" When you work in this business for 52 years, and walk away cold turkey one day with a gold watch and a party, there’s just a void there."

A month ago, few people in Jacksonville probably ever heard of Hunter Harrison. But the 72-year-old Tennessee native has been almost a legend in the railroad world where he’s spent more than 50 years.

He started out as a 19-year-old crawling underneath rail cars in Memphis with a can of oil. He went on to lead not one, not two, but three railroads, turning each around significantly and quickly.

Now he’s in the midst of discussions that could put him at the helm of CSX, the largest railroad in the eastern United States, third-largest in the country, and a fixture in downtown Jacksonville.

Read more at the Florida Times-Union.