[PRCo] Re: Stuff That's Gone- West Penn Railways

John Swindler j_swindler at hotmail.com
Tue Nov 2 20:19:27 EDT 2010 

Yes, there was a need for air flow.  Still is - look at the grills along the side of your computer.  But the empty space was vast, particularly the lower half of the cabinet.  This was more than air flow.

There were several tape units against a wall - now we use dvds or flash drive - and Derrick can provide us 'old geezers' with the latest technology terms.  There was also a card reader for IBM cards, which were used for our programs and as handy book markers in other classes.  They were a real pain - no back spacing with IBM cards.  

Who would have ever imagined the advances in computer technology that would occur over the next four decades.  






> Subject: [PRCo] Re: Stuff That's Gone- West Penn Railways
> From: fwschneider at comcast.net
> Date: Tue, 2 Nov 2010 19:29:53 -0400
> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
> 
> I wonder how much of that was caused by the need for air flow with those old machines.   
> 
> I remember all the CPUs in Harrisburg for the unemployment claims operations ... they were later expanded to handle data keeping for the employment service.   They sat on a hollow floor with the air ducts under the floor.
> 
> In the late 1970s and early 1980s I was the director of a statewide occupational information coordinating committee brought upon by the federal government's belief that that kids would make better career choices if they had better information.   That might have been partially true but there is also the reality that you can teach a man to work on power lines because he loves it but later on if his wife is paranoid every time he goes out in the rain or snow, he'll quit and you've wasted your time and money on him.   
> 
> And any rate, back in the 1980s we were trying to steer Pennsylvania into what were then being called mini-computers (today they are lap tops).   We figured that would be the wave of the future.   The federal answer to that was, "fine, we can then disqualify Pennsylvania from spending anything there ... we want mainframe computers.  We don't want to waste money on pie in sky ideas."   
> 
> 
> 
> On Nov 2, 2010, at 4:37 PM, John Swindler wrote:
> 
> > 
> > 
> > Perhaps IBM system 360??  
> > 
> > Even at that point, the Point Park College teacher commented that the actual computer only took up about a 1.5 foot space in a six foot high cabinet.  The rest was empty space.  He claimed that the reason was packaging - so that purchasers would think they were getting their money's worth.  The image was that computers should take up lots of space - that's what was shown on TV - and miniaturization was already underway.  
> > 
> > Any truth to this, Bob?????
> > 
> > 
> > 
> >> From: hrbran at cavtel.net
> >> Date: Mon, 1 Nov 2010 22:42:08 -0400
> >> Subject: [PRCo] Re: Stuff That's Gone- West Penn Railways
> >> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
> >> 
> >> The real question is, what kind of a 'computer' did they use back in
> >> '68-'69?
> >> On Sat, Oct 30, 2010 at 18:24, BobDietrich <bob.dietrich1 at verizon.net>wrote:
> >> 
> >>> I suppose I should throw in my Mill job. I was at Homestead for about 18
> >>> months between 1968 & 69. The most significant remembrance I have is guys
> >>> being forced to take something like 8 weeks vacation then coming back and
> >>> trying to recall what they were supposed to do. You see I was working in
> >>> the computer department. The computer was just inside the 8th Ave entrance
> >>> and I never got any further. Truth is I never wanted to go any further.
> >>> 
> >>> 
> >>> 
> >>> -----Original Message-----
> >>> From: pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org
> >>> [mailto:pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org] On Behalf Of Dwight
> >>> Long
> >>> Sent: Saturday, October 30, 2010 12:13 PM
> >>> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
> >>> Cc: Dennis Lamont
> >>> Subject: [PRCo] Re: Stuff That's Gone- West Penn Railways
> >>> 
> >>> John
> >>> 
> >>> There was a lot of slack time in my job at Crucible as well. But woe
> >>> befall
> >>> any laborer who failed to heed the whistle at the cold roll station when
> >>> the
> >>> operator--who was on incentive--needed oil, scrap toted away, or whatever!
> >>> Slack time was particularly bad on night shift. One night all the laborers
> >>> (myself included) were sacked out on shelves in the warehouse. The foreman
> >>> was really pissed when he found us--cold roll needed rolling oil. He said,
> >>> can't at least one of youse guys stay awake? But no one was disciplined
> >>> for
> >>> it.
> >>> 
> >>> I just missed you at Homestead. I was based there, in the transportation
> >>> office, for a short time in early 1965. That was a blast--got to see all
> >>> the
> >>> USS Valley mills, ride the Union RR, etc. and got paid for it!
> >>> 
> >>> Dwight
> >>> ----- Original Message -----
> >>> From: John Swindler
> >>> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
> >>> Sent: Saturday, 30 October, 2010 11:54
> >>> Subject: [PRCo] Re: Stuff That's Gone- West Penn Railways
> >>> 
> >>> 
> >>> 
> >>> 
> >>> I spent the summer of 1966 in Homestead works as a grinder. The job
> >>> involved grinding imperfections out of steel plate, which would then be
> >>> welded, and we would then grind the weld smooth.
> >>> 
> >>> My favorite story was first shift on night turn. There were two of us
> >>> college students. We worked for about an hour grinding 5-6 plates when an
> >>> old timer came over to us and said: "you boys need to take it easy for the
> >>> rest of the night. Otherwise, when you go back to school, the 'incentive'
> >>> will be ruined for this job".
> >>> 
> >>> I remember that whenever I see closed, rusted factory buildings.
> >>> 
> >>> Cheers
> >>> John
> >>> 
> >>> 
> >>> 
> >>> 
> >>> 
> >>> 
> >>>> From: hwandrews at wowway.com
> >>>> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
> >>>> Subject: [PRCo] Re: Stuff That's Gone- West Penn Railways
> >>>> Date: Sat, 30 Oct 2010 11:34:17 -0400
> >>>> 
> >>>> Hell is right here in Michigan. No, I don't mean Detroit - there is a
> >>> city
> >>>> named Hell just to the west of Detroit.
> >>>> (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell,_Michigan)
> >>>> 
> >>>> I think many of us from the 'burgh had interesting summer jobs.
> >>>> 
> >>>> I was a hooker at the Homestead works for a summer. That's the guy on
> >>> the
> >>>> floor who places the crane hooks to lift and move a load of steel - what
> >>> do
> >>>> you guy thing?
> >>>> 
> >>>> My toughest job was laboring in a Gray Iron Foundry in Lawrenceville.
> >>> One
> >>>> of the elevators for reclaiming the mold sand needed repair. My job was
> >>> to
> >>>> stand in the elevator pit and shovel the sand that fell off back onto
> >>> the
> >>>> elevator belt. Guess that was cheaper than doing the repairs.... and
> >>> by
> >>>> the end of the summer I had a great set of biceps!
> >>>> 
> >>>> 
> >>>> -----Original Message-----
> >>>> From: pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org
> >>>> [mailto:pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org] On Behalf Of
> >>> John
> >>>> Swindler
> >>>> Sent: Saturday, October 30, 2010 11:05 AM
> >>>> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
> >>>> Subject: [PRCo] Re: Stuff That's Gone- West Penn Railways
> >>>> 
> >>>> 
> >>>> Very interesting Dennis
> >>>> 
> >>>> My father once commented that flying over the Allegheny Mtns. towards
> >>>> Pittsburgh at night - my guess would be 1945 - was like descending into
> >>>> Hades.
> >>>> 
> >>>> As for college - I was more fortunate - didn't spend two summers in
> >>> 'hell'.
> >>>> Instead spent summer of 1968 and 1969 as a full time temporary CTA bus
> >>>> driver, and achieved similar results. Suspect many are glad they went
> >>> to
> >>>> college then, instead of now.
> >>>> 
> >>>> Isn't Hell north of Georgetown in the Cayman Islands???
> >>>> 
> >>>> Cheers
> >>>> John
> >>>> 
> >>>> 
> >>>>> From: trombone at windstream.net
> >>>>> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
> >>>>> Subject: [PRCo] Re: Stuff That's Gone- West Penn Railways
> >>>>> Date: Sat, 30 Oct 2010 09:24:49 -0400
> >>>>> 
> >>>>> Great stuff. If you go the coke oven section and then select Shoaf,
> >>>>> you will see a short film featuring coke production. This is very
> >>>>> similar (our coke pulling process was different) to where I worked at
> >>>>> Carpentertown Coal & Coke (Sharon Steel) facility on Scrubgrass Creek
> >>>>> in Armstrong County during the summers of 1973 & 74. Yes, there were
> >>>>> still beehive ovens in production and my college friends who saw it
> >>>>> from the top of the hill at night referred to me working in "hell."
> >>>>> They could not believe such a place existed.
> >>>>> 
> >>>>> I made $6,000.00 in 2 summers. My undergraduate degree cost me about
> >>>>> $10,000.00. Other jobs provided the rest of the money and I graduated
> >>> 
> >>>>> debt free, a life style I still attempt to maintain. (No wonder my
> >>>>> credit score is only 15 points from perfect.)
> >>>>> 
> >>>>> Dennis F. Cramer
> >>>>> http://home.windstream.net/dfc1
> >>>>> 
> >>>>> 
> >>>>> 
> >>>>> 
> >>>> 
> >>>> 
> >>>> 
> >>>> 
> >>>> 
> >>> 
> >>> 
> >>> 
> >>> 
> >>> 
> >>> 
> >> 
> >> 
> >> -- 
> >> Herb Brannon
> >> In Cuyahoga Valley National Park
> >> 
> >> 
> >> 
> > 		 	   		  
> > 
> 
> 
>

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