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(erielack) EL Working BT

Paul Tup wrote: 
>I'm really surprised at the sheer amount of NYS&W interchange, in one day!
>Was the Suskie really that busy in the early 1970's?

Well, in the late 60's and early 70's, the NYS&W ran at least three jobs in 
daylight west of Little Ferry. A job for the Lodi Branch, one for the Passaic 
Branch and one for the mainline east of Butler. There was also an Edgewater 
job and Little Ferry yard jobs and the occasional (weekly? twice a week? I 
don't think they went there everyday.) Greenpond turn. The Passaic and 
mainline jobs could often be see in the yard at Passaic Jct at the same time. 
There was also a night job to Paterson.

The Suskie would regularly pull 60 car trains of EL interchange east out of 
the Passaic Jct yard with 1 GP18 or 2 RS1's. These cars were then classified 
on the hump at Little Ferry. They had no radios in those days and they had to 
back their train out of the yard in order to crossover to track 2 to go east. 
I remember conductor John Treen having to signal the headend to stop with the 
air brake on the caboose so he could get off and re-line the mainline 
crossovers after the move between tracks 1 and 2. He would then light a fusee 
and toss it into the air as high as he could. This was the signal to the 
headend to "highball".

Mike Galesi
ELHS #145

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