Hol - When E.L. Potarf took-up residence in the Western Suburbs of Chicago,
he chose a home (as I recall) in Clarendon Hills, a stone's throw away from the
triple track mainline. That way, my dad said, Mr. Potarf could keep track of
every train. You could look down on the home when seated on the upper level of a
suburban coach passing by. In the early 1960s when dad was Chicago Division
Supt., the hottest freight train on the Q was the run-though to the UP at Grand
Island, NE. Dad said Mr. Potarf monitored seven days a week the exact
departure times and if the GI (as I recall the train being named)
was more than a few minutes late in departing the Cicero Yard, dad's
office or our home phone would be ringing off the hook with Mr. Potarf loudly
demanding to know exactly what the delay was and how it was caused. E.L. Potarf
was, in my opinion, the epitome of the classic, old time, hard crusted operating
railroad official (they were never called executives in that era,
it was "officials"). The name Sam Fee also brings back memories. Mr.
Fee ( believe it was S.L. Fee) had his own railroad nickname "The Great
White Father" for his long collar length snow white hair. Mr. Fee was part
of the "Irish mafia" that included President Harry Murphy and others
of Irish heritage who were so prominent in upper management prior to the
1950s. It was customary in the 50s and 60s that when a senior operating official
was making inspection tours of various terminals and divisions in
his business car, he would invite junior officials with their wives to
have dinner on the business car. Such guests might include the
division or terminal superintendents, senior train masters, chief
dispatchers, road masters, master mechanics and so on. Liquor was never
served, but, as my mom would relate, the food was plentiful and delicious
all served by selected dining car staff assigned to business car service. After
dinner, the men would then all talk railroading over cigars and coffee while the
wives chatted. Of course, all this stopped when the business car fleet was
retired. Looking back, it was all rather civilized compared to how upper level
railroading business is handled today by smart phones and computers
with most business cars now in museums. As I've said before, I remember the
Burlington Route of that era really being like a big extended family
regardless of whether you were union represented or management. Getting
back to Mr. Fee, my mother was from south Alabama and had a most
decidedly Southern accent which really stood out in the Midwest, let alone on a
business car. My mom said that said Mr. Fee was always a most charming
person and would always invite dad and her to have dinner on the business car
when in town. I also remember that after one of the hi-rail Buick
autos derailed due to excessive speed, Mr. Fee had stainless
steel plates affixed to the dash boards of each Buick limiting the speed to
such-and-such miles per hour with his name beneath. And as for Lou Menk, my
dad didn't care for him in the least. Dad just didn't think Menk was
such a hot shot operating official as everyone had been lead to believe. Dad
said that Menk only knew how to improve the bottom line by cutting every expense
imaginable, not by running trains and providing the service to the shippers.
But, that was at the end of dad's career as my mom had passed away at an
early age and he left the Q just prior to the BN merger so he could retire
to south Alabama. Another part of dad's dislike for Menk involved what was
a relatively small matter to Menk, but it meant so much to so many Q management
and union employees at the time - the untimely retirement and disposal
of both the 5632 and 4960. Dad made the comment that if Menk had become
president a few years earlier, he never would've donated a single steam
engine for display as he had no great love and respect for the Burlington Route
and its culture as did Harry Murphy, Sam Fee, E.L. Potarf and so many
hundreds of other employees, it was just a job to Menk. In retrospect, I think
my dad made the right decision for himself in leaving the Q as he was from the
old school of operating officials and using a corporate aircraft instead of
a business car just wasn't his thing, let alone the advent of
computers and all the confusion that was to follow the BN merger. Dad remarried
and had a good, but short, retirement before his health failed and he
passed away. He would be in his 99th year if he was still with us. As the
years pass all too quickly and I age, too, my childhood and teenage
memories of the Q become like dinner in the business car, plentiful and
delicious! I look forward to further commenting from time-to-time upon those
subjects I have some knowledge of and where I can make a contribution to
the Group. I do have my dad's personal papers and within there are some
recollections of his days both in train service as a brake man in World War Two
and later as a train master in the 1950s. If any one remembers my dad "good or
bad" I'd enjoy hearing about him - Louis
In a message dated 1/24/2013 6:29:09 P.M. Central Standard Time,
cbqrr47@yahoo.com writes:
Oh how well, I remember the warning, "Potarf is coming!".
Everybody tried to make everything look perfect because he WAS a nit
picker. The couple of times, I talked to him, he was a true gentleman
and a true professional who knew what he wanted and how to get it. On
one occasion, he gave me a tour of the office car much to the shock of
the other employees.
--- On Thu, 1/24/13, HOL WAGNER
<holpennywagner@msn.com> wrote:
From:
HOL WAGNER <holpennywagner@msn.com>
Subject: RE: [CBQ]
Official Correspondence
To: "CB&Q Group"
<cbq@yahoogroups.com>
Date: Thursday, January 24, 2013, 4:23
PM
Lou: Your mention of E.L. Potarf reminds me
of how much he was feared by employees after he rose to the
position of vice president-operations in the late 1950s, succeeding
Sam Fee. But that seems to go with the territory; virtually all
operating vice presidents seem to have been feared by their employees,
whether it was justified or not. The two times I talked with Mr.
Potarf (both times aboard his office car 100 here in Denver)
he impressed me as a warm and friendly man -- but then I didn't
work for him. A few years later, I would say the same thing
about perhaps the most hated man in Q history: Lou Menk. I
talked with him for over an hour on his BN business car here in the
early 1970s, and we generally reminisced about the "good old
days." But I had the advantage there of having graduated from
the same Denver high school as he did -- only years later.
Having that in common really seemed to open him up to me.
Another member of this group, John Manion, also graduated with me from
Denver's South High School. Thanks for reminding me of
those times. Hol
To: CBQ@yahoogroups.com From: LZadnichek@aol.com Date: Thu, 24
Jan 2013 12:58:01 -0500 Subject: [CBQ] Official
Correspondence
Hol - I'm a "silent" member of this List and want to step
forward and say how much I enjoy reading the transcribed official
correspondence. My late father M.L. Zadnichek was a Lines East and
West train master, division superintendent and director of TOFC
during the 1950s and 60s. Dad may've been train master at St. Joseph,
MO, at the time E.R. Schrader was division superintendent as we lived
there in the mid-1950s. Dad was a baggage man and brake man
on the C&I during World War Two. All his family were C&NW
people going back to my g-g-grandfather who established his seniority
on the section at Quarry, IA, in 1870 having immigrated earlier from
Bohemia. I was born in 1946 at Mendota, IL, where my mom said the
vibration from passing trains would shake the pictures loose on the
walls, as well as make her rewash the clothes from the
cinders that fell in the yard where the clothes line was located.
The name E.L. Potarf particularly rang a bell as he mentored my
father as a young trainmaster at Casper, WY, in the early
1950s. Mr. Potarf became a close family friend and I have
snapshots taken by my dad of Mr. and Mrs. Potarf
and daughter with myself, brother and mother at Sunday
afternoon family get-togethers. Both my dad and mom thought
the world of Mr. Potarf and stayed in touch with him through their
lifetimes. I also see other names of Q officials who my dad was
well acquainted with and some of whom I met as a child. It really was
one big Burlington Family in that era, something that today has been
lost. Dad was a collector, too, and I have his personal papers,
official documents pertaining to his career, lanterns, bells,
headlights, whistles, builders plates, photographs and other Q
memorabilia. Today, my son Miles continues the Zadnichek Family
railroad heritage as a revenue accountant with NS in Atlanta, GA. I
encourage you to continue researching and transcribing the official
correspondence. I very much appreciate your efforts. Best Regards -
Louis Zadnichek II, Fairhope,
AL
In a message dated 1/24/2013 10:59:53 A.M. Central Standard Time,
holpennywagner@msn.com writes:
Pete: Yup, I checked an Alliance Division ETT and he
was indeed division superintendent.
Thanks! Hol
To: CBQ@yahoogroups.com From: Jpslhedgpeth@aol.com Date: Thu,
24 Jan 2013 11:46:03 -0500 Subject: Re: [CBQ] Boxcars in
Passenger Service
E.R. Shrader was a Superintendent...He was at St. Joe in the
1950's...I have a personal letter from him turning down my request
for Jim Christen and I to ride the "head end" of No.93 from Corning
to Villisca.
Shrader's nephew lives here in Lincoln and we have had several
conversations recently about "uncle Ed". He is buried near
York, NE...His nephew is going to take me out to his burial site
sometime next spring.
Pete
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