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Re: (erielack) Rudy, Norm, Memories
By the way, rereading my post of yesterday, some advice: when words are
inappropriate, try reading them phonetically in a run -- on manner. My
speech recognition software makes quite a few errors an e-mail, as opposed
to within my professional database.
Len
- ----- Original Message -----
From: "Len VanderJagt" <lvj911_@_worldnet.att.net>
To: <erielack_@_lists.elhts.org>
Sent: Sunday, February 25, 2007 4:36 PM
Subject: (erielack) Rudy, Norm, Memories
> Sitting here on a cold winter's afternoon, a little under the weather
> myself, just put a log on the fire, and reading these posts leads to
> reminiscing:
>
> Norman Reddy was a character I liked. I posted with him at Newark tower,
> when he held second track. It was the middle of summer,'66. After the
> evening rush, the second trick maintainer and the bridge tender would come
> in, and one of them would go down the block to the nearest bar on Broad
> Street, and come back with containers of beer. One chairs were set up on
> the walkway along the south side of the tracks. We were, recall, on top
> of the viaduct, between Broad Street Station and the river. Where the
> freight yard had been, they had built a two-story motel. Was it a holiday
> Inn?
>
> Anyhow, everyone sat down in the lawn chairs facing the motel, chatting,
> and waited for the evening's entertainment to begin. Being on the second
> floor, facing some sort of ill defined industrial railroad scene, the
> patrons of the motel on the second floor felt no need to close their
> drapes. You get the idea? The companion sport was watching for cars
> pulling into the parking lot without anyone walking into the motel. This
> meant they were still in the car...
> on one of these evenings we were looking over the railing straight down
> through the giant glass that made up the fastback of the original
> Barracuda. There was a couple in the barracuda, and apparently the seats
> either fully reclined, or whatever, but they were feet toward the dash,
> and head & shoulders & etc. under the glass. After a few minutes, this
> did get boring, and besides, an eastbound scoot was coming due and we
> would have to move. Norm gently tipped his cup of beer and released half
> an ounce on to the Barracuda's backlight. I bet that guy still has a
> headache -- what a thump.
> Once again, for you folks that weren't there, there was tremendous pride
> in getting the trains over the road on time, and there was very little in
> the way of Mickey Mouse discipline. I am not endorsing violating Rule G,
> but hopefully you get my drift. At the time, I was underage anyway, yet
> another violation.
>
> That reminds me of the legendary Harry Kirsteiner, who was signal
> maintainer at Summit when I held first trick there. There were so many
> stories of Harry when he worked down in the terminal. Apparently, Harry
> made his headquarters in the Hudson House, and when there was an emergency
> on the plant, he would be fetched up. I heard many variations of the same
> story of Harry being led out to a failing switch, with them and holding
> him up, and pointing down and telling him to "fix this, Harry."
> Apparently, Harry was good enough that his ability counter- balanced
> alcoholism. Like many railroaders of that time, Harry spoke cynically
> about getting all he could out of the company, getting them before they
> got him (to put it somewhat more politely and he did), but he would
> genuinely bust his hump to deal with emergencies and keep things moving.
>
> More Rule G stuff. Davey Kinner had 17 years in at the time, had moved to
> second trick Summit after he had made a major contribution to having third
> trick abolished by reporting number 10 by when it was still in Binghamton.
> Anyhow, Davey would put away a six pack or so every evening, and throw the
> Cayenne's straight out the window. This, of course, led to their being an
> enormous number of beer cans on the ground strewn across the tracks, etc..
> Davey's theory was that he would tell the trainmaster that these cans were
> thrown by people from the adjacent street overpass. Nevermind that all
> public hands were distributed within 15 feet of the tower, and none
> reached the wall track or hill city. Harry and Harry, the signal
> maintainers, cleaned up after him in the morning, and we finally convinced
> him to take empties with him in a sack.
>
> Let's see... it's Winter of 65, and Bill Sheppard has been called to work
> third trick at UN. It's snowing like crazy, with about 8 inches on the
> ground already. Sounds like time for a railfan party to us. We pile into
> Bill's Corvair, and away we go, how to Route 46 into the "country." We
> stop at Paul's diner (did I get that right?) which was adjacent to the
> Rainbow Lakes interlocking, and continue west. Heading into the tower
> from the East End in order to avoid the hill coming in from the west, the
> floor pan of the Corvair is being lifted up by the snow. Much swerving
> and pushing, and we are there. Unfortunately, so is a track department
> gang, totally worn out and taking a rest in the warm Tower after sweeping
> and skunk oil burning the switches. They are sprawled all over. Mother
> Sipple is going to have a heart attack Monday morning over the condition
> of the place.
>
> Anyhow, we know what we are there for. HB-9 goes West, and we set up the
> 8mm projector using the window shade adjacent to the GreenDell TCS machine
> has our screen. There is a track worker scrunched over under the
> substantial front overhang of the interlocking machine. He opens his eyes
> just as there is a tight, near head-on shot of an E-8 blasting past, and
> he bolts upright, head straight into the machine. Everyone thought it was
> hilarious, of course, accept him.
>
> Oh, back to Norm. He was a good guy to work for and with. I have to say,
> that Rudy and Fred were really crabby, humorless men to work with. George
> Beckwith was a fine gentleman, but I have to agree that the Lackawanna
> dispatchers were competent, gentlemen, and thoroughly professional,
> relative to the Erie guys. Bob Collins was an exception, although he
> remains a lifetime model for sardonic wit and a dry cynical posture.
>
> Although I hired on five years after the merger, you were immediately
> identified as an Erie or DL guy based on where you lived, or where you
> worked. I would tell Erie guys that I grew up in Little Falls, and DL guys
> that I lived in Newark -- both true.
>
> A curious aspect of working the towers, was that people formed incredibly
> intense opinions and attitudes about others on the basis of minimal but
> critical interaction. If your relief came just on time, a "minute man",
> that was a big negative. What was positive, was to show up 15 minutes
> early. You then expected your relief to do the same. There were some
> guys that had not spoken civilly to each other for 10 years based on that
> level of interaction.
>
> Time to go...
>
> Len VanderJagt
>
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