by ExCon90
This grows out of the thread on remnants of the Erie main line: I believe one of the reasons EL routed through freights via the former DL&W east of Binghamton rather than the former Erie was New York State's full-crew law requiring six-man crews, involving an additional brakeman. Trains on the former Erie would have had to have the extra brakeman all the way from Croxton (not much to be saved by having him board at Suffern), but via Scranton they could get almost to Binghamton with a 5-man crew. I'm wondering now whether they were able to get as far as Binghamton without the extra man, or did a "swing brakeman" have to board at the state line, a few miles east of Binghamton? The PRR had a similar situation on trains from Enola to Elmira, which entered New York 3 miles south of Elmira and had to stop at Fassett, at the state line, to take the swing man aboard for the last 3 miles; a trackside shanty was provided for the brakeman who bailed out at Fassett southbound to wait for the next northbound.