(erielack) Ordinaries via Paterson

[Gordon Davids <g.davids_@_verizon.net>]

Bob et al - 

Ca. 1968-70, and probably dating from long before my time on the New York Division, I always heard that Croxton - Port Jervis ordinary called "The Paterson Gang."  He ran from Croxton through Paterson and Middletown for pick up, set out and local work all the way.  I don't think there was a counterpart eastward ordinary on the same route at that time.

Once upon a time (1969) we had to change the frog in Red Onion Switch.  The replacement frog and the 25-ton locomotive crane were at Paterson.  So, on Monday the Paterson section gang loaded the frog into a gon, and Sparky Wright, the Crane Operator, tied down the crane with its idler and billed the three cars to Howells Jct, to be set out on the old line to Otisville.  Tuesday morning the Paterson Gang picked up the outfit and took it to Howells.  Wednesday, the Port Jervis section gang went down to Red Onion and replaced the frog Sparky and his crane.  That afternoon, Sparky tied down the crane again at Howells, and sometime Thursday it was picked up and moved east to Croxton - I don't remember which train handled it.  Friday morning, the Paterson Gang took the crane and  idler from Croxton to Paterson.  I think we shipped the old frog to Meadville from Howells.

So it took one whole work week with a crane to replace one frog.  If we had a Burro crane and a good push car anywhere on the division we could have done it in one day.  But, someone high in EL management (NOT in the Engineering Department) had issued an edict that we were not to do business with the company that built Burro cranes.  And so it went.

We used two of those 25-ton cranes to lay all the welded rail between Denville and Morristown on both tracks.  All the wire was hot and the adjacent track was live, so we had to be REAL careful about where the booms were pointed on those cranes.

Gordon Davids

> I would say that's wrong only from the stand point that the Erie Side  
freights would normally come down the Bergen County line, but if necessary they  
could have gone the other way, it just would have meant entering Croxton from  
the opposite end. The curve and grade didn't enter into the scenario that  much.
 
Kingsland  Tunnel prevented high cars from going that way.
 
There was an ordinary referred to as the Paterson Man, that delivered and  
picked up at Paterson. Not sure if he always would cut off at Ridgewood and go  
back down to Paterson, or if he would have come up the Main Line side?
 
Bob Bahrs 



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