Veteran Railroader

IN AUGUST OF THIS YEAR Walter R. Eastman '99 stepped down from the Grand Trunk-Canadian National Railways into well-earned retirement from his job as general passenger agent after 41 years of railroading. He had learned the business the hard way.

A native of Hartland, Vt., and a graduate of Exeter, Eastman had hurried with his brand new 1899 Dartmouth sheepskin to the narrow gauge transfer for the Central Vermont Railway at Brattleboro where he began his railroad career pushing a platform freight truck and heaving its cargo. Before too long, however, he was made narrow gauge foreman and a year later was promoted to clerk at Montville, Conn., and the comparatively easy working hours of 6:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. with "time out" for dinner and supper besides.

Shuttling between freight and passenger jobs in the following years, he worked his way up to the heights of traveling passenger agent, which included such chores as soliciting freight shipments and auctioning goods held by the railroad against unpaid bills. Those were not the days of specialists, Eastman wryly admits. Chief clerk and general agent for the passenger department were the steps that led to being transferred in 1923 to Chicago as assistant general passenger agent for the Canadian National Railways. He was appointed general passenger agent in 1930.

WALTER R. EASTMAN '99