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(erielack) JC Pennys / NY99



There may have been a number of "hot car" services like the JC Penny 
operation back in the 1960s on the EL NY Division.  I vaguely recall hearing 
Artie Erdman say that when he first worked at Newark Tower, oh maybe around 
1965 or 66, the Newark Pusher crew used to get a refrigerator car of ice 
cream out of the Bordens plant just as the evening commuter rush hour was 
concluding, maybe around 6:30, and take it down to Croxton to get placed on 
the HB3 for morning arrival in Buffalo.  (Question for you philosophers - 
can a reefer of ice cream be considered a "hot car"?)  Unfortunately, the 
economics of 3 or 4 man crews delivering 1 or 2 cars on a "dense" railroad 
with plenty of towermen and dispatchers and maintainers (and urban property 
taxes) could not stand up against a guy with a tractor-trailer rig.  But it 
must have been pretty neat back in the 60s when the EL had 300s and 400s 
shuttling cars around at sunset, as to make the midnight hotshot.

Jim Gerofsky



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