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(erielack) Ron Wallace
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I also knew Ron Wallace a bit. I first met him when he was working at Rutherford (NJ) in 1970. Then he went to Kingsland, and since I had just gotten my drivers license, I was able to keep on pestering him as a mostly-tolerated railfan trespasser. The local station supervisor once grumbled at him while I was there about letting unauthorized people like myself hang out in the office (but it didn't go much further than that, given that the supervisor himself was a railfan who had previously admitted "pre / wannabe employees" when he was an agent; many of his own trespassers eventually worked for the EL). The local trainmaster and drill crews at Kingsland pretty much tolerated me as a potential employee in training.
Then came the day that I finally got a job as an EL tower operator, for summer relief purposes. I had taken the train to Hoboken from Rutherford that morning to visit something or other in Manhattan; but I decided to stop in at the Chief's Office to see if any positions had opened up. Well, luck was with me that day. So I took the physical and signed my paperwork and got my rulebook and timetable, and was told where to start posting (DB Draw). Then I caught a mid-day local back to Kingsland (which was on the Main Line; no mid-day trains on the Bergen County Line in EL days) and Ron was there, so he took me over to the pizza joint next door and bought me a slice to celebrate. Good memories.
I couldn't find a picture of Ron on the EL, but I did come across a shot with him on his childhood turf, Staten Island. One summer evening after work circa 1973, he and I drove over to the Island for a quick tour of the SIRT. We were at Dongal Hills for this shot, watching the old blue MU's (B&O influence) grind out their last miles, since modern subway-like replacements were soon to be ordered by the MTA. Ron has on the usual white shirt and tie that he wore at his assignments.
Very sorry to hear that he's no longer with us. Jim Gerofsky
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