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basis of using Busch-Sulzer-powered pushers and I was given the assignment. It wasn't a long job and I managed to sandwich it in between the Illinois Central and the New Haven switchers.

I have absolutely nothing to refer to on this job but my memory. I think the study, which may have taken two or three weeks in Scranton, was made in the spring before the weather became favorable and therefore conditions associated with riding locomotives and surveying the whole scene, were not pleasant. There were various people involved who were interesting and most of whom I already knew. I had an "assistant" along from Erie who was nearing retirement, knew little about locomotives but considerable about railroading, and was a character and excellent companion. He was Bob Wade, an old time GE line material engineer who, at this point, was simply serving out his last year or two before retirement, doing various odd assignments because we'd recently gotten out of the line material business. Bob was a slender, sandy-haired, humorous man who had a lot of poise along with a Boston accent and good clothes. He looked like somebody although he was almost chinless. I got a great bang out of working with him, in fact, had liked him ever since we first met although we'd never had occasion to work together. Bob was the guy who'd once made the famous remark about Phyllis Adams: "Every time I look at her walking down the hall, I think I'm going to faint." Bob retired soon afterward, moved to California to live in retirement, and I believe lived to a ripe old age.

The Lackawanna was handled commercially out of our New York apparatus sales office by Bert Pero, a small, smooth, slick-haired, very clever, amoral man and one of our best transportation salesman. Bert was middle-aged and was a foil for Walter Hedley, who was somewhat younger, and a big, tall, powerful, dissipated-looking fellow with slobbery-appearing lips and florid complexion, who was a nephew of "Boss" Hedley, the head of Interborough Rapid Transit, and handled the New York Central. Water was completely immoral as well as dishonest as it finally turned out, but for a while he had everyone well hoodwinked and was talked of as Andrews' successor. Bert Pero, on the other hand, never was in trouble, knew his job and his product thoroughly, and in spite of a reputation for being a super-entertainer, never overdrank, having the faculty of nursing a drink for an hour or two if necessary to remain sober. Also, he was a great storyteller, with a huge collection and most of them excruciatingly funny though usually quite off-color. Walter was finally fired while Bert went on to retirement at 65, I think, moved to California, and lived for a number of years near Los Angeles. At any rate, Bert met Bob Wade and me in Scranton to introduce us to the Lackawanna powers-that-be on this job and see that we got off to a good start. And he came up a time or two before we finished up.