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Louis: After the BN merger the Sales Dept. was regionalized and Detroit became the headquaters for the "Central Region" which included all of Eastern Canada, Michigan, most of Ohio, KY, WV, TN, AL, MS, and LA. The BN had a sales office in Mobile and I was the Regional Mgr of Service and Equipment. E J (Lefty) Weiskopf was the General Agent in Mobile and I would make a annual trip to disucss equipment matters with him, shippers and the local carriers. One day we had a couple of spare hours and Lefty wanted to take me for a ride. We drove over to the east side of Mobile Bay and then south towards
Point Clear. Lefty said someone wants to talk to me and we shortly arrived at your Dad's house. I knew it was the right house because the mail box was mounted on a CB&Q switchstand. We had a nice talk about the good old days on that very comfortable porch along with several cups of coffee. He remembered me from my days in the GOB and his occasional trips to see Bob Fiala, Herschel Hudgens and Elmer Crossen in the Sales Dept. Good guy! I do several ELP stories which I will relate at another time. Fred Crissey
From: "LZadnichek@aol.com" <LZadnichek@aol.com> To: CBQ@yahoogroups.com Sent: Friday, January 25, 2013 1:46 PM Subject: Re: [CBQ] Official Correspondence 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:
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