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  • A Day at Great Meadows!!!

  • 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

 #270182  by njt4172
 
Interesting first hand account on the L&HR from a friends friend...



Guys,
Another segment from the memories of my new contact Joseph Meyers of Chittenden, Vt. who use to live in Washington/Oxford area many years ago.
He decided to contact me after a few years enjoying my photographs that I post on websites.
Please read about the Lehigh & Hudson RR in Great Meadows....very interesting to say the least!


Wow, I guess it worked!! Interesting how one can navigate, like going to "Washington Boro" for instance. This WILL keep me busy for a while. My sheep can wait!!

Being always the guy for details and operations, employee timetables were always my big thing, as well as freight train schedules. Is there anyway you could post just the employee timetable page covering the current NS Washington Secondary? Years ago I purchased a compendium type timetable for fans that included a bunch of Conrail mains and secondaries, that John Kratinger sold. Just wondering.

If I don't die from all this heat later today I will start on the L&H memory timeline. Sure the DL&W was the "home road", or like the girl next door. The L&H was just a little out of reach, given that it was a couple miles over the ridge. I could hear them blowing for Oxford Siding (Hazen-Belvidere Road), then Buttzville, and onto Pequest crossing, but with only my bike, I could only listen. So, when I got to spend a whole day at Great Meadows SEEING what all I'd been listening to...well, you get the idea!!

Thanks for keeping in touch.

Joseph in SCORTCHING Green Mountain National Forest

I had to get up early if I wanted to catch a ride, and since I wanted to SEE
those early morning trains I listened to every morning, I made sure Ed
Dalrymple wouldn't leave without me.

Ed was a sectionman for the L&H and we stopped at the filling station in
Buttzville (the one on the south side of 46 just west of the station
crossing) where we would meeting another employee.

Then it was off to Great Meadows!! Getting there early ensured I'd be there
to listen to Stanley Briski, the signalman, get his morning train line up
from the dispatcher and get a seat for the three morning eastbounds (after
March 1957; two before).hence the "E "{Easton/Richards}symbol. This train
was nicknamed the "Sputnik" because it was started about the time of the
Moon space shot and it covered the heavier LV interchange since the NYO&W
had just shut down, which would have over burdened HO-6 and delayed it.

EO-2 sometimes would come east before we reached the station, but when it
through a little later you knew it. The two RS-3's would really have a roll
on and the fairly consistent consist of mainly reefers was colorful. Then
about an hour later HO-6 (off the RDG from Rutherford/Harrisburg - reason
for the "H") would roll by. This was THE L&H "BIG" train!! It originated
as a solid B&O train from Chicago and St Louis, marshalled together at
Hagerstown. It was called the "Central States Dispatch" officially, the B&O
train symbol was CSD-94 or 96, and the waybills often left off all the
handling carriers, just B&O-CSD-NH, instead of B&O-WM-RDG-CNJ-LHR-NH. This
train was all high class freight, merchandise in Time Saver cars, reefers,
loads of farm machinery, piggybacks on the head end.

Later just before lunch AO-4 rumbled east with often 3 RS's (often a CNJ
GP-7, or RS-3 running off mileage) and all the coal, empty zinc hoppers,
cement, steel from "Steel" and any other non-rush traffic. This train was
the "Alphabet Route" officially, and started in Chicago off the
NKP-W&LE-P&WV-WM-RDG-CNJ-LHR-NH.

If they ran one the L&H "Grab" would come west just after lunch to do Gamma
Chemical in Alphano, PS Kramer in Pequest, maybe a feed car for Wayne Feeds
on the way back at Great Meadows. The local/wayfreight service varied as
time went on. Before 1957 it was the "Grab" to turn at Mansfield Street or
Oxford (if the PRR had a bunch stuck there) or down to Hudson Yard.
After March 1957 they ran the new #35 to Port Morris just after midnight
with the hot roller brearing piggybacks and forwarder cars (authorized 60
MPH Warwick to Andover, ran 39 miles in 38 minutes) then light back to
Andover, on to Hudson Yard, wait for the Valley, scoot with EO-2. Hope
you can follow all this.

After the Grab went back east there was a lull until the first symbol
westbound which was OA-1
(Maybrook - Allentown, the other side of HO-6) and this was the B&O train,
with piggybacks always right behind the power. This would be our last train
as it left Maybrook at Noon or 1 PM and the agent would be "letting out the
cat", banking the coal stove, and heading home.

The Great Meadows station itself was to be appreciated. Unchanged inside
since the day it was built, and no modern conveniences whatsoever. The
waiting room in the center where you entered or exited was just the same as
when passenger service ended in 1934. If you answered nature's call, well
the one-holer was just east of the station under the bridge right next to
the coal bin. In the agent/operators section no paint ever tuched that
either. The coal stove was in the middle of the room and it sure got cold
in the bay window listening in on the dispatcher line all day.
The order board got used maybe two three times a day. Eastbound G Tower
would usually fix the eastbounds up to Andover, so only the Grab would need
paper to get in and out, but every westbound got an order to run against
traffic on the eastward main Mansfield Street to G. I never knew a L&H to
stay on the west main all the way. They just kept it officially double
track for the mile or so in Belvidere.

The agent I usually delt with was Jack Percival, who boarded nearby in
Vienna. Later he would move up to Warwick and become a dispatacher; then
his claim to fame was in 1974 when Gif Moore called him from the road and
Jack was quoted as saying: "except that the Poughkeepsie Bridge is burning,
everything is fine". This was the title of an article by Jim Boyd in the
premier issue of RAILFAN in Fall 1974, profiling the fall of our much-loved
L&H.

I can still remember days spent at that wonderful relic of a station, trying
to keep warm, smelling the cigar/pipe smoke, and hearing Jack calling in the
consist (trains dropped off a list of all cars/contents/destination, rolled
to become a pointed document with a lead weight get it to ground
safely) of how many of this or that to where in Connecticut or
Massachusetts. For example, "two beef for Boston, three lettuce for South
Boston, watermellons for Waterbury, tractors for Danbury" so the New Haven
knew what was comiing so the connecting train/trains could be planned and
customers notified. All this before computerized waybills, data search,
etc.

Then there were the train order hoops. Only Great Meadows still used the
closed loop kind of bamboo. Shaped like a number 9 the engineman/conductor
thrust his arm through, pulled the order from the clip, and tossed it off in
the bushes. Good thing I brought my boots for the search/rescue of company
material!!


[quote][/quote]

 #270364  by Marty Feldner
 
Excellent reminiscences!

As a point of interest, Jack Percival was also the 'last' L&HR dispatcher. He was on duty at Warwick on the evening of March 31, 1976, and wrote the final Form 19 issued by the Lehigh & Hudson River Railway Company:

"Engs 24 and 23 coupled run extra Warwick to G Tower and return to Warwick". Made complete at 614 PM, Percival Operator. Under the initials of WSF (Bill Flood), Superintendant.

 #270446  by David
 
Beautiful story Steve--Thank you for sharing!--Does anyone have another? :-D

 #271175  by purplezep
 
njt4172-I'm constantly in Washington area doing research and pictures for my book. I'll be up there this Saturday to meet with a contact who has some old pictures for me.We'll have to meet up sometime. BTW-The "Butcher Album" was my Holy Grail for years, recently picked up an original in moderate shape. Huge Beatles fan-my band plays plenty up in that area as well. Great story you posted!

 #271494  by njt4172
 
purplezep wrote:njt4172-I'm constantly in Washington area doing research and pictures for my book. I'll be up there this Saturday to meet with a contact who has some old pictures for me.We'll have to meet up sometime. BTW-The "Butcher Album" was my Holy Grail for years, recently picked up an original in moderate shape. Huge Beatles fan-my band plays plenty up in that area as well. Great story you posted!
Paul,

Thanks!
I live in the Park Hill Apartments that are directly across from the BASF plant off Route 31 South. My complex once housed the old "Pohatcong Hosiery Mill" for many years until the mid 1940's before they made television tubes! Anyway, I should be home during the afternoon on Saturday if your still in the area! I read in another post that you went to Morris Knolls?? I graduated there in 1997 and just moved out of Denville two months ago!

PM me and I'll give you my phone # and email address..

Take Care,
Steve


P.S Yes, I am a big Beatles fan!! I'm trying to get a hold of the Butcher Album with vinyl record when the price is right. I have a lot of other old Beatles Vinyls as well as old concerts on DVD! Thr anthology is great!

 #315556  by David
 
Does anyone have an old L&HR story to tell. Have to move this thread a bit. I am sure there are a few updates or old tales to tell about my favorite North Jersey Railroad. :-D
 #321552  by Marty Feldner
 
Saturday, November 18, 2006 marks the 54th anniversary of the 1952 fire that destroyed the L&HR's Warwick roundhouse.

I was five at the time, and remember it.

The last steam locomotive in operation (#73) had dropped it's fire in December 1950, followed by scrapping of all but the big 4-8-2's (it was hoped that they could be sold to another road, but that never happened; they were finally sold for scrap in 1951).

The 16 stall roundhouse was no longer needed for servicing steam locomotives; several stalls were used for storage by the L&H, and more were rented out to various companies for other uses.

At about 8:00 PM, a hostler noticed a fire in the roundhouse, and called it in to the Warwick Fire Department. Given the oiled-soaked wood in the then 48 year old structure, it didn't take long for the building to be totally involved, and even with up to a half dozen companies fighting the fire for most of the night, there was no way the building could be saved.

Among the losses inside the roundouse were several pieces of MOW equipment, including a brand new ballast tamper, a bulldozer, and several new track cars. The biggest loss for the railroad inside was car 136, also known as the President's Car, the 'Warwick', built by the Pullman Company around the turn of the century. The posh car had just been completely refurbished, and was stored, ready for use, in the leftmost stall. The car was a total loss.

(The L&HR's private car Warwick is not to be confused with the still existing NYO&W private car Warwick. Both roads named their 'president's car' as Warwick, because the presidents of both roads (Grinnell Burt for the L&HR, and Thomas P. Fowler of the O&W) lived in Warwick, just down the street from each other; both named their cars for their mutual hometown.)

I remember my father taking my brother and I down to the yards a day or two later; I can still vaguely remember what we saw. The roundhouse was a wood structure, what today would be called timber framed. The badly burned timber 'skeleton' of the structure was still standing (and still smoldering). No time was wasted in demolishing the remains; it was the first time I'd seen a wrecking ball in use (I don't remember if the 'burro crane' 220 was used, or if an outside contractor's truck mounted crane was brought in; possibly both were used?).

I also still remember, as a kindergartener, the next day at home, trying to replicate the standing timbers of the roundhouse with my Lincoln Logs. I tied a rock to a string, and pretended to be the wrecking crane- knocking down what I had built.

The concrete floor of the roundhouse stalls could still be seen until just a few years ago, and to this day I wonder what would have happened to the 'Warwick' if it hadn't been destoyed in the fire. In all probability, it would still exist, somewhere.
 #321618  by Railjourner
 
Wow, thats cool information, thanks for that. I gotta get up to Warwick and have a look around.

 #321978  by njmidland
 
The concrete floor of the roundhouse stalls could still be seen until just a few years ago, and to this day I wonder what would have happened to the 'Warwick' if it hadn't been destoyed in the fire. In all probability, it would still exist, somewhere.
I would hope that someone would have purchased it during the final days, much like the Lehigh Valley sold business car 353 just before Conrail.

In a similar vein, I understand someone is restoring L&NE 100.
 #321997  by mainetrain
 
Marty Feldner wrote:I also still remember, as a kindergartener, the next day at home, trying to replicate the standing timbers of the roundhouse with my Lincoln Logs. I tied a rock to a string, and pretended to be the wrecking crane- knocking down what I had built.
you should have appplied for a job at Conrail