- -----Original Message----- From: MDelvec952_@_aol.com [mailto:MDelvec952@aol.com] Sent: Wednesday, November 02, 2005 5:09 PM To: erielack-owner_@_lists.elhts.org Subject: On Bridge 60, towers and train starters In a message dated 11/1/05 6:36:54 PM Eastern Standard Time, Dlw1el2_@_aol.com writes: > Is had an interlocking tower in the middle of it. Is there a picture of this somewhere? The bridges on the original sections of DL&W were numbered from the west some time after the first train operated in 1851. I've seen references to Bridge 60 in 19th Century writings about the area, and indeed in Taber's 19th Century volume I recall a photo of it referenced by that name. Remember, too, that in the beginning when the bridge numbering was likely done, DL&W connected with the Erie at Great Bend. Another tower located on a bridge: Washington, New Jersey, located directly over today's Route 57. On that cartoon from a few weeks ago: I'd like to see the context under which it was drawn or presented in print. It appeared in 1892, but the equipment and operating style is from a decade or two previous to the 1890s, so it might have been making fun of that earlier era, sort of like us in 1992 poking fun at the RS3s pulling Boonton Line coaches or Stillwells of the 1970s. Too, I hadn't before heard of true "starters" at Hoboken, though I guess it's possible. More likely it's something the artist incorporated into the cartoon for humor to draw a parallel to a "toonerville trolley"-like operation. A "starter" is usually the person on a platform who releases trolley cars at certain intervals to maintain headways when there is no schedule. During frequent service times the starter may release cars every two minutes, for example, or any predermined interval. It's an old term that I've only ever heard referenced on trolly lines. Main line railroads ran by timetable so starters weren't common. Mike Del Vecchio - -- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.361 / Virus Database: 267.12.6/151 - Release Date: 10/28/2005 - -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.361 / Virus Database: 267.12.6/151 - Release Date: 10/28/2005 The Erie Lackawanna Mailing List Sponsored by the ELH&TS http://www.elhts.org ------------------------------
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