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each grade being approximately six-miles long. Other than this, I remember no details of the operation--profile, type of steam locomotives used, where the helpers were put on, tonnages, speeds. But Bob Wade and I studied the train sheets and other data covering a period of several months and finally came up with a good picture of the operation. We did a lot of digging into the steam operating costs with which to compare the anticipated diesel costs, the latter, in those days, being a subject of argument except possibly for a straightforward switching operation. The items we concentrated on were:

Crew
Fuel
Lubrication
Maintenance
Engine house
Supplies

Also, we did a limited amount of train riding, mostly on the steam helpers although we did ride the head end units occasionally as well as cabooses. The trains never stopped at the top of the hill at either end, the helper simply dropping off, and I can remember one occasion when I was riding the head end and had to unload at Elmhurst on the fly and just about had the pants scared off me. The engineer did slow down a little for me to drop off but not as much as I wanted him to and I think I jumped while we were going 15-20 mph and was lucky to stay on my feet. The danger, of course, was falling under the train if you couldn't maintain your footing. I've had a few experiences like that which I didn't like one bit and this was one of the worst, which I can still remember vividly. I was practically terrified to make the leap but there was a certain amount of pride involved also because I felt fairly sure the engineer was testing my railroading ability. Also, although I wouldn't impute homocidal intent, there was often strong feeling in those days about the diesels reducing railroad jobs, particularly firemen, and sometimes crews made this feeling very obvious in the way they treated us. Obviously, the safest place to unload from a train is at the very tail end so if you do fall, the train is gone, but sometimes you got caught in a situation like this one at Elmhurst, where you had to take it as it was whether you liked it or not. I believe we were visited once by Jack Lerbs, Superintendent of the Morris & Essex Division, whom I'd known slightly in Hoboken in 1930, a big, tall, strapping, handsome man who knew railroading from A to Z and was to go far in the Lackawanna organization. I remember riding in the cupola of a caboose with Jack one day, always a delightful place to take a train ride, even exceeding the attractions of an observation platform at the rear of the last Pullman. For, in a caboose cupola you are up high where you

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