Railroaders' Nostalgia > 45 years ago to

Forty-Five years ago today Monday June 8, 1970 I reported to work upstairs at 515 Bay Street in West Oakland to the Southern Pacific Railroad. Pat Hardy hired me and I reported to him. He had me fill out some paperwork with Linda Golden. When I was done he he introduced me to Joe Cecil, the Division Car Distributor and I was on my way. In August of 1973 Joe retired and I was named as his replacement. In July of 1975 I was promoted to J. J. Willis's office. I left the Railroad in 1989 right after the DRGW merger in one of the buyouts.I miss the SP the people I worked with there were the best. These included Joe Cecil Jerry Holloway, Paul Caesar, and W.M. Bill Jones and all of the great people in the S. F. General Office.

WKB

Thank you for sharing this recollection Bill.   Lots of very familiar SP names including yours!

Rollin

Pat Hardy, Station Supervisor at Bay St. Every morning, everyone in the terminal; was in a tizzy about getting the "LA/" [so identified in Schedule 26, IIRC] out of town - the hot manifest train between Oakland and LA. Jerry Holloway would be turning greyer by the minute, and Caesar would be ... well, Caesar. Finally the train left, and activity resumed at a more normal pace. Pat would say, "Another problem solved by waiting." And then we'd all head to Tillie's in Alameda for beans. Breakfast served 24 hours a day.

I was doing TMIS at W. Oakland, and had a ringside seat.

The LA problem was solved when the schedule was changed to a early afternoon departure. The LAOA and LABS from Bayshore had to match up either at San Jose or Watsonville Jct, thus the push to get it out of town