I believe most on this list are aware that many members of railroad
management are promoted from the scheduled(unionized) ranks. Who better knows
the
details of what it takes to keep a RR moving? I have been trying to find a
way to turn a bit of history into an article but have decided to share it
here.
A golden and almost unbroken rule is that a scheduled employee promoted to
mgmt is sent far from his home division for obvious reasons. The first
offer I received to enter mgmt was a move from the Aurora Div to Minot,ND !?
I have been aware of one exception since the 1970s and while doing recent
research on other subjects have tied together some lose ends. So I'll share
the story.
C.J. Miller was an Aurora Div brkmn with a 9-2-24 seniority date. He was
promoted to baggageman on 10-6-28 and Condr on 2-26-42(the great depression
really affected his Condrs seniority). He also served as secretary for the
Aurora BRT lodge for a time. C.J. is shown as Aurora Div Supt in ETT 52
dated 10/25/59 replacing E.W. Terrill who is shown as div sup in ETT 51.
I was always under the impression that C.J. moved up in the Aurora Div from
Condr to Supt but in a recent conversation with Roger Field( whos' father
was also a Q employee) he seemed to remember that C.J. was shipped out west
before coming back to Aurora as Supt. Either way can you imagine being
Supt over the Div you worked on for 30 plus years as a rank & file employee ?
It was "sweet corn" and "velvet" who first told me about C.J. way back in
the 70s. They both said you didn't try and feed C.J a line about what had
happened to explain a certain incident as he knew the scoop.
What got me to write this little story is a file I found in the UTU
records from the early 60s. There was a certain brkmn who's modified nickname
is
"backo" who was brought into an investigation to "determine his
responsibility......." in a matter of a Rule G violation while working the
Irish Mail
wayfreight. Called as a company witness was brkmn "Beddy"(also modified)
who filed a claim for lost pay on the Irish Mail while attending the
investigation. His timeslip was turned down by the timekeeper and then
appealed
thru normal channels to the Div Supt. C.J. wrote a rather brief and blunt
response to the appeal. Brkmn "Beddy" should realize that it is only thru the
benevolence and mercy of this office that he is not in the same situation
as brkmn "Backo".
End of case.
The last entry I find for C.J. is ETT 3 dated 6/9/68 so he had at least 44
years of service.
If you have any 1960s Burlington Bulletins C.J. Miller is pictured from
time to time. He sure appears to be a no nonsense kind of guy.
Leo Phillipp
Ps-The 3 guys on this list who will know the true names behind the
characters and may have personal memories of C.J. should feel free to chime
in.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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