Re: (erielack) No.21

[RAILDATA_@_aol.com]

I never took the sleeper from Scranton to hoboken but did go on the one out 
of Binghamton several times in the 50s while working for IBM.  It was very 
convneinet to go down to the depot about 10 PM, get on the sleeper and wake up at 
6:30 in  Hoboken. Then I could go out to a vendor on Long Island (I was 
designing equipment racks to go into the B-52 nav system), spend the day there and 
get back to Hoboken in time to catch a train back to Binghamton, arriving there 
about 10 PM. It was more convenient than flying back then and the time away 
from home was about the same.

Used to take the Erei to Chicago from Bing. It had much better schedules than 
the DL&W which had some wierd schedules with the NKP at Buffalo. But the 
schedules were aranged for the conveninec of Hoboken passengers, not Binghamton, 
etc.

Also took my kids to see their grandparents in Scranton, taking the Pheobe 
Snow down and coming back on the back that left Scranotn about 8:30 PM.  It was 
quite nice riding the tail end lounge car. I had a beer and the kids had ice 
cream. Most of the time we were the only ones in the "tavern Lounge"  Conductor 
once told me the only time they were crowded was when there was a snowstorm 
with bad highways and Mohawk cancelled flights. 

Did the Scranton trip a few times fater the EL merger.  Again, very pew 
passengeres aside from dead heading employees. Cars were very dirty by then and 
daughter runioed her dress by getting grease on it from the coach seat. Seems the 
deadheads with greasy shoes would folr back a seat and then sleep with their 
shoes up on the opposite seat. 

All drung WW2 and into the 50s the DL&W (and probably the Erie) had extra 
coahes available at most major points on the system. The management seemed to be 
very good at predicting assenger traffic and would add extra cars or run 
additional sections for peak passenger loads. There was no such thing as buying a 
reservation for a coach seat on a particular day (But the NYC, PRR, ATSF did 
this on some of their crack trains).  Once you bought a ticket it was good on 
any train for a period of time, a year I think. And as was mentioned, youcould 
get on a train wihout a ticket and simply pay the conductor...who really hated 
the nusiance of doing the fare calculation etc.

To drop a passenger train the railroad had to get permission from the various 
state and federal agancies. This resulted in the railroads running a lot of 
wierd trains on schedules that made no sense. Some of them just token trains. 
By the '30s the automobile had made serious inroads to rail passenger serivce. 
What really killed it for the DL&W and the Erie were the airlines and 
construction of the Interstates, especially when NY 17 became the four lane 
"Quickway".  The Interstate system plus the St. Lawrence Seawy was the blow for fright 
serivce, expacially the DL&W and the LV.

Around 1960 John Mooney, the D&H freight agent in Binghamton pointed out to 
me that Broome County's subsidy to the then new airport was almsot exactly 
equal to what the railrods in the county paid in taxes!

But those were the days!

Chuck Yungkurth
Boulder CO

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