Advertisement: 15 Minutes to '43 (1943)

In a few minutes, Jim's relief will come on duty.

That will be Bill Scott, who takes this signal tower from midnight until eight in the morning.

He'll stamp in from the bitter night air, shake the powdery snow off his cap and jacket, and warm his hands gratefully over the little pot-bellied coal stove.

Jim will say, "Shucks, Bill, didn't expect to see you till next year!" and maybe Bill will ask, "What's Number 27 doing on the siding?"

All very work-a-day and matter of fact. There'll be hardly a word from Jim about those tense minutes earlier in the night when the loudspeaker above his desk clamored with changing orders... as he and the dispatcher's office worked against time to weave three troop trains and a special oil train into the busy pattern of freight and passenger traffic already speeding over this section of the line.

Not a hint in either man's voice that one is relinquishing, and the other taking up a responsibility involving the safety of thousands... the food and fuel supplies of millions... the critical balance between victory and defeat for American forces battling on another continent.

Just two men going about their job... while the clock overhead ticks off the final seconds of the departing year.

The most strenuous year in railroad history.

A year that saw much of the load from highways and sea lanes shifted suddenly... and with incredible success... to the rails. A year when 800,000 troops a month traveled swiftly by train... and when millions of tons of war freight kept to the minute their secret appointments with overseas convoys.

A year when transportation miracles, which even the railroad thought impossible, came true... through the grit, loyalty and unfailing know-how of over a million American railroaders like Jim and Bill.

[NYC Advertisement in Detroit Free Press, 12/30/1942]