L&H Featured in TRAINS!!
In March 1952 that is, when it was called TRAINS & TRAVEL, at 50 cents!!
For those not old enough to remember the article or can’t afford the DVD at $179 I will type it from my copy © 1952, Kalmbach Publishing Co
CENTRAL STATES DISPATCH
Get aboard – it’s time to go. This isn’t a “hurry up and wait” freight route; you’ll be in Boston in 33 hours, thanks to seven railroads
BY WALLACE W. ABBEY
“Service over the “ Central States Dispatch” route dates back to September 1, 1892, when 11 roads combined to give shippers a service that extended beyond their individual limits, and to put themselves collectively in a better competitive position with larger, more direct railroads. Through the years, the “C.S.D.” route has come to comprise parts of the B&O, Western Maryland, the Reading , the Jersey Central, the Lehigh & Hudson River, and the New Haven.”
Opposite the title page is a full page picture taken from the unit behind L&H #8: “The Central States Dispatch, running on the Lehigh & River as L&HR train HO-6, picks up a new set of running orders at Andover, N.J. The L&HR fulfills its role as a bridge line by transporting the C.S.D. from the Jersey Central to the New Haven. The track in the foreground is a Lackawanna branch line.” The scene looks downward on probably the day Agent-Operator Mike Elston as the engineer’s hand goes through the original type bamboo hoop which after unclipping the 19 order and clearance Form A will drop lineside. How I remember “trudging” through the snow to retrieve them – the “Y” shape sticks with pull-apart string was a BIG improvement!! Paul Early looks on the situation. Note: a following issue of TRAINS has a similar picture of Paul with this HO-6 meeting a ballast train at Allamuchy. It was captioned with something like “with official watching proceedings”. I’ll have to see which issue it was in.
The L&H portion of the article continues with “Fisher (Reading Assistant Trainmaster L.A. Fisher) turns you over to Paul W. Early of the Lehigh & Hudson River while a yard engine gives the train its first reshuffling. Early, undoubtedly the veteran of countless all-night train freight train rides, thoughtfully produces a sweet roll and a cup of coffee from a paper bag.”
“The L&HR’s caboose is decidedly the homiest of the hacks that you’ve been in yet. But you accept Early’s invitation to see his railroad from the engine, so you stow your suitcase in the caboose and the two of you walk up through the yard. At the head end you find two road switchers – two elevenths of the L&HR’S motive power, Early tells you. He adds that his line is dieselized with Alco-GE road switchers, and that two more are order.”
“He points out the old Lehigh Canal, which the yard parallels, and he takes you up along the lead track and shows you where the Jersey Central plans to enlarge its terminal. The bray of an air horn signals the fact that your train is ready to go. You swing aboard as the train begins to move, and you settle yourself in the cab of the second diesel.”
“Your guide outlines the way that the “Central States Dispatch” – now L&HR train HO-6 –is routed out of Allentown. It travels over the Jersey Central’s Central Railroad of Pennsylvania to Easton, Pa.; crosses the river to Phillipsburg, N.J.; and follows the Delaware River on the Belvidere Branch of the Pennsylvania to Belvidere. There it starts over the L&HR itself. You’re still ahead of time – 40 minutes ahead, in fact – as you snake out of the East Allentown yard onto the three track main line at 5:55 a.m.”
“For the first and only time, you get a look at some of Industrial Pennsylvania in the daytime .The track follows the Lehigh River closely to Easton, and you get a good view of the immense Bethlehem Steel Works across the river in Bethlehem. But the “Central States Dispatch” disdains to handle much of the freight born of this industry. You’ve still got that train of Maybrook cars, plus enough coal picked up at East Allentown to give you 79 cars and 4500 tons.”
“On the Pennsy, the scenery changes abruptly. You’re out in the country again, and the Delaware River banks are wildly beautiful. Presently Early speaks close to your ear so that he can be heard over the sound of the diesels – you’re at Belvidere and on the L&HR. Right away you se one difference – the L&HR has color-light automatic block signals, whereas the Pennsy branch line had manual block operation. You detect the fact that your ride is smoother, too.”
“It doesn’t take you long to decide that the L&HR is a handsome little railroad. It’s well ballasted and well maintained, and it moves you along in quite respectable fashion. You climb steadily for 10 miles to Great Meadows, and then the grade tapers off and you’re ambling through rural vistas and farming communities that give no indication of their proximity to the teeming centers of civilization that look out over the Atlantic.”
“The 72 miles of the Lehigh & Hudson River slip rapidly behind you. You meet a ballast train at Allamuchy, pick up new running orders at Andover, and wave at everybody as you pass the general office at Warwick, just over the line into New York. The grades, mostly descending now, are steeper, and the hills on the horizon are a little higher. Now you’re pulling out of the last sag and coming around the last curve into Maybrook Yard.”
“Maybrook, N.Y. is obviously much more of a center of railroad activity than a center of population. From your cab window you see all track and no town. You pull into the eastbound receiving yard next to an Erie train that you tentatively identify as New England 98, a hot perishable job. Your train is too long for the yard track, so you run up on the hump and double your head end cars over into another track.”
“Superintendent Early leaves you in the care of the secretary of the Railroad Y.M.C.A., who gives you soap, a towel and a knowing smile. It dawns on you, presently, that the begrimed, unshaven mug staring at you out of the washroom mirror is yours. You look as if you’d been riding freight trains all night. It feels good to be clean again, and it feels good, to lean on a lunchroom counter and dig into a true railroad man’s meal.
“The New Haven gives the “Central States Dispatch” a pretty thorough reclassification here at Maybrook, for it must pigeonhole its cars according to their destinations throughout New England. It must also work into trains the cars brought to Maybrook on the other lines – the Erie, the New York, Ontario & Western, and the Lehigh & New England. Consequently, the wheel report that the conductor of train OB-4, which is your “C.S.D.” connection on the New Haven, shows you lists the order of cars: 1 for Providence; 6 for Worcester; 16 for Boston; 53 for Providence; 1 for Hartford; 1 for Springfield; and 4 more for Hartford. Thus, with a total or 82 cars weighing 4468 tons and pulled by three Alco-GE diesel units, you leave Maybrook at 5:15 p. m.”
“…the efficient little Lehigh & Hudson River…”
In March 1952 that is, when it was called TRAINS & TRAVEL, at 50 cents!!
For those not old enough to remember the article or can’t afford the DVD at $179 I will type it from my copy © 1952, Kalmbach Publishing Co
CENTRAL STATES DISPATCH
Get aboard – it’s time to go. This isn’t a “hurry up and wait” freight route; you’ll be in Boston in 33 hours, thanks to seven railroads
BY WALLACE W. ABBEY
“Service over the “ Central States Dispatch” route dates back to September 1, 1892, when 11 roads combined to give shippers a service that extended beyond their individual limits, and to put themselves collectively in a better competitive position with larger, more direct railroads. Through the years, the “C.S.D.” route has come to comprise parts of the B&O, Western Maryland, the Reading , the Jersey Central, the Lehigh & Hudson River, and the New Haven.”
Opposite the title page is a full page picture taken from the unit behind L&H #8: “The Central States Dispatch, running on the Lehigh & River as L&HR train HO-6, picks up a new set of running orders at Andover, N.J. The L&HR fulfills its role as a bridge line by transporting the C.S.D. from the Jersey Central to the New Haven. The track in the foreground is a Lackawanna branch line.” The scene looks downward on probably the day Agent-Operator Mike Elston as the engineer’s hand goes through the original type bamboo hoop which after unclipping the 19 order and clearance Form A will drop lineside. How I remember “trudging” through the snow to retrieve them – the “Y” shape sticks with pull-apart string was a BIG improvement!! Paul Early looks on the situation. Note: a following issue of TRAINS has a similar picture of Paul with this HO-6 meeting a ballast train at Allamuchy. It was captioned with something like “with official watching proceedings”. I’ll have to see which issue it was in.
The L&H portion of the article continues with “Fisher (Reading Assistant Trainmaster L.A. Fisher) turns you over to Paul W. Early of the Lehigh & Hudson River while a yard engine gives the train its first reshuffling. Early, undoubtedly the veteran of countless all-night train freight train rides, thoughtfully produces a sweet roll and a cup of coffee from a paper bag.”
“The L&HR’s caboose is decidedly the homiest of the hacks that you’ve been in yet. But you accept Early’s invitation to see his railroad from the engine, so you stow your suitcase in the caboose and the two of you walk up through the yard. At the head end you find two road switchers – two elevenths of the L&HR’S motive power, Early tells you. He adds that his line is dieselized with Alco-GE road switchers, and that two more are order.”
“He points out the old Lehigh Canal, which the yard parallels, and he takes you up along the lead track and shows you where the Jersey Central plans to enlarge its terminal. The bray of an air horn signals the fact that your train is ready to go. You swing aboard as the train begins to move, and you settle yourself in the cab of the second diesel.”
“Your guide outlines the way that the “Central States Dispatch” – now L&HR train HO-6 –is routed out of Allentown. It travels over the Jersey Central’s Central Railroad of Pennsylvania to Easton, Pa.; crosses the river to Phillipsburg, N.J.; and follows the Delaware River on the Belvidere Branch of the Pennsylvania to Belvidere. There it starts over the L&HR itself. You’re still ahead of time – 40 minutes ahead, in fact – as you snake out of the East Allentown yard onto the three track main line at 5:55 a.m.”
“For the first and only time, you get a look at some of Industrial Pennsylvania in the daytime .The track follows the Lehigh River closely to Easton, and you get a good view of the immense Bethlehem Steel Works across the river in Bethlehem. But the “Central States Dispatch” disdains to handle much of the freight born of this industry. You’ve still got that train of Maybrook cars, plus enough coal picked up at East Allentown to give you 79 cars and 4500 tons.”
“On the Pennsy, the scenery changes abruptly. You’re out in the country again, and the Delaware River banks are wildly beautiful. Presently Early speaks close to your ear so that he can be heard over the sound of the diesels – you’re at Belvidere and on the L&HR. Right away you se one difference – the L&HR has color-light automatic block signals, whereas the Pennsy branch line had manual block operation. You detect the fact that your ride is smoother, too.”
“It doesn’t take you long to decide that the L&HR is a handsome little railroad. It’s well ballasted and well maintained, and it moves you along in quite respectable fashion. You climb steadily for 10 miles to Great Meadows, and then the grade tapers off and you’re ambling through rural vistas and farming communities that give no indication of their proximity to the teeming centers of civilization that look out over the Atlantic.”
“The 72 miles of the Lehigh & Hudson River slip rapidly behind you. You meet a ballast train at Allamuchy, pick up new running orders at Andover, and wave at everybody as you pass the general office at Warwick, just over the line into New York. The grades, mostly descending now, are steeper, and the hills on the horizon are a little higher. Now you’re pulling out of the last sag and coming around the last curve into Maybrook Yard.”
“Maybrook, N.Y. is obviously much more of a center of railroad activity than a center of population. From your cab window you see all track and no town. You pull into the eastbound receiving yard next to an Erie train that you tentatively identify as New England 98, a hot perishable job. Your train is too long for the yard track, so you run up on the hump and double your head end cars over into another track.”
“Superintendent Early leaves you in the care of the secretary of the Railroad Y.M.C.A., who gives you soap, a towel and a knowing smile. It dawns on you, presently, that the begrimed, unshaven mug staring at you out of the washroom mirror is yours. You look as if you’d been riding freight trains all night. It feels good to be clean again, and it feels good, to lean on a lunchroom counter and dig into a true railroad man’s meal.
“The New Haven gives the “Central States Dispatch” a pretty thorough reclassification here at Maybrook, for it must pigeonhole its cars according to their destinations throughout New England. It must also work into trains the cars brought to Maybrook on the other lines – the Erie, the New York, Ontario & Western, and the Lehigh & New England. Consequently, the wheel report that the conductor of train OB-4, which is your “C.S.D.” connection on the New Haven, shows you lists the order of cars: 1 for Providence; 6 for Worcester; 16 for Boston; 53 for Providence; 1 for Hartford; 1 for Springfield; and 4 more for Hartford. Thus, with a total or 82 cars weighing 4468 tons and pulled by three Alco-GE diesel units, you leave Maybrook at 5:15 p. m.”
“…the efficient little Lehigh & Hudson River…”
