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One of the happiest test recollections of mine had to do with taking "Voltage distribution" on the traction motors of a T3 locomotive during the grape season in 1926. This test required us to run the locomotive up and down the test track, which ran from the west end of the GE property to Harbor Creek, about four miles, and included about a mile of running through the vineyards near Harbor Creek. The test procedure
required running the locomotive and taking some readings, then stopping, analyzing the readings, and then proceeding again to run and take another set of readings. After sufficient satisfactory data was collected, the test was over and we returned to Bldg.60. The "trick” in running this test was to handle things in such a way during the grape season that at least one stop was made beside a vineyard where you could drop off and downe the bank and grab a few bunches of grapes through the fence or otherwise before proceeding with the next set of readings. It got to be a joke that whenever we were approaching the vineyards, readings always left something to be desired so we had to go onward and get another set. The critical question was always ”How do they look" and the proper answer "Well, not quite good enough."

Along about this time, I picked up a couple of good engineer stories which I put into my "idea file." By 1933, a few of the new electric locomotives were operating on the Pennsy electrification and there was a story told about one old engineer who had just learned to operate an electric passenger locomotive. He was enthused. When asked if he liked electrics as well as steam locomotives, he proclaimed: "I never believed in Santa Claus before but now I do. Ten cars--tenth notch; eleven cars-—eleventh notch; twelve cars--twelfth notch-----70 miles per hour! Santa Claus is here!"

The other story was told by Ken Wolf of the New York Central and later of Electro—Motive. It concerned an old Irish engineer who loved to tell tell stories but did it so convincingly that it was hard to disbelieve even the most rabid ones. One of his favorites had to do with a flood when he drove his steam engine through water so deep that only the smokestack stuck out.

In my idea file, I find three short gems that pleased me in 1933 more than they do right now although I don't think they’re quite bad enough to skip entirely:

Guynes (leaning on his immaculate desk which he has just cleared of papers and looking at Jay walker and me): Now, what's anybody got on his chest this morning?

Walker: We11, I've got a little hair on mine.

Bill Hamilton: You' re getting fat, Johnnie. Look at those Springs sag. 

Walker: Don't kid me like that, Bill. You know why they sagged. They saw you standing there.