• L&H Memories: Growing Up, Trackside...

  • Discussion of the L&HR and its predecessor the Warwick Valley Railroad for the period 1860-1976 at its inclusion with ConRail
Discussion of the L&HR and its predecessor the Warwick Valley Railroad for the period 1860-1976 at its inclusion with ConRail

Moderator: David

  by jmchitvt
 
I was fortunate to be born in Phillipsburg, NJ in 1941 - the ONLY place where ALL six Conrail predecessors operated.

Of course the L&H entered on trackage rights, but the Reading brought trains across the Delaware into P'burg on trackage rights, too. There were trains into the PRR yard off the RDG. One could see all SIX from Union Station.

Anyway, I've had thoughts all summer here in Vermont how to start telling my story. I belive it HAS to be told to the younger generation of L&H fans, and NOW while my memory is still THANK GOD very clear.

I grew up over the ridge from the L&H's Pequest siding and belive me I could get on my Schwinn "Black Phanthom" bike and beat an eastbound from home!! The clue was to carefully listen for the Oxford siding crossing whistle (Hazen road) if the sound travelled well - but if it was the Buttzville crossing whistle then I'd REALLY get going. I don't remember "zooming" over the ridge much in the steam age, but when the diesels came when I was nine, I was better at doing it for two reasons.
The bike was a better model and the "stack talk" of the RS-3's was easier to follow. The regular schedule on the L&H was a BIG help!!

I'd get a "whif" of that distinct tar plant smell to "fuel" me on too and where the road continued on to Townsbury hoped no one would be at the intersection as I slid left to the side road behind the PS Kramer plant. Often the flashers would be on when I arrived.

Two or three bright new diesels would soon greet me stuggling up that grade all the way from Mansfield Street Belvidere to just east of Great Meadows. I loved those angled number boards - no other area line had them. Then that great consist of my ALL-TIME favorite freight train HO-6 would roll by. Colorful reefers, all those mid-western and western railroad box cars to study, John Deere machinery flat cars, interesting B&O cars with the various slogans. And the train was soooo slow rollling by that I could relish the experience!!

I will continue (soon) with boyhood along the L&H, my first cab ride to Maybrook, and those great L&H employee !!
  by pumpers
 
Hello from NJ -- trying to follow your story using maps and old aerial photos. A few questions:
1. Looks like there used to be a lot of tanks of some sort right where Pequest Furnace Rd came into Rte 46. I guess this is the Pequest siding you refer to? Were these tanks the Kramer plant or tar plant? (with incoming oil by rail, I imagine)
2. Is the the crossing - Pequest Furnace Rd by Route 46 - the one where you saw flashers and watched the train pass?
3. WHere were you riding from? Back up on Pequest Rd (aslo called Janes Chapel Rd on the online map I have) towards Oxford? If that's so, it must not have been too far towards Oxford, or it would have been shorter just to take 31 up to Butzville to catch the train. Maybe you were then pretty close to the bridge of Pequest Rd over the DLW old main?
4. Was "Hot Dog Johnny's" on Rte 46 just west of Buttsville there back when you were a boy? 1956 aerial shows it already I think...
Good stories, JS
  by Paul Miller
 
just to add to jmchit's wonderful stories, Kramer was the ashphalt/tar plant at intersection of Rt 46 and Pequest Road, and there was a siding there..Pequest Siding for the station and tar plant. Right now the site is an empty parking lot where an occasional tractor trailer parks. A fenced in area also has some buildings that may have belonged to Kramer. There is also ruins of the Pequest Furnace on the mountain just west of the crossing. Hot Dog Johnnies has been around since 1944 I believe, the original small stand is on display at the present Hot Dog Johnnies.
  by jmchitvt
 
Here's some answers:

#1 It was P. S. Kramer of Paterson, NJ - had their own cars, black, and stencilled with white. But, did the L&H get them from Sparta Jct off the NYSW, or DLW at Andover?

#2 Yes, the crossing just off Rte 46, to the west was the plate deck bridge, then Pequest Siding.

#3 I never risked travelling my bike down that big hill on #31 (then #69) to the "T" intersection with #46. I was on the road that began at the St Nicholas Greek Catholic Church and Gybinski's store, pass the scale house and over the DLW.

#4 Hot Dog Johnnies!! How I remember that SIMPLE menu and the FROSTED mugs!!

...will try to answer any other questions I can on the L&H west end....
  by pumpers
 
jmchitvt wrote:Here's some answers:
#4 Hot Dog Johnnies!! How I remember that SIMPLE menu and the FROSTED mugs!!

...will try to answer any other questions I can on the L&H west end....
Thanks, I don't know when you were last in the area, but as of a few years ago (last time I was up there), Hot Dog Johnnies hadn't changed much. Same menu and mugs, as far as i remember. JS