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(erielack) May Calendar Picture



This picture almost looks like EL paid for a publicity shot for their own calendar -- if they had one.  The equipment is clean and the roadbed looks good -- no weeds or anything around.  One point of interest for me:  I looked up the date and May 30, 1970 was a Saturday.  I was at the Oakland Army Terminal on that day waiting to be assigned to Vietnam.  At the end of the terminal was a railroad yard probably belonging to SP.  They were shuffling some cars around and there was a recently repainted CNJ box and some EL cars reminding me of home in New Jersey.  I'd be on the plane to the big VN on the following Monday morning June 1st.  The caption stated the EL was "flourishing" in 1970.  I'm not so sure that was true.  By the 70s, even before the hurricane the blossom was beginning to wilt --true or false?  
 
I had visited Hoboken earlier in May and found the EL through-line equipment all white-lined and ready for moves off of the company property except for the coaches retained for the Cleveland-Youngstown train.  One thing that crossed my mind about that was this thought:  By the time 1970 rolled around were all of the old Erie rebuilt coaches retired?  I think there were enough of the newer Lackawanna cars to cover The Lake Cities.  And speaking of that:  just how much equipment had to be maintained to keep that train running?  I assume additional cars were kept for special runs but don't remember seeing a lot of them around Hoboken.
 
Ed Montgomery
 

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