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From: Mark Schmitt erie3319 AT gmail DOT com
Date: Sat, 6 Mar 2021 16:01:56 -0500
Subject: Fwd: The Lackawanna Book of Everything
"FitzGibbon_1899.04.19.jpg" - image/jpeg, 1672x2087 (256c)

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Mark Schmitt
Date: Sat, Mar 6, 2021 at 8:59 AM
Subject: The Lackawanna Book of Everything
To: Paul Tupaczewski


Imagine coming to work as a new employee with wide ranging duties and
responsibilities on an established but unfamiliar railroad. Imagine being
an experienced employee of an extensive system where personnel, equipment
and facilities were continually expanding and changing. Imagine being a
part of any one department of that system where there were anywhere from
dozens to thousands of locations, personnel, or pieces of equipment.
imagine that the system was supposed to operate as a seamless
transportation machine and you were responsible in whole or in part.

Without substantial assistance, you would be lost, confused, or seeking
reliable information from some knowledgeable employee much of the time.
Imagine now that it is 1899 and you are William Truesdale, the Lackawanna's
new president, freshly arrived from the Chicago, Rock Island, and Pacific.
You have encountered this situation before, but you also have a solution at
hand.

Within his first weeks on the DL&W, Truesdale was issuing memoranda to W.
F. Hallstead and J. F. Fitzgibbon, and passing around a handbook he brought
with him from the Rock Island. He requested lists of personnel, equipment
and facilities and any similar information that the heads thought useful to
include in a similar publication which he intended to circulate regularly.
While the department heads were instructed that this was secondary
priority, it was clear that it was something the boss wanted done.

What ensued were several decades of a semi-annual "List of Officers,
Agents, Stations, Equipment, Facilities, Etc." To this were added
Instructions for Railway Mail, the company telephone directory, and a basic
first aid manual. I have come to call it the Lackawanna Book of
Everything. I have personally seen only a few other copies, and have to
figure that these are fairly rare and probably tightly held. Since they
were issued at six month intervals, the old copies were likely
systematically destroyed.

I have had this copy for nearly fifty years now. It was not in perfect
condition when I got it, and it has become increasingly tattered, which
demonstrates what a valuable guide it has been. It has formed the basis of
much of the limited knowledge I possess about the DL&W. As the Lackawanna
Railroad fades into history, guides such as these become increasingly
useful. This June 1920 List presents a point in time look at the railroad
which is already beyond living memory.

I hope that others who have a more detailed knowledge of these lists will
comment on their history as we go along.


FitzGibbon_1899.04.19.jpg

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Photometric Interpretation   Black Is Zero
Exif Image Width   1672 pixels
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