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4.
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he soon became expert at operating the KK's. There were no frills about him. He was tough with uncooperative crewmen, and when he was aroused his vocabulary equaled Paddy Murray's. But he could also be extremely helpful and considerate.

One midnight when we were having a sandwich and coffee in the Hoboken passenger terminal Eric said to me, "You worry too much, kid. Get your mind onto something else. We've all had trouble. I been in three wrecks--a rear end, a derail, and a broken cylinder I'm lucky to be alive. Instead of worrying, I study the commuters going through this place, for instance." He waved a big hand toward a few people straggling through the waiting room from the Christopher Street ferry "I size 'em up and decide what they do and where they're going."

"How do you do that?" I asked.

"Well, here's an example," he said, his face very serious. "In the evening, those guys in the half-assed raincoats--they're going to the opera." He continued to regard me seriously for a moment, then roared with laughter  He loved to kid me about going to the opera occasionally  "Stop worrying, kid," he said, winking and slapping me on the knee. "Everything's, going to be fine."

I grinned and felt better

MID-NOVEMBER came and we'd had , no hundred-car drags out of J.C. yard, however, shorter drags had indicated that Joe Kron's skepticism was reasonable, despite Eric's assurances the KK's could do it. Eric would personally run the engine the first time. It would be a cinch. One morning, I reported aboard KK3501 at Jersey City, to be greeted by old Bill Tutlow, the engineer "Guess what," he said. "We're lined up for 102 cars outa here."

"When?"

"Right now"
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My pulse accelerated. "Where's Eric?" I asked, looking around nervously

"He's in Buffalo today"

"Oh, no!" I said. "That means we're it, huh?"

"I guess that's right," said Bill doubtfully

The rest of the crew got aboard and we moved off into the yard. My heart was pounding. Suppose we flunked out and fouled the sacred main line. Even with the skilled and resourceful Eric, it would have been a probability

Several factors made the haul unusually difficult. Although the start was on level track, little distance remained for acceleration before long drags hit the 0.8 per cent grade leaving the yard, on reaching the catenary, a power interruption occurred in transferring from battery to trolley; finally, although either two or three mainline tracks had to be crossed, sanding these slippery crossovers was prohibited because of the signal system. To make matters worse for us, the weather was cold, the cars had been in the yard all night, and the train resistance was correspondingly higher  In our favor was a clear, dry day and a good rail. Also, having Bill Tutlow was a break. He was a huge, aging pink-cheeked man who had been our most adaptable "student", in fact, he would lay off on monthly inspection days to avoid running a steamer again.

Soon after pumping up the 102 cars, we got a highball from Henderson Street tower 
 Bill turned on the sand and began notching out slowly to take up the slack. Then he opened her up carefully  On the level yard track the long string was docile enough. The start was a nice one, but on internal power there was little to sustain the acceleration. We hit the grade at 6 to 7 mph and began dropping back. The catenary was several hundred yards ahead. We were down to a walk when we reached the wire, although most of our train was still on level track.
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