(erielack) FW: [rlhsgroup] Longest Train Order ???

["Schuyler Larrabee" <schuyler.larrabee_@_verizon.net>]

A cyber-friend of mine posted the following on the RLHS list: 

N.B.  Running "wild" = running "extra."

> Subject: [rlhsgroup] Longest Train Order ???
> 
> List
> I mentioned a while back - in connection with Don Morrison's 
> remarks about trains running wild - having seen an old Erie 
> train order which (the road claimed) was the longest ever 
> written. It was written up for a crew on the old New York & 
> Greenwood Lake, a 40-some mile, mostly single-track line, 
> stretching between Jersey City and Sterling Forest on the 
> NY-NJ border. Traffic was mostly commuters and local freight. 
> 
> Anyway I finally located a copy in the Feb 1918 edition of 
> what was then called "Erie Employes Magazine". I am copying 
> it verbatim below. As I recall the train it was issued to was 
> an all-night "drill" (in Eastern railroad parlance), working 
> up and down the line as needed.
> 
> "31 JC 8-8-1886 6:52 PM
> [Conductor David] Day & Engr 1 PC
> 
> "Run wild between State Line and Jersey City until eight 
> o'clock to-morrow A.M., following Engine 162 and keep out of 
> the way of excursion train with Engine 101, which will leave 
> State Line at seven o'clock for Jersey City. Engine Six after 
> arriving at Little Falls with Train Thirty-Five (35) 
> to-night, will run wild to Pompton Junction, and Engine Seven 
> (7) will then return from Pompton Junction to Little Falls. 
> Engine 163 will leave Jersey City at six o'clock to-morrow 
> morning for Orange.
> Engine Five (5) between four o'clock and five o'clock 
> tomorrow morning, will go from Pompton Junction to Ringwood. 
> Keep out of the way of all of the above wild trains and engines. 
> Engine 101 will couple in with you and help you from Jersey 
> City to Cooper. Show this to Engine
> 101 as his order."
> 
> "32 OK Freeman SS
> CH"
> 
> The editor noted the order had been featured in an issue of 
> Railroad Man's Magazine. He also said that every railroader 
> who read it came away shaking his head!
> 
> [Btw, SS was Stephen Smith, Supt. Greenwood Lake Div. CH was 
> Charles Hering, a train dispatcher at Jersey City. I believe 
> he was the one who actually wrote the order. Btw, Mr. Hering 
> was frequently written about and/or quoted in Erie employee 
> magazines up until his death, in the 1930s I think. This was 
> true of a number of employees, mostly on the road's East End, 
> including the conductor who received the order, David Day.]
> 
> tommy meehan


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