canton, he bumped down to the hump yard in Conway, Pennsylvania. He recalls the time when Conway Yard still had a railroad YMCA with a cafeteria in the yard office. While working out of Conway, it was there where Syme trained both his son (John Syme) and his son-in-law (Dave Hendricks) on how to become engineers. Syme also coverers the painful transition from Conrail to Norfolk Southern, who he worked for until his final run on 24M from Toledo to Conway on October 29, 2009.

A huge thanks to Chip Syme for not only sharing this story, but also for the countless photos, documents, and videos used as supplemental footage. Also, special thanks to Tom Barnett, Binford Eubank, Joe Jack, and Steven M. Geisler for additional supplemental photographs.

If you're interested in hearing more railroad memories, please check out:    • Railroad Memories: Keith Robbins Recalls W...