[Date Prev][Date Next] [Chronological] [Thread] [Top]

(erielack) DL&W M.U. War Stories



I'm inviting any one of you who may have rode (or been in the cab of) the
DL&W's venerable Green Hornets over the years to tell any interesting
stories about the operation of the multiple units (M.U.s)... I'll start...

When I was commuting to college daily between Mountain Station in South
Orange and Newark (NJ), I would once a week, because of an early class,
take the 7:47 am out of South Orange.  This ten-car train ran non-stop to
Newark and got me in a little early for my 8:30 class.  I would always sit
in the tenth car, since it was usually the only car on the train where you
could be guaranteed a window seat.  (The tenth car was a trailer car, not a
power car.)  And even though I rode on that particular train only once a
week, I got to know most of the people in the car since typically there
were no more than twenty or thirty of us in there...and always the same
twenty or thirty.  Anyway, one bitterly cold morning--I'll guess in January
or February 1976--I climbed the steps of the car at South Orange and turned
left to enter the tenth car and saw that the window shade was down on the
door of the car.  This usually was only done if the car was closed or if it
was one of the parlor cars.  Still wanting my window seat, I opened the
door and found a darkened and thoroughly frigid car--no heat
whatsoever--with the full contingent of regulars, each sitting in his or
her usual seats...in the dark!  So, I sat down in my usual window seat and
the first thing I noticed was that you could see your breath, as the
temperature must have been well below freezing in the car.  Everyone in the
car was carrying on as if nothing out of the ordinary was going on.
Imagine the surprise on the conductor's face when he poked his head into
the tenth car expecting to see an empty car.  I don't know if he missed us,
but he commented to the group of three that always sat near the door that
he thought that pulling down the entrance door shade would discourage
us...but it didn't.  All I remember after that is that the conductor
shrugged his shoulders and turned on the lights in the car...at least THEY
worked.



	The Erie Lackawanna Mailing List
	Sponsored by the ELH&TS
	http://www.elhts.org

------------------------------