(erielack) Markers for Ray Baxter

["MDelvec952_@_aol.com"]

It is very sad that Ray Baxter died this week after a short bout with cancer. 
  I'm told that his viewing is at the Lantermann - Allen Funeral Home in East 
Stroudsburg between 7:00 and 9:00 p.m.

The son of a Lackawanna conductor, Ray finagled a job on the Erie and the 
Erie Lackawanna as a deckhand on the ferryboats, and later as a railroad 
policeman.  His stories are numerous of the days when the steam ferries and 
tugs ruled the Hudson, and he helped answer many questions for me about the 
marine operations and the Harlem Transfer.  He co-authored the hardcover 
Ferries of the Hudson which so far is the definative work on the subject.  
His memories were vivid and full of color.

I got to know Ray through his work as a founding and charter member of the 
Lackawanna Chapter R&LHS, formed to help repatriate Lackawanna 4-4-0 952 and 
which later obtained the restoration lease on the DL&W's Water Gap station.  
Ray was almost untiring in this effort, and he organized most of meetings and 
the work sessions on the depot until moving to live with his daughter in 
Virginia last year.

We lost a good man this week, but his work will live on.  And I'll bet a cab 
ride in a Pocono that right now he's piloting the Elmira into a slip at 
Barclay Street.

                             ....Mike Del Vecchio

 ------------------------------------------------------------
Visit the erielack photopage at http://el-list.railfan.net

------------------------------

End of Erielack Digest V2 #822
******************************


 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, send an e-mail to "majordomo_@_internexus.net" with the
command unsubscribe erielack-digest in the BODY of the message.
To switch to the regular version of the list, include the command
subscribe erielack as the second line in the e-mail described above.