Walter J. Sparks longtime Supt. on the Mohawk-Hudson Division HQ'd at Utica passed away this past week.
He was 91 years old.
He was 91 years old.
Railroad Forums
Moderator: JJMDiMunno
shlustig wrote:One of my favorite episodes with WJS involved the time he caught me in the office at about 6PM and had me drive him down to Albany with no explanation being offered. Shortly before, he had received as his new company car (along with Vince) a new Ford Fairmount, a truly miserable piece of automitive creation. Semi-trucks were passing me on the upgrade at Little Falls on the Thruway!Good one!!
At any rate, I made it to Rensselaer Stn. in time to make #49 back to Utica, and WJS came back the next afternoon.
I found out from Vince that in order to get rid of the Fords, Walter had driven down to the GM Tarrytown plant, stopped at the guard shack, and had the GM traffic manager Don Keegan come down to see his new company car. Keegan took one look, stormed into the guard office and called a certain Senior VP-Ops and -- without a "Good Morning" or "Hello" -- opened the conversation with words to the effect of WTF were you thinking Dick, how many F'n Ford plants do you have on this Division (answer: none), and what is your traffic revenue from this plant (answer: $20,000,000 plus), and you give them F'n Fords?????
The new Chevy's came the next week!