I had hoped to put this posting as an addition to my report of riding the Suncook Valley Mixed four times as a youngster of 13, on the 2nd through 5th visits to a Concord, NH, dentist while attending a summer camp near Center Barnsted NH, witih the bus driver giving me permission to do so! But I cannot find the posting either here or on the TRAINS Steam and.Restoration Forum, and search isn't working for me. Maybe someone can point me in the right direction, or tell me if it was yanked and if so why.
Something similsr happened slightly over two year laters, early September 1947, age 15-1/2. I was reminded of it this morning because of an incident at the Yeshiva. I was setting up the chairs and tables for breakfast after morning prayer (the floor had been cleaned late evening), when one of the students told me there won't be a breakfast, no food. The expected delivary had not arrived. An error, a mistake, he said. I calmly completed what I planned on doing. There is always food in the frig, leftovers that are fresh enough not to be thrown away, and any student is permitted to snack. So I then made a small breakfast for myself. Soon, other students came and joined me, and the responsible student saw the light and made a decent breakfast for everyone.
That September 1947, I was invited by Uncle Nat Lewis (owner of the drug store across from the LIRR Flatbush Termina), Aunt Hanna, Cousin David, my age and in my class at Columbia Grammer Prep., and his 1-1/2-year younger brother Kenneh to visit them where they had spent the summer at Hallcott Center, in the Catskill Mountains. They told me the bus schedule to Fleishmans, NY, and said (via phone) they would meet me at the busstop there. When I asked if I could get there by train, they said no.
That evening, I went to Hoboken to do my usual weekly volunteer office work at Electric RRers Asoc. HQ, the room shared with the NY Society of Model Engineers, upstairs of the DL&W Terminal. I asked Herman Rinke, who was still the towerman at Spuyten Diyvel, whether I could go by train to Fleishmans, and he told me that I could via the West Shore and the Ulster and Delaware branch from Kingston. A reasonably current OG was found, the schedules noted, another phonecall made, and I enjoyed the trip immensely. No problem to ride the subway to 42nd Street, walk to 12th Avenue, by a ronnd-trip ticket to Fleishmans, enjoy the upper deck of the ferry to Weehawken, admire the J1 Hudson at the head of an Albany Express, enjoy the view of the Hudson from the right side of a conventional open-window coach, then board a coach behind a combine behind a ten-wheeler at Kingston, and be picked up by Uncle Nat in his station wagon in Fleishmans. The return trip after a long weekend was even more interesting, because the return U&D train had a meet with a westbound freight at Fleishmans (apparently 4-6-0's were used for everything on the branch), a Pacific headed the connection at Kingston, and I was not chased off the rear platform riding all the way back to Weehawken. We passed a northbound freight headed by a Mowhawk. I think by Autumn 1947, steam had already been replaced by diesels on the Century and other limiteds, but steam still ruled the West Shore.
Now where can I find the Suncook Valley posting? The "search" gives me "Timed Out, Server Not Responding."
And how many of you have similar don't accept "NO" answers?
Daveklepper: Check out your posting "Trips of long ago". The topic appears on the third page of the forum index. I thought, for about half a day, that I had solved the mystery of Suncook Valley #2. I remembered a photo in the book "Hoot, Toot and Whistle" about the Hoosac Tunnel and Wilmington, of a locomotive with the lettering "S.V.Ry" on its' tender. When I finally located the book, the photo was of 2-6-0 #6 at the home of its' former owner, the Schoharie Valley Railway. Oh well. The mystery persists!
Please continue those postings. The stories are wonderful.
Jonn
Thanks. What I did not know is that the Search Engine only looks at titles and never at content. Mystery Nol 2 solved!
Henry, For some unkown reason, when I tried to correct spelling in the post, it got posted, and then the one with corrected spelling got posted, so I wished to delete the one with the spelling mistakes. Appreciate your comments on my trip. Yes, most NYC-area ferry boats were steam powered in 1947. I am not sure if the Central ever switched to diesel before giving up the service.
There is a long out of print softcover book on the Suncook Valley titled "Blueberry Express". It is high time to reprint the book in expanded form! When submitting a theme I think it is much better to use the name of the railroad when doing so. 1OldGoat's lead off on the MIdland Continental is a perfect example. I am guilty too when posting a reply and we all tend to get off track when doing so. However, when the theme is for a specific railroad it appears that the name of same is better suited for this purpose.
I would like to see Classic Trains add Fallen Flag shortlines to each issue. Most FF cover Class One railroads. Raise the cover price a buck or two and expand to 100 pages per issue! The increase will be well worth it and I don't believe any readers will complain.
Trains Illustrated should return too, as a bi-annual. It was the best magazine next to Trains to come off the Kalmbach printing press!!!
Trinity River Bottoms Boomer I would like to see Classic Trains add Fallen Flag shortlines to each issue. Most FF cover Class One railroads. Raise the cover price a buck or two and expand to 100 pages per issue! The increase will be well worth it and I don't believe any readers will complain.
I believe they did do that early on, maybe the first couple of years. I miss it but don't know why it was dropped. Unless they ran out of flags.
RIDEWITHMEHENRY is the name for our almost monthly day of riding trains and transit in either the NYCity or Philadelphia areas including all commuter lines, Amtrak, subways, light rail and trolleys, bus and ferries when warranted. No fees, just let us know you want to join the ride and pay your fares. Ask to be on our email list or find us on FB as RIDEWITHMEHENRY (all caps) to get descriptions of each outing.
Henry, on your ride with me excursions, you must have had at least one incident where you were told you could not ride some train or go some place and then found a way to do so!
Not exactly. I look at public timetables and employee schedules where I can, connections, non connections, alternate modes and their schedules and connections, watch daily web site posting and delays to contemplate need for back up plans. Think about it, go over it again. Then do it. Have never been told not to or can't and surprise those with the unique things I pull off. Sometime the hardest thing to do is convince people things can be done; other times it convincing some there are things which can't be done. So, in effect, if there is something that can't be done, I am the one that tells me.
I hired a travel agent to set up a trip for me... flight for me from Iowa to my eldest son's wedding in Chapel Hill, NC, then a train trip for my other son and I to a week's stay in Washington, DC and then on to Princeton, NJ. to take him home, and a flight for me from Newark, NJ back to Iowa. All was fine, except the part from Washington to Princeton... the travel agent could not figure it out. She said I would need to stop at the AMTRAK ticket office in Washington and get my ticket there.
When it was time to leave Washington, I went to the AMTRAK ticket office and explained to the lady the problem. She rolled her eyes and mumbled something about stupid travel agents and gave me a ticket... No problem!
Aboard the already moving train, the Conductor took our tickets and ripped them apart and then stopped and re-read them. "I am sorry gentlemen, this train doesn't stop in Princeton!" Now what?
I joked with the conductor asking if we could just jump off as the train went through? He apparently didn't realize I was joking and panicked, telling me that we would be going much too fast to survive jumping from the train and he could not allow it.
I laughed and asked what we could do. He said to get off in Philadelphia and take an NJT commuter train to Princeton. He then apologized for tearing the tickets apart as that meant we could not get a cash refund for that part of the trip at the ticket office, but would have to send the tickets to AMTRAK and would be refunded by check in the mail. (BTW: that worked just fine!)
Made the transfer with ease and got to Princeton okay, but I am still wondering what that ticket agent in Washington was thinking!
Semper Vaporo
Pkgs.
Classic Trains Do Over:
Increase publication to Bi-monthly. 100 page issues. (I'll accept the cover price adjustment!). Fallen Flag shortline coverage. Color Center-fold (railroad, industry or AAR posters would be nice!) Video preview of all new issues. Perhaps I should take a crash course in journalism and strart my own publication? I'll call it TRAIN-a magazine of railroading!
Back in the pre-Amtrak days, I planned several trips that took me over lines that were new to me. One such trip, as I planned it, took me from Detroit to Washington entirely on the C&O. As usual, I took my itinerary to the Southern station in Tuscaloosa and gave it to the passenger man there for him to send it to Atlanta so he would have the right numbers for my fare. When it came back from Atlanta it had me taking a bus from Detroit to connect with the Capitol Limited instead of C&O all the way. I politely objected; it went back for correction, and the correction came in time for me to travel as planned. I do not know if the fare, C&O versus B&O, was competitive, but it was the way I wanted to go.
Johnny
Semper: At least at one time there one or more Amtrak Wash-NY trains that stopped at Princeton Jc. But very few and most did not. And don't today.
Quick check of weekday schedules for Amtrak trains stopping at Princeton Jct show two southbound Regionals and a Keystone service train in the morning, and two afternoon northbound Regionals.
I believe Newark, DL, has somewhat similar Amtrak service.
Looks like one-a-day for Newark DE.
south in the morning and north in the evening? I used this service once many years ago.
Kneiling, well discussed on the TRAINS Forum, was a man who would not accept "no," and I recall two fan trips: The Segewick Avenue one-car shuttle was an early abandonmment in The Bronx, around Spring, 1947, but the first fifty or so feet of its exclusive track at Burnside and University Avenues was still in use as the reversing track at the end of the "T" Treemont Avenue crosstown line, which ran on Burnside, not Treemont, west of Webster Avenue. And the wire and track were not removed until much later, after the last Bronx bus conversions, August 1948. So on one Kneiling fantrip, we arrived at Burnside and University, and the trolley operator was told "Let's keep going!" "But the line has been out of serivce for over a year." "But the track and wire are still there." "All right, I'll give it a try." And he did. But at the end of the line, along Ceder Street, the track was hidden under dust, that had been mud but dried. We plowed along, and the wire was showing us the track was still there, until "CLUNK" "A fast stop from a slow walking-speed speed. "I think we went beyond the end of the track." And inspection showed the front wheels of the front track were beyond the end of the track and had formed grooves in the dust and pavement. The wire did extend about 10 feeet beyond the end of the track, and there was not any problem reversing and getting the car wholey back on the rails. This was the only time a 1201-series car ever visited the Segewick Avenue line, and I believe the car number was 1234.
And at the time the Brooklyn system has been reduced to only the three remaining PCC-operated lines, Macdonald Avenue, Coney island Avenue, and Church Avenue, Gravesend (actually Macdonald)-Church a rush-hour extra service. A few double-end 8000-series Peter Witt were reserve and emergency cars. Kneiling chartered one for a fan trip for "all remaining usable streetcar trackage." So the contract read. So our Peter Witt came up Macdonald, under the Culver el structure (was this before or after the "D" took over from BMT--Culver? Unsure) to Ditmas Avenue. Now the original Culver surface tracks to the 9th Avenue Station complex were still in used by an occasional South Brooklyn frieght movement, so Kneiling said "Let's go to the left!" "Cannot, we will come to third rail, which might contact the side ofo the car or the truck frame." "Well. we will go just to the point just before the start of the third rail." And we did, about 20 feet before the start of third rail, but past the overhead Fort Hamilton Avenue Station, we reversed and went back to Macdonald Avenue to continue to Church Avenue and East New York.
In my days serving as President of the Electric Railroaders' Association I organized one San Frrancisco Convention, I think this was the second I organized, after the F Market-Castro line with historic equipment had already been inaugurated, but before the extension along the Embarcadaro. The plan called for the use of one of the double-end California Street cable cars, to go out on the service Hyde Street connector track to Hyde and the Embarcadaro, not use the turntable there, but coast back throught the reversing switch that remained in place from the old O'Farrel - Jones - snf -Hu=de Street route, before the ca ble-car system was truncated and reconfigured in the 1950's.
When I arrived at the cable-car barn to get the trip underway, the dispatcher pointed to a regular Powell-Hyde car. I told him that was not what we had requested. He told me that was what he was told to give us. I shjowed him the correspondance which, thoughtfully, I had brought with me. "But the California car won't fit on the turntable." "We won't use the turntable, but reverse through the reversing siwtch." "But there is no cable for that." "Yes, but the reverse movement is downhill, and we will coast through, just like the Hyde cars used to do, and just like the like the Bay Area group did a few weeks ago on their fantrip." "OK, you win, besides, I need all the Powell cars I can get, because the line is way overcrowded anyway." I: "If the cable-car lines to the Fisherman's Warf area are so crowded, why don't you extend the F line out there on the discused freight tracks?"
But I learned the Rick Laubscher and others of the Market Street Ry. Association had already made that suggestion, acted upon with success.
And the trip went off perfectly.
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