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46

I'm sorry to say I have no photograph of our locomotive but it was very similar to the one shown in the following photo which was taken on our Erie test track: 

[[image-black and white photo of train cart on railroad tracks, unattached to other carts bearing the number 1200 on the side, as well as two instances of logo: NORTH WESTERN CHICAGO LINE. Four wheels can be seen along the cart]]

Before going into the various crews we worked with, I'll give a brief wheeze on the several areas where we worked. In most cases, they were referred to in railroad parlance which often was most intriguing to me. For instance, there was the Beefhouse, which referred to a line running down along a row of slaughterhouses to which they would deliver carloads of cattle, hogs and sheep. Sometimes there would be enormous pressure on the railroad to spot these cars by a certain time at the plant of the consignee because if delayed beyond that time, the load would be "outlawed" and the animals' delivery illegal. Each carload of animals had such a time assigned to it. I'm unfamiliar with the legal angles of this. But I've seen crews sweat when they were getting near the deadline. There was Belle Dock at the end of the line that ran down to the Sound, where a ship named BELLE unloaded her cargo regularly. The goods were loaded onto railroad cars and transferred to Cedar Hill--I believe this was bulk cargo of some kind, on second thought. There was a rambling building near the depot which they called The Ironhouse because it was covered with sheet-metal siding. It was in a critical location so that when it was being switched, the movement would sometimes tie up other crews and you'd hear the engineer yell at the fireman, "Have they got the Ironhouse against me?" That name always tickled my funnybone. West of the depot, there was a rather low grade district where they had a lot of industrial sidings and team tracks; this was known as Broadway and East Broadway. I believe there was a line that ran down toward the waterfront where the area was known as the Bowery. The House was the freight house. Then there was the Hole; from my experience, I'd say most switching operations have a "Hole" somewhere. And there was the Annex--and the Paint Track. Then they had a run over to West Haven occasionally where they would deliver and pick up a few cars and would traverse the sacred main line to get there. That was quite a thrill because it was sacred and God help anybody who tied it up for any reason whatever.

Transcription Notes:
There are three black circles in the left margin of the page of this document that indicates it was three-hole punched.