Railroad man carves love for locomotives into wood

The wood taketh away Fred Reburn from the railroad and the wood giveth him back to it.

On Sept. 12, 1979, Reburn, a brakeman and conductor for Norfolk & Western since 1948, was riding on a locomotive on Percival’s Island when a tree fell. He dodged most of the tree, avoiding being crushed, but a branch caught him under his right arm, impaling him.

The near-fatal injury left Reburn without some of the use of his arm for years. And though he didn’t know it then, it would end his career with the railroad two years later.

But, being a railroad man, as scores of songs and stories will attest, isn’t just something you stop being one day. Reburn keeps his connection to “the road” through handcrafted wooden models of the steam locomotives that still leave him awestruck 62 years later, and lately, of the cabooses that were his home on the job.

Reburn, 83, talks about working on a steam locomotive as if it was a living being, describing how they had to be kept fired, and how pressure and water levels had to be watched at all times to make sure the engine was generating enough power, or that it wasn’t going to run dry on an incline and explode.

“I started when I was 23,” he said. “Some engineers were in their 70s. They would talk to (the locomotives) like they were their wives or lovers, and then we’d get down the road and they would break down and they would curse them like a dog.”

Reburn has handcrafted 39 models, including four cabooses, since 1985. The model locomotives range in size from about three feet long to seven feet. He mostly uses free scrap wood from woodworking shops, and every type of wood imaginable.

He is careful about making things to scale when possible, although some parts would be so small they couldn’t be easily fabricated from wood, he said. He’s never kept track of how long an entire model took to build; he estimates that just the six wheels on one side of one model took between 12 and 16 hours to make.

He’s only sold one over the years, although he has gotten many offers. He has given many away to family members, and several he keeps are spoken for, he said. Others may one day go to a museum.

His favorite models, including a large Norfolk & Western Y6-class, are on display in his basement in his home in the Fort Hill neighborhood of Lynchburg. His wood shop is in an adjoining room.

Reburn said he and a friend from work started learning about woodworking and furniture building before he was injured. His wife Ernestine proudly points out several pieces of furniture in their living room that her husband has built or restored over the years. He still works on furniture, and builds what he calls “memory houses.”

The yard-high houses are used for displaying knickknacks. He uses his to hang railroad memorabilia. Reburn said he is in his workshop most days, maybe for 15 minutes working on a part, maybe for two hours.

“If something doesn’t look right to him, or he doesn’t like it, he just throws it out and starts over,” said his daughter, Diane Templeton, who was visiting.

His next projects, he said, are likely to be Southern and Chesapeake & Ohio cabooses.

Reburn’s models are on display at The Depot in Lynchburg and at Liberty Station in Bedford.