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From: Todd Hollritt thollritt AT yahoo DOT com
Date: Fri, 29 Jan 2010 08:26:57 -0800 (PST)
Subject: Last Run, October 26, 1963
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Back in 2002 I posted a photo of the "Last run" over the former Lackawanna Boonton Line between Paterson and
Wayne, New Jersey led by two DL&W F-3's and a commuter train made up of "Boonton" coaches. This photo
was taken on October 26, 1963. The scrapbook had another image; this newspaper photo shows the Mayor of West
Paterson Al Baumann, who was a member of the fire department. Standing in front of the same Erie Lackawanna train
with a crowd of people for a "Pulling up the fist spike" ceremony at the east end of the High Bridge over
the Passaic River. Like I said back everyone was smiling, in anticipation of the six lane interstate Route 80
highway! The photo taken from the Totowa side of The High Bridge shows the same train heading west, you can see the
crowd of people behind the train that arrived for the ceremony on the east end of the bridge. Any E-L dignataries
in the croud? Notice the train conductor on the far right, I am sure he's a verteran Lackawanna railroader, and he's
not smiling that's obvious.
These two photos document the final demise of the "Boonton Line" as a fast Passenger and freight route, forever
changing the history of the Erie Lackawanna and the region it served. These facts have been discussed on the list
before. I just thought you would like to see another photo of the event that took place.It looks like they paused
one of the Saturday afternoon commuter runs for the event.
I was too young to attend. But I was about a 1/2 mile away when this all took place. Sadly, as stated before, I
was unable to sneak out of my crib to crawl there!

Todd ~

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