Railroads

= Audio Available Online
1232
Covers Milton Smith from 1866 on -- ran locomotive for General Sherman. History of L&N prior to Milton Smith, local fund raising. Headquarters at 9th & Broadway, 8 miles first ride to present Strawberry Yards. About 1858 L&N Louisville tracks met north of Bowling Green. The change from local ownership to New York domination; position of L&N after Civil War; New York financiers; Atlantic Coast Line connection. Leadership under William Kendall and John Tilford. Merger of NC&StL, explanation for modern mergers. Interstate Commerce Commission, reasons behind formation. Increased railroad expenses. Promotional campaigns: The General, removal from Chattanooga February 1962, history and restoration. Given to Georgia. Special cars. Career opportunities with L&N Magazine. Railfans and the Sulzer collection. Modernization of the L&N railroad. Centralized traffic control. Microwave system-signaling, telephones, computers. Development of railroad's private telephone system, two-way radio, closed circuit television. Connected regulations. Classification yards, uncoupling trains, sorting cars for new loads - types of cars and methods for shipping to proper yards and customers. Rental process and load time on various cars, adjustments for products hauled by railroad, coal market. Improve car accounting process. Press relations. Investigative reporting, change in attitude toward L&N. Positive L&N community actions. Community responsibility and public relations. Involvement with railroad and its image. Employee loyalty and the L&N Magazine. People connected to the L&N Magazine: Tom Owen, Kincaid Kerr, Martin RoBards, William Heffren and Charles Castner. Kincaid Kerr's edition of L&N History. Research and responsibility for preservation of materials. Structure of L&N under John Tilford and William Kendall. Land development, agricultural to industrial. Cybernetics and System - subsidiary now selling time to other companies. Legal structure, attorneys and doctors along the line. Railroad towns, services for employees, old railroad YMCA. Changes in personnel including minorities and women. Black firemen and switching in the southern states. Reasons behind families of railroad tradition. Reasons for male secretaries throughout most of L&N's history. Articles on minorities in first time positions. Management and labor. Change in policy of executives moving up from ranks of employment. Labor still based on seniority in relation to leadership.
1238
Early years in Louisville and his marriage. Circumstances surrounding his employment at L&N. Different cooks that he worked with on the L&N diners. Method of cooking and stocking diners, types of equipment, coal burning stoves, and resupply procedures. Menu and effects of World War II on the regular menu. Differences in hours before and after the union took over workers. Description of away quarters and monetary considerations on layovers. Changes by unionization - gains offset cutbacks. Public relations very minimal therefore no negative racial aspects of his job. Special runs such as trips to Mardi Gras in New Orleans, and Chamber of Commerce trips to eastern and western Kentucky. Differences in manning special runs. Attachment to executive office and worked as porter by night to be free for private cars in the daytime. White's experiences at the Murphy House: guests, description of the house and methods of entertaining. Living arrangements for the White family while assigned to the Murphy House; furnishings and day-to-day considerations for care of the house. Pleasures of working with various individuals connected with the L&N railroad. Reasons behind family feeling of L&N employees. Diner allotment and term "dead-end" explained. Swing shift explained; crews per diner, variety of diners, types of fuel used to fire stoves and the duration of meals.
1343
Miami City ticket agent in 1928; Atlantic Coast Line & Seaboard Coast Line. Promoted to city passenger agent in 1929 in New York City; went to Wall Street on Oct 29, the day the stock market fell. Job cut back, returned to Duke University. Peninsula & Occidental Ship Line position in Havana, Cuba - 8 years. Mr. Davies, President Atlantic Coast Line, offered job in Wilmington, North Carolina. Circumstances of meeting JB Hill. Became general passenger agent to New Orleans in July 1942. Connection between ACL, Bet-A-Million Gates, JP Morgan, Henry Walters, and the take over of L&N stock. New Orleans, passenger service, military trains, first diesel and JB Hill's attitude. JB Hill and Charles Kettering of General Motors, research on improving diesels. Investments into trying to continue to maintain passenger service, phase out local passenger service and problems encountered, specialties in the dining car. Decline of passenger travel tied to airlines and development of the interstate highway system in 1950s. Involvement of railroads and Whitsett in attempt to save passenger service, arrangements with other railroads, description of passenger accommodations, railroad's continued support of passenger service until it was obviously financially impossible to continue. Budd car possible answer but resistance by labor unions made it impossible for L&N to utilize. Work rule 100 miles=day/run/pay. Changes in union leaders' attitude was reflected in quality of work after civil rights activities began - helped to destroy passenger service. Railroad did not have control over service situation. Community relations and the responsibility of the position. Similarity between the railroad & military structure. Age factor in the L&N management. Stenographer for 40 years or more. Explanation of Traffic/Freight Traffic Department. Reflections of Kendall's presidency.
1236
Background prior to coming to L&N. Apprenticeship with L&N and rise through the ranks to Vice-President for Operations. Wiggins' father's experience with L&N, 1922; Decatur, 1937: to Louisville. Apprenticeship program. Change in types of craftsmen needed by the railroad. Loyalty to steam and threat to coal interest as the diesels took hold. War period: machinists and other craftsmen not drafted. Craftsmen and atmosphere of work at the South Louisville shops, safety emphasis. Reflections on role of Mr. Wiggins' generation, innovation and modernization, reduction on the amount of labor required for certain jobs and centralized traffic control. Discussion of microwave, computers. Modernization of train yards such as Osborn Yard. In-depth analysis of reasons for diesel superiority over steam engines: maintenance, manpower, air pollution. Freight cars, roller bearing improvement, hot box, car shaker, unit train operation. Coal transfer process and unit train, Paradise, Kentucky mine to mouth operation unloading improvements, air cylinder and door mechanism. South Louisville shops, importance in relation to other shops in the system, reflections of great railroad families: EO Rollings, Curtis Rollings, EO Rollings, Jr. Last ten years with L&N and the consolidation with the Family Lines System. Reflections on leadership.
335
Mr. Womack worked for many years for the Nashville, Chattanooga, and St. Louis Railway before it was merged with the L&N Railroad. This interview covers his return to full-time work after college on G.I. Bill. From 1949-1953, he was an operator in various locations in Alabama and Tennessee and an official in 1953. Discusses the 1955 strike and the merger with L&N in 1957.
1672
Louisville & Nashville Railroad