Memoirs from the General Manager

Walla Walla Valley's General Manager kept close contact with the railroad's customers. Ed Schneidmiller, WWV GM, left, poses with NP's Frank Irving, center, and Nebraska Bridge Supply & Lumber Company plant manager Wallace Scales for the photographer of "The Northwest," an NP magazine for shippers. The magazine featured Nebraska Bridge's mill operation at Sunnyside, Oregon, in its November-December 1959 issue.

Ed Schneidmiller, 2005, enjoying a long and happy retirement in Walla Walla, his life-long hometown. (Blair Kooistra photograph)

Though it was Northern Pacific officials in distant Seattle and St. Paul who called the shots on the Walla Walla Valley, in the trenches, it was the General Manager's railroad to run. The top railroader in WWV's hometown, he's the guy who hears it from the city when the crossings are getting rough, or from the cannery when they can't get cars to load. Someone has to be at the bottom of the proverbial 'one-pound funnel,' and in Walla Walla, that man was K . E. "Ed" Schneidmiller, the WWV's fourth General Manager. A hometown boy, Ed hired out as a night clerk on the WWV in 1941; after World War II, he returned to the WWV, succeeding  D. E. Carlson as General Manager in 1953, a position he held until his retirement in 1977, well after the Burlingon Northern merger of 1970. Schneidmiller penned ten pages of recollections for the Fort Walla Walla museum; recently, in correspondence with Marc Entze and I, he further elaborated upon his career:

"WWV Rwy operated from Freewater to Umapine prior to the early 1940s. This section of line was removed about 1941. It was originally extended to Umapine because of anticipated fruit production. The fruit orchards did not take place – but hay and grain did move out of the area for some time. At one time there was talk of extending the rail to Wallula from Umapine. The railroad purchased a block of land at Wallula for this purpose. The land is now under water from the dams.

WWV had its own telephone system between Walla Walla and Freewater until the line went diesel power. The telephone line followed along side of the rail tracks. There were phones at College Place, Walla Walla River and State Line. These telephones were placed on poles next to the tracks and provided easy access for the train crews and other work forces. Train crews received work orders and clearance via these phones by calling in to the Chief Dispatcher at the Walla Walla station. During the busy months as many as four and five train crews could be operating between Walla Walla and Freewater, partially due to the limitations on the number of rail cars (tonnage) each locomotive could handle on the grade coming up from the Walla Walla River. Some of the electric locomotives could haul only two or three loaded cars at a time. These would be the ones previously used for passenger service. The regular freight locomotives could hail up to about eight typical loads. During sugar beet harvest the maximum carloads of sugar beets pulled up from State Line or Baker-Langdon would be about six carloads with the electric locomotives. After dieselization the railroad installed two-way radio in the locomotives, the Walla Walla and Freewater stations and the general manager’s car. This was done in 1950 – it streamlined the communication system. Better service for the shippers was provided because office personnel had instant contact with the train crews and vice-versa.

The larger diesel locomotives could handle longer trains up the grades which speeded up the entire operation. The railway never operated with a caboose. Today’s railroads are doing away with the caboose as fast as they can. During the electric locomotive operation, the train crew consisted of an engineer, conductor and brakeman. During the busy season a fourth man was added to take care of the trolley pole, keeping the end of the pole on the overhead catenary system. This saved a lot of time in switching operations for if it weren’t for the “trolley pup,” as some called this fourth man, the brakeman or conductor and sometimes even the engineer would be handling the trolley pole at the expense of his main job during the switching of rail cars.

WWV had a converter at the Freewater station that boosted the power received from the PP&L at Walla Walla. It’s unclear who owned the generator at the PP&L substation on 6th street next to Mill Creek – but this is where the power came from – it also provided power to the elevator in the Baker Boyer Bank Building. Towards the latter days of electric operation power became more scarce for the railway and while it was always there for the railway, no one was hurt by discontinued use of electricity by WWV. Monthly power bills for WWV around $1100.00 more or less.

Troubles with Boomers

During busy seasons the railroad would employ extra brakemen, etc. These men would come from other regions having worked temporarily for other railroads. Also would hire local people that would be available and would train them for brakeman duties. The experienced out of town personnel, for the most part, would be called “boomers,” traveling around the country where the work happened to be. One of these men came from a job on the B.C. Electric in Canada. Very experienced; very likable and qualified. He got a job during prune season operating a WWV electric locomotive. One afternoon the conductor on this locomotive called in from Freewater saying he was ready to leave for Walla Walla with eight carloads of prunes. The train was cleared to meet another train at Ferndale and then to call when State Line was reached. Six minutes after the Freewater call, the train arrived Stateline according to the dispatcher’s record of the conductor’s call from the phone box at State Line. Based on the mileage from the Freewater station to State Line this train had to be going 50 to 60 miles per hour at some times during that run! The train crew waiting at Ferndale siding saw them coming and could tell from the way the cars were swaying that this was no ordinary meet. The Ferndale train crew jumped off their train thinking that the speed of the approaching train might cause it too split the switch and plow head on into them. Fortunately this did not happen and the engineer was instructed to keep the speed down from then on – which he did. It could have been a disastrous meet.

Because of the seasonal nature of the work load for the WWV, the railway hired additional forces for short periods of time – sometimes inexperienced to a degree. There was one instance during the 1953 prune harvest when a young man was hired as a brakeman on the night train. He had previously worked on the track as a section worker so he was familiar with railroad work. We considered him a bright young person, so let him ride a day train for a few days to learn the work of a brakeman. When he was marked up as a brakeman on the evening run he was very excited about this opportunity. This was a train that switched the Walla Walla yard before leaving for Freewater with empty refrigerator cars to set up all the packing houses and bring in the load of the freight during the early morning. The crew finished the work in Walla Walla and departed for Freewater about 1030pm. I, as the general manager, left for home from the office shortly thereafter assuming everything would be alright for the balance of the night. I had almost arrived home when the conductor of this train called in over the radio that he was at State Line and the brakeman was missing! My heart sank as the voice on the radio advised the brakeman was last seen at College Place. Of course, I imagined the worst scenarios of the brakeman lying out on the tracks somewhere between College Place and State Line. I raced down to College Place where he was last seen. Checked the area over quickly – nothing – then on to the next crossing, working my way south expecting the worst and hoping the best. As I came down the hill toward Mojoinnier Station I saw a light near the rail crossing and then someone running toward me. It was the brakeman frantically waving his lantern so I would stop – he did not know it was me and he was doing all he could to catch a ride from someone so he could get to his train. When I saw he had all his limbs and appeared unhurt I could have hugged him. I was so relieved! He, on the other hand, was afraid he’d be fired. No chance of this because he was special. I took him to Freewater to get with the crew and then went back to the office. No use going home, sleep would be impossible, it was then about 1AM. When dawn came it was time to go home for a few hours, the night train was on its way back from Freewater with a full train and it wouldn’t be long before the first train crew of the day would begin their shift at 6AM. This experience would stay with me forever, never to be forgotten. Could have been tragic but turned out to be humorous. This brakeman had jumped off the train at College Place thinking they were going to stop to set out some cars. The conductor changed his mind without telling the brakeman leaving him stranded. He had tried to catch the train running in the dark but to no avail.

Stories from a Freight Hauler

At one time quite a lot of hay was shipped by rail from the WWV line. One good loading point was at State Line. Hay was usually shipped by rail during the winter months. One winter day one of the shippers could not close the door on a car he was loading at State Line. He had called in to say the car was loaded but try as they may, using their big truck, with chains on the door, slipping and sliding in the snow and mud that door would not budge. There was about a foot of snow on the ground at that time and cold. He was advised to leave it and the railroad would bring the loaded car into Walla Walla and take care of it. When the car arrived that evening in Walla Walla it was set out on a siding by the car barn where it was inspected. It happened to be a large double door car that we usually furnished for automobiles and was ideally suited for loading hay too. The problem was that one of the double doors was missing, leaving an opening in the car on that side. The shipper was trying to close this opening with the other half of this door but of course it wouldn’t move. Had they moved it over it would have left that side open. Shipper did not realize this and as upset as he was over this car he wasn’t told. Railroad personnel used grain doors to cover the opening and sent the loaded hay car in its way.

Busy season started in June with the peas. The railroad handled many carloads of empty tin cans form Continental Can Co. at Walla Walla to Milton-Freewater where it supplied the Rogers Canning Co. and Umatilla Canning. Co. During one of these operations the train was pulling a number of cars south on Main St. in the Milton when the rear two cars separated from the rest of the train. They had no air on them at the time. As a result, away they went, back down Main Street toward the Freewater depot. They rolled past the depot and headed toward the north end of Freewater. At that point there was a wye, with the switch lined to go to an oil company and Preston Shaffer Milling Co. Had the switch not been lined that way, the cars would have been free to rocket toward Walla Walla River with nothing to stop them except an automobile or truck at one of the many crossings they would be going thru. As the cars raced thru the switch and toward the Oil Company the employee of the Oil Company had just finished unloading a carload of gasoline. The two runaway cars crashed into the empty tank car driving it off the tracks and coming to a stop a distance beyond impact. Damage to cars and contents was considerable, but nothing compared to what it could have been had the tank car been fully loaded with gasoline. After that accident all trains were instructed to use air on all cars when switching in Freewater or Milton. Had the runaway cars been charged with air they would have stopped immediately on separation from the rest of the train.

World War II made a big difference in WWV earnings. Beginning in 1941 there were significant increases in carloadings of fruit, canned goods, grain, sugar beets and misc. products. In bound cars also increased in various commodities. Gasoline, oil, coal for Rogers Canning Co. at Milton. The cannery used slack coal for their furnace at that time. Empty tin cans became a big item when Continental Can Company located on Dell and 13th Ave. in Walla Walla. This alone, kept the train crews busy. Business was brisk all during the 1940s and 1950s. After the 1955 freeze on Nov. 11 put a damper on fruit products in 1956 and for some years after this. However, during the 1950s lumber companies located on the WWV and took up much of the slack felt by the loss of the fruit. The year 1956 was a year of record earnings and car loadings despite the loss of al fruit production. Heavy canned goods, frozen foods, lumber and empty tin cans plus lumber loading plus sugar beet loadings were the primary factors setting this record year. The year 1957 came near the 1956 record – so without any fruit shipped off the WWV, the line experienced extremely good revenue. After 1957 carloads began to taper off except for the sugar beets and lumber as trucks started in on the tin cans, and gas and frozen foods. Trucks also began tapping the grain business. During the early 1960s the lumber fell off as the companies were sold to large corporations who closed them sown or if already owned by a large company, just closed because of economics. Sugar beet loadings continued strong beyond the 1960s but this too finally ceased sometime in the early 1970s when U&I Sugar Company closed its plants at Toppenish and Moses Lake. By the 1960s the trucks were hauling most of the fruit from the new orchards. The 1970s showed continued decline in car loadings as trucks had most of the freight business by that time.

Sugar beets – there were two loading sites on the WWV. One at Zigman station, near State Line, the other at Baker-Langdon. The Zigman site usually put up a stick pile of sugar beets that would amount to about 1,000 carloads. This would move out at the rate of about 50 cars per day during the months of December and January. The site at Baker-Langdon would load and ship out daily until harvest was over – about the middle of November. Harvest of sugar beets lasted around two months beginning around Sept. 15 and lasting until about Thanksgiving Day. A total of 1400 cars would come off the WWV some years – this created a lot of work for everyone on the railroad. While the revenue per car was low, the volume made it pay.

For years in the early years the fruit industry helped the railroad. Large volume in a short time. It would begin with cherries about the end of June and last until the middle of July. Prune packing and shipping would start about Aug. 15 and last until September. Apples came after the prunes. There were prunes packed at and shipped from Garrett Station (near College Place) from Brickner Station (first south of College Place), State Line had two prune packing houses, Twilight station at State Line had one packing house. At Freewater, at one time, there were four packing houses handling prunes. The prune crop was almost a sure thing year in and year out, very seldom was there a freeze out, once in a while a short crop would [???] Apples were packed and shipped during the early years from Baker-Langdon and an area off Tamaurson Road on the Yellow Hawk branch. Most of the apples came from Freewater. For a period prior to the 1950s very few apples were shipped. They began making a comeback in 1950 and by 1955 WWV shipped a number of C/Ls. The 1955 freeze set fruit production back and when it did come back the apples were dominant. Almost all of present day fruit production moves out by truck – very little by rail.

WWV, the Good Neighbor

In 1962 Milton-Freewater won the honor of All American City. To help the city celebrate the event the WWV arranged to bring in a Northern Pacific Railway coach. The rail car was used to give the people free rides from the depot to the south end of Milton-Freewater and back. Each trip was packed with children and their mothers in addition to all the others who wanted this ride. We made about 5 round trips which too the train past City Hall where official events were taking place out on the lawn. It was an exciting event enjoyed by many."--From the Fort Walla Walla Museum collection. Date unknown

Operations on the WWV

Beginning in January after a sugar beet pile was mobbed the railway would be reduced to one crew operating from 8am until tie up. Train crew would consist of motorman (engineer), conductor and brakeman. The brakeman also handled the trolley rope, however, during busy times a trolley tender would be added. This early crew would go to the NP-WWV transfer track and pick up loads and empty cars left for them by an NP train crew arriving from Pasco early am.

WWV would switch the Walla Walla industries and pull the cars from the transfer track [Union Pacific interchange?]. When completed, crew would move out of  Walla Walla for Milton-Freewater dropping off cars along the way—same as an NP local would do. This crew would also serve the Yellowhawk branch on the way to Milton-Freewater. Arrival time at Milton-Freewater usually around 11am to noon. There would then be spot time and lunch and wait for switching orders. Rogers Canning Co. located on the south end of Milton-Freewater about 2 miles from the station sometimes required two switches a day—one as soon as crew arrived from Walla Walla, and one at the end of the day. Other switching would be done for other industries in between Rogers switches. This was more or less the routine when I started work for the WWV in 1941 and continued until I retired Jan 1, 1977. This would be the period January to June with electric engines up to the year 1950-1951 when the diesels came in. After diesels came in, routine was more or less the same. The big difference when diesels were used was when we could handle more tonnage and make less trips back and forth. Train crews arriving back into Walla Walla from Milton-Freewater would deliver their cars to the transfer track and do whatever switching necessary at Walla Walla, then tie up. The board would be marked up for next days starting time before they tied up.

Operation continued like this until the month of June when industries began to gear up for the pea harvest. During pea harvest we have three train crews operating to handle the work load. During the time we operated electric engines we sometimes added a fourth crew using whatever engine was available and whatever qualified personnel we could hire. This was during the 1940 and 1950s years—business tapered off pretty fast after the 1950s and early 1960s. Cherry harvest was on during the peas as well as the grain harvest. When the pea harvest was completed the prune harvest began shortly thereafter. This kept our train crews up to three and sometimes four crews during the electric period. I don’t recall using four crews after the diesels came in. I remember in 1953 when I asked Mr. J. F. Alsip [from Northern Pacific] for more power during prune harvest. He sent us a Baldwin 1000hp engine to use—this was the largest engine we ever used. It was put to good use keeping it mostly on our mainline. I remember how excited we were to use this engine so successfully. I recall telling Mr. Alsip about it over the phone and this pleased him to no end to know that it was a great help. Mr. Alsip [John F. Alsip, GM of NP Lines west of Livingston], Mr. Macfarlane [NP VP—WWV president], Mr. Castagne, Mr. Steinbright and others on the NP always did their best for us. Mr. Castagne was [with] NW Improvement Co, an NP subsidiary.

After the prune harvest we would drop down to two crews to handle the business and the sugar beets. Sugar beet harvest would end in November but we would have a large pile to beets at Zigman station to be moved in January-sometimes in December. We would go back to two crews then.

During the time we ran electric engines there were times during beet harvest we would have one crew consisting of motorman (brakeman) and the conductor. They would take an engine out to the sugar beet loading dumps and as soon as they had 5 or 6 loads of beets they’d pull them into Walla Walla then go back and continue this way until the end of the day. Our largest electric pulled a maximum of 6 loads of beets. When diesels came they pulled a maximum of 10 sugar beet loads. The regular train crew would do their regular work during the day and if they had time and space on their train coming back from Milton-Freewater they would assist he beet crew before tieing up.

After the diesels came one crew usually handled the business. Occasionally if we knew a lot of beets would be loaded in a day we’d set a diesel out at Stateline next to Zigman where the beets were being loaded. The regular train crew on the way back to Walla Walla would pick up the beets, set the locomotive that earlier had been set out at Stateline to the rear of the beet train and help by pushing. Our mechanical foreman or electrician did the engine work behind the beet train. We could get 20 loads at a time into Walla Walla this way and save time. All our engines (diesel) were equipped with radio so they had instant contact with each other.

 At anytime if business picked up enough to warrant a second crew, we’d put one up. Sometimes we would use our shop mechanical or electrician as engineer and usually had a track worker experienced enough to be brakeman and we would be able to get a conductor someway so it would all work out pretty good.

 This type of operation continued from about 1941 to the 1960s. However, during the 60s trucks were already taking much if not most of the business reducing our need for extra train crews and one crew was able to handle the work except during the beet run. After sugar beets ceased our crew was then used starting at 10am six days a week. If needed earlier we could do that by posting the run before the crew tied up [the previous day]. Trucks took most of the fruit crops. Large companies used their own trucks and some, such as Rogers Canning Company, hired trucking companies to haul their empty cans from Continental Can Co. as did other canneries in the area. Trucks were taking the grain to Snake River and Columbia River elevators for later barge to Portland, etc. Most of the grain went this way from the area. The canneries were also slowing down, the lumber business on the WWV disappeared when Boise Cascade purchased our lumber mill [owned by WWV or built on WWV property?] and closed it down. We had a large flour mill  at Milton-Freewater that was purchased by a Portland firm—I think it was Centennial Mills—and shut down our mill down in a few years. It didn’t take long after I retired that the WWV (NP) BN and UP all had to cease in the area. The WWV was the first to go and BN (NP) pulled tracks out. The Walla Walla Valley Railway had a great run from 1941 to the early 1960s and I’m grateful to have been a part of it. --KES, 08-06-04

Death on the WWV. . .

I began work for the railroad July 7, 1941—I retired January 1, 1977. During this period we had one accident that resulted in a fatality of one of our employees. We had other accidents with train crews and track workers but none resulting in serious injuries where a person would be hospitalized for a time. I don’t recall any. 

Getting back to the fatality, my memory recalls that I reported for work at 5pm as the swing shift dispatcher and clerk during the summer harvest time. I believe this accident happened in 1942 or 1943 during June or July—I’m not sure on the month but it was extremely busy for the railway. We had several train crews operating with electric motors. Probably the No. 19, No, 600 and No. 500. These were the best engines we had at this time. Ordinarily we had No. 600 out at 6am, another engine and crew out around 11am, and another at 6pm.

The 6pm crew on this night had engine No. 500 and ordinarily would leave Walla Walla around 730pm for Milton-Freewater with loads and mtys to be dropped off at stations on the way to Milton-Freewater. They would arrive at Milton Freewater with carloads and empties for the various industries. Rogers Canning Co. was the largest industry we served at Milton-Freewater and during pea harvest required a lot of switching. They took in many carloads of empty tin cans, salt, shook, slack coal and of course empty cans for loading out. The cannery needed us almost 24 hours a day during peak canning season.

As I recall the 500 arrived at Milton-Freewater without mishap and worked the industries as usual. They would work at M-F all night and leave for Walla Walla around 6 or 7am. At that time the 16 hour law was in effect meaning the train crew could not work longer than 16 hours without rest. They would get back to Walla Walla, work a few more hours, and tie up.

My shift ended at 1am and all was well when I left. The next day when I arrived for work I learned of this accident and how it happened. The crew of the 500 consisted of engineer, conductor, brakeman and probably a trolley tender. The crew was getting ready to switch Rogers Canning Company. There was a carload of shook and a carload of slack coal, both for Rogers Canning in the M-F yard. The crew switched the shook car from a spur track and set it out on the mainline blocking wheels with chunks of wood. Crew then picked up a slack coal car and moved to couple it to the carload of shook (a box car). The coupling was not completed but shoved the box car over the wooden blocks which then allowed the car free movement on a downgrade. The brakeman, who had only been on this job for a short time, climbed the ladder of the loose car. The ladder on many box cars at that time had the hand brake wheel on top at the end of the car. The car with the brakeman on it disappeared in the darkness going through the Freewater yard and past the station heading toward Walla Walla. It was all downhill to the Walla Walla river which would be the bottom of the grade—from that point it would be uphill to Walla Walla. The crew with the 500 took off after this car pushing the slack coal car ahead of them. The conductor with lantern was riding the front end of the coal car guiding the engineer through the darkness. The brakeman brought the car to stop before it got completely away from him and was probably getting down from the top of the ladder.  Just about that time the No. 500 pushing the coal car ahead of it arrived. The conductor jumped from the coal car swinging his lantern—the engineer dynamited the brakes but it was impossible to stop without colliding with the standing box car. The impact ripped the brakeman from the ladder causing him to fall between the boxcar and coal car, both of which were moving on impact. There was no chance for the brakeman and the information I got and can recall it was over almost instantly.

This was a terrible shock to all of us on the railway to lose such a good person, well liked and just nice to be around.                --KES, 08-01-04

The Pastor Appealed to a Higher Power. . .

One Saturday morning I received a call from a Pastor of a church in College Place. The Pastor complained about our trains passing his church blowing the horn right in the middle of his sermon. The church was located on the corner of a street crossing and in a good position to get the full brunt of our horn sounds. It was quite upsetting and seemed to happen just about every Saturday morning. This happened when our train was on the way from Walla Walla to Milton-Freewater.

 The pastor requested I have the train crew stop blowing the horn at this crossing. I advised it was the law and we could not do this unless we stopped the train and flagged the crossing every time and if we did this, we would soon be deluged with other requests from residents near our tracks. I advised him we could not operate efficiently by stopping the horn blowing. I could tell the pastor was not satisfied with my answer to his problem, and he did say he would take this up with others as we discontinued our discussion. I more or less forgot about the Pastor and his problem when I received a call from Washington D.C. The call was from the ICC. The person I talked to advised that he had received a call from the Pastor about the blowing of the horn during the sermon. The person I talked to asked me to describe the situation, which I did. He then told me to forget about it, not to worry, he’d take care of the matter. The ICC was very nice—I never heard from the Pastor again.

 We had another incident that happened close to College Place one evening on a Halloween night. This occurred on our night run pulling a train of sugar beets from Zigman station to Walla Walla for Toppenish. The locomotive was pulling maximum tonnage through College Place and began an upgrade when suddenly the train stopped with wheels spinning. The crew got off the engine to determine the problem, if possible, and saw that the rails had been greased. They had been going about 6 miles per hour at that point pulling a maximum load. What to do? Late at night they cleaned rails for a short distance then sanded to get by. This caused about one hour delay arriving in Walla Walla. The incident was reported when they arrived in Walla Walla. This happened about a year before or after the incident with the Pastor—had it been closer to the time we had the problem with the Pastor I may have thought he had something to do with it! Just joking—I don’t thing he would have anything to do with this, however, it was determined that teenagers were probably responsible on this Halloween night. Trains with full tonnage could not go fast coming up from the Walla Walla River to Walla Walla and we did experience teenagers catching rides on the end of trains. To avoid someone getting hurt, the brakeman would ride the rear of the train through the problem area and this stopped the practice of teenagers riding the rear of trains. 

How Many Employees Does it Take to Run the WWV?

The freight office consisted of the Agent who also acted as Chief Clerk. We had one clerk starting at 8am and another at 5pm. Both clerks also acted as dispatcher and were limited as to the time they could be on the job. The agent could work 24 hours if necessary and most of the time he was available for instruction as he had plenty of work (clerical) to do himself. The General Manager had one clerk who handled the payroll and did the correspondence for the G.M,. whenever he dictated. The day clerks were usually female; the night clerk male. The night clerk usually did the waybills on shipments.

 At Milton-Freewater there was an agent and on clerk. Both did clerical work such as billing out cars, demurrage, yard checking, etc. During busy season there was plenty of work for both as they also took phone calls from shippers wanting cars. Agent and clerk both relayed switch orders to crews. Most of the waybilling was done from about 5pm on as shippers brought their bills of lading into the office at that time and later.

The railroad bought a carload of prunes once when the car arrived in Grand Rapids, Michigan; it should have gone to Rapid City, South Dakota! It was a billing error by the railroad which can happen when clerks were very busy trying to get a train out. Every day was different for me—that’s what made my job so interesting. The work we did at Walla Walla was quite like what was done at headquarters (St. Paul or Seattle) only at a much smaller scale. Claims were take care of in Seattle as was income tax handling.

When I first started work in 1941 we had a roadmaster, section foreman and around six track workers. When Don Carlson arrived in 1946 he increased the section force to around eight track workers to speed up track work such as new ties and also had an extra gang later on for a while to improve track conditions which was in poor condition. Later on in 1953 when I was appointed G.M. I reduced the force to six track workers. The roadmaster retired in about a year and was not replaced. The foreman handled the job after that along with his other duties. The force remained that way until extra work such as relates came up in which case we would hire extra gangs to speed up the work. By the 1970s, the track gang consisted of a foreman and fhree or four other employees.

We had a master mechanic in the 1930s and 40s when he retired around 1949 he was replaced with a mechanical foreman. We also had an electrician to take care of the electric catenary system. When we went to diesels in 1950 this electrician job stayed on to assist the mechanical foreman in care of the engine. --KES, 08-01-04

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