(erielack) NRHS Bulletin

[WSmith5957_@_aol.com]

    Neil,
 I see where u had my little article about the DL&W engineer from Binghamton 
who worked for the FEC in the latest Bulletin. Very good!! Mr. Templeton ws 
quite a guy. Like many of the old steam engine men, he had a tough but fair 
personality. I worked with him the day he took the pension and he did 
something I'd never seen HIM do before.....had a few drinks. I think some of 
his many friends on the DL&W side had brought a few bottles to the station to 
celebrate. Bob and I were working the passenger drill which parked at the 
Binghamton passenger station either in one of the sleeper tracks or [as on 
this occasion] right in front of the depot on the Eastbound main track. 
      When we started work at 7am, Bob was in good shape but I noticed that 
by 10 am or so he  'had a few'  - not incapacitated, mind you, but definitly 
happier than earlier. 1130 am, I saw the dreaded road foreman, Sammy Miller, 
approaching the engine and as he climbed up the steps onto the rear deck of 
the engine, Bob was out of the engineers' seat, jerked the cab door open, & 
in a very loud voice said to Sammy "What do YOU want??".  On this occasion, 
Sammys' discretion exceeded his valor and he replied "Oh, nothing." and 
scrambled back to the ground and walked away. I maen, what would he do, have 
another hearing????? It was Bobs' last day and he could just walk away or 
better yet, punch Sammy in the nose THEN walk away. For Sammy Miller, RFE, it 
was a 'no win' situation.
       This little anecdote brought to mind another of the old-time steam men 
who trained me in Binghamton. Larry Casey (fine broth of a lad) had been in 
the Companys'  service for 40 years and (about 1963 or so) advised me he was 
taking the pension in a week or so & that they were going to have an article 
in the Binghamton paper about him. I looked for it and it came out very 
complimentary and full of praise for his 'long years of service' and for 
'never having been in trouble'. This was not quite true.......there had been 
several instances in "his long years of service" where Mr. Casey had beeen in 
hot water indeed. These were not due to "rule G" violations, he wasn't a big 
drinker. I twas just situations where any engineer would look at them and 
think, "There, but for the grace of God, go I".
      I knew he'd been out of service one time for a YEAR. This meant that 
what happened was pretty bad, but the DL&W  thought enough of him to get him 
a job with Alco delivering engines all over the USA and this enabled him to 
suruntil he was recalled to service as an engineer in Binghamton. I never 
found out what THAT little incident was about, but Larry himself told me of 
one of the more spectacular events that led to some time off. 
       We had been working the 11pm YO yard job and were given a D&H drag to 
take to the DL&W yard in Conklin. We coupled on, pumped off the brakes and 
slowly began creeping across the D&H, ERIE, & onto the DL&W main tracks on 
our way to the Susquehanna river bridge. As we passed the Court Street 
trestles, Switchman Billy Cahill said "There's where the old coal trestle 
was, Larry. Remember that???"
Larry Casey bristled and said "Yes, you a-----e, I DO remember that!" Cahill 
shut up and no more was said until we pulled in past BY tower & cut off the 
train. When the crew went into the yard office, Larry enlightened me. He he'd 
been given 2 cars of anthracite to be placed on the trestle and with a 200 
class steam engine (one of the DL&Ws big 0-8-0 switchers) you had to get a 
pretty good run to shove 2 loaded coal cars up the incline to the top of the 
coal trestle for the dealer to unload them. Larry told me it had been raining 
and perhaps the smart thing would have to been to place them one at a time 
but that would have been 2 times the work for the switch crew and one thing I 
learned and understood was that you all HAD to work together on a switching 
job. Up the hill they went and at the top were only able to stop ONE of the 
coal cars on the trestle. The other, loaded with the good Blue Coal DL&W 
Anthracite, went through the frail bumping block and off the end of the 
2-story high coal trestle to land with a shattering crash on Court Street. 
This was pretty hard to cover up - 50 tons of the Companys' anthracite 
scattered all over the pavement & trolleycar tracks not to mention a 
completely squashed hopper car & set of trucks laying in the road. It was 
truly fortunate that no Model A Fords were putting by at the time of the 
'incident' "I had to serve a little time for that." said Larry in what was 
the understatement of the year.
       With the draconian punishments nowadays where they give you 3 to 6 
months off for getting by a signal a few feet, Norfolk Southern would 
probably have settled for nothing less than having Larry Casey burned at the 
stake (with torture first), but that was back in the 20s or 30s on the DL&W 
(of blessed memory) and as Larry said"I had to serve a little time". 

Regards to all,
Walter E. Smith
Employee #102156

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