The Yakety-Yak Unlimited DLW Electrified Commuter Train

I understand that train 605 that departed Hoboken Terminal at 0703 in the morning used to carry a large number of college students to St Elizabeth's College, a Woman's College at Convent Station. Does this train still run? And is it still called the Yakety-Yak?

HSSRAIL wrote:I understand that train 605 that departed Hoboken Terminal at 0703 in the morning used to carry a large number of college students to St Elizabeth's College, a Woman's College at Convent Station. Does this train still run? And is it still called the Yakety-Yak?

Wow, never heard of the Yakety-Yack before!!! Was this a term they called the train back in the 1960's and 70's?? Train #605 still exists, but it leaves at approx. 6:35 a.m. and makes all local stops to Dover... Probably powered by a Arrow III MU as the old DL&W MU cars have been retired for more then 20 years...

Would be nice if NJT could borrow a few old DL&W trailers for Hoboken Terminals 100th Anniversary next year and run them up and down the system with an ALP-46 pulling!! That is the closest thing you'll ever see wickerliners in electric service again!

While I've never heard that particular term used to describe it, there are lots of students yakking onboard train 872, the morning train from Hackettstown to Hoboken via the Morristown Line. This train handles students for Morris Catholic High School (bus connection at Denville) as well as numerous other private schools further east, including St. Elizabeth at Convent, several schools at Summit, and the Seton Hall prep kids who change trains at Summit. The hind end car of the train is somewhat taken over by the kids and they can be boisterous at times. When they finally all get off at Summit, the seats they were using are refilled with working commuters boarding at Summit, Short Hills and Millburn.

This train also handles a fairly large number of commuters who board out west and get off in Morris Plains, Morristown, Convent and Madison to reach nearby offices.

What I was refering to goes back to steam days on the Lackawanna.
The woman use to come over by ferry boat from New York City. The 1940's - 1950's era.

"Steam days" on the M&E were well over in the 40's and 50's as the wire went up in 1930-31. Execpt for the drills and mainliners all passenger service H'bkn to Mntclr, S.O., Summit, Gladstone, Morristown and Dover on the "old road" was provided by mu's; the Boonton Line was of course steam-diesel. But that doesn't mean the "Yakaty Yak" didn't exist. In fact, I have ridden quite a few times on trains that could qualify for that name.

"Steam days on the Lackawanna refers to prior to dieselization" The Yakety Yack was an electric mu train. The Lackawanna Limited went up via Newark and it was Steam. But I am using the term to define an era the "Steam Era" The Mu's went through both eras.

On the Gladstone Branch, train #405 in the morning arrived at its destination at 8:38am. My sister was one of the many girls who commuted to Mt. St. Johns Academy on the mountain above Gladstone. Her monthly student ticket was from Gillette-Gladstone-return. A bus picked them up and returned them to meet train #424 at 3:57 pm. She went to high school there from 1953-1957. In the last year the school hired a bus operator.

Some of the collectors and conductors used to talk about those two trains being a yakkity school bus.