I’ve read that Via equipment will start operating on the above trains between Albany and Montreal. The equipment (Budd cars) was deadheading south from Montreal this morning.
Any photos or additional information?
There’s been a lot of “reportedlys”, a lot of “readings”, a lot of “hearings”, but no solid information from Amtrak or others reliable sources.
Here is a link to a photo of the Via equipment moving south on a special train ATK # 886-18, it followed #68 south on the Delaware and Hudson today
Good…I’m wondering if this is for Amtrak’s Thanksgiving rush or for Amtrak to loan its cars to NJT and use the VIA equipment for the Adirondack…which would be unusual because NJT often lends Amtrak equipment for the holiday weekend.
Or is it that Amtrak is borrowing VIA equipment for this week?
It is equipment Amtrak will use on the Adirondack through next week. But is it just for the Thanksgiving rush or is it because Amtrak is lending out equipment to NJT or whoever…however, NJT usually lends out to Amtrak for T’giving. NJT is reported to have lost 65 locomotives and 257 cars which were left in Hoboken and the Meadows. However, NJT isn’t saying what equipment is lost. So, my information is based on rumors, early reports of problems, fan explanations, and piecing together what is happening day by day, hour by hour.
Apart from the emergency caused by Sandy, I would much rather ride any distance in a Via Rail car than an NJT cars. NJT double deckers are the best of the lot but not as comfortable as an Amfleet car. NJT still runs a lot of single decker 3 and 2 seat cars. Even the 2 seats are cramped. If there are 3 people on the 3 seat side it is very uncomfortable, even for a commute. It is common to see people stand rather than use the third seat. When I worked in Hoboken if I was on the last minute for my evening train I would just wait 10 minutes for the main line local rather than stand or ride in the middle seat.
When NJT began there were 2 and 2 flip seats on the Conrail cars NJT used. NJT then switched to passenger hostile 3 and 2 fixed seat cars. Some riders had turned the flip seats to face each other and would play cards going home; a small but pleasant amenity Most of us prefer to see where we are going. Why NJT turned it back on passenger comfort remains a mystery.
“Back in the day” conductors and trainmen would rent lap boards and cards or be the keeper of the boards and cards for commuters who rode daily. Railroaders received tips and made a few buck on the side…I don’t think that happens anymore, does it?
I don’t know about conductors collecting tips for cards and lap boards, Henry. For a while I played gin rummy with one guy; we carried our own cards and didn’t use a lap board. We just put our brief cases in our laps.
For a while I worked Saturdays, when they still had flip seats. Four of us would ride in together. We would bring our breakfast and eat together.
These small amenities can make daily life a lot more pleasant.
When I started riding the train Conrail still operated it. One car always had a stand that sold coffee and rolls in the morning and liquor in the evening. NJT abandoned it because it was loosing money. It was no great loss because I could buy the same things at the station if I wanted to. However, I was struck by the fact that NJT could not make a profit selling liquor by the drink.
One day I was wandering around Hoboken Terminal and I came upon some old Edison electric cars (EMU’s) which were still used on the Morris and Essex Line. I guess NJT hadn’t changed from the 3,000 volts DC old Tom sold the DL&W on. Anyway, I went on. It was a parlor car with wicker arm chairs–real arm chars with 4 legs and cushions like you might find on a hotel portch-- lined up on either side and a bar at one end of the car. It struck me as a very civilized way to commute.
I had to think a moment at your calling the DL&W MU’s Edison electric cars…never called them that myself but they were of course so common. I rode them from 1946 when I was three years old until the end. You’ve got to read the three tomes of the Tom T. Tabers: DL&W RR in the 19th Century and DL&W in the 20th Century Vol 1. and Vol. 2. Also old fan magazines and Ted Scull’s book, Hoboken’s Lackawanna Terminal. I have an upcoming article in the DL&WRR Historical Society’e Lackawanna News, too, about my memories of the MU cars. TRAINS Magazine has done several cover stories or major stories about them over the years.
The DL&W had a couple of MU cars operated as subscription cars with wicker seats (thus the name Wicker LIners). One went to Morristown and I think three to Gladstone. The Boonton line had one for the Lakeland Express to and from Washington, NJ sporting a drumhead, a six wheel parlor which was subscription, too. Last stop easbound was Mt. Lakes and the first stop westbound was Mt. Lakes. Memberships were limited and exclusive and many were on the waiting lists for years. Only other type service I knew of in NJ was the PRR’s Broker from Jersey City’s Exchange Pl. terminal to Bay Head…it had several subscription cars.
The State of Connecticut still provides bar car service on its MNRR runs but I don’t believe MNRR itself has service to Poughkeepsie or Wassaic although the NYC did… LIRR had such service, especially the Montauk train called the Cannonball which was at one time all parlor Friday evenings and Saturday mornings out of Penn Sta. I don’t believe the Erie or CNJ provided bar car services for commuters. It was easy and less expensive to operate when the railroads had full dining car departments with the buying power and personnel,
I haven’t read much about the DL&W EMU’s except for some basic on line stuff, Henry. But I have ridden in them–not the wicker chair cars but the flip seat cars. And on crowded trains in the vestibule with my a$$ sticking out over Newark Bay. But it only stuck out; it didn’t fall in.
What I do recall is that Tom Edison sold the DL&W a bill of goods on the 3,000 volt DC. It really was not a good technology. But it ran the cars for a lot of years.
I don’t think Edison ever really understood electricity. But he was a brilliant organizer which accounted for his fortune.
There were several other 3000V installations…the idea was aimed more at hauling heavy stuff over mountains like coal over the Pocono’s which never happened. I believe the Virginian and the MLWroad were similar. But no one can complain about the over 50 years of service the cars and the electric plant gave the railroads. Edison was a friend of the DL&W with online cement plant at New Village, and worked with them on other concrete projects including the NJ and Hallstead Cut Offs, numerous stations and towers and other structures. At the time of Edison, there wasn’t much else to choose from and his was as good as anybody’s back then. If the depression hadn’t hit and if anthracite coal didn’t lose out to oil for home heating, wire might have been strung west of Dover at least to Scranton, PA!