It's payday!
The C&S pay car More on this car https://www.midcontinent.org/rollingstock/CandS/dsp-passenger/paycar_051a.htm
The C&S pay car
More on this car
https://www.midcontinent.org/rollingstock/CandS/dsp-passenger/paycar_051a.htm
Not unusual... Except maybe in this day and time.....(Note from this 'old geezer' )
The payments in cash was a normal function in this ssociety, until sometime in either the 1950's or into the 1960's; as it became less, and less a presence in the business community.
Even the entities within the U.S. Government was still paying regularly, in cash; I was in U.S.M.C. between 1960 and out in 1970. From my enlistment to discharge, it was cash from Uncle Sam on every monthly check...
The only U.S. issued checks I think, I remember, was for the odd reimbusement, possibly one outside of the normal course of events. Even while on duty in Viet Nam, we were regularly visited by a 'paymaster', [with cash/or 'piasters', or U.S.A. cash] ,and his security detachments. No railroad cars; the V.N. Rail was unservicable, because somebody had shot it all up!
Hiring out on the B&O in 1965 and pay was done by check, distributed from each empolyees 'headquarters'. Each employee had to sign the appropriate form to acknowledge receipt of the check. Those that could not write, needed a witness who could write to attest to their mark.
When my work group established the Baltimore Terminal Services Center in 1978, consolidating all the Agencies and Yard Offices in Baltimore Terminal to be a common headquarters for all craft employees in Baltimore - we made the 'pitch' to the 'powers that be' to have all checks mailed to each employee or direct deposited, with the justification being a savings of the required manpower to distribute the checks. We were shot down.
Pay Day, except in New York, was every other Friday, in New York it was every Friday. Checks could not be distributed until the banks had closed on Thursday.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
BaltACDwe made the 'pitch' to the 'powers that be' to have all checks mailed to each employee or direct deposited, with the justification being a savings of the required manpower to distribute the checks. We were shot down.
I'm sure some guys didn't want to risk their wives seeing how much was really on those checks.
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.
zugmann BaltACD we made the 'pitch' to the 'powers that be' to have all checks mailed to each employee or direct deposited, with the justification being a savings of the required manpower to distribute the checks. We were shot down. I'm sure some guys didn't want to risk their wives seeing how much was really on those checks.
BaltACD we made the 'pitch' to the 'powers that be' to have all checks mailed to each employee or direct deposited, with the justification being a savings of the required manpower to distribute the checks. We were shot down.
Probably! Some employees issued specific instructions that the Check Distributor was not authorized to give the check to ANYONE claiming to a wife. Some didn't want Direct Deposit because they didn't believe in banks.
When I went to Chessie Computer Services Inc. in 1987, Direct Deposit was required and it remained so for the balance of my career. Each payday a statement of the pay check with its gross pay/hours and withholdings was sent by USPS.
One of my accounting courses included an exercise in which you had a list of personnel to be paid, and how much they were to be paid. The exercise was to figure out exactly how much of each denomination of cash you had to have on hand to pay everyone with exact change.
I worked with a fellow whose wife showed up at our customer service window each payday so he could sign his check. He didn't trust banks, either.
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
As a co-op student, my job was with the PRR's Signal & Communications Department, Buckeye Division based in Cincinnati. On a couple of the work sections in the late '50s, I was assigned to work with a signal gang based in the Rendcomb Jct tower that covered the line from Cincinnati to Xenia. I was management and the crew was mostly from Southern Ohio. As I was to learn what they did, I was "free" labor for the foreman and I was expected to do anything that needed doing. The crew was hard working and we got along well.
Come payday, the Foreman passed out the pay checks, we all got in the line truck and drove to a bank in Norwood where the checks were cashed. It wasn't my bank so I deposit it later. What I found interesting was these men when asked about any kind of problem that took a little bit of math professed to not have any knowledge but when it came to their check, they knew to the penney what they expected.
I will always remember those days with the men. We were not mechanized, I dug pole holes with a "spoon and a spade" then we lifted the pole with pikes. Then we dragged wire down the ROW and liffed it up onto the crossarms. Part of a "cost saving" job to replace two diamonds at Loveland where the PRR crossed the B&O. Add two switches on either side of the plant (2 main to one through the plant and back to 2 main). Four passenger trains each way and quite a few freight trains. Many coal trains off the L&N.
Electroliner 1935... Come payday, the Foreman passed out the pay checks, we all got in the line truck and drove to a bank in Norwood where the checks were cashed. It wasn't my bank so I deposit it later. What I found interesting was these men when asked about any kind of problem that took a little bit of math professed to not have any knowledge but when it came to their check, they knew to the penney what they expected. ...
...
I always found it amazing that individuals that couldn't read or write the language of the land - could figure their pay check to the penny - even with the many variables and arbitrary payments that entered into calculating the final amounts.
BaltACD Electroliner 1935 ... Come payday, the Foreman passed out the pay checks, we all got in the line truck and drove to a bank in Norwood where the checks were cashed. It wasn't my bank so I deposit it later. What I found interesting was these men when asked about any kind of problem that took a little bit of math professed to not have any knowledge but when it came to their check, they knew to the penney what they expected. ... I always found it amazing that individuals that couldn't read or write the language of the land - could figure their pay check to the penny - even with the many variables and arbitrary payments that entered into calculating the final amounts.
Electroliner 1935 ... Come payday, the Foreman passed out the pay checks, we all got in the line truck and drove to a bank in Norwood where the checks were cashed. It wasn't my bank so I deposit it later. What I found interesting was these men when asked about any kind of problem that took a little bit of math professed to not have any knowledge but when it came to their check, they knew to the penney what they expected. ...
Money talks.
I hired out at Glenwood but frequently worked at other locations. Sometimes I had 3 or 4 checks waiting when I finally got to Glenwood at a time when the office was open.
samfp1943Even the entities within the U.S. Government was still paying regularly, in cash; I was in U.S.M.C. between 1960 and out in 1970. From my enlistment to discharge, it was cash from Uncle Sam on every monthly check...
As a lieutenant in the Army in the mid-Seventies, I was designated a "Class A Agent", which meant I could serve as a pay officer. There were a couple of times, my name hit the top of the duty roster. So I went down to Division Finance, toting a 45 Cal M1911A1 pistol and my quarter ton driver armed with his M16A1 and a full 30 round magazine. Arriving at Finance, I went inside, had my ID checked and was issued a briefcase full of cash. You then went in a large room with big tables and counted what you had. Once you were satisfied the amount matched the invoice, you signed for the money and returned to the battalion area. You set up shop in the battalion classroom, with your driver as guard, and then filled a pile of envelopes with the amount owed each man on the printout from Finance and wrote his name on each envelope. Once that God awful chore was done, you called the Sergeant Major and the First Sergeants, telling them we were open for business. All the officers had opted for check to bank, so all my customers were enlisted men. Overwhemingly, they were senior NCO's who didn't want their wives to know how much they made. After there was no one left in line. I made a final call, announcing last call and that I would be shutting down in 30 minutes. At the pend of that period, I took any unissued cash back to Finance, returned to the big room, filled out a form listing who had not been paid, counted the returned cash, filled out another form listing that, went to the cashier and turned it in. Back to Battalion and my driver and I turned in our weapons and ammunition at the Company Arms Room and headed to the EM and O club, respectively, after a long day.
Anyway, in the late Seventies, the Army abolished cash payments in favor of check to bank except for casual payments (for example, new recruits are paid $25 out of their first month's pay at the reception station so they can buy neccessities like toothpaste, shaving cream, razors/razor blades, shoe polish, Brasso, etc at the PX before they begin training and have no time for that), travel advances, etc which are done directly by Finance.
I had an uncle who worked for J&L Steel. He was paid in cash, including $2 bills to cut down on the number of required bills.
When I used to sell at train shows I used $2 bills for the same reason. I did get some strange looks from customers when making change.
In my neck of the woods, $2 bills were considered racetrack money for obvious reasons.
According to Omer Lavallee's book "Canadian Pacific East", the last pay car in use in the United States was on the CP in Maine.. as I recall Mr. Lavallee worked that pay car... perhaps his first job with CP, prior to becoming a writer and eventually CP's much revered archivist.
Far cry from today's payroll. Which for the most part is paid through line of credit..
SD60MAC9500Far cry from today's payroll. Which for the most part is paid through line of credit..
All the world moves on Electronic Fund Transfer.
And you had better keep really good records if you don't want to start bouncing checks.
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