Have A Question

[steve coraggio]

I am not a regular on this forum, but go the Lehigh valley or NJ Rail forms occasionally. My question is the following. I recently purchased a Lehigh Valley RR Book OF Rules - Operating Signal and Interlocking Rules. Rules effective April 26, 1953. On the bottom of this page Reprinted October 1969, with revision s up to March 28, 1965 included.
On the Front Cover at the top printed is the name Frank E. Czajkowski, # 80660 Delaware and Hudson Railway. On the page appearing after the cover the name Frank E.Czajkowksi. #9258 D&H Ry Co. Conductor Hudson to Allentown Pool Crews, on the back cover written F.E. Czajkowski D&H Ry. Co. Hudson Yard, Penna.

Inside the rule book was an Lehigh Valley RR Form C Clearance card filled out, Dated April 27, 1976 "R" Tower Train CX-1 train order numbers are also listed
time 4:20pm and signed by a person with the name Milan no first initial. Since this book of rules has Mr.Czajkowski's name on it. It wouyld be interesting to know if he went from the D&H to the LV at some point. If anyone has any information on when Mr.Czajkowski was employed by the D&H it would be appreciated. I can be contacted by e-mail Steve Coraggio, [email protected] Thank you any help / assistance is greatly appreciated

[charlie6017]

Hi Steve,

Chances are this gentleman was a D&H employee throughout. The D&H ran joint trains (which also
included the B&M, Reading and B&O) which had train symbols NE-87 and NE-84. Around Scranton/DuPont,
the train connected with Lehigh Valley and this is where the LV and D&H exchanged trains. It's likely D&H
employees needed the LV book of rules so they were familiar with these rules when they operated on the
joint trackage just prior to changing crews with a Lehigh Valley crew.

Hope this helps!

Charlie

[steve coraggio]

Charlie 6017,
Thank you and it does help. Steve Coraggio

[Steve Wagner]

Hudson Yard was the D&H yard where that line's track met that of the Wilkes-Barre Connecting Railroad, owned jointly by the D&H and the Pennsylvania, which extended to the PRR's Buttonwood Yard. If I'm remembering what I've read correctly, D&H freights went to Buttonwood and PRR freights to Hudson Yard. This was a major interchange, at least until the Pennsy and the New York Central merged.

I think the Potomac Yard (Alexandria, VA) -- Rigby Yard (South Portland, ME) "northeast Alphabet Route" freight trains were a response to the PC merger by the railroads involved.

The "western" interchange between the D&H and the Lehigh Valley interchange, since at least the 1930's, was at Binghamton, NY on the D&H and Sayre, PA on the LV via D&H trackage rights over the Erie via Waverly, NY. Traditionally the D&H's eastern interchange with the LV was in Wilkes-Barre itself, where D&H local passenger trains from and to Scranton also used the LV station as long as they lasted (early 1950's?).

D&H traffic handed over to the LV at both locations included ilmenite (titanium ore) in hopper cars loaded at an NL Industries (originally National Lead Company, which made Dutch Boy paints) mine at Tahawus (called Sanford Lake) in the Adirondacks on a line built during World War II north from the D&H itself at North Creek, NY); blocks of cars going to an NL plant in northern New Jersey went via Wilkes-Barre, and ones going to an NL plant in or near St. Louis went via Sayre and presumably Buffalo. Ilmenite is black, and the yellow cars built in the 1960's to carry it got dirty very quickly; the titanium dioxide it was refined into is a white pigment. The staff at a New Jersey diner near the NL plant could tell which end of the operation workers came from by the color of the dust on their clothing; the man who told me that had puzzled the diner's people because he worked sometimes at one end and sometimes at the other.

The direct D&H - LV connection at Dupont was built, I think, in the 1960's or 1970's and used by the B&O-Reading-LV-D&H-B&M freights. The D&H end of the connection may have been on trackage the D&H acquired from the Jersey Central in exchange for dropping per diem charges the CNJ owed the D&H.

In the spring of 1976 the LV became part of Conrail and the D&H received trackage rights to Buffalo, NY; Newark, NJ (Oak Island Yard); Philadephia, PA; and Alexandria, VA over former EL, LV, RDG and PRR lines.

[steve coraggio]

Steve Wagner,

Thank you for your prompt response and information to my question. Steve Coraggio