My First Job on the Railroad

In May, 1944, I was a sophomore in high school. World War II was winding down. Just after the U. S. entered the war, the government bought a large tract of farm land about five miles south of my little home town, and constructed an army camp there. It was not a training camp as such. You could probably classify it as an "inland port of embarkation," since, once you arrived at the camp, you were probably as fully-trained as you would be, and did not stay there long.
Anyway, after the camp opened in late-1943, the need for civilian help developed. My best friend at the time, also a sophomore in high school, obtained a job at the camp, working in the P. X., selling various items and serving food and drink, which included beer. He told me all about it, almost talked me into joining him there. He was paid the princely sum of 37-cents per hour, worked six days a week, 4 hours a day during the week, and 8 hours on Saturday. Sunday was his day off.

About this time, another friend had hired out as a freight and baggage handler for the Erie Railroad Company, one of the three railroads that served our town. The Erie, at that time, ran from Jersey City, New Jersey to Chicago, Illinois. There were three passenger trains daily westbound, also three eastbound. There was also a mail and express train, which carried no passengers, which ran 6 days a week, both eastbound and westbound. My railroad friend told me that there would be a job opening, working with him in the afternoons. The job paid 43-cents per hour for eight hours, six days per week, and time- and-one-half per hour for working on Sunday, which was a regular occurance. Since the job site was much closer than the one at the army camp, I applied, was awarded the job, and stayed on the railroad, in various jobs, for twenty-one years.

During the time I was in high school, the school kindly permitted me to leave classes at 2:15 p.m. so that I could start at 2:30 p.m. The job consisted of loading and unloading freight at the warehouse, loading and unloading baggage and U. S. mail from the passenger trains, a little janitor work, and lots of snow shovelling during the winter months.

In 1944, the Erie was still in steam, had not yet started buying diesel locomotives. I developed a great love for the various steam locomotives, both freight and passenger, but especially came to enjoy the steam whistles. The freight locomotives had whistles that were pretty uniform in tone. However, the K-5 2900-series passenger locomotives had beautiful whistles. One, the 2936, had a deep-toned steamboat type whistle, and the 2960, the last of the passenger series, had a high-pitched whistle that could be heard for miles.

More railroad talk at a later date.....