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(erielack) Re: pecking order

I am 66, lived in Leonia, NJ, from 1943 to 1967, family still there. Sure there was Erie steam there, but I never paid attention until it was three trains down weekdays AM, three trains up weekdays PM with Stillwells behind (no push-pull) and RS-3. I rode the Phoebe Snow innumerable times to Binghamton connecting to Syracuse from 1953-59, wandered terminals and stations as a geeky teen train fan those years - Grand Central, Flatbush Ave. Brooklyn, Penn Station, Weehawken, Hoboken, Jersey City Erie and CNJ. The NJ terminals had some steam in 1950. I watched the Erie bus (usually a dilapidated Public Service older commuter bus) leaving the Rockefeller Center ticket office, and the B&O buses at Boro Hall Brooklyn and midtown Manhattan. I rode all the ferries from Alpine/Yonkers, Edgewater/125th St. [Electric ferries!], NYC 42nd St., DL&W Hoboken/Barclay St., Erie JC/Chambers St., and CNJ JC/Christopher St. I never was asked for fare or a train ticket on the RR ferries. North River
 traffic was so heavy in the 40's and 50's that the ferries literally wove their way through shipping - including many many rr car ferries - on their trans-Hudson routes. I finally got a chance to ride Pullman NYC-Detroit in January 1959, DL&W ran a through heavyweight sleeper via NYCentral, when I called I was told that it had just been discontinued in Oct. or Nov. 1958 so I ended up on the unglamorous PRR "Red Arrow" in a roomette. In July 1965 I took 30 Boy Scouts to Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico via the "Lake Cities" to Chicago, thence Denver Zephyr and Texas Zephyr to Trinidad, CO; returned via Denver Zephyr from Colorado Springs, and Phoebe Snow from Chicago Dearborn Station. That included an engine ride in an Explorer leader uniform chronicled in an anecdote published by Trains magazine several years ago. That ended my NJ trips save Florida runs while in the service, until a glorious trip to Pt. Jervis last March. I'd recommend that trip to anyone. I never worked on a
 railroad, but my first post-service job was computer supervisor for REA Express, got a ride to Chicago and back in a heavyweight roomette on the "General" passes not accepted on the Broadway Limited. Now my question is, did I see enough DL&W, Erie, and EL to rise a little off the chicken-house floor? Or am I too at the bottom of the pecking order? Or, better yet, does it matter? I'm not counting my Florida trips, Minneapolis trips, or many PRR rides. 

Joel McEachen in CT 

> A pecking order isn't bad but I'm interested in members ages.
>  
> I'm an Erie steam era fan, not EL and not current day.
>  
> Chuck Yungkurth has been a tremendous source of information for me
(too bad he didn't grow up in Erie territory).
>  
> Randy Brown is old enough to remember steam and Jerry Heckman saw
steam growing up but it was gone by the time he started working for the
railroad.
>  
> Are there any other group members who actually saw Erie steam?
>  
> Ed Mines
>  
> Edward B. Mines
> 238 Willard Dr.
> Hewlett, NY  11557
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