Courtesy of Wanswheel!
It’s a film called “Commuting On The Erie-Lackawanna,” from 1964. And in razor-sharp color as well.
Have fun!
If you can stand the wacky Zoom call and picture-in-picture effect, there is more Erie Lackawanna nostalgia here:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xSzxhdUj6og
Look around 20:00 for ‘Delaware and Hudson 302’. Ed was just describing one of these trips on the MR forums!
B&O in transition - 1930’s-1950’s
Many thanks to both Wanswheel and Flintlock76 for posting this video link. I loved all of it!
To begin with, Flintlock’s right about the quality…first rate! I could practically taste the salt air and I was reaching for my sunglasses to see through the morning haze.
So much looks the same, yet so much is long, long gone.
About the people: Did you notice? Not one Black face. Not one. Anywhere. Also, notice the small fraction of women commuters. And few, if any, Latinos.
For that matter, few hats. In 1964 they were just about gone from male heads. I’m glad to see hats making a comback these days.
When one sees how these men were dressed and compares it to today, well, you can see why Brooks Brothers went bankrupt last year.
While I love riding trains and being in New York City, I’ so thankful that during my career my commute consisted a a 5 to 10-minute car ride. I never understood how these folks could submit themselves twice a day every day to the failing E-L or New Haven. Imagine the frustrations they were subjected to…without even a cell phone to let the wife in her wood-paneled station wagon know the train was going to be late…again.
Lastly, the music is just perfect for the video. The whole thing is a great time capsule. I remember the world of the 1960’s very well and this was a fine visit.
I couldn’t help but notice. You know, racism in the South got all the publicity, but there were plenty of other areas in the country not exactly “without sin.”
That out of the way, were any of you as impressed as I was by those stacks of newspapers at the ferry terminal?
That “Zoom Call” effect had me scratching my head, but no matter, I’ve got that video myself, it’s a good one and another neat time capsule, so I didn’t bother watching it.
The particular video “A Look Back At…” is available from:
www.train-video.com (Railroad Video Productions)
I got mine at a train show, but you can order direct.
Thank you so much for posting these awesome videos!
I got to see “Delaware and Hudson 302” running one of those trips, but only for a few seconds.
I was working in Ridgewood NJ at the time and the route took it up the old Erie Main Line through the town. I was outside the building at the time and heard a strange whooshing, chuffing, roaring noise coming through the town and had no idea what it was, and then I heard the whistle! I ran out to a street that had a clear view up to the railroad and there it was, a real honest-to-goodness monster steam engine with a roll on! Wow!
I wasn’t a railfan at the time so I didn’t know it was coming, but I’m sure glad I was quick enough to see it!
Flintlock
yes, this is an interesting film, nice to see, thanks for the link.
Nice, the intro with Dave Brubeck - Take five. Are you sure it’s from 1964? because I see a 1965 Mustang on the parking lot at 3-51 (gee, the 5.7 ltr V8 that was only available later on in the Mustang).
I see that looking down at something while standing, walking, sitting is nothing new, only it was the news paper back then and it’s the smart phone now. Don’t complain about the Young Folks, they go with technics.
All-in-all they look pretty conform, all those people, don’t they? A firm and self-secure working society. How different from today.
Sara
Hi Sara!
Honestly, I missed the '65 Mustang in the film, if that’s what it was. If memory serves 1964 was the first year for the Mustang, Ford Motor Company certainly gave it plenty of publicity in the Ford Pavilion at the 1964 New York World’s Fair. I know, I was there! People riding through the pavilion’s exhibits did so in Ford convertibles, some of which were Mustangs. Fully equipped and upholstered although obviously without engines or drive trains. We lucked into a Mustang, my brother was the “Car Guy” so we let him sit in the driver’s seat, although I’m sure my father would have loved to do so. He always wanted a sports car although with a family to raise that just wasn’t possible.
Anyway, the film’s title specified 1964 so I took them at their word.
I found a 1964 Ford commercial on the YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUJAOyB69DA
I remember 1964, in some ways it seems like a long time ago, but in others it seems like yesterday. Know what I mean?
Model year '65 cars generally went on sale in September '64.
The original Ford Mustang was introduced in the spring of 1964 as a 1964 1/2 model. It was virtually unchanged for the 1965 model year except for the addition of the 2+2 Fastback version.
Living near the Chicago Assembly Plant like I did, we would often watch in the late summer to early fall for the new models as they were driven on their own wheels from the plant to the Dealers’ Transit lot about a half-mile away.
Working B&O’s Bayview Yard in Baltimore - July and August were intersting times to view the scrap that was being shipped out the GM Assembly plant in Baltimore. Out with the old parts that were not going to be used for the upcoming model year’s production - mufflers, body panels, window glass - you name it and it was being scrapped. In being scrapped it was also intentionally damaged so that it could not be used anymore.
It wasn’t a 5.7l in those days (well, 5.8 in Ford land), it was a 351! Same block as the 261, 289 and 302, just bored and stroked a bit.
My late father-in-law once told me car dealers would do the same with trade-ins when he was in high school around 1940 or so. Ford dealers were notorious for scrapping Model A’s just to get them off the market and off the road. Engines came out and went one way while the body went another.
However, a buddy of his got lucky. He found an intact Model A body in one junkyard and an intact engine in another. He knew what to do with both so, $25 for the body, $25 for the engine, and he had himself a car for $50!
As I recall, the 351 Windsor (the thing described here) wouldn’t be seen in any Mustang until the '69 model year, and the 351C a model year later… an eternity away from the '64½s. You’d have a K-code 289 as the biggest engine, and not a 302, if anyone wonders.
Long before then the ‘muscle’ engines were the FE 390 and the ‘replacement’ 428 – I had to look up the difference between the FE 427 and 428.
Oddly enough ISTR the first Ford use of ‘metric’ in V8 engine designation being on one of these 428 monster-motored cars, being touted as ‘7.0 litre’ on the badges
Ford’s an American car, damn it!
WHY are they using that subversive metric system?
Flintlock,
they were advertising the 428 V8 in the Galaxie and in the LTD as “7ltr”.
See Jay Leno’s Garage:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-BL7G5m98M
I quite like the guy, he’s a real car guy, he has the money though, but also the heart for it. He had a lot done to the suspension, too, and for the motor, o-f c-o-u-r-s-e, it’s a muscle car!
I like the Ford LTD even better, like Steve Heller and Mike Stone drove around in San Francisco: 7ltr, 5 1/2 meters and two police officers, that’s the way it was in the US back then. In one episode, “In the Midst of Strangers” they have even two 1971 LTDs, one by the cops and a yellow one by the criminals. The road scenes are quite good, not overdone, not made faster and not destructive. I liked the scene when Wally the paper vendor hops into the car as Mike opens the door and leaves him outside, sees it and then even says “come on in, quick!” No false shame, gee. Mike on the back seat!
Subversive metric system? This was the kp-m-s system, now people have the SI system - how weird is that to you? Juni said she made a prof mad when taking with him and mixing the actual SI system with the old US system to and fro which she can do off hands (not for me! Sara and mathematics, a difficult relation!).
Probably to tie in with the victories with the GT40s about that time, playing the then-exotic European connection. ‘Le Mans’ had real magic back then…
I actually started a project to put a 4.9 Maserati engine in an SM, to get to the ‘original idea’, when I was in California and had money and time. Would probably have killed myself high-siding the thing. The ‘road not taken’ was the suspension of the SM with the engine and body of the contemporary Ghibli… that would have been cool without limit.
Until you have actually driven a DS or SM it’s hard to realize how good the suspension is. I have the half-version in the Jaguars and it does do much the same with the back end of those cars.
On the other hand, I still remember watching in the First Nations community adjacent to Deer Horn Lodge – this would have been about 1966. The French in an attempt at solidarity had sent a bunch of DSes over to Quebec, and one of them had made its way to local ownership. Locals were gathered around tinkering with it when KAPOW! six gallons of so of hydraulic oil blew out, as I recall helped by the engine pump, and the car settled into the mud all the way around, leaving no way to lift it to get to the underside. A less dreadful version of this “characteristic” could be used to burglar-proof these cars; if you let the suspension down you can only tow it with a dolly… and most dollies in the olden days were arranged to cradle suspended wheels. Sort of the ultimate passive-aggressive defense against overeager tow crews…
And do not get me started on the brakes.
I have been an American cgs user since childhood. This got me into trouble with mks bigots over things like fundamental constants… who knew there was more than one metric speed of light?
So they ruined a Citroen there … probably by misunderstanding it.
life gets tedious when working with blueprints at locomotive size dimensioned in mm.<<
Why, I was 27000 mm long, now I am 1960 mm, gee … that’s fine with me.
Oh, I believe I know what you mean: with us human beings it’s over exact: after a straining day I will be more like 1950 mm, but after a good sleep I start with 1970 mm again …
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