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239

En route from Washington to Erie
Wednesday, Nov. 25, 1942.

For me this was one of those exceedingly low days when I could walk standing erect under a snake and not even incline my head. Reasons: 

1.) Major McLeod came in this morning to announce an impending drastic revision in the Army's 1943 locomotive program. The part that hit me hard was the reduction of the 0-6-0 steams from a total of 615 to 390, 80 of which are to be built in England. This means instead of Davenport, Vulcan and Porter being loaded to capacity to Jan. 1, 1944, they will be looking for work in the third quarter and the problem of keeping the shops to capacity becomes much more acute.

2.) Dupont has cancelled 5 Brookville 8 ton and 13 Plymouth 8 ton for Wabash River, and 3 Plymouth 8 ton for Gopher. Earl Heath seemed to feel WPB should do something about it. I referred him to Capt. Baldwin, who fortunately just released 14 for Gopher which will absorb the 13 cancelled for Wabash River. But cancellations, while probably portending good for the war program, portend increased headaches for scheduling. It was easy when there was more than enough for everyone but I see many pitfalls ahead as demand is less than capacity.

3.) There are no industrial or small railroad diesels in the new Determination No. 178, bringing up new problems of handling things and also showing that the Requirements Committee is still brushing aside the small locomotive business. It is fortunate some people outside WPB recognized the great need for small locomotives in the war program, and went ahead in spite of a constant cold shoulder.