Arthur William had equally confusing encounters. When told to be at a certain location the instruction was accompanied by a warning, “Be careful as it’s difficult to distinguish where the engine sounds come from.” Arthur William, assuming the dispatcher was warning about Collinwood Yard, took two buses to reach his objective. When he arrived he went into a yard shanty toilet to relieve himself. While doing so, he was startled by a booming voice from the next stall. “What in the hell are you doing here?” To make matters even worse, that booming voice was that of his father, Arthur Samuel. Arthur William was supposed to be at the Union Terminal. Arthur Samuel talked one of the engineers, now being relieved by a new crew, into delivering Arthur William to the Union Terminal. The earlier warning was given because engine sounds echoed off the walls of the comparatively enclosed Union Terminal.

There was no formal training for the newly hired. Terms, signals, and procedures were to be learned from engineers if they wanted to teach. Since hostility between management and the Brotherhoods was now so rampant, many engineers questioned why should they teach the new firemen? In addition, the demeanor of the engineers was such that the new firemen were exposed to treatment ranging from friendly jokesters to outright hostility. Often this lack of knowledge would lend itself to dangerous, if not humorous, situations. One of the rail jobs was switching mail cars on tracks of the remnants of the Cleveland Union Terminal adjacent to the Terminal Tower. These tracks formerly were used as a covered boarding area for passenger.

One day Arthur William was working in the terminal area when the engineer called out, “See the dwarf?” Arthur William, thinking the engineer was joking around responded, “Yeah, there’s Sleepy, and Sneezy, but I don’t see Snow White.” The engineer was furious. “What the hell color is the dwarf, you stupid son-of a bitch, the light on the ground?” Signal lights in the Union Terminal were close to the ground and were called “dwarfs.” Arthur William had learned the hard way, the railroad definition of a dwarf.

While wanting to protect the position of the firemen many engineers were openly hostile toward these featherbedders. They would constantly remind a young fireman, “When we started as a fireman we had to shovel coal.” Indeed, originally firemen had several duties including shoveling coal, determining how much coal was necessary to produce the required steam, adding water to the boiler, and generally following the orders of the engineer. In addition, they had to learn the signal system and power requirements of the locomotive. All was required to work their way, as William Jerome had done, to becoming an engineer. In short, they were often bitterly jealous of whom even they frequently referred to as featherbedders.