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Re: (erielack) Fw: The Ghost Train

Along the lines of ELDERLY railroad employees and other old things on the 
railroad.................

In many of the places I worked on the ERIE side & the DL&W side, there was 
still lots of history for those whose minds had not been so totally dulled 
by repetitious work that they could not discover little tidbits here & 
there. One of these I discovered in the old DL&W roundhouse in Conklin, NY 
when I was working the night hostlers job (11-7). In addition to the 
privelege of sitting opposite the night foreman (Mr. Clarence Lavelle) at 
the second of the 2 desks, there was a huge bulletin board next to the 
office where the crews were marked up & jobs advertised. At about 3am one 
night I began reading the many notices of long-gone jobs etc. One of the 
notice boards was on a clipboard which had a 2-ring device that would hold 
papers having 2 holes punched in them. It had about 3 inches of notices on 
it & when I finally got to the bottom I found someone had posted a 
photograph from the Binghamton SUN showing 2 men riding in a limousine 
captioned THE NEW PRESIDENT RIDES TO HIS INAUGURATION WITH HIS PREDECESSOR, 
HERBERT HOOVER. Whooaaaa, I really had to look at this & sure enough, the 
crumbling paper had a picture ofFDR at his first inaugural. After getting 
over the shock, I raised this last paper to discover beneath & glued to the 
wood a picture of PRESIDENT-ELECT HOOVER RIDES TO HIS INAUGURATION WITH HIS 
PREDECESSOR (This photograph showed the 2 men in a carriage).
That old roundhouse office was loaded with stuff like that & last time I was 
in Binghamton (1996) I saw that it was fenced in & semi-abandoned. I 
remember thinking if any of that stuff was still inside - sitting as it had 
been when I saw those things from over 30 years before I saw them in 1963.
Regards to all,
Walter E. Smith

>From: JJordan <eltrainmaster_@_copper.net>
>Reply-To: JJordan <eltrainmaster_@_copper.net>
>To: "Walter Smith" <wsmith5957_@_hotmail.com>, jon@scaptura.com,        
>erielack_@_lists.railfan.net, PapaG1954@aol.com
>CC: richardble_@_worldnet.att.net, johnkluge@citcom.net, 
>railroaddoug_@_erols.com,        overcrailway@aol.com, alfred_runte@msn.com
>Subject: Re: (erielack) Fw: The Ghost Train
>Date: Fri, 01 Apr 2005 16:23:30 -0500
>
>Hey guys-
>
>Wait a minute!  Wait a minute!  I've always taken Walter's stories as
>gospel but let's figure this out.
>
>The flagman, who let say started working for the railroad at age 15, was
>the flagman on the Lincoln Funeral Train at 15 in 1856!  and he still works
>for Tri-Rail (whatever that is).  That means he's at least 164 years.  That
>must be a new record for long life???  or do we have our dates/trains mixed
>up???
>
>And I thought I was older than dirt.
>
>-Joe Jordan
>
>At 04:04 PM 4/1/05 -0500, Walter Smith wrote:
> >I don't know about the Lincoln funeral train going thru Binghamton, but I 
>DO
> >believe one of my engineers - Leroy Utter - was fireman on the job at 
>that
> >time. I was firing for Utter in '63 (1963 that is) I told him I was 
>dating
> >an exchange student from France and old Utter mentioned that he'd been to
> >France during the 'war'. I assumend he meant 1944 or 45, but when he
> >mentioned the Red Cross giving him 'Sweet Caporal ' cigarettes, I 
>realized
> >he meant Woodrow Wilsons war to make the world safe for democracy. Along
> >those lines, we had a RFE at Tri-Rail who was a former EL man from 
>Norwich
> >and I think he was the flagman on the Lincoln Funeral train........he 
>still
> >works for Tri-Rail.
> >Regards to all,
> >Walter Smith
> >
> >>From: JJordan <eltrainmaster_@_copper.net>
> >>Reply-To: JJordan <eltrainmaster_@_copper.net>
> >>To: "Jon Scaptura" <jon_@_scaptura.com>, <erielack@lists.railfan.net>
> >>Subject: Re: (erielack) Fw: The Ghost Train
> >>Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2005 22:41:23 -0500
> >>
> >>Oh my God!  They buried the whole train??
> >>
> >>-Joe Jordan
> >>
> >>At 10:32 PM 3/30/05 -0500, Jon Scaptura wrote:
> >> >This was forwarded to me by a co-worker who noticed the Erie and
> >>Lackawanna
> >> >photos on my office wall. This is the first I've heard of this. Anyone
> >>else
> >> >hear this story?
> >> >
> >> >Jon Scaptura
> >> >Endicott, NY
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >>
> >---------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>-----
> >> >
> >> >From: T B []
> >> >Sent: Wed 3/30/2005 7:41 AM
> >> >To:
> >> >Subject: FW: The Ghost Train
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >Ever hear anything  about this ???
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >  - tim -
> >> >
> >> >-----Original Message-----
> >> >Subject: The Ghost Train
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >  Did you ever hear the legend of the Abraham Lincoln Ghost Train that
> >>was
> >> >spotted in the Binghamton area?  Apparently back in the day, Lincoln's
> >>body
> >> >was taken through all the big cities.  It went thru Philly to New 
>York,
> >>and
> >> >then thru Buffalo to Chicago to eventually get to Illinois where it 
>was
> >> >buried. Looking at my Erie/Lackawanna map on the wall, the oooollld 
>line
> >> >from back in the day would have taken the train from New York, through
> >>Port
> >> >Jervis, and Calicoon, eventually through Binghamton, west on the line
> >> >through Johnson City, Endicott, Waverly, Elmira, etc.  A story I read
> >>said
> >> >there was a cop on duty late one night, and he parked along the 
>tracks, I
> >> >believe it was Vestal, as I remember.  Through the mist he saw a train
> >> >coming, but the light wasn't the usual bright light.   The engine came
> >>out
> >> >of the darkness, and it was an old steam engine, draped in bunting, 
>and
> >> >there were several old time passenger cars.   In the last car he could
> >>see
> >> >the coffin in the window.  He thought he was going insane.  He 
>mentioned
> >>it
> >> >to a friend  who told him it was the anniversary of the night the 
>train
> >>came
> >> >through there.  That date is coming up. Lincoln was shot April 14th, 
>died
> >> >the 15th.  And it would be a matter of a few days until the train rode
> >> >through Binghamton.
> >> >
> >> >
> >
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