Erie Lackawanna
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From: "Jim Guthrie" jguthrie AT pipeline DOT com
Date: Sat, 15 Oct 2011 14:26:16 -0400
Subject: Re: (erielack) Erie-Lackawaxen trip
"IE07.jpg" - image/jpeg, 616x685 (256c)

>Thanks, Jim, u clarified that the damn train lasted until
>1963 at least. If u see my post to chuck yungkurth, u will
>see that our yard engine handled >it to Hyde apark wye &
>set the cars on to a west man there for
>Binghamton.............THE PHILLY TRAIN!! Also I was RIGHT
>when I was in the Air Force >& tried to buy a tkt at the
>RDG Terminal....."No such train!!"

Walt,

Here are a couple of scans I think you'll find of
interest -- and confirming your memories:

IE02 is the page for this train in the Reading Employee
Timetable of October 29, 1961. It notes "No Passengers." An
earlier -- post-passenger timetable from 1957 is similar,
although there's a stop to pick up mail at Lansdale which is
gone in 1961. That would explain the Reading Terminal
Clerk's opinion that the train didn’t exist. Of course,
unless there's a specific reason to believe something
different, the rule is always, "Never Wait for a Train that
Isn’t There" -- so the correct strategy for a young man in
the Air Force would have been to take whatever train to
Bethlehem **did** take passengers, and then figure things
out from there , especially since the LV was still
running.

The July 1 1963 Reading Timetable no longer shows this
train, of course -- it was gone by that day --as were all
the rest of the Reading Mail-only trains and trains run for
mail contracts. There were about 20 fewer pages in that ETT
than its immediate predecessor. In the manner of the way
business was done in those days, the last run to Reading
Terminal was probably done strictly by Train Order as an
"Extra." The late Bobby Linden probably had the orders --
if not the white flags themselves in his collection.

IE01 is a scan of the CNJ timetable from April 28, 1963 --
the last one showing this train. Look in the lower left
corner for the small panel. This is the CNJ form that showed
Harrisburg-Jersey City and Philadelphia-Jersey City trains.
We had already ridden this line on a fan trip, so it wasn't
new mileage. The RRE ran a trip with regular coaches which
also gave us some "rare mileage" backing down the Buttonwood
Branch. But I digress . . .

Now -- before everyone goes off the tracks with all this
non-EL-related stuff, let's get to the DL&W (I can't pu my
hands on the relevant EL Scranton Division timetables at the
moment, so you'll have to settle for DL&W -- sorry):

IE07 is from a DL&W ETT 115 from 1958 showing these trains
on the Northumberland Branch.
IE04 shows 1301 on Binghamton-Scranton.

IE05 (bottom) are the Special instructions regarding these
trains. Note the Scranton time is at Hyde Park Wye

And of course, note that the train has different numbers as
it moves along from reading/CNJ to the Northumberland Branch
to the Main Line.

I believe that in its last years, the mail cars were
attached to #15 at Scranton -- maybe backed into the station
or backed into the station one day a week when a switch crew
was off or some such. Those details (since we were kids and
didn’t know to get such details and write them down for
rehashing nearly 50 years later ) are a bit fuzzy.

I realize it wouldn’t be strictly EL, but a history of the
Interstate Express might make a fine Diamond article.

For that matter, a broader view (including D&H, O&W, CNJ,
Erie, L&WV) article on Scranton passenger service wouldn’t
be too far off track, I think.

Cheers,
Jim Guthrie
ELHS #1296


IE07.jpg

Image EXIF Data:
Image Digitized Date   2011:10:15 17:53:07
Make   WIA
Model   OpticBook 3600


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