Bill - Your sentiments are most welcome. I, too, really enjoy the
reminisces and first person accounts that occasionally appear,
particularly from those who spent their careers in train service as
conductors, brakemen and engineers. This is what has drawn me into the Group to
start posting after years of being a silent member. Plus, I'm not getting any
younger and when I go to the big roundhouse in the sky what I haven't put down
in writing will be lost as my dad's experiences would've been if I didn't
start posting them here. There are some excellent story tellers among the other
members and at times I can almost hear the motors in Run 8, calling
out signals, the slack running in-and-out, bacon sizzling on the way car
stove and the ballast crunching beneath their boots. Whereas I only worked
for the Q during summer vacations (one summer at the GOB as a clerk
auditing tickets and "secret passenger" reports and the other running a
track machine on a steel gang....that was a real experience) and didn't
make railroading a career, coming from a generational railroad family
insured that I'd be a fan all my life. One of dad's best friends was
Leonard "Lonnie" Hall who was a Q road master and division engineer. Do you
remember Mr. Hall? Do you have any memories of Mr. Hall or reminisces of
your own to share like dodging rattlesnakes cuddled-up to the warm rails on cold
nights, sun kinks, wash outs, gandy dancers, camp cars, steel and tie
gangs, mechanization and the coming of welded rail....all the other things
that made life as a road master interesting? Are you a generational railroader,
too? Louis
In a message dated 1/26/2013 3:10:08 P.M. Central Standard Time,
macon249@yahoo.com writes:
You have no idea how much I enjoy these posts, I went out as an asst.
Roadmaster right after the BN- Frisco merger and heard most all these names.
It really is a joy, after all these years, to know more about these folks. I
knew lots of people off the old Q.
Bill Jackson
Sent from my iPad
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 he 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
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
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.comFrom:
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
Pete: Yup, I checked an Alliance Division ETT
and he was indeed division superintendent.
Thanks! Hol
To: CBQ@yahoogroups.comFrom:
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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