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WHY I LOVE MY JOB: Stone Mountain Park Engineer
JOB: Locomotive engineer, Stone Mountain Park
WHAT I DO: Cheney, 52, not only operates the locomotives that circle Stone Mountain but also trains other engineers and works to keep the locomotives running. Cheney makes sure both the staff and the equipment are up to federal railroad-safety standards. He usually spends 20 hours a week at the park, when he's not on breaks from his day job as band director at Loganville Middle School. He's also driven trains in movies, including "Fried Green Tomatoes" and "Biloxi Blues."
WHAT GOT ME INTERESTED IN THIS: "I'm getting to live a dream," he said. Like any kid who has had an electric train or waved at the engineer on a passing freight, Cheney has been fascinated by trains since he was little. He and his family moved to Georgia from Massachusetts when he was 5. Their first stop in the state was in front of Stone Mountain. He said his mother told him, "Someday you're going to run that railroad." Cheney got his first railroad job at 14, shoveling coal for Southern Railroad Steam Program, a unit of the former Southern Railroad, on steam locomotives that pulled tourist passenger trains. After that, he was an engineer for the New Georgia Railroad that carried passengers to the coast, to Gainesville and on a dinner ride around Stone Mountain. His mentor was Wallace Haywood of the Seaboard Coast Line. Railroading "is not a job; it's a way of life," Cheney said.
BEST PART OF MY JOB: In addition to the people he works with, Cheney said he especially enjoys seeing children's faces when he runs a steam engine. John Haskins, an engineer trainee and former band parent in Loganville, said Cheney "has a magic touch with kids." Keeping the trains running is important to Cheney. "We have to keep it alive. This is how our country was built."
MOST CHALLENGING PART: "Maintaining the equipment." A 122-ton diesel-electric engine that Cheney moves around the train yard once operated on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and was built in 1951. Also in the yard but not currently running is an old Southern Pacific steam locomotive. Cheney said he saw that engine at the park when he was a child and noticed it was leaning. Now, he's had a chance to fix it. "I've always loved getting dirty, working around machinery," he said. The about-5-mile circuit around the mountain also has challenges, with some long grades and numerous crossings.
WHAT PEOPLE DON'T KNOW ABOUT MY JOB: "You always have to have safety on your mind," he said. "You have everybody in the palm of your hand." As for the engine, he said people are surprised it doesn't have a steering wheel. (The train follows the tracks; it's operated with a throttle, brakes and a "reverser" to switch between forward and reverse.) They also are surprised that the train doesn't climb Stone Mountain. (The grade is way too steep.)
WHAT KEEPS ME GOING: "Looking back at the folks after a show [along the ride] and seeing their response to the laser show, the train ride or the Christmas lights."
PREPARATION NEEDED FOR THIS JOB: An engineer needs to be at least 21, take extensive classes and begin as a fireman trainee. After learning that job, a person must take more classes and log 500 hours behind the throttle before being eligible to take federal certification tests. Those certificates must be renewed each year after taking more classes. Cheney qualified as an engineer while with the New Georgia Railroad.
- By Karl Ritzler, for ajcjobs. Got an interesting job that you love? E-mail your story to jobseditor@ajc.com.
