This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Searles Classification: Biography Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/ok.2ADE/57.274.1 Message Board Post: THE FREMONT COUNTY SUN. April 4, 1901. "Old Time Cards".--While in conversation recently with our good friend Uncle John Searles, the popular conductor on the "Q" branch, he showed us two souvenirs that money could hardly buy from Uncle John. The first was a time card on the "Q" from Burlington to Council Bluffs, and was an excursion train. It was run to Council Bluffs for the opening of the Ogden House in that city on December 23, 1869. The train left Burlington at 8:30 in the morning and did not arrive at the Bluffs until 10:30 in the evening. On that time card the town of Malvern was then called Milton. C.E. Perkins was then general superintendent, and Daniel Bradley assistant superintendent. Another one of Uncle John's keepsakes was the time card of another excursion from Council Bluffs to Burlington. It was an excursion of Boston capitalists going home from a trip to the coast. The train was made up of Pullman cars, but nothing like the Pullman's of today. On this train a small paper was printed called the "Trans Continental", a copy of which Uncle John has in his possession. This excursion was run on June 29, 1870. The reason that Uncle John values these time cards is that on both trains he was the conductor in charge, and that both excursions were pulled through without an accident and on time. Uncle John has been with the "Q" now about thirty seven years, being the oldest man in the employ of the company in the train service. He hopes that the "Q" will not be absorbed by the Great Northern, as it would be a hard blow to the old veterans in the service. Uncle John has been conductor on the Sidney branch for twenty-two years.