(erielack) Lackawanna Lightweight Coaches

["Richard Recordon" <recordor_@_comcast.net>]

Paul,

I rode these coaches from the time I was about 6 years old until my last ride when I was 16. Never had any trouble looking out of the windows even as a small kid. Cars always struck me as light and airy. A pleasure to ride in and you could even get a good view out the windows across the aisle. My father always went for the 4 facing seats that were usually set up at the ends of the car when we were all traveling together.

Remember the bathroom and accompanying lounge well. As Tim said the men used to hang out in the lounge and smoke. A long couch type seat was against the wall separating the lounge from the seating area of the coach. The sinks were against the wall toward the end of the car, and the small door to the toilet was at the car side of this wall.

Toilet always fascinate me as the rumble of the train was always very muted in the windowless, dimly lighted booth. That was until you flushed the toilet and could look down to see the roadbed blurring by beneath the car. The first time I did that as a little kid I thought I had broken something. My father explained it to me. It was a real thrill when a train was blasting by in the opposite direction.

Every once in a while I would end up in there alone and I would just hang out on the couch pretending I had my own private car. Conductor once came in for a smoke and caught me in there. Rather than throwing me out he talked to me about working on the railroad. Ended up giving me a bunch of the canceled checks they used to stick on the backs of the seats to keep track of passengers. I must have been 7 or 8. Experiences like that made me a Laxkawanna man for life.

Glad to hear the Boehners have saved one of these cars.

Rusty

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