Later Days EL Operating Culture

Seems from a restrospective standpoint that by the time Agnes hit in '72, the EL had a pretty good operation that was well integrated with the marketing program and was running a pretty good heads up operation.

My question is; where did this operating culture come from ? Did it derive from Bill White and carried on my Maxwell ? How much influence did Fishwick have ?

Who was the leader that was making it happen and holding people accountable for performance ?

Where did that operating culture come from? My take: EL had learned to play in the big leagues with UPS; now it needed to measure up across the board. The comfy old-shoe go-along, get-along Erie way, tolerating too many injuries and winking at rules violations high and low, would not suffice any more. Maxwell, who brought with him a little of the autocratic New York Central, had something to do with this. But the credit really goes to a younger generation of ERIE LACKAWANNA (no hyphen, please) managers such as Harold J. Farley, for whom the EL named a company safety award—the EL that won the Harriman Gold Medal for safety in 1975, after decades in the cellar. These guys never got a chance to show what they could do. They became Conrail’s “boat people” or bailed out. General Superintendent H. J. Farley died of a heart attack, on the job at EL.

wdburt1 wrote:Where did that operating culture come from? My take: EL had learned to play in the big leagues with UPS; now it needed to measure up across the board. The comfy old-shoe go-along, get-along Erie way, tolerating too many injuries and winking at rules violations high and low, would not suffice any more. Maxwell, who brought with him a little of the autocratic New York Central, had something to do with this. But the credit really goes to a younger generation of ERIE LACKAWANNA (no hyphen, please) managers such as Harold J. Farley, for whom the EL named a company safety award—the EL that won the Harriman Gold Medal for safety in 1975, after decades in the cellar. These guys never got a chance to show what they could do. They became Conrail’s “boat people” or bailed out. General Superintendent H. J. Farley died of a heart attack, on the job at EL.

Harold Farley was EL's, if not all of Eastern Railroading's brightest star at the time. He died as he left a plane in Cleveland on his way to his new job as General Superintendent, a job he never spent a day performing. He was well liked by employees and though very highly of by management. William White had brought a sense of pride back to the railroad and foujnd some of these young, future stars like Bob Downing and Harold Farley. Agnes was cruel to them all and to the EL.

How about some more bio info on Farley. Don't recall ever hearing the name. Knew Bob Downing, nice guy Also remember a Joe Sipple and Karl Dingle and Jack Kithcart

The bigger question is:

Who initiated pre-blocking and InterDivisional runs?

I.D. runs; that guy deserves an award for doing so before 1985 ... he was way ahead of the times. Labor Relations can work for both Company/Employees mutual benefits.