Re: (erielack) Diamond and USPS delays

[James G Flynn <jimbatt1_@_juno.com>]

        Paul, Howard and All,

        Got it !!  And in good shape too, irradiated or not.  And it was
well worth the wait.
        The photo on the rear cover, bottom, is MY OLD SPOT !!!!!
        That's where I used to go with my uncle maybe 50 years ago.  That
very grade crossing.  Every evening around seven-ish we'd be down there
to watch the Lake Cities (#6) go east out of Youngstown.  I remember it
starting while the black and yellow F-3's were in charge and then the
"new E's came in service.  Passenger trains were really moving out by the
time they got to this spot, about 2 miles from downtown by rail.
        One correction here - the train is running eatbound here
(northboard by compass), toward Hubbard, Ohio then on to Sharon PA.
        I spent many hours around here and up in the tower with the
watchman.
        The manual crossing gates were at one time only one each on the
east and west side of the crossing.  They were extremely tall (long) to
cover the entire roadway.  They were replaced by shorter (two per side)
pairs in the late fifties when there was an extensive "remodeling" job
done, mostly to reroute a troublesome creek that flooded periodically. 
The gates guarded Hubbard Rd. (Ohio Rte. 7, at one time) on the northeast
side of town.
        The factory immediately to the rear of the SDP / U-Boat combo
(tall stack) was Republic Rubber and farther to the rear (in the middle
of the train) was Truscon Steel, a fabricator and, at one time a division
of Republic Steel.  Both received and shipped via the Erie and later EL. 
Both, sadly, now gone also.  Some of the buildings still remain.  But
some of them have been demolished also.
        The EL was double tracked through here as was the NYC.  To the
right side of the tower and out of the picture was, at one time, the lead
to NYC's McGuffey Yard.  This was already abandoned and removed by Penn
Central by the time this photo was shot.
        Wish I had taken my camera more often in those days.

        Jim Flynn
        ELHS # 2598
        jimbatt1_@_juno.com

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