The "newspaper issue" was could be one of the higher-stress aspects of suburban
service :)
Was one of your engineers Clarence Barton? He had a regular delivery service
(at several intermediate stops westbund on the 8:30 deadhead and the rest
disappearing into the caller office and the second floor at Aurora depot) and
god help you if he came up short. When I was braking dinkies and had a head
start at CUS it could be a near thing to even get myself a copy. And this was
at a time every passenger had a paper.
When I went firing, most engineers usually just grabbed a copy for themselves
from the cab car upper deck. But then I was bumped down to Clarence.......
Of course, there were the rare days you'd find some other printed matter
discarded......
It was funny when you think about it. Back then newspapers were less cost in
relative terms than today. Every one of us could afford to buy one. I guess it
was just natural RR culture to not pay for anything you could avoid.
Doug
----- Original Message -----
From: "go.1955@hotmail.com [CBQ]" <CBQ@yahoogroups.com>
To: CBQ@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Friday, April 8, 2016 9:38:13 AM
Subject: [CBQ] Paper Routes
When I finally made it to suburban service as a fireman in 1977 some engineers
had you walk through the train collecting newspapers for them. Some just wanted
a Trib or Sun Times or both. The high finance guys wanted a copy of the Wall
Street Journal.
One particular engineer I fired for wanted 5 or 6 copies of each paper you
could find for his paper route. You would start at the control car collecting
every section of the Tribune you could find and the Sun Times. Once you made it
to the cab, which by now you were rolling down the lead to the coach yard (had
to make the train back to Aurora), you shut the HEP down and then started
sorting your paper collection.
You put all the sections of the Tribune in the proper order and set them
aside. If you had any incomplete sections you just left them in the cab. Of
course you made sure you had a set for yourself.
Where did the papers go? Well, I know for a fact that one set went to the
yardmaster at 14th Street. Would this be the RR form of Payolla?
I'm not sure where the other sets went, but if I remember correctly the story
went that upon arrival in Aurora the other sets were delivered to friends in a
nursing home.
Leo and Doug you may be able to fill in the blanks here, but this is all I
remember.
Gary Olszewski
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Posted by: dhartman@mchsi.com
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