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Re: (erielack) EL way freight operations

Jim, you did a good job of telling it how it was. The other step was the inputing of the information into the computer system. The bigger stations had terminals, teletype or IBM cards. When the crew got back to the terminal and the conductor turned in his delay reprt and wheel report along with all of his switch list the cars where then inputed into the computer system as to there actual location, what time they where spotted or pulled, etc. 
 
Does anyone remember what the EL computer progaram was called?
 
Bob Stafford
Marysville, WA

- --- On Thu, 10/2/08, JG at graytrainpix <graytrainpix_@_hotmail.com> wrote:

From: JG at graytrainpix <graytrainpix_@_hotmail.com>
Subject: (erielack) EL way freight operations
To: erielack_@_lists.railfan.net
Date: Thursday, October 2, 2008, 7:40 PM

Regarding way freight operations, I never worked as a station agent, but I
spent some time with working agents on the NY Division.  From what I remember,
the drills (our usual term for way freight) would usually leave their terminal
yards between 9am and 11am, and would meet up with an agent or clerk before
getting down to work.  Often that meet up would take place at a station or
freight house where the agent or clerk worked.  Sometimes the agent would work
at a central location miles away from the crew's work zone; e.g., the Dundee
branch in Passaic NJ had a dedicated crew, the Dundee Drill, but did not have an
open station along it.  The branch was handled, I believe, by a clerk out of
Paterson.  

The agent or clerk would present the crew with a drill slip showing what cars
were ready to be pulled by late morning.  The crew would give the agent or clerk
their waybills for loads being delivered, or empty car tickets for empties to be
loaded.  The agent would inform the crew what industries were ready for the
inbound cars on the drill; if the industry still had cars being loaded or
unloaded, the inbound car would be "constructively placed", i.e.
spotted on a near-by siding for delivery on the next work day (usually).  The
crew would get down to work and the agent or clerk would get back to his or her
office.  

Later in the day, the crew and the agent or clerk would meet up again to update
their plans.  Perhaps one or two industries finished loading or unloading a car
during the afternoon, and the car could now be pulled.  Perhaps some of the
inbounds planned for delivery could not be placed, e.g. because of a track
problem or a minor derailment.  The crew conductor and agent or clerk would then
go their ways, after any new waybills or empty card tickets were given to the
crew, along with an updated drill slip.  The agent / clerk would probably close
up and head home long before the drill crew would.  On the next work day, the
crew would update the agent / clerk as to whether there were any further changes
during the final hours of work from the evening before.  

Of course there were many variations on this pattern, especially where crews
worked sidings late into the night, e.g. the second Passaic drill, the evening
Dover Drill, the Silver Lake Drill, etc.  These crews might have met with an
agent or clerk as they were coming on duty at around 4 PM, or might have
received their programs from the day-shift crews that they were relieving.  

I'm not sure this is 100% accurate, as it has been a long time since the EL
days (what, 32 years).  But it reflects the rough pattern, on the NY Division at
least.  Jim Gerofsky

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