(erielack) CLASSIC TRAINS PIX

["Montgomery, Edward T" <Edward.Montgomery_@_fcps.edu>]

I was looking at the picture on pate 55 of CLASSIC TRAINS showing the
Lackawanna Ferry Building.  I can almost feel the bone chilling cold of
this picture.  Not many people ventured out on the open decks of these
boats in the winter.  The steam heat was very inviting inside.  The
ferries were very quiet in the winter with all windows and doors closed.
You could feel the subtle vibration of the engine as it plied across the
Hudson.  This particular picture was said to be taken on February 10,
1951.  I looked up just when that was and found it to be a Saturday.  It
appears to be late in the afternoon and It was either extremely cold
making all of that ice or there was a recent thaw up river and all of
the ice was flowing down from upstate.  Being a Saturday most of the
boats are idle with probably the LACKAWANNA running the Barclay Street
run.  One thing I noticed is that if you look carefully above the last
slip you can see the stack of another ferry docked along side the ferry
building.  That could have been the BERGAN often used as a relief boat
at this time.  The single deck BUFFALO and the HOBOKEN took care of most
of the Christopher Street traffic.  I don't think Christopher Street had
an upper deck bridge to unload passengers.  These two boats were built
in the 1920s for the old Hoboken 14th Street - NYC West 23rd Street run.
I had often wondered why Lackawanna didn't upgrade these newer boats in
the 1940s with an upper deck to replace some of the older craft.  I
think they kept them in storage at Brighton almost up until the merger -
at least that is what I remember reading in Ray Baxter's book of Hudson
River Ferry operations.

 

I have a September 1951 timetable which reports that by that time there
was no Christopher Street Ferry Service on weekends.  This picture shows
the BUFFALO under steam but there appears to be no lights on making me
think its fire is just being maintained during the layover.  I'm not an
authority on how the boats were maintained and if they were kept under a
low pressure steam when not in use.  I assume that the fires could be
banked with dampers closed and they could remain hot for days with
minimum maintenance with them being brought back to full life quickly
when the dampers were opened.

 

Any thoughts?

 

Ed Montgomery

 

 

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End of EL List Daily V3 #1458
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