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(erielack) Posting Towers



Each towerman brought his own style to bear when teaching a poster.  Here are some of my recollections of posting certain towers.

TERMINAL TOWER
I generally stayed away from the black hole that was Terminal Tower because if you got qualified there, that's where you stayed.  No one ever saw you again.  I did post for a few days once.  I remember working the west end of the machine.  Freddie Foreman, who was the director, called out a line up from west to east.  I had to pull up the signal when the guys further down the machine had lined up the switches.  I looked and looked.  Everyone was waiting for me.  I just stood there straining to see the route on the movable model board.  Finally, I just said, "I don't see it."  To that Freddie said, "That's because it's not there."  The guys liked to purposely NOT line the route up correctly to see if you would erroneously pull up the signal or not.

Fortunately, I didn't spend enough time to get qualified there.

SUMMIT
I posted the first trick with Len VanderJagt. Rush hour at Summit would find Len holding court in the tower.  The maintainers were up there.  Probably a local train crew member or two was up there.  Len would be fully involved with all of the conversations and still manage to run the tower.  Adding to the din and the confusion was me, attempting to hang on by my fingernails and not lose something between Summit and Millburn.  After the morning rush, the rest of the conversationalists would leave.  It was then that I could finally sit down and get some answers.  

So this one day, I asked a question, which had APPARENTLY been covered already. Len looked at me and said in a half-disgusted voice, "Well!  I guess you WEREN'T LISTENING!"

PORT MORRIS
Tommy Sipple made me walk the wye and the yard.  And most importantly, I was instructed to never, ever put anything on top of the machine (glass panels).

DENVILLE
The first day I posted there with Ryan, I attempted to ask a question during an obvious lull.  Ryan yelled at me to "SHUT UP, SIT DOWN AND WATCH!"  He did answer my questions after the rush, however.  Eventually, I did get so that I could just sit quietly and observe most of what I needed to know.

NEWARK
John Lennon.  Mentioned only because he wasn't the Beatle.

John Bobinyec


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