(erielack) What People CAlled the Railroad

["Rusty Recordon" <recordor_@_panetwork.com>]

Alan Wrote:

Subject: (erielack) Southern Tier Passenger Loyalty (was: Re: What 
People Called the Railroad)

Dear Rusty,

Interesting story!  Now, I'd have thought that fewer Owego passengers
would have used the Lackawanna, because it was on the other side of the
river.  (No big deal if you owned a car, but during the Depression,
people were so tight with money that they'd try to avoid paying cab fare
if they could).  Any idea if other people in Owego shared your
grandfather's preference?=20

Listers,

Most of the people I knew in the fifties would take the Lackawanna over 
the Erie East or West out of the Southern Tier.  Trains were nicer, 
faster etc.

As to convenience in Owego, NY, if you stand on the village square it is 
a shorter, more scenic walk across the river to the site of the 
Lackawanna depot than it is to the Erie Depot.  Also in the 30's, as to 
some degree today, the best neighborhoods extended along Front St. and 
the Susquehanna river.  The Lackawanna was visible across the river 
while the Erie was on the other side of town (such as it is).  Drummers 
walked more than today's businessmen do.  The Ahwaga Hotel, on the 
riverside of the square, on the western corner off the bridge, was quite 
the watering hole for the traveling public in those days, and convenient 
to the DL&W.

Rusty

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