Word: switchmen
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...party, or of the Russians. But he takes pride in doing his job well. When a Russian troop train must be rushed through to put down the 1956 Hungarian uprising, he shunts off local traffic to let it pass. He rejects a colleague's suggestion that the switchmen should hold it up. Such a gesture is a frivolous sop to their own private feelings about the Russians, he argues. How long could the switchmen delay them? he asks. "They'd still have made it by tomorrow morning...
...accepted and the unions summarily rejected. Under the commission's recommendation, some 13,000 firemen with less than ten years' service would be dismissed in the first year; 27,000 others could hold their jobs until retirement, but would not be replaced. Another 20,000 men. mostly switchmen, would be eliminated gradually. The Pennsylvania Railroad, biggest in the U.S., has already announced plans to drop 3,100 firemen...
Counting the Stevenson leaners and potential switchmen, Stevenson could emerge from the first ballot with more than 900 votes...
...loss for things to do. "B'ville," Scarsdale, Yonkers, and the "City," provide no end to extra-curricular activities. Bronxville's most patronized joint is the "Greasy Spoon," a small place on the other side of the tracks, where the clientelle varies from cops and switchmen to college students and their friends. Although no "intoxicants" are allowed on campus. New York State is not dry, and 18 is the legal age for drinking. Local establishments, The Tap, Barge, Maxl's and many others, provide a convenient rendezvous for dates, and a good place to quench one's thirst...
This peaceful ending did not affect the long dispute involving the operating unions (enginemen, firemen, "sick" switchmen, etc.), which for the past year has periodically blown up in strikes, threats, bitter recriminations, and is still as explosive as a powder...