RE: (erielack) Fuel costs & spillage on the EL

["Tupaczewski, Paul R (Paul)" <paultup_@_lucent.com>]

Walter,

	This is GREAT STUFF! 

	Sounds like you must have had a heck of a good time in your Binghamton years... :)

	- Paul


> -----Original Message-----
> From: WSmith5957_@_aol.com [mailto:WSmith5957@aol.com]
> Sent: Saturday, July 20, 2002 11:38 AM
> To: erielack_@_lists.railfan.net; PapaG1954@aol.com; 
> TonyIannone_@_aol.com;
> railroaddoug_@_erols.com; alfred_runte@email.msn.com
> Cc: jreaoe_@_juno.com; richardble@worldnet.att.net; 
> johnkluge_@_citcom.net;
> OverCrailway_@_aol.com; hogger@world-net.net
> Subject: (erielack) Fuel costs & spillage on the EL
> 
> 
> Reading of the fuel cost debate reminded me of a couple 
> incidents at thde 
> DL&W roundhouse at East Binghamton (Conklin) about 1961 or 
> so......I was day 
> hostler & had 3 gp7s at the fuel rack with the guns on 2 of 
> them. When they 
> were full, we'd pull ahead & fuel the 3rd. I was looking back 
> when a man I 
> recognized as one of the laborers gave me what I thought was 
> a highball. I 
> began pulling ahead when the r/house foreman came flying out 
> of the office 
> frantically signing me to stop. (did I mention that I 
> couldn't SEE the fuel 
> rack from the engr position???)  When I got stopped, the fuel 
> hoses, still 
> connected to the lead engines, were stretched out like a slingshot. 
>       I got off the engines and approached the old laborer 
> who was already 
> explaining to the roundhouse foreman that "I just wave 
> 'hello' to Smith". 
> You've got to understand that the laborer 'Old Nick. the 
> Russian' had come to 
> the DL&W about the time of WW1 and been a laborer at the 
> roundhouse ever 
> since. Sitting in the roundhouse one night, he told us he'd 
> been a soldier in 
> the Czars' army and had marched from the end of the 
> Trans-Siberian RR to 
> Vladivostok in the Russo-Jap war acct. the RR was only partly 
> finished then. 
> You get the picture....command of-a da Eenglish language 
> wasn't Nicks' long 
> suit....kind of like a latter-day version of "Where-a you 
> work-a John? On da 
> Delaware, Lackawan" only this was the 60s.
>        After a conversation with Nick about the dangers of 
> waving 'bye - bye' 
> to engines, the foreman & I went back in the office & the 
> foreman said"That 
> wasn't really too bad, Walt, last October, the same thing 
> happened and we had 
> a foot of diesel fuel in the turntable pit."
>        The good lesson for me as a young hostler was the 
> rule, 'A CLEAR 
> UNDERSTANDING OF ALL MEMBERS OF A CREW SHALL BE HAD, PRIOR TO 
> MAKING ANY 
> MOVE' or words to that effect. I think of the many close 
> calls I've seen by 
> the disregard of this very basic rule...as well as the 
> damage, injuries, & 
> some deaths too.
> Regards,
> Walter E. Smith
> employee #102156
> 

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