ClassicTrainsMag.com 73he New York Central’s car management was orga-
nized by commodity or car type. The road’s substantial
hopper-car fleet was handled by a Manager of Coal and
Ore Transportation with a staff of two, and the next stop
on my climb up the NYC ladder, in September 1966, was this man-
ager position. The job was at the general offices in New York City,
so once again I packed up and moved, this time back into my par-
ents’ house in White Plains.
I had virtually no relevant experience, but my staff did, so, like
other former trainees who had rotated in and out of the job, I used
the assignment to learn the ins and outs of car management and to
visit parts of the railroad I’d not seen before. I did, however, make
one contribution to the cause, building upon my Englewood expe-
rience to propose a short connection track between our main line
and the Belt Railway of Chicago in South Chicago to permit trains
from southern Illinois to move direct to the Belt’s Commercial
Avenue yard with rail-to-water coal. This kept the traffic out ofof my own
T