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48

During those several years I followed the New Haven, the passenger depot at New Haven became a very familiar spot. It was a good-sized building, high-ceiling'd, marble lined and well kept. It had a good restaurant where we'd eat frequently and got on good terms with the cashiers. There were six or seven passenger tracks served by a tunnel from the depot. Also freight trains moved through the station en route to and from Cedar Hill freight terminal. Just east of the depot, the trackage converged into a deep rock cut into which we'd often retreat while doing our passenger switching chores on westbound trains. I used to get considerable thrill out of the locomotive changing ceremony, that is, electric to steam on the eastbound jobs and vice versa on the westbound. The New Haven had a small group of stremlined Baldwin steam passenger engines which were impressive to look at and would come down from Cedar Hill all shiny and exciting-looking. One of them would stand on the east end of the incoming track, cut off and pull ahead over the crossover and head for Kelsey's Place while the steamer backed in and coupled to the train. On the westbound trains, the electric would be waiting at the west end of the incoming track beyond the exit crossover for the steam. With this arrangement, locomotive changeovers were effected very quickly. All our switching on through trains was done from the rear so as not to interfere with the locomotive changeover. Of course, there were many steam passenger engines besides the streamlined group but the latter were the most impressive. As I recall, all these steamers were Pacifics, that is, with 4-6-2 wheel arrangement. In 1934, there were no streamlined electrics, the 0361-0366s being the first and not arriving until 1938. And, of course, the road diesels were still farther away.

But the switching crews with whom we worked were what made the whole thing most interesting. One pair which amused us no end was Engineer Wallace, who liked the diesels, and his conductor, named Finn. They were both oldtimers and there was a constant battle raging between them, Wallace in the cab and Finn on the ground. Wallace always referred to Finn as "The Old Baboon" and claimed that Finn wasn't born, they just went out into the woods and found him somewhere. The main reason Wallace liked the diesel was because it was "snappy" and he could "run the ass off the Old Baboon" with it. Finn was a horse race enthusiast and acquired tips from certain Pullman porters he'd contact while they were switching the trains. This infuriated Wallace who claimed he couldn't understand Finn's hand signals while Finn was standing on the platform waving his arms as he talked the horses with the porters. Also Wallace referred to Finn as "the Voice in the Fog."

While Wallace and Finn dominate my notes on that particular crew we worked with and there's no reference to the fireman or the two brakemen, there was another crew where I have notes on

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