Writer and Railroader Ed King dies at age 90

Ed King at work in the tower at Rondout, Ill., in 1997. (Robert S. McGonigal photo, courtesy of TRAINS Magazine & Firecrown. Publishing).

MILWAUKEE –– King was a versatile and popular writer whose railroad career included stops at Norfolk & Western, Seaboard Coast Line, Rock Island, Chicago & North Western, and CP Rail.

Of all the writers and railroaders who have graced the pages of Trains over the years, perhaps none was as prolific — and popular — as Ed King. As his implausibly varied resumé proves, he came by the moniker “The Boomer” honestly. His mastery of the subject extended across steam and diesel technology, passenger and commuter operations, and corporate machinations, not to mention the day-to-day challenges of being a tower operator.

Edward W. “Ed” King died at home in Florida on July 10 at the age of 90. As of this writing, no memorial services are planned.

Ed King grew up around Bristol, Va., and later worked in the Norfolk & Western roundhouse there. After attending Georgia Tech, he embarked on a railroad career that stretched over at least five railroads: his beloved N&W, followed by Seaboard Coast Line, where he was a road foremen of engines; Rock Island, where he supervised Chicago commuter operations until the railroad went out of business; and later Chicago & North Western and CP Rail. In the midst of all that was a stint in Washington, D.C., as a planner with the United States Railroad Association, the agency that launched Conrail.

Then there was his writing career, buttressed by more than 200 articles, many of them for Trains, several for Vintage Rails, and later Classic Trains. Over the years he wrote eloquently about subjects as wide-ranging as N&W’s magnificent A-class 2-6-6-4s, the science and lore of boiler explosions, failures of railroad management, steam on the Gainesville & Midland, and ruminations on the sounds of railroading.

Two of King’s Trains stories bear special mention. In the February 1985 issue, his “The Rolling Mud Fence” was a rollicking critique of steam locomotive esthetics, generating responses (and good-natured arguments) that came trickling into the magazine for years. Fully into the spirit of King’s piece, Trains Editor David P. Morgan had this to say about the author: “Lift your glasses and join us, if you will, in a salute to the awesome, demonstrable courage of E.W. King Jr., the gentleman who on pages 29-35 has the temerity to ride his iron horse on a charge with cannon to the right, left, and in front of him.”

In the June 1986 issue came “Disaster du Jour, and Other Stories,” his memoir about his three years running the Rock Island’s commuter network. Not surprisingly, he made it about the employees. “The most impressive thing about my three years on the Rock Island,” King wrote, “was the sheer dedication of the railroaders.” The story was also noteworthy for getting King’s face on the cover, a rarity for Trains.

King was also a book author, and two of them became classics. His “The A: Norfolk & Western’s Mercedes of Steam,” published by the N&W Historical Society in 1991 and revised in 2009, in many ways set the standard for a single volume dedicated entirely to a specific class of steam locomotive. In 2024, the N&W society published his “Thirteen Scoops Around the Box: Memories of an Appalachian Railroad Man,” which King described as a “fictional, counterfactual autobiography.” It was released to excellent reviews.

King’s skills as a writer also netted him the title of “columnist,” writing a bimonthly column in Trains from 1996 through 2001. The column was called, naturally enough, The Boomer.

Ed. Note: Ed King was dedicated to the railroad industry as an employee and a writer, and left behind a body of of scholarship and insight that will benefit students and employees in railroading for years. I had the opportunity to meet him a couple of times and he was one of the nicest gentlemen I’ve ever met.

**This profile of Ed King appears in Railway Track and Structures courtesy of Bill Stephens, Editor of Trains Magazine, Firecrown Publishing, and Kevin Keefe, Retired Vice President-Editorial of Kalmbach Publishing. We greatly appreciate the opportunity to post this on RT&S. DCL