RE: (erielack) Erie Railroad stations & related activities NJ and NY Main Line Syracuse Unive

[Chris Thurner <chris.thurner_@_adelphia.com>]

Thanks Jim for the links to the pics shown in your email below.  Now that
I'm back from my sojourn to Florida for the Holidays and have net access
again, I can enjoy them.

Not only did I enjoy the Bingo pics, I found a number of the others and also
the nomenclature on the descriptions, interesting (if not fascinating).

I don't know if this reflected Erie practice at the time, or it was the
choice of the cataloguer, but I see the main line is broken into some
interesting categories as you will see in my comments that follow:

1.) ML (i.e. main line) Narrowsburg to Cameron Mills.  Neither place seems
to, at any time, to have been of any significance.  I thought they might use
the Erie division points (i.e. Port Jervis, Susquehanna, Hornell) or other
points of significance (Bingo, Elmira, Corning) instead of this.  (e.g.,
Bingo is on Narrowsburg to Cameron Mills section of mainline,  seems a
little odd, eh?).  Maybe these areas were bigger in the circa 1909 era than
they are today and have some significance.  Can anyone shed some light on
this?
2.) Next section was Adrian (just w. of Cameron Mills) to Salamanca (ah!
There's one that makes sense.);
3.) NJ and E. NY section mentions NJ to Goshen.  Along the same line of
thinking as in #1.), why would this be Goshen and not Middletown or more
likely PJ?
4.) A number of great shots of the stations shown here.  If anyone is an
Erie modeler in the early 20th century, this provides a great resource for
modeling guidance.  Period autos are shown, rolling stock (particularly
reefer / milk cars, express etc.) houses, business, architecture, etc.
5.) Hornell station.  Notice the numbers of brick chimneys on the station.
IMHO, it gives it more of a distinctive appearance.  Also note lack of
ballast (or either its fouled beyond belief!) on the two mains;
6.) Wellsville station.  It states that it is the old passenger station, but
it looks hauntingly like the freight house (which still stands as part of a
warehouse for a plumbing and heating business and has been resided with
vinyl (yuck!) siding), judging by its physical appearance and also the
location of the other buildings on the right in the second picture.  Also
note that the boxcars are stored on what is today (and has been at least
from the early / mid sixties, when I first started following the EL there)
the main line.  When I grew up, the track on the right (in front of the
station) was a passing siding and the one on the left (again in front of the
station) was the main.  This actually makes sense, as the passenger station
south (RR east) of there was on the same side.  So, it seems likely that
through traffic was routed on the right and setoffs (freight) and stops
(passenger / mail / express) at both stations were made on the left.
7.) Belmont pic.  Look at the rails in foreground.  I'm sure its just a
digital shift when the picture was scanned.  Otherwise no trains would be
able to run over that!
8.) Rathbone.  What type of caboose is it on this pic:
http://libwww.syr.edu/digital/images/e/ErieRailroad/a-139.jpg ?
Is this an Erie one? Would there be another road that used this track or had
rights over it?
9.) Salamanca.  There was a fairly recent thread regarding the canopy
(highly technical and equally imprecise term) structure on the end of this
station and whether the one that exists today was a part of the original
building or an addition built later.  I think it was from an inquiry from
Schuyler, who may want to look at the two photos here to confirm or refute
the info he received on it earlier.
10.) Randolph.  Look at the first pic to see some nice representations of
early 1900's rolling stock and a block of express reefers on the one of the
double track mains.
11.) Note that these pics go all the way to Chicago...  For those who were
at the ELHS meeting this past fall, there are some great pics of Marion
Station and a 5 track diamond.
12.) Pond Eddy / Great Bend.  These are in order from NY to Chicago.
However, these are obviously out of place here (2 pics past Lakewood, NY
(Jamestown area)).  Notice pic of workers manually replacing ties.  Also,
what is the caboose at Great Bend:
http://libwww.syr.edu/digital/images/e/ErieRailroad/a-206.jpg ?  It looks
like a PRR N5, but could it be?


Anyway, I could go on forever, but a great page full of pics.

Regards,

Chris


 -----Original Message-----
From: 	James Harr [mailto:bnchmark_@_eclipse.net] 
Sent:	Thursday, December 27, 2001 3:18 PM
To:	ErieLack Digest
Subject:	(erielack) Erie Railroad stations & related activities NJ
and NY Main Line  Syracuse Unive

Greetings listers, and Happy Holidays to all!

I believe some folks were looking for shots of the Erie Binghamton station a
while back. Well, a friend just sent this URL; check it out:


 http://libwww.syr.edu/digital/images/e/ErieRailroad/NJandNYMainLine.htm


They may be out of order, but there are two images of Binghamton, ca. 1909.

Jim Harr

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