Ed West on the SR&RL

A question for the Sandy River scholars in the group:

I had the good fortune recently to acquire a small stack of original SR&RL company paperwork, mostly from the offices of Roadmaster Walter Toothaker and the Motive Power Department in reference to hiring and pay for employees, circa 1912-1918. It's been fascinating to look through. One document in particular is a timesheet from October 1918 for one "Eddie West" who was employed as an engine wiper and roundhouse night watchman in Phillips. This can't possibly be *the* Ed West, can it? From my reading, Ed West was already working as an engineer on the P&R and the Eustis by 1905 (he started as a section man on the P&R in 1895), so I can't imagine him moving down the ladder to engine wiper a decade later. Does anyone know if Ed West perhaps had a son by the same name who also worked for the railroad, an Ed West Jr? It's a bit of a puzzle.

And yes, J. B. Bane's wonderful recent posts on Sumpter Valley records have inspired me to scan these documents and share them online eventually, but my scanner is currently out of commission so that will have to wait until later. Among other documents I do also have timesheets for the same period in October 1918 for Dan Cushman, Charlie Hodgman, and Hershel Boynton, all well known SR&RL engineers.

-Philip Marshall



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 04/30/2015 02:45PM by philip.marshall.