(erielack) EL East End Operations

["Paul Brezicki" <doctorpb_@_bellsouth.net>]

Yesterday's digest was very entertaining, with it's salvoes of claims and
counterclaims and as always, lots of good info. It's quite apparent that if
you do make a claim, you'd better be sure of your facts, otherwise someone
(like Paul T) will come up with a photo (or 3 or 4) to refute it!

I'm always impressed with the quantity of good content in the Diamond. Let
me share some info from a gem of a back issue I recently acquired, V6#2. If
you're interested in EL operations, this one's a must-have. One article
covers daily operation of  2/100 (the "UPS train") during Jan '75 in great
detail. What's especially interesting is that in what appears to be an
experiment, 12 of the 20 trains that month were split at Meadville into 2
sections: a short (10-12 car) Port Jervis section, and the main section
which ran via Scranton. They were presumably trying to expedite the Cx
traffic by avoiding the Del div'n and the setoff at Port. It certainly
wasn't due to excessive train, as the combined train never exceeded 46 cars,
or 3500 tons. Due to the delay at Meadville and the increased operating
cost, the split occured only sporadically during the following 14 months. It
also negated the raison d'etre for the SDP45's/Dash2's and their 5,000 gal
fuel tanks, which were designed to expedite Chicago-NY hotshots by skipping
the Meadville refueling. When not split, the train operated via Port because
like CX-99, it handled the Stratford Ct UPS trailers. However this splitting
does help explain (along with a few detours) 2/100's presence on the
Scranton side.

Another notable that is not surprising given EL's circumstances at the time:
despite usually departing Chicago ahead of schedule (up to an hour), the
train was always late arriving Cx, largely due to slow orders. Finally the
authors mention a review of operation of A/CX-99 in V4#2 of Erie Railfan
(1978). I would really like to see this; does anyone have this issue?

The other article is by former EL yardmaster Bob Malinoski, who chronicled
all arrivals/departures from Croxton Yd during a 5 day period in 12-75.
Since this data was recorded as it happened (as opposed to recollected 30
years hence), I consider it a definitive source. Paul T, since it appears
you're modelling the Boonton Line in the 70's, you'll wan't to get your
hands on this one. Some highlights:

The pigs: 100 and 2/100 consistently late; 100 arriving mid-morning vs
scheduled 0600, 2/100 noon or early afternoon vs 1100. Weekend editions
often ran later due to combining with other trains and less critical arrival
times. (From previous article, 2/100 was once combined with SF-100 at Port,
and incurred a 3 hour delay doing so.)
Westbound: NY-99 at 2300, ACX-99 at 0300, CX-99 at 0530, usually departing
aos.
2/100 and CX-99 via HX, the others via DB.

Buffalo trains: The only remaining Bfo-Cx train was BC-2. TC-4 evidently
usually terminated at Suffern since it was mostly auto parts, on the few
occasions it arrived Cx it was under 20 cars. DN-90 was a victim of the
recession.
TC-1 was mostly Mahwah traffic and usually originated there but ran via
Scranton. One morning the DW (Middletown) Turn arrived via HX with 44 empty
hy-cubes and was sent out intact via DB as TC-1.

Lots more interesting stuff but this post is already way too long. From the
other day, Rich, can you provide more detail on ND-91, what the blocks were
and what traffic it carried? Paul, can you be talked into posting again that
consist sheet for SF-100? Thanks.

Paul B



	The Erie Lackawanna Mailing List
	Sponsored by the ELH&TS
	http://www.elhts.org

------------------------------