Re: (rshsdepot) Re:SIRT

["James R. Guthrie" <jguthrie_@_pipeline.com>]

rshsdepot
I'm not usually active on this list, but here's an answer to a
question posed to me on NYC West Side Line service that might add some
insight:

>Question:  what kind of passenger service was there on this line and
when
>did it end.  I remember running into a former Supt. of Marine
Operations
>for the NYC who told m there was a once a week passenger train into
the
>early 40's that was run for franchise purposes.

Cleaning out the mailbox, I found that I don't believe I responded . .
.

The passenger service appears to have "gone away" more or less without
notice. This was one of two local operations The other see below) that
alledgedly still was rideable when I was a teen. There were always
some ERA or RRE guys that had claimed to have just ridden the line on
the once-a-week train that allowed the public to ride.

Keep in mind that all of the mail trains to 30th Street carried a
rider coach, but that one had to be in the right place at the right
time to board -- according to the guys that claimed to ride. Whether
or not this was officially permitted or that conductors merely were
figuring that someone boarding at Harmon for 30th St knew where they
were going is not something I'm dead certain of . . .

The other operation was the B&O/SIRT. There had never ben an official
discontinuance of service between Arlington and Cranford, so the story
always circulated that this was rideable if one was in the right place
at the right time. One of the guys who claimed to have done this
actually had a CFR showing he had ridden the train -- though in the
SIRT case -- a caboose.

[The EJ&E offered mixed train service in the same spirit, by the way.]

Perhaps there never was a discontinuance, and CSX is obligated to run
a train for passengers on the line to this day.

Cheers,
Jim



It was written:


> rshsdepot
> Living in Cranford I did some research through microfilm copies of
the local
> town newspaper.  There was only a brief period, I believe in the
1800s, when
> the B&O ran experimental service between Cranford and Staten Island.
I
> believe this was only done for a month or two.
>
> I believe I have a copy of the original article someplace.  I'll try
to dig
> it up and I'll post the details.
>
> Bernie Wagenblast

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