Thanks David! If anyone knew the whole story of someone running prohibited diesels in GCT I knew it would be you!
Boy, did my memory slip. All the FL-9s had their shoes replaced and none could run any longer into Penn Station. One of the first things PC did after taking over NYNH&H was to rerout all Boston trains into Penn Station except the Turbotrain, which was moved later, and use only GG-1s between Penn Station and New Haven. (They ran New Haven - Washington.) The ex-Virginian EF-4s became E-33s on ex-PRR lines, little freight was moved via Greenville-BayRidge carfloat and electric to New Haven in favor of Selkirk and the Boston and Albany, the EP-5 Jets mostly handled GCT - Stamford rush hour locals with demotered old NYNH&H commuter cars, and all FL-9s went into GCT-based commuter service, mostly on Hudson and Harlem Divisions, and a few to Waterbury and Danbury, plus the Pittsfield and Chathan trains as long as they lasted. Metro North and Connecticut Dot eventuraly got most of them, with a few migrating to the LIRR and six to Amtrak for Albany, not New Haven, service. They were maintaned at Harmon, not New Haven.
David, if and when I get to be your age I hope my memory’s HALF as good as yours!
I rode the MBTA from Concord or South Acton to Porter Square daily from 1986-1989 - the Purple Line aka Fitchburg. (I then rode the electric Red Line to Kendall Square.) At first, trains were decrepit old RDCs pushed or pulled by either an F10 or a GP7 or 9. The RDC smoke-belching diesel motors ran to provide heat (sort of) and paltry lighting - or not, if broken that day. For air conditioning, leave the doors open at either end of the car. The conductors complained that the “air bags are shot” causing the terribly bumpy ride. Had welded rail into Boston, jointed rail outbound. MBTA rigged up some sort of cabling so the engineer could run the locomotive (when pushing) from the RDC cab. Sometimes the cars were so crowded at Porter Square that I stood outside on the vestibule and nearly froze until we dropped off enough riders to free up standing room in the car. Finally, MBTA took delivery of brand new cars (with heat and A/C!) and new engines with HEP. Of course, the HEP auxiliary diesel would occasionally shut down, and only sometimes would it be restarted if someone got around to it - or not, if broken. Many winter evenings we sat in the cold, dark cars - and since much of the trip was rural, it was really dark. (This is the same track that Henry David Thoreau mentioned in Walden - the trains passed by Walden pond.) Oh well, it beat driving 90 minutes one-way in insane Boston traffic. I did this until we moved the company to Framingham. Despite the challenges, I was grateful not to have to drive. In 1992 I moved back to St. Louis which had torn up ALL of its trolley tracks in the 1950s. Boston was smart enough to keep their rail mass transit.