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him and Dave Reid up to my $1.25 room in the Hotel Wentworth, where we all got comfortable for a talk. There was a shortage of Scotch, so Neil and I drank Old Granddad and ginger ale - a bad combination. J.W. feared the locomotive wasn't strong enough mechanically and didn't have enough leeway in capacity if business should pick up. They said our fuel consumption was running higher than we estimated. Dave Reid thought they should have a maintainer always on hand to insure against trouble. We parried all this as best we could. Then, after bringing up all these points about Biddeford, North Adams etc., J.W. ended the session by telling us he was trying to arrange to make Woodsville a two trick job and leave Tarzan Jr. here. The surprising thing is that Woodsville is the hardest job we have tackled! He also said he wanted to see us Saturday morning in Boston when Ernie B. would be back and we could review everything. About 10:30 PM, he and Dave Reid headed back to the "3-7's". As they left, Dave took hold of my arm in very friendly fashion, so I really believe I'm beginning to make some headway with this habitually cold individual.

After they left, we retired to the room again for some drinking. Roy and Neil were jubilant over the conference but I was a trifle less optimistic, and said so. A bit later on, Duff Foster, the road foreman came in for a couple of drinks. Those last two were too much for me. We went out to have a bite to eat before retiring and I couldn't get out of the restaurant soon enough. I managed to hang on until we got back to the hotel and then I was sick! Oh, how sick!