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RE: (erielack) Fuel Deliveries by Rail



Rusty et al;

Speaking of Marathon, you may remember there was a siding next to the 
station. One of the old-timers working the local told me a 'funny tale' of 
when they were buildint the dam for the reservoir close to the town of 
Marathon.
    A boxcarload of dynamite was billed to the station but was out of place 
for an easy spot. The crew therefore decided to do a 'dutch drop'. With the 
engine headed North and the car coupled behind, they got a little speed, 
touched the independant brake, and the car was uncoupled with a good roll on 
it. The engine ran by the switch which was relined for the siding and the 
car coasted in with the brakeman winding on the handbrake - WHICH CAME ALL 
THE WAY UP - it had rusted & the chain was broken. The terrified brakeman 
rode the car to a crashing stop at the good-old DL&W concrete bumper. 
Luckily for all, the dynamite took the bump with no reaction. My thought was 
- - how much of Marathon would have been left if it blew up?  "Hello, 
dispatcher, this's Cortland & I can't get Marathon on the message wire."
    I guess the moral is - always check things out when u do this maneuver.
   I did it a lot at the old Auto-Train in the 70s, but I had an old 
conductor that really knew his stuff. One day he & I were taking cars to the 
wheel pit and a carforeman decided to perform this maneuver with a scratch 
crew using the other switch engine. They did it with the private car in 
order to get it from the back of the engine to the front of the engine. They 
backed up a good ways, started forward, cut the car off & ran the engine off 
the maintrack into a siding. DID I MENTION THIS WAS THE RR PRESIDENTS CAR??? 
When the carforeman stopped the engine he realized that he still 'frogged' 
the mainline with the corner of the enginecab (where he sat). The carknocker 
riding the private car bigholed it(dumped the air) which brought it to a 
screeching halt. Unfortunately the dishes, silverware, food, etc. went all 
over.

Regards to all
Walt Smith

>From: "Richard Recordon" <recordor_@_comcast.net>
>Reply-To: "Richard Recordon" <recordor_@_comcast.net>
>To: "EL List" <erielack_@_lists.railfan.net>
>Subject: (erielack) Fuel Deliveries by Rail
>Date: Fri, 19 Aug 2005 13:47:49 -0400
>
>Joshua's listing of the fuel depots in Cortland NY and Schuyler's memories 
>of Blitzen Supercharged Gas jogged my memory of other rail facilities in 
>the area.
>
>In that time before interstate networks and powerful over the road tractors 
>and big tank trailers most distributors got their petroleum products via 
>rail. Marathon NY on the DL&W S&U Divison also had rail delivered fuel. 
>There was at least one dealer, possibly two. There were tanks behind the 
>GLF feed store behind the station and at one time there were at least 4 
>horizontal tanks elevated on angle iron frames in the remnants of the small 
>yard across the track from the station. As I recall from photos one of 
>these tank groups was marked for Gulf Oil.
>
>Just North of Owego NY on the LV Auburn branch there were a number of large 
>horizontal tanks in a complex between the tracks and NY 38. If memory 
>serves gasoline was distributed from there.
>
>Ten miles further up Rt 38 and the Auburn Branch there were two horizontal 
>tanks at the end of the Bliss Mills siding in Newark Valley, NY. Bliss was 
>a feedmill-coal dealer-oil dealer. Delivery trucks for the oil were filled 
>by gravity from the tanks. They were marked Gulf Oil too if my memory 
>serves. I am not sure if he distributed gasoline to farms or not but almost 
>every farm of size had its own fuel tank.
>
>I am sure that a any of us aging boomers who cares to remember will re-call 
>similar facilities in most towns with a rail-served coal dealer up through 
>the late 1950s.
>
>Rusty Recordon
>
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