Matt Langworthy wrote:sd80mac wrote:Wish I knew about March 31 and April 1st... I was young at that time and wasn't aware of what's going on.
First time I found out that EL was no longer was when I visited my grandparents in Syracuse. And I asked grandpa to take me to his old workplace - EL Fayette yard- for the ride. As he drove up the ramp and I saw the new CR sign replacing EL sign. I was shocked and torn... That's the first business of any kind that I knew of that other company can take over other... lets see... 1976.. I was 8...
Born a bit too late....
Same here. I am a year younger than you. Now this was probably the 2nd time your grandpa went through a change in ownership at Fayette Yard. Assuming he'd been with the RR for a while, he'd probably been through the EL merger, too. Did he ever compare the differences between EL's and Conrail's respective arrivals?
No. He and his family side worked for DLW at Scranton, mostly at the shop. He went for opening position in Syracuse and moved to there. I guess that he was only one who flew out of Scranton. Went thorugh Erie & DLW merger. He retired in 1970. But he still always took me to there whenever I'm at his house, even in winter times, in rainy days, HOT DAY.... nothing can be in my way of exciting to go to Fayette yard.
guys at there were awesome! Grandpa trusted these guys to leave me with them to go on rides to Tully or to Baldwinville. I would see his yellow Torino GT following us when I was in either caboose at top window or in GP7 cab.
Sadly, being mugged twice in area that was great beautiful with many huge houses turned into bad neighborhood took care of his mind. So I didn't had chance to talk to him about his history with RR. I know that family were sharing stories of what he did at work. That's only thing he would talk about, I believe. He wouldn't want to talk about job or companies.
I know that with CR's arrivals, the crews are probably the same one. To be honest with you, I don't remember anyone. I didn't took a time to memorize their faces in my face or their names. ALL I want is get on engineer's lap and run the thing! I know that everyone knows me and my grandpa. They were very cheerful whenever they see us coming. Even without my grandpa, my mom would drive up to there on our way to home and they know who I am. If Conrail shuffle crews around (DeWitt and Fayette), then my grandpa probably wouldn't take me to there.
PS. Don't u find it odd that I never knew about DeWitt until 1994, huh? I guess that Grandpa knew that if he took me to see DeWitt, then I would be in Heaven Cloud.. He did his best to avoid DeWitt...