Shelly Horne: Trains, turntables and time

Benjamin Lange, Herald Reporter
Posted 8/18/17

Shelly Horne, an Evanston resident and railroad enthusiast, has been a frequent participant and volunteer of the Annual Roundhouse Festival at the Evanston Roundhouse and Railyards.

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Shelly Horne: Trains, turntables and time

Posted

EVANSTON — Shelly Horne, an Evanston resident and railroad enthusiast, has been a frequent participant and volunteer of the Annual Roundhouse Festival at the Evanston Roundhouse and Railyards. 

At this year’s festival, he gave attendees rides on the Roundhouse’s turntable, which has been fully functional since its construction over a century ago.  

Horne became involved with trains shortly after he graduated high school, when he found work as a railroad telegrapher in 1953. Telegraphers were responsible for inspecting the passage of trains and reporting their movements to dispatchers by use of Morse code. They were also responsible for relaying messages from dispatchers to the conductors of passing trains.   

Horne spent 10 years as a railroad telegrapher between 1953 and 1963, during which time he worked along the railroad between Rawlins and Ogden, Utah, communicating train movements to the dispatchers in Cheyenne. During those years, he worked at every depot along this route. 

With technological development in the late 1960s, the job of telegraphers became obsolete. The use of radios and computers became more practical, and eventually these forms of communication took over human hands. 

“It’s a job that no longer exists,” Horne said.  

After leaving the railroad industry, Horne and his wife moved away from Wyoming and spent approximately 30 years moving among California, Washington, and Texas. They raised three children along the way, and when Horne retired, he and his wife moved back to Evanston, where they have remained the past 22 years. 

“I preferred the wide open spaces of Wyoming,” Horne said. “When I retired, I decided that there was no better place on earth than Evanston, so we came back here.”