Kudos to both granddads. My grandfather spent 27 years as a car knocker ( toad ) on the Delaware, Lackawanna, & Western, then successor Erie Lackawanna, in and around " The D-L " 's hometown of Scranton, PA. I cherish his retirement certificate, dated December 31, 1966, that lists his "... 27 years of service to Erie Lackawanna ". Funny thing though, the Erie Lackawanna had only existed for 6 years at the time !!!
My grandparents travelled out to SoCal for the births of 2 of my older siblings and myself, " On The Pass " of course, which meant riding The Lake Cities to Dearborn Street Station, then The Chief or Grand Canyon to LAUPT ( or maybe Fullerton ??? ). During one of these visits my dad took Grandpa to both Espee and Santa Fe looking for a job in Sunny California. Both RR's liked his experience, however one said he was overweight, while the other was concerned about my Grandpa having had his spleen removed ( when he was 16 years old !!! ); both RR's declined to hire him.