Gerald,
My clearest memory of "Smitty" is him sitting at the Ydmstrs desk at Clyde
Yard Office 'D' yard over Austin Avenue. ' D ' yard office was a cozy little
spot to wait for the westbound dinkies to go home on after arriving at Cicero.
The Ydmstrs. desk was right inside and behind the door next to a couple large
windows where he could overlook his territory. There wasn't a seperate office
for the Ydmstr as in some other locations. He was right in amongst the
switchman and the arriving rear end road crews. Above the desk were the
intercoms to
the General yard office,hump tower,etc with the endless chatter. I would often
sit around the yard office taking in the action rather than sit at Clyde
shelter until it was time for the dinky to arrive.
I often thought Smitty was part actor as it seemed at times he was
embellishing things on the intercom for the temporary audience(if you want
particulars
contact me off list as it was quite colorful). At the same time his switchmen
would stick a head in the door and Smitty would nicely tell them what move to
make next while he had just been very "blunt" with someone on the intercom at
the other end of Cicero.
Another little know aspect of Clyde yard office was the ever present food
cooking away. In winter it was inside the office and in warm weather on the
grill
off to the side of the building outside.
Maybe you know this or not but when Smitty was second trick yard master the
job came to work two hours early and made up the switch list for house 9 and
then went over to Clyde for the shift change. He woudl sit at the longtable in
the general yard office at the footbridge making up the switch list while
chatting away with the westbound Galesburg and Aurora crews.
It was Smitty who talked about the "tips" they used to receive for switching
the Schohaffen Brewery (I'm sure the spelling is wrong) at the 16th st curve.
Leo
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