LVRR train for Ingersoll-Rand employees

[blackdiamond]

When I worked as an extra-board agent/operator for the Lehigh Valley Railroad in the early 1970's, a long-time LVRR coworker once told me about an employee-only passenger train that the railroad had operated in the Easton, PA/Phillipsburg, NJ area for local Ingersoll-Rand employees, very early in the twentieth century. According to her, the train would commence its run on the LVRR's South Side branch in Easton in the morning, stopping to pick up the neighborhood's Ingersoll-Rand employees at various locations along the local streets, much in the manner of a streetcar. After collecting its full complement of I-R workers, the train would enter the LVRR mainline west of Easton, proceed eastbound to Easton, connect to the Jersey Central, cross the Delaware River bridge, traverse the Central mainline to that road's branch into the Phillipsburg Ingersoll-Rand plant, and travel that branch into the plant, where it would deposit its passengers. The entire process would be reversed at the end of the work day.

I have never found anything in print about this train, nor have I ever seen or heard any mention of it and I am wondering if anyone else out there has?

Thanks for you time.

[wis bang]

Growing up in South Easton I know that the Line did extend to the west end of the silk mills, roughly to around Lincoln & Coal streets; and was cut back to Line Street according to the topo maps from the 30's. The end of the ROW was cut by housing built in the early 20th century after the mills converted to bunker oil instead of coal. Leaving two blocks of athletic fields [Pioneer & Stern fields] where they later built a large elementary school and a few streets that were not cut thru [600 block of Grant st] after the rails came up.

Most of the population lived on the opposite end of South Easton, not many people lived along the rail line [even less after it was cut back] so the image of the train picking up passengers making trolley stops couldn't have happened.

Without a bus to gather them up, this might not been too efficient but industrial companies did do things to bring in labor and to keep key people close by providing company houses [my mom grew up in C K Williams company houses] so it may have happened and Ingersoll-Rand would have been in the position to pay for a special train. The rock drill division alone had to be making a profit!

I know I never heard of this and anyone I knew who would know is long gone. It would have been a neat commute thru the Iron pit and around the horse shoe down to join the main in Glendon.

I know that Easton residents hiked over the RR bridges to get to I-R during the 1955 flood, I remember a friends dad talking about it being the only way across the flooded river to NJ.