Where Are They Now (1985)?: "Brakeman Bill" McLain (Part Two)

It's kind of  chilling think of a nostalgic "where are they now" piece on Brakeman Bill, running in 1985, almost 30 years ago.  The Brakeman Bill  aired in the afternoon on KTNT channel 11 out of Tacoma.  The station no network affilliation, so it ran mostly reruns, syndicated shows, news, and sports.  It became available by cable in the Walla Walla area, where I grew up, in the late  60s. The station was what was known in the business as a "superstation", since it had no network affiliation, it would run on cable stations throughout the state. 

The Brakeman Bill Show ran in the afternoon, about the time children would come home from school, it featured Bill McLain as a railroad worker with the Puppet Crazy Donkey. As a grown-up, you wonder what a Brakeman would have to do with a donkey.  

My favorite show at the  time on channel 11 was the "Dennis The Menace" reruns.  The show had actually been cancelled years earlier.  Eventually, the station would be known as KSTW, while still remaining a superstation.  It showed the Tacoma Cubs, Puget Sound Loggers, and later on the Seattle Super Sonics and the Seattle Mariners.    We still have channel 11, hear in Maple Valley, but rarely watch it.