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2

1938

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MY GE WORK

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As far as I can remember, and my memory seems to be the only record I have of the early months of 1938 in Erie, I was almost completely occupied at the plant by the New Haven 0361-0366 locomotive job. I do find one photo in our archives of a crowd of GE people, most of whom I've already mentioned in my "memoirs." I think this was taken in 1938 and so I'm putting it in here at this point. This is the only picture I have of most of those people either in the olden days or since then:

[[image - black & white photograph of group of GE people]]

Front row: (left to right) Charlie Barwick, Billie Brandenstein, Mrs. Barwik (behind Billie), Willie, Don MacLeod, Ethel Ogden, Virginia Keep, Naomi Davis and Dorothy MacLeod.
Back Row: Otto Keep, Mrs. Manning, Harold Ogden, Forie, John Davis, Errol Brandenstein and Charlie Manning.

During the winter and the early spring months of 1938, the New Haven locomotives were being constructed. However, it seemed as though we'd never get all the loose ends cleaned up and we continued to have our meetings with the New Haven people. It was a busy time also for their inspectors, Old Man Mock and Dutch Law, as well as Ed Kelly when he visited us. At such times, there would almost inevitably be matters to settle between the inspectors and our shop people and often I'd find myself in the middle as I've previously described. While the cabs were being build in Bldg. 26, Mock spent most of his time there and (according to Kelly) whenever Kelly walked into the buidling, Mock would start hammering like hell on some big bulkhead sheet to impress Ed that he was busy inspecting.