> The Erie's reluctance to permit RDCs was, I believe, because they were so > light they would not reliably trip the signals in the Arches. The NYS&W RDCs were good enough to shunt the signals on the NYS&W and at Granton Jct., and elsewhere that used the same technology as the tracks through the arches -- and the tunnel for that matter. And, yes, NYS&W trains sometimes used the tunnel, right up until the end. Without getting into the details of RDCs -- that'll bring down the list's thought police (like discussions on bans on photographing trains) since E-L and predecessors didn't own any, but suffice to say RDCs were equipment with special shunt devices for railroads that didn't trust them; there were other rules too -- NYCentral ran an absolute block behind single car RDCs, the Reading and other railroads required a "second stop" at stations and signals where sand might have been used on the rails, etc. As I pointed out, the two NYS&W Saturday trains were the **only** trains using this trackage on weekends. In any case, did I say tracks? The Erie was pretty quick to single-track the Arches, so as to cut down on Hudson County property taxes. The tunnel was used as extra tracks at the end if needed. The footnote to all this is that some of the ex-Erie guys went berserk twenty-some years later when the MTA proposed putting thos RDC shuttles on Suffern-Port Jervis. And it was an ex-DL&W guy in Conrail told the Erie guys to go "learn railroading." > That grade crossing still exists; it's still a horror and a terror. The > road crosses the Northern just north of the NYS&W junction at Babbitt and > right underneath the West Shore, which is crossing over the Northern at > that point. Indeed -- I wrecked a rental car there when a large truck pulling out of Triangle shoved me into the bridge abutment about two years ago. > > If you modelled it, nobody would believe it. Yeah -- they'd think you'd "measured wrong" <g>. Cheers, Jim The Erie Lackawanna Mailing List Sponsored by the ELH&TS http://www.elhts.org ------------------------------ End of EL List Daily V3 #1760 *****************************
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