Re: (erielack) Looking Back

[Robert Stafford <erielack1_@_yahoo.com>]

ED,
Did you take any photos that you could share with the group? 
Bob


- ----- Original Message ----
From: "Montgomery, Edward T" <Edward.Montgomery_@_fcps.edu>
To: erielack_@_lists.railfan.net
Sent: Monday, January 30, 2006 1:56:48 PM
Subject: (erielack) Looking Back


It is January 30th and being a high school teacher I am at the semester
break.  All of a sudden the memory came to me.  On or about this date 30
years ago I was teaching at Waite High School in Toledo.  I knew that it
was just a matter of time for the EL to be absorbed into Con Rail (as it
was known then) so after I completed my grades, I got in my red and
white Chevy Blazer and drove the 100+ miles to Cleveland.  I wanted to
see the Cleveland-Youngstown commuter run.  It was a long trip because
in 1976 not all of I-90 was complete going into Cleveland.  When I got
to the Terminal Tower area I discovered that the center of the city was
pretty run down.  No urban renewal yet.  I found a place on a side
street, parked and ran over to the entrance of the terminal.  Higbees
was there and still running.  The station was impressive and it was easy
to tell that it was made for a lot of people movement but by then was
quite entry.  I worked my way down to a level where I could see the
rapid transit lines and a lot of stairs going down to tracks.  Only one
was lit with two EL trainmen greeting people.  I went downstairs and
there was Train 28.  All of the other platforms were dark but 28 was
waiting to leave.  I decided to board and walked the train.  The Phoebe
Snow coaches looked like they had been well cared for.  On the bulkheads
at the end of one car was a collection of newspaper articles describing
how the commuters kept the train running, fighting the railroad and
PUCO.  I had thought that most of the passengers were non-payers; EL
employees riding on a pass.  After walking the train I found E8 833 on
the front and within a few minutes in semi-darkness it departed.  Even
at the end, the train was clean, the exterior was washed, and it gave
the impression of a railroad that cared.  That was my final view of the
EL - a lasting memory.



I walked back through the empty trainshed area upstairs through the
station which was even quieter and headed back to Toledo.  It's hard to
believe that 30 years have passed since that encounter.



Ed Montgomery







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