Engineers

Main topics: Early life, Nashville, school and marriage. Started in Transportation in 1963 in Louisville at $19.20 per day. Job severed with 282 award and became a switchman. Gained seniority and had more educational background. Influence of wife when racial barriers made position unpleasant. Became brakeman when switchman job was cut. Move to Glasgow where racial situation was bad. Gained experience as locomotive engineer on General Motors, General Electric and Alco locomotives. Around 1968 began to see other opportunities that could be open to him. 1971 became assistant train master, a position that proved to be valuable experience. 1977 became traveling engineer or road foreman. Then made immediate supervisor over locomotive engineers. Presently training of locomotive engineers is part of his responsibility. Utilization of the locomotives, new computerization for centralized train control. F7 Series, EMD, General Electric most sophisticated, centralized traffic control (CTC), service areas, modernization of equipment, unit train, road bed and increase in speed limits. Tracks and roadway the same location as in steam days. Necessary for rebuilding daily and the improvements on the locomotives themselves. Cotton outlines the boundaries of the Louisville Division. Terminals of the Louisville Division including the Monon Facilities. Discussion of the hump yard at Osborn Yard in Louisville. Cotton's responsibilities include thed following: training of personnel (apprentice engineers and supervisors), terminal breakdown and derailment procedure. This section also explains the regionalization of various areas of responsibility. Continuation of derailment sight procedure and notification if hazardous materials is being leaked and other general responsibilities. Strikes and the reason for training supervisors to operate the locomotives. Family Lines team approach, coming of women to the locomotive positions; some policy approach of the Family Lines that are important: Incentive program, scholarship awards for supervisors' children, scholarship opportunities for employees, higher level of education of training for new employees. Unionization and its effect on the company and present employee problems.

E. L. Howard was employed as a locomotive engineer for 39 years by the L&N Railroad. This interview deals with his experiences in the transportation field including the age of steam.

Experiences prior to employment by L&N, early years, work at Ballard & Ballard. Events leading to employment with L&N. Education at Louisville Girl's High School and in Cincinnati, Ohio. Description of the L&N in 1917, one of two women in building -- tells of how it was a man's world, talks about engineering language and record keeping. Sketches of various personalities in the Engineering Department: William Howard Courtenay, chief engineer; Allen Snellen, supervisor of bridges & buildings; LR Muhs, assistant bridge engineer and Charles K. Bruce. Description of the first L&N building and the addition at 9th & Broadway. Anecdotes on bridge construction experiences. Generosity of L&N employees for various causes. Washout on the Short Line and Liebknecht's actions in Courtenay's absence. Rotation of engineers throughout the L&N system and upward movement into the Executive Department. Diamond Jubilee of L&N (1925), founding of the L&N Magazine, Thomas E. Owen was editor. The presidency of Wible O. Mapother. This discussion covers the earliest L&N publication Lively Lines, the L&N Magazine and the present publication Family Lines. Ms. Liebknecht's section was titled "Half-Fare" and "Of Feminine Interest." Effect of the Depression economy on the L&N. Hoover Days (four-day week) instituted so that all could work. No layoffs remembered at the L&N office in Louisville. World War II effort, participation of L&N in the War Bond effort and Liebknecht's recognition for her part. Dessie Scott Children's Home, Little Kentucky: relationship with L&N began in 1947. 1950s: 100th Anniversary of the L&N. Celebration was attended by hundreds including ALM Wiggins, then chairman of the board of directors of the L&N. Description of working conditions and increase in women employees from World War II years on. Telephone had displaced many persons. No inequities, particularly telegrapher in salary due to sex of employee. The importance of changes in technology during Liebknecht's working years. Liebknecht's work with the L&N Cooperative Club. 1960's and 1967: Great changes brought about by computerization and automation. Loss of personal touch. Growth of the engineering Department from approximately 70 to 140 during the years covered by the interview. Still not large number of women engineers. Civil engineer changes with age. Liebknecht's activities in poetry and writing. Articles in 1964 L&N Magazine and March 1971 Diana Awards. Louisville General Office Building personnel. Remarks about EC Fields a mistake (see enclosed clipping).

Clarence Monin was general chairman of the Engine Service Employees of L&N System & Affiliated Lines (Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers). Main topics: family background and education; apprentice locomotive engineer program; specific articles in the BLE agreements such as hours of service; explanation of the National Manning Agreement and the Reserve Engineer Agreement; present and future trends in the training of locomotive engineering personnel; effect of civil rights and equal opportunity legislation; BLE grievance procedure; legislative concerns of the BLE; changes in union membership, attitude and trends for the future; comments on the 1955 strike against L&N railroad; positive changes in the management of the L&N Railroad.

Early life and college years; employment with the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway. Depression and his apprenticeship program. Maintenance of the steam locomotives, wartime measures, description of the NC&StL shops during the steam locomotive days, terrain of the NC&StL. Responsibility in Nashville shops: to develop new sources of steam for the shop boilers (burning oil), types of locomotives, instructions for car diesels and the teaching responsibility for apprentices and locomotive firemen to engineers. Merger of the NC&StL and the L&N in 1957. Mr. Sapp was assistant manager of planning and production. Comparison of the NC&StL equipment and that of the L&N. Train crews continued to operate on the same lines as before. There was a learning period for Sapp with WI Johnson in charge. This was the beginning of his experience with freight cars. Moved to the L&N on Jan 1, 1953, and appointed mechanical engineer. He describes the mechanical engineer's office and staff at that time. Large amount of travel involved. Areas of technical development that Sapp was directly involved in until his retirement: design of freight cars; split sill car underframe patented; door mechanism also patented; needed special operation (air pressure used) in Louisville South shops. Good description of the pits and conveyor belts used at the TVA plant at Bull Run; working out of the audio radio system with supplier field testing for freight cars and the American Association of Railroads called in to help. Test track set up near Frankfort that became the specification track for the AAR. Information on the Car Construction Committee of the AAR. Information on other professional organizations that Sapp felt useful during his career.

Schmied (B.S. in chemical engineering, Speed Scientific School, 1932; M.A. in chemistry, 1933) discusses his parents, who immigrated from Switzerland to Kentucky; growing up in the Schnitzelburg neighborhood of Louisville; studying at the Speed School; and later working as an engineer and executive for Reynolds Aluminum in Louisville, Kentucky, and Richmond, Virginia, Cochran Foil in Louisville, and Anaconda Aluminum in Louisville. Special subjects include Dean B.M. Brigman, Professor R.C. Ernst, and the cooperative program through which Speed School stresses practical experience in industry.

A 1928 graduate of the Speed School with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering, Schnur discusses his father's confectionary business at 218 East Market Street; recollections of the University of Louisville from 1924 until 1928; and his later work with the Lion's Eye Bank, the Speed School alumni, and his elevator business in Louisville, Kentucky.