Erie Railroad Employee Rosters

Employee rosters are common among railroads, as they were union shops that contractually relied on seniority in job categories to determine job assignment, work or layoff status. The official seniority dates were determined and maintained by the railroad. The various divisions or shops would periodically publish ordered lists of their employees. In addition, printing companies would also publish lists of names along with advertising from local firms. These "advertising rosters" may not have been official, but the source of information was the same as the official rosters. The following rosters, listed in order of date of issue, are a mixture of both official and advertising rosters. My thanks to Robert Bahrs, Douglas Crosby, Carl E. Freshour, Jon Liles, Pat McKnight, Jay L. Noyes and Mary Kay VanSkiver for sharing documents in their collections.

EMPLOYEE ROSTERS - SYSTEMWIDE AND SHOPS

ERIE RAILROAD LOCOMOTIVE ENGINEERS, ETC., 1899
(POSTED NOVEMBER 29, 2002, REVISED MARCH 5, 2005)
The indexes below contain the names, positions and locations of over 2,000 Erie engineers, master mechanics and trainmasters active in 1899. These are taken from the book, "American Locomotive Engineers, Erie Railway Edition," by H.R. Romans, published in 1899 by the Crawford-Adsit Publishing Company of Chicago. The profiles in this book are among the earliest employee information currently listed on this web site, and contains employees who began their careers with Erie and predecessor roads in the earliest days. Note that I have listed the data as written, including any mispellings that may be contained in the original. In cases where I have been able to identify possibly mispelled names through other sources, I have listed the alternate spelling in parentheses after the spelling found in the book. Finally, I have linked scans of the actual photos or biographies to the names in the indexes, and have also included updates on the careers of many from information contained in the pages of Erie Magazine.
(PHOTO RIGHT - Briney O'Connor, Locomotive Engineer of Huntington, IN, at the throttle of the 4-6-0 that bears his name. Photo courtesy of Chip O'Connor.)

ADDITIONAL NAMES: Many of the biographies mention names of other Erie employees, both relatives and others who made an impression on particular engineers during their careers. The index below includes these additional names.

1926 OFFICERS, ERIE SYSTEM CLERICAL ASSOCIATION, giving locations and Association positions/titles. HTML index transcribed as is (mispellings not corrected):

1934 HORNELL SHOPS PERSONNEL ROSTER (POSTED DECEMBER 5, 2001)
The Hornell Shop was the Erie's largest locomotive repair complex. Being a union shop, seniority dictated job assignments. The data tables below list seniority dates for 1,318 Hornell employees in the following job classifications: Carmen, Machinists, Painters, Boilermakers, Blacksmiths, Crane Operators, Electricians, Sheet Metal Workers, as well as Helpers and Apprentices in all of the above categories. The source for this data is "Railroad Men's Time Book and Roster," published by the Hornell Printing Company, Inc. with information "taken from the Hornell Shop records." It was "given free to these men who make up the Hornell army of shop workers, who approximate 1,400 men," and contains lots of local advertising to cover printing costs. The copy that I worked from in transcribing data was the property of S. Woodworth and contributed by Mary Kay VanSkiver, whose two grandfathers worked at Hornell Shops. A few notes on the data files: I tried to preserve the exact spelling listed for each name, a few of which appear to contain typographical errors. Also, some individuals appear more than once, having qualified for additional work assignments. Finally, the category "Pwr Truck Operator, Pumper, Etc." was abbreviated from the Roster description, "Pwr Truck Operator, Pumper, Etc. - Back Shops, Car Shops, & Roundhouse." And don't miss the Hornell group photos on the Erie Photo Page!

CLEVELAND ERIE PHONE DIRECTORY LISTINGS
While not technically employee rosters, these listings are from the Erie's corporate telephone directory for Cleveland, OH for 1947 and 1950. Facilities covered include the Midland Building, Republic Building, Columbia Building, Erie Station (W. 9th Street), Scranton Road Freight House and Literary Yard (W. 3rd Street). Offices covered include the President's (Midland), Transportation (Midland), Auditor of Disbursements (Midland) and Auditor of Revenues (Columbia). The "comments" column on the indexes refers to hand-written notations by the original owners (anonymous) of the directories. The most common comments are cross-outs/additions of names or corrections of room or phone numbers.

MARION, OH SHOPS ROSTER, ERIE-LACKAWANNA RAILROAD, JANUARY, 1976
This roster lists the names of shop employees at Marion shop, including Machinists, Boilermakers, Electricians, Tender Repairers/Carpenters, Pipefitters, Painters, Firemen/Oilers and their helpers and apprentices. Although from the post-merger period, most of these men began their service as Erie employees.

SYSTEM TELEPHONE DIRECTORY, ERIE-LACKAWANNA RAILROAD, OCTOBER 1, 1973
A system directory posted by location, with many former Erie employees.