FORTY YEARS' SERVICE

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 42, 18 August 1925, Page 4

FORTY YEARS' SERVICE

POPULAR STATIONMASTER'S RETIREMENT.

Mr. 3. P. M'Cracken, stationmaster at Thorndoiv will retire on superannuation at the end of- the present month with 40 years of service, with the NewZealand Railways to his credit. Mr. M'Cracken first joined tho service at Dunedin in 1885 at the age of 12i years, under Mr. A. Grant; district traffic manager. At that time, the late Mr. C. A. Piper and Messrs. R. W. M'Villy and J. Beviu were attached to the Dunedin office. The greater part of Mr. M'Cracken'B service with the Railway Department" was spent in various parts of Otago. He served three years in Southland and four in Wellington, and was connected with the Dunedin office in various capacities for about fifteen years. Ho occupied the position of chief clerk there during the war years, and .was transferred to Balclutlm 'as stationmaster in 1919, to Lambton in 1921, and to Thorndon in 1924. Mr. M'Crackea is very popular with his fellow-officers in tho Department and with tho general public. He ia probably tho youugest New Zealand railwayman to be on the superannuation list, "and, in addition, has tlio distinction of being, no far as is known, the only man in tho service who has been in charge of both the Thorndos and Lambtoa station*.