A yellowed page in Mr. Dunlap's notebook, I'm sure...

[nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org]

Date: Fri, 11 Feb 2005 11:30:19 EST 
To: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org 
From: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
Subject:  Richard Freeman Dunlap

Adm. Scheer:
 
Mr. Dunlap has left us.  Many a volume could probably
be written about RFD.  He kept a dosier of every
supervisor he commanded (complete with picture) in a
notebook on his desk.  One Operating Dept. man told me
he was called to the Sanctum Sanctorum and noted the
notebook was opened to a page of a fellow he knew.
Shortly thereafter, the man was transferred.
 
May 2, 1971 -- the last run of the Pocahontas.  I was
assigned to Lamberts Point, so this incident is
second-hand.  I wasn't in Roanoke where the incident
happened.  There were two No. 4's that day.  First 4
was a passenger geep handling the head end traffic
from No. 4 arriving Roanoke.  On the rear was business
car No. 101 assigned to H. E. Carter.
Second 4, of course, was the passenger section hauled
by NKP 759 with R.B.Claytor and J. P. Fishwick aboard.
   
 
Mr. Dunlap had positioned himself at the rear of 1/4. 
On the rear platform of the 101, Mr. Carter apparently
thought he was on the FERDINAND
MAGELLAN, the private car used by U.S. presidents.  He
chatted in-cessantly with gyrating hand gestures. 
Whether Mr. Dunlap was ready to get the show on the
road or whether he'd become agitated with Mr. Carter,
in a calm voice, he commanded a subordinate "Get
Harold out of town."  Immediately, without any
clanging or banging of the draft gear, 1/4
departed Roanoke--with Mr. Carter still on the rear
platform, still making a speech.  That says something
about Mr. Dunlap - - - but not everything.

Harry Bundy  


February 13, 2005

Interesting stories, Harry.  Thanks for sharing it.

My sole in-person exposure to Dick was when a herd of
operations trainees arrived for an orientation
appointment with him in July 1974.  As I mentioned in
an earlier email, his office walls were covered with
various charts of every conceivable type.  There were
eight or so of us with him and he was lecturing us
when he noted I was peering at one of the charts and
not focused on him.  He called my attention to that
fact.  Perhaps I got a very early page in his
notebook.

I was appointed to the Decatur Division in late Autumn
of that year.  Maybe it was based on a RFD
consultation with George Gearhart, General
Manager-Safety, who managed the Operations Training
Program; then again, maybe not.  Some may recall that
there was a LP tank car explosion in Decatur Terminal
in 1974.  Since it was a flat-bed yard in which cars
were "kicked," a car rode down the wavy tracks and the
coupler overrode that of the tank car, punching a hole
in the bottom end.  Before the blast, people noted
that it looked like a low-lying fog had spread through
the center of the yard in those pre-dawn hours.

I wasn't there at the time of the explosion, but
received my assignment when the yard was being
rebuilt.  It turned out that I was filling the
position vacated by an Assistant to Trainmaster who
was incinerated in that accident.  The ironic aspect
was that his wife and moving van arrived in Decatur
the day he died.

While that was a tragic event, I'll pass along an
observation that Horace Miller, Road Foreman of
Engines, passed along to me.  It was: "you know when
you're going to be reassigned on the N&W when the
moving van companies start calling your house."  That
wasn't far from the truth.  The other piece of notable
sage advice was that of Chief Dispatcher John Hill:
"Being assigned to Decatur is worse than being in
prison.  At least in prison, you know when you're
going to get out."

By the way, Harry, just call me Captain Tuna.  I'm the
chicken of the sea.

GN&GM,

Frank

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