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Erie, Pa.,
Thursday, Nov. 14, '40.
Marsh came today instead of tomorrow so I had to leave Phil to John Downie about all day while I participated in the Marsh session. I anticipated some difficulty keeping the peace between Jake, who feels Marsh is his customer, and Shap, who feels Whitey has assigned Marsh to him to convince slow speed engines and motors are the bunk[[? or bomb?]]. So I took the course of having us all in session with Marsh and it worked remarkably well. Shap certainly cooperated pleasantly, was affable, cheerful, likeable; Jake was likewise. And none of us got to first base changing Marsh's mind on anything. He said he had money to burn now and they wanted nothing short of the best - he would get no credit for saving any money but he would be badly criticized if the locomotives failed to work 100%. "This is wartime," he said. "We must have the best, the most reliable equipment we can get." So all we did was to get some rating figures written into the new specs that we can meet. The whole thing turned out far more pleasantly from my standpoint than I expected it would and if relations with Shap continue like this, I shall be happy. The old boy has been just about 100% so far. 
I tried to make up to Phil for abandoning him all day by going to dinner with him. Jay and Orcutt and between dinner and train time, we went out to Russ Johnson's where we played more ping pong. Russ has bought an old house down on 10th St. and is rebuilding it [[underlined]] himself [[underlined]] into four small apartments - has three finished. I used to think Russ rather no account but I certainly admire his industry in carrying on this job - it is something I never would have the guts to tackle.

Transcription Notes:
Bunk.