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Erie, Pa., Friday, Sept. 22, '39.
Today, Gerry Hoddy, Garmon and McCarthy and Seibel of Republic, arrived in town. Garmon and McCarthy are the real railroaders, the former president and the latter Supt. of the Company road in Cleveland, a couple of tough, well dressed, swearing Irishmen. "Spike" calculated he could cut 5" off the cab and still have headroom so that was taken care of. They wanted a demonstration, so "Metz" put one on for us. We loaded up to about 500 tons in 18 cars and then Garmon wasn't satisfied so we cut in the air on 5 cars and applied the brakes. Still Garmon wasn't convinced. I had told him she'd handle up to 2000 tons at least on the level and he would have liked to see it. But there was no way of doing it, so we had to finally call it off. Everyone but Garmon, a steam minded gent, seemed satisfied. However, when we took them over in Bldg. 10 and gave Garmon a talk on what the Paulista would do, showing him its impressive size, beautiful line, huge motors, all welded driving trucks, etc. he finally remarked, "Mac, who would have thought that old iron horse would finally come to its end!" So I figured perhaps he was impressed well enough after all. Another trip through the Refrigerator Dept. concluded the day, and at 5 PM the boys were very much inclined to a drink so I concluded the ceremonies at the City Club where 5 scotch & sodas each were imbibed in about one hour, and a rush again for the 6:25. Only Garmon couldn't participate in the drinking. His stomach was on the fritz somehow and a