It’s the early 1960s and we find train 7, the Pacific Express, accelerating westward out of Corry, PA. Pennsy owns the tracks crossing the diamond, as well as the Alco in the background.
Nice shot…
LC
I love it. Poor ol’ Erie, best looking locomotives in the east were the best thing they had going for them. Track there looks like the track conditions in Ohio and Indiana, too.
Note all the head-end business on the train. The Erie had about the best approach from the east into Chicago, very straight and very fast. Rode the Lake Cities about a year before it was cut off. Sleeper went west only as far as Youngstown, diner (A+ food) off at Huntington. Could not fault the service or the ride. Power was much like in the photo but with the later EL simplified paint scheme. Equipment was still being maintained and clean. About 1969?
Great Shot! My home is right by the EL Cutoff in Stanhope, NJ. That track is gonna be in service at the end of 2005/ beging of 2006. I cant wait!
The Erie may well have had a straight and fast main line, but I would hardly have called it the best entrance into Chicago. It entered the Chicago area from the southeast by way of Crown Point and Griffith and used a joint terminal railroad (CWI) from the Illinois-Indiana state line to Dearborn Station.
The Lake Cities also handled a large amount of head-end traffic until about 1968, which may explain why it wasn’t discontinued earlier. The western terminus of the diner was cut back from Chicago to Huntington IN at about the same time.
My high school was across the highway from the EL and some mornings I would drive down the empty ballast just to keep the memory fresh. (It also annoyed the preppies stuck in traffic. [}:)][8D]) The right of way cuts and fills across northeast Indiana are still visible, though they are disappearing. In Huntington, the yard is now a park and near the diamond with the ex Wabash stands a new factory straddling the mains. Also the bridges taking US24 over the Erie have been removed and filled over. Markle is building a factory with the parking lot on the old right-of-way, too.[V]
The vast majority of my rail interest is in the midwest. But, I think I am going to have to give an honorary salute to the Erie. There is something romantic about that railroad that makes me want to read more about it even though I have very little back ground and experience with it. It is by far, in my opinion, the most interesting road to come out of the east and is only equaled by the Milwaukee Road in terms of railroads that hold my interest despite my lack of geographic proximity.
I miss the Erie.
Gabe
Diamonds are a Junctionfan’s best friend.[:D]
Back in the 70’s, I hoped that the EL and Milw Rd. would tie the knot. Could have made an interesting sea-to-sea railroad.
Tom
John Kneiling advocated the two RR’s combining, shucking their common carrier status and only hauling intermodal. I don’t think it would ever have happened (the thinking was too far out of the box), but it would have been REALLY interesting if they had tried it.
The Erie Lackawanna was my favorite, too. I did get to ride Train 28 from Cleveland Union Terminal to Lee Road twice.; first with E8 No.825 as the power and then behind 833 on my second and final ride of this train. Coaches making up the consist were 1304,1305, 1302 with 1305 being the middle coach. It was the closes thing to the Phoebe Snow I would ever get to ride and it was well worth the price of each ticket I bought on the train. Then 3 years later, I rode the Lackawanna electrics in New Jersey. Though by then operated by Conrail, these cars were still lettered ERIE LACKAWANNA and the EL’s spirit was still alive then. Alas all that I have left of the EL are most of the timetables, a few pictures, and many pleasant memories of the railroaders I met as well. It was truly THE FRIENDLY SERVICE ROUTE. Why can’t railroading be like that today?
Beautiful shot of a classy locomotive and paint scheme!
Saved it on my hard drive.
Thanks!
Notice, too, all of the crossing hardware in the lower right corner of the picture. Either they replaced them a lot, or they were preparing to do a wholesale replacement of all of them.
The last EL train I saw was a freight with three E8s on the point back in March,1976.I really miss that RR. Joe G.