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Erie, Pa.
Thursday, Nov. 10, '38.
Poor old Rudy Krape gets from one frying pan into another lately.  His latest headache is the New York Central Alco switchers.  There has been a great hullabaloo lately about our "speed control" having inferior performance characteristics to the "split pole" scheme used by Electro-Motive.  So, to be sure our equipment on Alco was as good at least as E-M on the N.Y.C., Rudy told Bill Hamilton we wanted to furnish split pole.  Bill apparently had heard of the "metadyne scheme" on the Illinois Centrals, and passed a casual remark to Rudy that one thing he wouldn't have is "that god damned metadyne".   When Rudy got back from the south this week, he found to his consternation that the "metadyne scheme" or something even more complicated had been proposed in his absence and was riding high, so high in fact he couldn't squelch it.  Now, with Maurice and Walt Harris behind it, the metadyne, now called "amplifying exciter" and "pliodyne", is to be used.  [[underlined]] But [[/underlined]] Bill hasn't heard about it yet, having spent a whole week touring the east investigating the relative merits of speed control and split pole.  Now poor Rudy is delegated to be in New York Monday to "sell" Bill this new brainstorm, and shipment scheduled for about a month from now!

Charlie Sibert in the office today, as hard as ever to get anything out of on the Ford situation.  But he did ask for "blueprints" for Edward Gray of a generator and motor for a 3000 HP high speed diesel-electric locomotive to have 3-1000 HP, 1500 RPM engines and [[underlined]] 10 [[/underlined]] body mounted traction motors.  And when I told Si it was an abortion, he got sore!  Edward Gray is an old ex-Ford man with money and a propensity for fiddling with schemes and this is one of them and Si apparently swallows him lock, stock & barrell.