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RE: (erielack) Perishables in EL years
As you might know, a lot of produce went into New York by rail- up until the
mid 1960's to the Produce Market which stood in the WTC/WFC neighborhood,
right by the river, by carfloat and later to Hunts Point in the Bronx, most
I believe via NY Central. I know that in the Hoboken/Jersey City area there
were a number of food warehouses (including Union Cold Storage and Seaboard
Cold Storage), also down in the Newark/Elizabeth area there were a number of
them, some still served by truck alone (I think Shop Rite is/was one, also
White Rose by the Airport) where there was once a train to truck transfer.
There are of course reefers around today, and they have to go somewhere...
Weren't those Western Fruit Express or Pacific Fruit Express reefers in the
picture? The Union Cold Storage Terminal was in operation up until 1992 or
so if I understand the aticles correctly (though it could have closed
anytime between 1986 and then). Looking at a map it looks like north to
south, it was the Union Terminal, the Holland Tunnel entrance, then the
Newport Center Mall. What/ where was the rail link between the Union
Terminal area and the Erie areas to the south?
For those of you who are also into firefighting, you might recall how nasty
is when of those old brick, cork and wood places catch fire, and the results
can be fatal as they were in Worcester, MA in 1999 since these building hold
heat as well as they hold cold. Of course, the E-L past and NJT on ex-EL
has had some close calls (anyone rembember Apollo Dye in Paterson almost
collapsing on to the Main Line in the spring of 2001)?
- -----Original Message-----
From: erielack-owner_@_lists.elhts.org
[mailto:erielack-owner_@_lists.elhts.org]On Behalf Of Tupaczewski, Paul R
(Paul)
Sent: Friday, March 17, 2006 1:32 PM
To: 'erielack_@_lists.elhts.org'
Subject: (erielack) Perishables in EL years
Hi folks,
The recent discussion of cold storage warehouses in Jersey City got me
thinking... We know that perishables to the New York market were a big
business for the Erie (and to a lesser degree on the DL&W), but how did this
change in EL years? You would occasionally see some old 40' reefers on the
EL into the late 1960s (I have some video footage showing a pair of GB&W
reefers on an eastbound entering Croxton yard), and more often you'd see the
57' mechanical reefers with western roadnames.
The question is, where did those cars go? I don't remember seeing many of
the 57' cars being carfloated over to New York. I would guess those cold
storage warehouses in the Jersey City area, as well as supermarket
distribution points in the greater New Jersey area, were the primary
recipients of these cars. Is my assumption correct?
Does anyone know what percentage of EL traffic was made up of perishables in
the 1970s? Obviously, there were no perishable hotshots anymore, so how
valuable was this traffic, really?
- Paul
The Erie Lackawanna Mailing List
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