8/1/80 WR-7, power 7617-7402-7601-7418, through freight rate, marked on Hudson 6:00 PM, marked off Oneonta 6:00 AM, on duty 12:00, paid $145.61 for 160 miles, Cooper engineer, no fireman, Tommy Flynn conductor.

A question Ed. I notice in the 1980s that your Dad is working the on the southern portion of the railroad vs in the 1970s he worked the norther portion. Was this caused by the formation of Conrail and the expansion??

Ed?

Good morning Ed,

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No, Conrail had nothing to do with it. At some point, the unions agreed to "system seniority" as opposed to "division seniority". Because Dad was a "Saratoga/Champlain Division (AKA 3rd & 4th sub-division) man, the only jobs near his home in Colliersville were out of Oneonta and consisted of WR-1/RW-6 (the paper train) or WR-3/RW-2 (known by the crews as "the junker") until the advent of system seniority. Both had Oneonta and Whitehall as home terminals. With system seniority, he was no able to bid on more Oneonta jobs and was able to secure the same jobs listed above heading south instead of north. He was one of the few engineers who was qualified on the whole original main line of the D&H from Wilkes-Barre to Montreal. Bernie O'Brien kept trying to get him to become a "Road Foreman", but Dad was a union rep and not interested in a "management" position.

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Later on, he decided to bid in on jobs south of Wilkes-Barre, just because he loved railroading and new railroads to run on. We were all surprised when he decided to retire at 62. Guilford had screwed things up so bad, he no longer enjoyed the job. He would have turned 99 today.

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Thanks for asking.

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Ed