(erielack) More on 741

[KSmollin_@_aol.com]

As a passenger aboard the last Erie Lackawanna Railway Co. train to roll 
through Scranton, John Boehner remembers the sense of loss. 




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And the pancakes.

Thirty-five years later, he’s part of an organization working to bring an 
essential part of the classic passenger train experience — fine dining on the 
rails — back to the area.

If everything falls into place, an authentic, fully restored Erie Lackawanna 
dining car — EL 741 — could be operating on local tracks by late next year, 
courtesy of the Erie Lackawanna Dining Car Preservation Society Inc.

The intent is to give the public “a taste of rail travel like it was in an 
era when service meant service,” from tables set with fine linens, heavy china 
and polished silver to meals prepared from fresh ingredients in the on-board 
kitchen, said Mr. Boehner, the group’s vice president for operations.

“Our project is pretty unique,” Mr. Boehner, 53, a Union Pacific Railroad 
locomotive engineer who lives outside Cheyenne, Wyo., said. “We are going to 
have original equipment running on the original line. There is no one in the 
country who is doing this.”

A mainstay on the Erie Lackawanna’s Lake Cities service between Hoboken, 
N.J., and Chicago through the 1960s, the 741 passed through Scranton on a regular 
basis, said society secretary Timothy Stuy of Parsippany, N.J. The nonprofit 
group acquired the car — one of just two Erie Lackawanna diners still in 
existence — shortly after its founding in 2001.

Mr. Stuy said the diner is now undergoing the first phase of an estimated 
$150,000 restoration at Midwest Locomotive in Kansas City, Mo. After Midwest 
finishes its work on the car’s exterior, including repair of significant rust 
damage to the roof and the floor in the kitchen area, the diner will be brought to 
Scranton for the completion of the interior work, probably in mid-2006.

Once the restoration is finished, the car will look just as it did in the 
1960s, right down to reproductions of the original china and the uniforms worn by 
the kitchen staff, Mr. Stuy said.

The Delaware-Lackawanna Railroad has offered the society space to store the 
car, he said. It would operate on tracks owned by the Lackawanna and Monroe 
county railroad authorities that were part of the Lake Cities route.

Mr. Boehner, who comes from a family of railroaders, was a 17-year-old high 
school senior in Little Falls, N.J., when he boarded the westbound Lake Cities 
on Jan. 4, 1970, in Hoboken for what would be the passenger train’s final run. 
He rode as far as Corning, N.Y., where he caught the final eastbound train 
back to Hoboken early on Jan. 5. The journey took him through Scranton twice, 
once in each direction.

“It was festive but sad,” Mr. Boehner said of the atmo-

sphere aboard the train. “Everyone knew that was the end. That was the last 
time.”

Although the society’s initial research indicated the 741 was part of the 
last westbound train, Mr. Boehner now believes it was the diner for the eastbound 
train. His on-board breakfast that morning included pancakes, which he 
recalls as “excellent” because the recipe called for mixing maple syrup into the 
batter.

“When you walked into the 741, you got a glimpse of what real railroad 
service was like. The smell of freshly prepared food would just overwhelm you,” he 
said.

Mr. Stuy, 43, said the society will eventually complement the Erie Lackawanna 
741 with another last-of-its-kind dining car acquired earlier this year — the 
Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad’s Phoebe Snow Diner 470. The society 
is in the process of raising up to $200,000 for its restoration, which will 
begin after work on the 741 is complete, he said.

The Lackawanna County Railroad Authority is encouraging the society’s 
efforts, authority executive director Larry Malski said.

Although the details of how and where the dining cars would operate have to 
be ironed out, he said, the concept dovetails neatly with the area’s emergence 
as a rail tourism destination since the establishment of the Steamtown 
National Historic Site.

“This is a natural adjunct to all the activities we’ve already invested in,” 
Mr. Malski said. “It kind of fits with everything we’ve been doing here for 
the last 20 years.”

Contact the writer: dsingleton_@_timesshamrock.comErie Lackawanna Diner 741 is 
in the midst of a $150,000 restoration at Midwest Locomotive in Kansas City, 
Mo.:

¦ Began life in 1925 as a Pullman diner assigned to Erie Railroad as number 
941. Ownership was transferred to Erie in 1930.

¦ Modernized in 1949 at Erie’s Susquehanna shops, where it was given an 
arched roof and large picture windows.

¦ Renumbered 741 at the time of the Erie Lackawanna merger in 1960.

¦ Operated on Erie Lackawanna’s Hoboken-to-Chicago Lake Cities route until 
the service was discontinued in January 1970.

¦ Placed in Erie Lackawanna’s maintenance of way service until retirement. 
Later purchased by Everett Railroad in central Pennsylvania, which sold it to 
the Erie Lackawanna Dining Car Preservation Society in 2001.

¦ Features a 32-seat dining area and a 10-seat lounge area. Weighs 
approximately 70 tons. 


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