Fred - Thanks so much for reaching out to contact me. I do not recall your
name, but I well remember E.J. "Lefty" Weiskoph and Bob Fiala. Lefty and my dad
were good friends and he kept dad informed of all the craziness
(dad's word, not mine) on the BN after the merger. I'm very
pleased to know that Lefty took you over to Check Point, as dad's house was
known, on Mobile Bay to visit that afternoon. The switch stand
had come from the Eola Reclamation Yard. Plus, you must've also seen the
bell off the O5 that he had mounted on a pole in the yard. Some years after dad
passed away, the home was hit by lightning and burned to the ground with my
step-mom barely escaping with the clothes she had on. All other contents
were destroyed in the massive blaze. Very fortunately, by that time, I
had removed all dad's Q memorabilia and none of it was lost. So, that
huge screened-in rain porch overlooking the Bay and Spanish moss draped
trees that shaded it are all history now. Dad, as well as most railroad people
I've ever known, was a great story teller. I regret I never took the time to sit
down with him and write down his stories. Today, I just remember bits and
pieces. In the 1970s, there were several other non-Q retired railroad
officials living in Fairhope and they all would occasionally meet on dad's
porch to have coffee (or some Rule G at sunset) and talk about their
lifetime experiences and how the present day railroads were all going
to hell from deferred maintenance and undisciplined employees who had no regard
for operating rules. Dad and his retired railroad friends all had very similar
mind sets, to say the least. If dad was still alive, I think it would be
absolutely amazed with today's railroads, their safety records measured
against ton miles and computer technology that he never could've dreamed of as a
young brakeman in World War Two. I sure would enjoy hearing your E.L.
Potarf stories, plus knowing that they would be preserved by
appearing in this Group. If you ever return to the Eastern Shore of
Mobile Bay, please let me know. Best Regards -
Louis
In a message dated 1/25/2013 2:39:49 P.M. Central Standard Time,
fhc925@frontier.com writes:
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:
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.comDate: Thu, 24
Jan 2013 12:58:01 -0500Subject: [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.comDate: Thu,
24 Jan 2013 11:46:03 -0500Subject: 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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