The Illinois Theater, in Centralia, back in the 30's
and 40's used to call crews for both the IC and Q.
The separate seniority rosters for baggagemen were
later abolished, with older men "grandfathered". This
was much same as "hostler fixtures", i.e. separate
rosters for fireman and hostlers. The old "fixtures"
could not be displaced by fireman.
John
--- PSHedgpeth@a... wrote:
> Leo
>
> Didn't the Polar Bear Club have an outing which
> always got a little publicity
> in the Tribune on New Years Day???
>
> What you've said about Train Baggagemen sounds
> right.. All I remember is that
> the old trainmen's board, which was maintained right
> outside the
> Trainmaster's office on the second floor of the
> Lincoln Depot had a separate
> category headed TRAIN BAGGGEMEN..I can't rememeber
> how many guys were on
> there, but it was a relatively few...Something like
> 5-6....
>
> BTW this board is the only one I ever saw on theQ,
> but it consisted of a
> glass doored cabinet with verticle rows of metal
> racks of slots, each of
> which would hold a card (about the size of a
> business card) with the
> conductor and/or brakeman's name typed on it with
> his seniority date(s).
> Each pool turn showed as well as the passenger
> pools. The extra board was
> carried as a separate item.
>
> You could go up and check as to "how you stood" at
> any time....Of course it
> was easier to do it by phone, but sometimes the call
> boys...or girl...we had
> one of the opposite sex who always identified
> herself when answering the
> phone as "callgirl"..wouldn't the feminists have a
> good time with that one
> now....would get irritated (especially with young
> brakemen) if you called too
> often.
>
> There were no cell phones or pagers in those
> days...When I was working the
> extra board, I was always terrified of missing a
> call, and even when going to
> a movie and being assured that I was 8 times or 10
> times out would run back
> and call in every hour or so. I'm told that at
> Alliance they had an
> arrangement with the movie theatre to flash a
> trainman's name on the screen
> when he was called...
>
> Pete
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been
> removed]
>
>
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