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From: "Jim Guthrie" jguthrie AT pipeline DOT com
Date: Sun, 25 Dec 2011 14:26:48 -0500
Subject: Diamond 25-4
"Murchison00.jpg" - image/jpeg, 370x479 (256c)

My latest Diamond finally arrived the other day, and as
always, a fine job.

Just some notes on Kenneth MacKenzie Murchison, architect of
the DL&W Station in Scranton, Hoboken and Buffalo.

He was also the architect of the magnificent Central Station
in Havana, Cuba -- well worth seeing if you should get
there.

A more utilitarian station was the Long Island Railroad
Station and office building at Jamaica; smaller stations on
the LIRR were Long Beach and Manhattan Beach -- the latter
did not last too long though, having been demolished shortly
after passenger service ended in 1924. Murchison was also
the architect of the Forest Hills Tennis Stadium, which
includes some connecting buildings, including the LIRR
Station.

The DL&W would then cross the river north of Linden street,
already gaining more altitude by Cayuga Junction, reducing
that grade.

Murchison's Long Beach LI station appears in the 1959 Film
"That Kind of Woman" starring Sophia Loren and Tab Hunter
(!) as the Seaboard Air Line station in Miami Florida.
Murchison's Jacksonville Union Station would at least have
had real palm trees .

For the record, I've attached his photo.

One other comment: I'm not so sure why a Scranton Union
station would not be operationally do-able -- except for the
realities of the volume of anthracite traffic. The O&W could
have joined the D&H at Blakely, and he CNJ ditto at Taylor
(route of the Interstate Express; the Erie could have had a
connecting track near Elmhurst to the DL&W. And if one
really wanted to do it right, the DL&W could have been
re-routed toward the south with a curve to the north -- all
elevated, of course, joining the D&H/CNJ/O&W on a parallel
lower level -- or even on the upper level, running on a
north south axis between Lackawanna Avenue and Linden Street
(essentially next door to the D&H station -- a stub end
omitted on the Diamond Map).

Starting off at a level somewhat higher than Linden Street
it might have given through freights a better run through
town as well

It should be noted that the local railroad superintendents,
acting in the name of the USRA, tried to move the
Carbondale/Wilkes Barre D&H Commuter trains to a through
O&W/CNJ route because there was plenty of excess capacity on
the latter, and the D&H operation would be far smoother than
with the backup moves in and out of its Scranton stub
terminal. IOW, with or without a Union Station, three of the
five railroads almost had one anyway.

Cheers,
Jim Guthrie
ELHS #1296


Murchison00.jpg

Image EXIF Data:
Image Digitized Date   2011:12:25 18:55:36
Make   WIA
Model   OpticBook 3600


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