Travel from Boston to Highland in 1942

Thank you for all the help. All this is very helpful. He was on a 24 hour liberty so I was curious on how much time he would have actually had at the wedding. I would have thought that the trip would have have been Boston to Albany. GCT never entered my mind. This problem really shows me that ticket agents back in the day were really knowledgeable. There were many different possibilities to get to the same place!

ExNYC63 wrote:The Beacon-Newburgh ferry ran into the 1960s and it was coal burning steam. I rode it in the 60s, but
don't remember the exact year it ended.

It was still running when the first bridge opened in Nov. 1963 but ended shortly thereafter

Eating in the greasy spoon dinner between the Beacon station and the ferry was always an experience. I cannot remember the actual name as everyone called it the greasy spoon and it was. It was located on the north side of the dock.

To keep this speculation going I called an old, 95 years, friend of mine who was an engineer on the Mohawk Division but he was drafted in early 1941 and shipped to Africa in 1943 from Ft. Dix. At Ft.Dix he was a Master Sargent and also a Sargent Major and he was very much involved in issuing passes. He told me there was no problem in issuing a pass from midnight to midnight or from 10 P.M. to 10 P.M. if necessary. So there was flexibility on the time at least at Ft. Dix and I suspect elsewhere. BTW we do not know where this man was stationed in Boston or was it Ft. Devens maybe? We don't know what time the wedding was either.

Maybe he worked a deal with his sergeant to get a pass say from 10 P.M. to 12 midnight the next night giving him a couple of extra hours.

Train 43 left Boston at 11.00 P.M. and arrived in Albany at 4.50 A.M. No. 8 left at 5.40 and arrived in Poughkeepsie at 6.57. Going back he probably needed to take No. 39 leaving Poughkeepsie at 2.19 and arriving Albany at 3.39. Leaving Albany on No. 14 at 5.30 P.M. and arriving in Boston at 11.35 P.M. Everybody did not wind up in the slammer if they were a bit late.

Maybe there are some better connection via GCT and the New Haven. Depending on the timing there were many options.

According to the original post, he was in the Navy and assigned to a ship presumably berthed in Boston Harbor. I don't doubt that "arrangements" could be made in the Navy, as they certainly could in the Army, for fudging sign-out and sign-in times, especially on a weekend. Certainly, since he actually did it, it was possible in one way or another.

Thanks 90 I looked at it twice and I guess I was looking for something Army and read right over the Navy.

Thank you all for the great replies! This sailor was aboard the USS Juneau and unfortunately was lost with the ship a few months after this wedding. I know he attended the wedding because I have the letter he wrote to the couple about it, I also have the Juneau's log and they only list sailors leaving on 2 days leave or more. Sailors on 24 hour liberty were not listed in the log. That fact and his letter about not being able to stay a few days prove that. He also was not late in returning because he would be reported as Absent over leave in the log when he returned, and he wasn't listed. There are sailors that was on liberty during the same days and were reported for AOL for being as little as 12 minutes late. Using the listing of these AOL sailors it appears that liberty was at 1000 Saturday 6/27/42 and he was back by 1000 Sunday 6/28/42.

I did make one mistake as the wedding was actually in Newburgh not Highland (where the sailor lived) It would mean one less stop and the availability of the Newburgh - Beacon Ferry.

I have the NYC times table that covers those dates, but an anyone point me to a copy of the NHRR timetable that covers the same date so I can see all the different possible combinations?

Thanks again for all the replies, this really helps the family research!

The easiest method for getting a New Haven TT would be to check eBay each day. If you live near a large city you might check the library to see if they have a set of Official Guides of the Railways which were issued every month. Otherwise if you see a notice for a train show in your area you might get one there.

On eBay there are a couple of 1942's up for sale. Take a look here for one of them http://www.ebay.com/itm/1942-New-York-N ... 1c53358cbe" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; Here is another one http://www.ebay.com/itm/1942-New-York-N ... 1c53358cd4" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;