Volunteer helps a Glendale station chug along

Morning commuters pour into and out of the trains at the Larry Zarian Transportation Center on any given weekday, but among them are a handful who have never before ridden the rails.

Gene Kramer spots them in the crowd and gradually saunters toward them with his 81-year-old frame, radio in hand. For more than 30 years, he’s been helping puzzled passengers find the trains they need to board or talked them through how to buy tickets.

The Glendale station is a small one, but Kramer stresses these problems happen a lot more than one might think.

“There’s quite a few first-time riders that don’t know exactly what’s going on, they don’t know how to use the ticket machine,” Kramer said. “They’ll stand there and mess around with it and push buttons and push buttons and the line builds up behind them and people get kind of ticked off.”

He doesn’t ask for anything except a smile in return. His volunteering dates back to when he was a contractor and pitched in during his time off until it became a full-time activity after retirement.

“I love trains and I really enjoy helping people,” Kramer said. “It makes me feel good inside, People come along and say thank you. It makes me feel good.”

He’s at the platform by the tracks at 6 a.m. sharp every day until about 10 a.m. when the morning rush dies down. But it’s not often he actually rides the rails himself.

“If I get a train ride in once a month that’s great,” Kramer said.

When he does, it’s usually a trip to Newhall for an omelet at his favorite breakfast spot or a Santa Barbara day trip for lunch at a favorite seafood spot.

“That’s a nice trip,” Kramer said. “ I get out of here at 9 o’clock and get back at 4:30 p.m. It’s a good way to spend the day.”

After all the changes he’s seen during his tenure — including a station remodel about 15 years ago — Kramer does miss a few things. One includes the discontinued Desert Wind, an Amtrak line that whisked passengers to Las Vegas and Salt Lake City.

Kramer drives to the train station every morning from his Eagle Rock home, but was born and raised in Glendale when the hub was once known as the Southern Pacific Railroad Depot.

While he now roams the waiting areas alone, he didn’t always do his job solo. He was part of a group of greeters or train spotters that has died in recent years.

Around the corner from the platform is a waiting area with a couple of wooden benches that bear a few plaques with the names of those late volunteers. Some were affectionately dubbed nicknames like Typewriter Phil and Opera Singer Bob.

The first name that’s printed is Viki Kramer, Gene Kramer’s wife who died about a decade ago.

There are still a few group members that meet and socialize at the train station with their morning coffees, such as Robert Beadles, a retired Glendale Water & Power employee.

“Gene has been a real fixture and a real help to passengers,” he said. “He has his radio that gets calls from Amtrak about delays and he lets people know. He’s become so well known down here they say, ‘look for the guy with the radio.’”

Kramer says he’ll be greeting trains and passengers for the foreseeable future and doesn’t expect to miss a day any time soon.

“I’m going to keep at it,” he said. “The only time I’m not out here is when I have a dental appointment.”