CHAPTER 18 - FINAL YEARS AT C.N.

18.1 - INTRODUCTION

Once TRACS was finished my hope was that I would return to the Tranportation function. This required that I get together with Ross Walker, who was then Chief of Transportation, which I did. It ws a humiliating interview in that while he had been asked to find a spot for me he only offered returning to Moncton as General Supt. of Transportation, the same position as I had held 10 or 15 years earlier. I knew that the position of Assistant Chief (Car Service) was open but he was not prepared to offer me that; I believe it was not because he thought I couldn't handle it , but really because he dislkied Charlie Armstrong and was (mistakenly) afraid of my loyalty. I felt badly, because I have always been loyal to every boss I ever had and would have been able to be loyal to him as well. Where I failed in the interview was in not discerning what he was afraid of and putting forth my own case more strongly. I should also have gone back to my seniors to crosscheck Ross's lack of sincerity in dealing with me.

However, when personnel got wind of it they contrived to offer me the post of Chief of Management Services. Having been trained as an engineer I responded favorably as all engineers relate to the title of "Chief". Had they not offered this I would have had to accept Ross's offer and Fran and I would have gone to Moncton. From the viewpoint of our personal lives I am sure we would have loved a return to the Maritimes, but history shows I would have been unhappy with the job because it would largely have consisted of presiding over the demise of most of what the Railway had been when I was there before. The Atlantic Region to-day (2001) is only a shadow of what it once was, reflecting the tremendous changes in Transportation which have occurred over the past 40 years. No trains exist in Newfoundland or Prince Edward Island and no branch lines remain except to Saint John and Sidney. There is only one passenger service, the Ocean Limited six days per week and a couple of double stack container freights per day from Halifax to Montreal. The regional headquarters is gone with all train dispatching being handled from Toronto or Montreal and the Moncton hump yard is closed. Perhaps I will deal with the forces which have created these changes in a later more philosophical section;but at this point I will repeat that I would have been unhappy presiding over the carnage!

18.2 - ESTIMATING NEW CAPACITY

As an interim "hook" job before taking up my duties as Chief I was given the special task of doing a study on the computer plant requirements for the forseeable future. I was able to predict there would be much more main frame capacity required and I was able to cite various areas where new computer systems would be required without being able to be specific about capacity for each of the future areas requiring development. I was able to foresee what total processing capacity would be required in 5 to 10 years and had the satisfaction of seeing it happen, so at least I did not mislead the Executive Committee who approved my report. With the completion and acceptance of this study I was to move into the corner office on the 5th floor of the Headquarters building where I would spend the next eight years.

18.3, NEW SYSTEMS REQUIRED BY ALL DEPARTMENTS

When TRACS was completed we had thought there might be a lessening of demand for computer services in the short term and we disbanded a part of our development resources. However we soon found we were mistaken as we were faced with demands for systems for many departments. TRACS had basically served the needs of Transportation and Marketing but the computer revolution was in full swing and we were faced with demands from Payroll and Employee Services, Express, Engineering and Mechanical so we had to take on more new staff than we had had under TRACS. As there was still little understanding of the structure and use of these new systems we had both good and bad experiences in applying the new technology.

This involved such things as getting away from punch cards as input-output and using the new IBM 360 type systems and intelligent terminals connected by communication lines to and from the field so that systems moved away from batch processing to "on-line, real-time, transaction-oriented" processing like TRACS. Output from these systems could be in the form of pre-structured reports or specific items of information stored on Random Access disk files available by keyboard enquiry at any time. Terminals were also "intelligent" in that they could store special screen formats for various types of input such as waybills so that the operator only needed to fill in the blanks.

Payroll was one of our first older systems to be changed. It had originally been developed by my old friend Bill Corner from the Manitoba Power Commission. He was now Vice-President of Accounting at C.N. and had also worked on the original punch card car tracing system which had been develoloped in the 60's when I was G.S.T. in Moncton. Payroll and some other batch systems were still running on an IBM 7074 computer. I do not remember all the details of our problems in effecting the changeover to 360 type technology and it wouldn't be worthwhile to burden this account with them if I did remember. However, I do remember that we had bought an existing off-the-shelf system from a firm in Texas and it didn't seem to work for the specific requirements of the railway. In the end, I had to back our own internal people and get rid of the consultants. The system got built but it ended up as a classic example of the then popular IBM statement, "that most systems could be built for half of what they cost, but only if you had the benefit of 20/20 hindsight!"

Another problem I remember which cost some money to learn was the idea that was floated that micro-processors then on the market and full of glorious advertising "80% hype and 20% substance" could solve all problems. Some of our people wanted to use them as local systems for our yards to interface with TRACS for input and output and to track the details of exact car location within the yard which TRACS did not do. We finally gave in and agreed to try one, selecting Hamilton as the test terminal. The team working on it made it work using three micros, one for communications, one for processing and memory and one for input/output. However, the time it took to handle data back and forth between the three processors was too long, making it unable to keep up with the work needed for switch lists, etc.. It cost us $300,000 to learn that we needed to use a single computer for each major yard and for this we were successful, using Hewlett-Packard mini-computers in about 20 yards across the system. Programming for the initial successful sytem of this type was done by Bob Cass who was our long-time technical genius in the C.N. Research lab. Once he made the prototype work, our department took over the installationas across the system as we had the field resources.

After this, when the mechanical dept. got an outside quote on a micro-processor job we were able to dissuade them from pursuing it and we were able to satisfy their needs by producing locomotive and car repair statistics with TRACS data as a base.

Sinilarly we were able to build systems for Engineering which could enable them to plan their annual work programs for rail, ties, ballast, bridges and the like. For Express and Intermodal we developed a TRACS interface which kept track of the moves of individual trailers and containers to and from the customer, even though they moved part of the way by highway. Earlier punch card systems for express had operated on older computers located in our regional headquarters. Our new Express-Intermodal system was set up in Montreal, then moved to our backup site in Winnipeg. One of the cardinal rules we learned to follow on new systems development was to structure project teams with user representatives as well as our programmers; in this way we could be sure that the system we were designing would satisfy the real needs of the user department.

Concerning the other responsibilities of my department (which were much smaller than the development of computer systems) I was mainly able to delegate them to capable officers in their own field. Thus Con Bach was able to manage Operations Research and Industrial Engineering. A side benefit from these groups was that they provided a type of work for which we could recruit university graduates. Some of these could move into other areas of the railway (as I myself had done under S.W. Fairweather) and give a mixture of skills as between these people and those who had learned the business by rising through the ranks. Office Administration was under the guidance of Ian Mitchell who applied his Scottish engineering to many areas and always got new projects going every year so that the maintenance of the headquarters building and other offices did not fall behind. Thus new floor coverings spruced up the hallways and the staff cafeteria shed its hospital type appearance for a new, warmer ambience with murals and drapes to add color! I would also like to mention the name of Murray Bain who ran the day to day main computer operations and achieved a better than 98% up time on our major systems and Jim Williams, who was a good planner and supporter who developed many of the budget presentations we had to make to get Executive Committee approval for our various expenditures. Our total budget for Management Services would run at about $70 million per year during the late 70's and early 80's and we had between 800 and 900 employees altogether, so it was no small operation.

18.4 - MANAGEMENT PERKS

While the running of my job caused me a lot of problems, mostly we worked hard nd felt upbeat because we were in the leading edge of technology. I used to solve problems while in the shower and riding the commuter train. I used to say that I was paid to do the worrying for the department. I think I was fortunate in selecting staff and genuinely enjoyed my daily contacts with them.

As to some of the perks, there was of course more pay, and based on good annual reviews I generally got a raise; my salary was about $85,000 per year when I retired in 1984. This says something about inflation when you realize that President Donald Gordon ran the whole railway and its subsidiaries for $50,000 per year during the 1950,s! We still got annual passes for ourselves and immediate family which enabled us to travel over all of CN's lines for free, though we paid for sleeping accomodation on the trains. During those years the whole family would travel to Manitoba for visits to my mum and dad and Anne's mum and dad. In Fran's era we made two trips to the west coast and annual trips to the Maritimes so the passes kept us from getting isolated from our roots.

As the opulence of the times grew many companies adopted the practice of poviding top officers with a company car, which initially was a tax free benefit. I became eligible for this in 1979 and from then 'till retirement in 1984 enjoyed the use of our Chev Caprice, which was a considerable improvemnt over the Plymouth Acclaim we had owned on our own. Eventually we paid income tax on the portion of usage that was personal as distinct from business, but this was only fair.

Another perk which was mainly business was a number of management development type seminars which we were given the opportunity to attend. These occurred every other year or so and were usually conducted by travelling gurus who had developed a management theme and made a name for themselves. They helped a more or less technical minded guy like me to pay more attention to things like employee relations. Why I would regard them as being perks was not only the self-improvement opporunities but the fact they were often held at resort places like Mont Gabriel in the ski country in the Laurentions. We usually went alone but the wives were treated to a dinner on closing day; however, in one case we took a whole week for a seminar put on by the Rand Institute at Niagara on the Lake and our wives were invited to come along and participate in the discussions, etc. Also we got the opportunity to see Bernard Shaw's "Major Barbara" at the renowned Shaw Theatre.

As CN was a member of the American Association of Railroads we got a chance to have four or five of us attend annual conventions of the Data Systems Division of the AAR. These were held in various American cities which we thus had a chance to visit. During my time I can recall conventions in Chicago, New York, Denver, Miami, San Francisco and New Orleans. The only time that I personally gave a paper was at the conference in Chicago. As there was a great deal of discussion regarding computer system financing I gave forth on what we had done at CN where we had developed an accounting system that enabled us to first identify and then charge back the various computer system operating and development expenses to the user departments for whom the systems had been built. While the one in San Francisco was on I took Frances so her sister Tookie and niece Patty came up and we spent some extra holiday time; toured Fisherman's wharf, rode on the cable cars and had a genuinely fine time of it including dinner in a fancy restaurant in Sausalito!

18.5 - EVENTS LEADING UP TO RETIREMENT

As time went on so of course did my age. Under the railway's pension rules I could have retired in 1980 at which time the sum of my age and my years of service totalled the magic figure of 85 points. However, to retire with just 27 years of service would give me a much lesser pension than I would have by working longer; besides, I still enjoyed my work and was still a going concern.

However, not all of my remaining working experience was to be happy. With Charlie Armstrong's retirement, likewise Jack Spicer's and the appointment of an outsider as president, (Maurice LeClair, from Treasury Board in Ottawa) I lost my best mentors and supporters.

This led eventually to the appointment of Al Deegan as Vice-President over my head. As indicated earlier, internal politics has not been my strong point, whereas it was 75% of Deegan's; I received feedback which indicated he was running me down behind my back, but I didn't take any action in my own defense. Though the personnel committee knew me and would look at my file they must have thought Deegan was a young fast-tracker and so voted for him. LeClair was the one who had to tell me I didn't get the job. He said the decision was unanimous and forbade me from talking to any members of the Committee. The only other feedback I got was from Charlie Armstrong and he had it second hand that people thought I was "too methodical" which I took to mean slow. It reflected my modus operandi of thinking things over carefully and trying to reach the best decision from that. I was never one to shoot from the hip, but could still make fast decisions when the situation called for it and I could cite many incidents in my life where I did so. I think LeClair felt for me because at the executive group meeting the following day, he becknoned to me to come up to the front and occupy the seat beside him! I carried on my job as Chief, reporting to Deegan, but he was smart enough not to meddle in my department for the time I remained in office. I must admit to some smug feelings several years later in retirement when Deegan was promoted to Senior Vice President of Eastern Lines with headquarters in Toronto, but was in over his head and was sacked by then President Paul Tellier. I am human enough to have liked to know the specific reasons for Deegan's fall from grace. With my much more extensive experience with all of our eastern lines I am sure I could have run that job much better than Deegan, but then I could be fortunate in not having to experience whatever pressures under privatisation that may then have existed!

Interesting developments of course continued; no-one could see where the computer was going to take us (nor in fact can we see where to-day, 2001) but we had to accept that it wasn't all going to be main frames. So we did start to have departments get their own mini or microprocessor units for chores like budgetting. Main frames also became smaller and while at one time we felt we would need more computer room space and were negotiating with the City of Montreal for a shared site in a new building we backed out of the idea as more and more capacity could be packed into our Headquarters computer room and our Winnipeg centre.

One other experience with the nature of things in business and which caused us much distress was LeClair's idea to have an audit. This stemmed from his experience with the Treasury Board in Ottawa where such an audit had been carried out. The auditors interviewed people and came up with a report which accused us of spending too much for computer capacity. The young american from Chicago who did this part was making calculations of how much main frame was required if all our jobs were batch processed. We pointed out in vain that with on-line systems such as TRACS you need capacity to meet the peaks in transactions, not something to average it all out. Another example they used to clobber us was the overrun in our Personnel systems development, which, as mentioned earlier, had occurred some years before and had not been concealed from managerment at the time. Without citing any more examples the Audit was a classical example of Auditors being people who "enter the field and shoot the wounded after the battle is over"! They made no allowance for the fact that all users of this new business tool were often going on a trial and error basis. I got some personal satisfaction by making a visit to the archives in Ottawa where I found that a similar report had been made there during LeClair's time. I checked on the three or four subsequent years and found the annual updates showed no improvement which proved to me that maybe we were doing as well as anyone at that point in history!

18.6 - THE GRAND FINALE

When I reached the age of 62, which was in 1983 I again took stock of the situation and found that the loss of pension would be somewhat less than I could earn working as a consultant with CANAC, which was CN's consulting division. I had already done some work for them on a World Bank project and was currently heavily involved with helping Indian Railways have a look at TRACS for use on their system. So I talked to a few people, including Al Pozniak who was my Systems Development Manager whom I felt was the best choice to succeed me and the deed was done. The effective date was Feb. 1, 1984, exactly 31 years to the day from when I first reported to Research and Development on the 3rd floor of the old headquarters at 360 McGill Street.

The staff and other associates arranged for a bang-up farewell party one evening in the cafeteria which was attended by about half a dozen Vice-Presidents and 100 or so others. Fran was of course seated by my side and many other wives also attended. Well wishes were expressed by the various departments from whom I received at least half a dozen engraved gifts which I still have and treasure. They were typical Railroad items, such as chromed rail bookends from Engineering, a genuine dispatcher's wall clock from Tranportation, an HO gauge model diesel and caboose from my own staff, a hand made wood and brass boat tiller from the Mechanical Dept., and an oil painting of a beached boat from the Atlantic Region! When it came my turn to voice my thanks I used a selection of slides to remind them of the progress made on and by the railway during our time together. Fran, who always said I talked too much, had a little alarm clock in her purse which she set to go off at 20 minutes so I had to finish quickly with my picture of "footprints in the sands of time! The room was decorated in part with a photo of every one of my main bosses. I will say that I respected them all and learned much from each one. I had joined the railway by choice in 1953 and I will say that I never once regretted it in any way. From my father's yard office and CN in Rivers as a boy through Divisional, Regional and Headquarters I can say I always felt like a true Railroader at heart! The festivities ended , Fran and I repaired to a room they had reserved for us in the Queen Elizabeth Hotel where we found a bottle of wine and two glasses waiting for us!