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Re: (erielack) Dispatcher Qualification
When I qualified as engineer in road service, I sat down with an old Trainmaster in the Syracuse freighthouse and he said 'Tell me all about the Syracuse division starting with the double to single track switch at the North end of 'YO' yard". After finishing, he opened a huge filedrawer in his rolltop desk and invited me to take a few employee timetables and rulebooks (the drawer was filled). One of them was the ERIE employee TT for the old Wyoming Division, 1938 or so. I still have a few of the Syracuse Division booklets that were made up by Dick Maloney, Jr. His dad was roundhouse foreman in the 'DL' Conklin yard. This 8 1/2 x 11 booklet has it all, speeds, switches & each page a few miles of track as it was 50 years ago or more (1960s). He sold them to most of us who were taking promotion to road service & I considered them a good investment. Any of u want one, send me a $20.00 check or moneyorder or cash. I'll pay the mailing. Walter Smith/968
Placid Drive/Melbourne, Fl. 32935.
Regards to all,
Walt Smith
From: JG at graytrainpix <graytrainpix_@_hotmail.com>
To: erielack_@_lists.railfan.net
Sent: Thursday, July 7, 2011 9:49 PM
Subject: (erielack) Dispatcher Qualification
Just finished another great Artie Erdman article in the latest Diamond. I never heard about what it was like to qualify as a dispatcher, so that was a real revelation for me. Yikes, all day with a superintendent, trainmaster and chief! Just wondered if the other DS's on this line went thru the same thing, and what your experiences on the big day were like.
And can't help but ask Steve Timko -- did you have to describe all of the Mahoning in one day? From Hornell and River Jct. to Kent and Cleveland? Sounds like at least a 16 hour task, could run afowl of the old hours-of-service law! Not to belittle Artie's accomplishment in describing everything from Sparrowbush to Slateford, and passing the test with flying colors!
PS, one more little thing, wonder if anyone else noticed -- t'was a great Diamond article and map on the EL divisions, but what was the "Buffalo Terminal Division" from the 1974 TT4 ? Looks like the yards and a few branches around BX, with the main from Hornell to East Buffalo becoming the "Buffalo Sub-Division" of the Susquehanna Div. Maybe it was a cost savings measure, eliminated an RFE and a Chief Dispatcher, maybe some other staff?
Jim Gerofsky, who probably wouldn't have gotten much past Ridgewood Jct. before stalling on a road qualification exam!
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