(erielack) Article about Diner 741 - Congrats ELDCPS!

[Will Enser <alcoman_@_net.bluemoon.net>]

From another list I am on..


Message: 1
    Date: Tue, 04 Oct 2005 07:51:18 -0000
    From: "Johnny" 
Subject: About a dining car that will call the D-L home

This article appeared in Scrantons paper on Sunday, Oct. 2nd...  An 
Article about a dining car undergoing resotoration that will call the 
Delaware-Lackawanna home upon completion...

About EL 741 A TASTE FOR RAIL TRAVEL

BY DAVID SINGLETON STAFF WRITER 10/02/2005

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

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 atmosphere 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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