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RE: (erielack) A controversial topic? :) - EL employee integration

Paul and List,
   
  The first thing someone would ask you when you worked a job on the ERIE side or the DL&W side was "when were you hired and where do you live.
   
  I was automatically classified a DL guy because I lived in Dover, but was hired by the EL.  The old ERIE guys were not very warm to you at first and it took a lot to gain their trust.
   
  I'm sure that worked both ways.  In the later years of the EL - sometime after 1970 that didn't seem to hold up much any longer.
   
  The one true thing that really brought about unity in the troops was the CONRAIL.  Both ERIE and DLW folks were now united against the enemy of CONRAIL.
   
  Rich 

"Tupaczewski, Paul R (Paul)" <paultup_@_alcatel-lucent.com> wrote:
  > There are others on our list who can refute this and I'd sure 
> > like to hear them tell us otherwise. Anyone out there who 
> can tell us 
> > if Erie and Lackawanna employees actually put differences 
> aside and worked for the success of Erie Lackawanna?
> > 
> > That's a story that as far as I know has yet to be told.


I'd be curious to hear this myself. There are a number of EL employees
on this list, care to elaborate?

From a cursory overview of the folks I know, it seemed that the "old
timers" coming into the EL had some friction with "the other guy's
road". Stuff like this comes through when you talk to old-timers - when
Bob Collins commented on a model DL&W E8's "fairy girl colors" and other
little jabs at the other side. But it appeared that the younger guys on
the road didn't seem to have any preconceived notions about predecessor
allegiances. From all the stories I've heard, by the end of the EL it
was pretty much one big happy family, with the usual "interesting
people" that any railroad tends to have.

And from a railfan's perspective, I have heard time and again about what
a friendly road the EL was. A buddy of mine went up to Bison Yard one
time, and was stopped by an EL employee. He thought he was going to be
read the riot act, but instead the employee gave him a train line up and
offered to give him a ride on any of the trains leaving town that day!

- - Paul

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