Phillip Atkins was a Provincetown, Massachusetts native, the son of LeRoy and Virginia Grace Atkins. He was a 1976 graduate of Provincetown High School. In February 1977 he enlisted in the United States Air Force, where he served 8 years on active duty and 9 years in the Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard. He was a resident of Washington State from 1988 to 2012. He was employed by The Boeing Company as a machinist for 16 years.
John I. Aspbakken (born 1955) is the son of Ivar Aspebakken. Ivar Aspebakken (1921-2009) was born in Biristrand, Norway on October 11, 1921. As a young man he worked on various fox farms and served in the Norwegian military. In 1948 he immigrated to the United States. He worked on wheat farms near Williston, North Dakota and Froid, Montana. In 1953, he married Marit Nordheim, from ?yer, Norway. In 1955, they moved to the Missoula, Montana area, where Ivar hired on for the Northern Pacific Railway. In 1969, he was transferred to Spokane, Washington, where he worked as a roadmaster for the Burlington Northern Railroad until his retirement in 1985. He was a member of the Northern Pacific Railroad Historical Society.
Jeff Asay began his railroad career as a Southern Pacific Railroad towerman in Los Angeles, California in 1966 while attending school. He joined the Union Pacific Railroad?s law department in Los Angeles as a staff attorney in 1973 after graduating from University of California ?Los Angeles Law School. In the course of a 36-year career with the Union Pacific, he worked in East Los Angeles, California (twice), Portland, Oregon, Kansas City, Missouri and Roseville, California. He retired as senior regional counsel the Union Pacific in 2009. He is the author of??�Union Pacific Northwest??�(Pacific Fast Mail, 1991) and??�Track and Time: an Operational History of the Western Pacific Railroad (Feather River Rail Society, 2006). Since retirement, he has devoted his time to researching and writing railroad history and to volunteering at the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento.??�
A member of the Great Northern Railway Historical Society and donor to the Society.
Kurt E. Armbruster is a Seattle native, historian, professional bassist, and singer-songwriter. He has played music of many genres and has written numerous historical articles and three books, including two on railroading: "Orphan Road" and "Whistle Down the Valley". He lives in Seattle, Washington.
Arey was a life-long locomotive engineer for Southern Pacific Railroad