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(erielack) JC Pennys / NY99
- Subject: (erielack) JC Pennys / NY99
- From: "JG at graytrainpix" <graytrainpix_@_hotmail.com>
- Date: Mon, 18 Apr 2005 20:47:53 -0400
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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