Port Jervis Line - Graham Line changeover

I found the photos of the Easter Sunday wreck in Goshen, NY on the Erie Main.

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... ?id=968926
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... ?id=963978
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... ?id=963977
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... ?id=968927

Nice pics!

When was the last day of service on the old mainline? When did service switch over to the Graham Line cutoff?

-otto-

you may get better answer on NJT forum, their employees may have better accurate info on this line as it was operated by NJT

I found a timetable issued by Metro-North for April 1984, and it already lists the "new" stations, so it must have happened between the October 1983 and April 1984 timetable changes? I guess what I'm really looking for is a Metro-North issued timetable that lists the original Main Line stations!

Otto Vondrak wrote:I found a timetable issued by Metro-North for April 1984, and it already lists the "new" stations, so it must have happened between the October 1983 and April 1984 timetable changes? I guess what I'm really looking for is a Metro-North issued timetable that lists the original Main Line stations!

Last train was according to what I have April 15, 1983, but I may have a mistaken year from the town of Monroe.

That sounds about right. When I get home I can check my old timetables for sure. The change was promoted as "new" for a couple years.

What was cool in that era was that the MTA/NJT/Conrail started adding RDCs for the Suffern-Port Jervis shuttles about two years before the changeover. All the trains were still using the old Main Line through Monroe, but one eastbound shuttle, to avoid the westbound rush hour trains, used the Graham Line. You could ride both routes in the same day during that brief period.

The RDCs on the Southern Tier/Main Line were pretty cool but they broke down a lot or simply crawled at 10 mph on the climb out of Port Jervis.

Otto- when I find the timetable I'll scan it and send you a copy.

Can I ask for a copy as well? Be very prudent to my research as I work on the Harriman - Guymard segment of the Erie

Thanks for the information, much appreciated.

Idiot Railfan wrote: The RDCs on the Southern Tier/Main Line were pretty cool but they broke down a lot or simply crawled at 10 mph on the climb out of Port Jervis.

I have a friend that told me he was working a round trip on the RDCs, and 3 of the 4 motors went down on the way out of Port Jervis. They ended up stalling on the grade just west of Black Rock. The RDCs weren't really a great investment to the MNCR, where did the idea of purcahsing them come into play in the first place?

They were inherited from Conrail (pennCentral) MNCr did not really have a choice.

The hot set up to qualifying Phys car to Port Jervis was to ride the Budd car weekdays out of Suffern around 4 pm. It ran all stops local then crossed over to the main line at Newburg junction the last stop was Middletown. After it waited for another westbound it Deadheaded up to CP- Howells changed ends then took off back to Suffern via the Graham line. This was during the 1979- 81Conrail era. The Oak Island extra list covered the freight side of traffic moving from Oak Island to Port Jervis and beyond and a few of us non E-L engineers qualified up there due to the New York state contract to move a specific number of trains via the Tier. At the time only a few E-L engineers were left on the OI extra list and rather than DH them down from Port to cover OI-BU, OI-EL ,TV-79 etc they asked if any of us wanted to qualify up there and get paid to do it. IIRC at the time the signal system on the Main Line had been de-activated and was manual block. The Graham line was signaled and in beautiful shape with long stretches of welded rail. The first evening the old E-L engineer running the two dead heading Budd cars had them up to a rock solid 79 mph the ride as smooth as glass. I was surprised figuring this neglected part of the old E-L had really bad track due to lack of funds. I only got up there 6 or 7 times running the OI-BU and one TV-79 that only had 12 piggyback cars, but it left an impression on me that it was a superbly engineered piece of railroad.

The below thread contains a copy of the new Port Jervis Line schedule effective April 18, 1983:

http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopi ... 1&start=45

MSC34 wrote:The below thread contains a copy of the new Port Jervis Line schedule effective April 18, 1983:

http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopi ... 1&start=45

And that just confirmed my date. April 15, 1983 is a Friday, which makes sense to some degree.

ATCFault wrote:

Idiot Railfan wrote: The RDCs on the Southern Tier/Main Line were pretty cool but they broke down a lot or simply crawled at 10 mph on the climb out of Port Jervis.

I have a friend that told me he was working a round trip on the RDCs, and 3 of the 4 motors went down on the way out of Port Jervis. They ended up stalling on the grade just west of Black Rock. The RDCs weren't really a great investment to the MNCR, where did the idea of purcahsing them come into play in the first place?

The RDCs were purchased by the NYC and the NH in the 1950s and continued on through Penn Central and Conrail, and then Metro-North. They were reaching the end of their service life, and were given minimal attention, though Megro-North managed to put a little more money into maintenance. The Budd cars were retired from East of Hudson service by 1990, though I know I photographed them running in Port Jervis in 1991... They were retired not long after that.