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Ken Cartwright, Mechanical Engineer from New Haven headquarters, was on the job again so we could look forward to a continuing supply of good stories told in Ken's droll New Hampshire drawl, slow and easy and with a faint grin after delivery of the punch line. He was good company and added a lot to the after-hour activities but not too much to the ponderous engineering matter with which we wrestled prior to that. But on this job Ken brought along an assistant from New Haven, George Merrick, who was a small, sharp-faced, middle-aged man who'd had a lot of experience and not only added something to the engineering deliberations but also was pleasant to have around. He, also, was a New Englander with an accent you could carve with a knife, something that I rather like.

To my delight, Ed Kelly was also back. Ed seemed to fill a dual role on these jobs. In the design stages, Ed functioned as an engineer although he wasn't one, being chief inspector of Van Nest Shop. But he knew his "engines" as he called them from a maintenance man's viewpoint and this was very valuable in laying out a locomotive that would be easy to take care of. Then when the manufacturing phase came along, Ed switched hats and became the chief inspector representing the New Haven at Erie. In this capacity, it was his responsibility to see that the New Haven got what they paid for, a locomotive built to specifications, and where specifications didn't cover the situation, good quality workmanship and material. There were many in engineering as well as the shop, who insisted that by having a resident inspector on a job like this, the customer gained absolutely nothing, in fact, might lose something because having an inspector around was a challenge to try to put something over on him. I liked to think that we always did a conscientious job; on the other hand, I'd seen a few instances when I was on a test where a little fudging had been done once in a while on test records in places where it really didn't make much difference. For instance, if the maximum allowable weight per axle was 60,000-pounds, it did not hurt the conscience of certain test personnel to knock off a couple of hundred pounds to make the record look okay. With a customer's inspector watching the weighing, however, this couldn't be done so readily. On the whole, I think we had a pretty honest crew but I also think that the New Haven inspection crew probably earned their keep by spotting things our own inspectors might miss sometimes. In addition to Ed Kelly, who didn't spend much time in Erie, Ed had two resident inspectors here during construction. There was old Oscar T. Mock who'd been here on the switchers as well as a new man--Clyde A. Law, better known as "Dutch," who came from Van Nest and had at one time been master mechanic of the New York, Westchester & Boston electrified commuter line. "Dutch" was a good man as well as quite a devotee of the grape and a lover of a good time and he fitted in very well with the gang where Mock did not.

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