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From: "Joseph A DOT Braun" joebraun AT optonline DOT net
Date: Wed, 30 Aug 2006 22:20:36 -0400
Subject: Erie Centennial Train
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[Date: Tue, 29 Aug 2006 22:09:30 -0400 From: "Elaine and John Redden"
ejredden@frontiernet.netSubject:
(erielack) Anybody ever document the story of the Erie Centennial Train?
"I've had an interest in the Erie's 1951 Centennial Train for a while....It
would seem like there might be materials from contemporary news accounts,...
Does anyone on this list have recollections of that train? JR"]

John, let me first of all just share the recollections of the 9 1/2 year old
I was when I was at the Centennial celebration with my dad in Suffern along
the mainline tracks. This was a very big, happy, significant event. My
memory from the time really centers around being impressed by the 100 years,
seeing the new version of Daniel Webster sitting on a rocking chair on a
flatcar, an old steam engine with old rail cars, some new diesel engines (I
didn't know enough to call them F-units at that time), a spanking new
caboose (the name Dunmore was not in my brain then), and lots of people out
for the day.

Now let me go from the personal perspective to the news report of the event
in the New York Herald Tribune of Tuesday, May 15, 1951. I think my old
clipping really captures the spirit of the Erie Centennial -- so I am going
to type it all in the spirit of an historical society.

____________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________

ERIE MARKS 100 YEARS OF RAILROADING BY RE-ENACTING FIRST RUN OF 1851

Erie Re-enacts Road's Opening 100 Years Ago

Rail Official, Guests and 'Daniel Webster' Board Excursion Steamer Here

by Robert A. Poteete

THE ERIE RAILROAD

PROGRESS OF THE OPENING EXCURSION

GREAT ENTHUSIASM ALL ALONG THE LINE

Our city's distinguised guests were aroused at 5 o'clock yesterday morning
in order to be on board the boat in season. The President reached the Pier a
few minutes before six, and was immediately followed by Mr. Webster and the
other members of the Cabinet.

The Erie was gayly decorated with flags, festoons of flowers and evergreens,
and presented a truly festive appearance....The President and Secretaries
passed on board amid the tumultuous cheering. Dodsworth's Band...struck up a
national air. The bells began to ring and salutes were fired from the end of
the Pier...

The Erie left the pier a few minutes past 6, the band playing "Hail
Columbia" while the cannons thundered from the shore and the crowds...gave
tremendous cheers as the boat passed along. All along the river guns were
fired, flags displayed, and every token of rejoicing exhibited...steamboats
on the river displayed their colors and fired salutes.

The boat arrived at Piermont about 8 o'clock....

---Thus The New-York Tribune of a century ago, Thursday morning, May 15,
1851, reported the outset of the opening of the great Erie Railroad from
Piermont-on-Hudson, N.Y., to Dunkirk-on-Lake-Erie, N.Y. -- an epochal event
which the Erie Railroad began repeating in detail at 8 a.m. daylight saving
time yesterday, 100 years and two hours afterward.

The opening of the Erie Railroad marked the end of a twenty-year fight to
link Lake Erie and the Atlantic Ocean by rail--a $23,500,000 undertaking.
President Millard Fillmore was on hand for the first official trip over the
446 miles of rail that Wednesday, and brought Secretary of State Daniel
Webster (who rode in a rocking chair strapped to a flatcar, the better to
observe), Secretary of the Treasury Wiliam A. Graham, Attorney General J. J.
Crittenden, and Postmaster General N. K. Hall.

Together with some 480 other guests--including the best known men of city,
state, county governments--President Fillmore boarded the Steamship Erie at
the Erie pier at the foot of Duane Street, steamed up river to Piermont--the
eastern terminus of the new line--took two trains, compromising fourteen
cars, from there. That first night they stayed at Elmira, after stopping at
stations en route. On Thursday, May 15, 1851,they rode on into Dunkirk.

In yesterday's re-enactment of the opening, railroad officials and
guests--133 of them--boarded an excursion steamer [the John A. Meseck named
the Erie for the trip]--at 8 a.m., at Pier 20, Duane Street and Hudson
River. At 10:10 a.m. they disembarked at Piermont, to band music, and
boarded the centennial train--an arrangement of two Diesel engines, ten
cabooses, and flatcars on which were placed Daniel Webster's rocking chair,
an 1851 locomotive with two cars of similal vintage, and a speaking
platform.

People gathered all along the route to wave, and consolidated at station
stops. On each stop, the dignitaries of the trip made addresses. They were
Paul W. Johnson, president of the Erie; Robert E. Woodruff, former Erie
president, now chariman of the board; Lt. Gen. Robert L. Eichelberger,
former commander of the United States 8th Army, and Daniel Webster--in
formal dress--impersonated by Dallas Boyd, a television actor.

At Suffern the re-enactment cheated. The first eight cabooses of the
centennial train were replaced with four lounge cars, two diners and a
baggage car. (They took a note from Webster who was "almost exhausted with
fatigue..." at the 1851 trip's end.)

Last night, the centennial party--wearing the bandana and caps passed out by
young ladies in 1851 costume--put up at the Mark Twain Hotel in Elmira. (In
1851, the Tribune reported from Elmira: "Neither of the hotels being
sufficient to accomodate the numerous guests, they were divided, some 355
going to the Bramaid house. The President and the balance...accompanied by
Mr. Webster, proceeding to Haight's Hotel.")

The re-enactment will continue today, and is scheduled to wind up in Dunkirk
at 5 p.m. The 1851 trains got there at 4:30 on the second day.

____________________________________________________________________________
______________________________

The Erie Centennial was a BIG celebration! I am a bit fuzzy on this memory
but, as an example of the ramifications, I am pretty sure that my town of
Glen Rock--noted for its July 4th parade and carnival--either made the Erie
Centennial its theme for the 1951 July 4th celebration or else that theme
emerged in several floats. Besides the centennial train noted in the Tribune
write-up, there was also an official Erie Centennial Exhibition Train,
brochures from which are the ones still floating around. This train toured
the system and had a modern diesel for power, a cutaway B-unit, a modern
coach and diner, a pullman, boxcar, reefer, the old loco and cars mentioned
above, a museum car with relics and documents, and a radio caboose. Big time
public relations!!!

Make no mistake about it. The Erie of that time was held in great affection
by the communities it served and that is why the Centennial had an impact.
Much of that affection came as a result of the grassroots Erie people, like
Mrs. Sweet, the station agent in Glen Rock for at least all of my
pre-high-school years. She lived next to the depot and she knew the
townspeople and served them so courteously and personably. I went to the
dentist in Passaic and an art school in Paterson by train. It was always:
"Hi Mrs. Sweet, I need a round trip to Passaic." If you rode the Erie from
Glen Rock, you knew Mrs. Sweet.

Sometime in this period an early morning fire ravaged our local lumber yard
(at that time I believe it was still named after the family that owned it:
Leone Lumber) along the main line tracks. It was the engineer of an early
morning train (probably #1100 from Waldwick due to leave Glen Rock at 4:57
AM) who first spotted the fire, stopped his train, and blasted and blasted
his horn until he caught someone's attention. He was a local hero...but not
by name: it was the "Erie engineer" who saved the area from perhaps a
greater disaster.

So the Erie centenial was indeed a great celebration. The Erie publicized it
to the hilt. Attached is one sample: a wonderful piece of corporate artwork
(minimally 22" by 30") that was printed on heavy stock to be placed in the
railroad station advertisement slots [there is some reflection from the
glass; I did not have time to set it up with photo lights]. Enjoy!.

Joe





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