Here’s a new scan to share – from a day that I had remembered being colder than the on-line Farmer’s Almanac says it was (apparently it was high 20s), a Penn Central GP38-2 with CR markings lead this set of EL MUs throgh the snow at Brick Church in February of 1978.
There were quite a few times in the late EL into the CR years that Rudolf’s units had to rescue Tom’s. Wires down, power outages and brown outs were the culprits.
It’s also possible that the GP38-2 was heading up the train in order to break up ice in grade crossings due to its greater weight. I remember seeing a picture in TRAINS in the late 1960’s of an NH RS3 pulling an RDC for just that reason.
The PRR used a number of secondary tracks when wrecks or maintenance issues forced rerouting. They would tow the whole train including the P5a or GG1 through a section without catenary until it could take over again. I’ve read several accounts of towermen who notified local railfans to get down to the tracks and watch the parade that was about to happen.
I call this era the good old days. I used to see some interesting things, but one that sticks out was a diesel rescuing a diesel. A passenger diesel, one of the U-boats, broke down and Conrail came to the rescue with a GP15. It was quite a thing to see. Occasionally NJT will put on a show by double heading a train, but not much else gets too exciting these days.
There evidently is power because the pans are up. But there might be someplace ahead where it isn’t. The idea of a locomotive hauling these MU’s for any other reason escapes me as the snow does not appear deep enough to be a problem for them…in fact I don’t ever remember them having to be hauled by locomotive execpt when wires were down or there was no power in the wires (I am talking about knowing these beasts from 1946 until the end). The DL&W would run 10 car MU trains constantly overnights and weekends duirng snow and ice storms to keep both the track clear of snow and the catenary clear of ice. The light show they would put on at 2 in the morning was fantastic.
Also note there were no grade crossings on the line until Convent Station on the Morristown-Dover side, and then only two more there, one at Powder Mill, one at Mt. Tabor station, one between Mt. Tabor and Denville and one at Denville. There were numerous crossings, however, on the Gladstone line west of West Summit.
Also the caption calls the cars “Wicker Liners”. Wicker Liners actually referred to the 3 motor cars which were parlors used in “subscription service”, i.e., you had to be selected into the membership and pay an extra fee to ride in the cars which had wicker chairs and tables, drinks, etc. One car went to Morristown while the other two went to Gladstone. The Boonton Line had one subscription car on the Lakeland Express from Washington and was a former mainline parlor car. All other MU’s and Boonton Line coaches had rattan seats until vinyl replaced them.
I think I remember someone saying they were pneumatic in some way. I remember seeing them raised and lowered and they moved at a relatively slow speed, not snapping up or down. But they had spring tension up because the wire’s hight varied from 12 or 13 feet in Hoboken Terminal to 17 feet above the rail in places out along the line.
There is snow on the front of the GP38-2… which makes me wonder if there may have been much heavier snow where it had come from (Gladstone or Dover - were there straight Gladstone trains then though, or were th
I’ve looked at the picture again and again. Definitely eastbound (motor car always on east end), and definitely on the “center” or #3 track. So unless morning commuter, it is a special move. But cannot tell it’s origination…Gladstone, Morristown, Dover or Summit. As a rule, Gladstone trains were connections at Summit but run through cars, if not whole train, during rush hours. Without going into employee timetables, even public tables for that matter if you know what you are looking at, it is difficult to tell which were seperate connections and which were split off from a Morristown or Dover train. I am trying to remember February 1978 storms in the East. I see snow is plowed high on the platforms but cleared by traffic on the tracks. The diesel has a snow plow pilot which is the clue that it is the engine is probably there more for the snow than for the power…I am thinking as I type…Brick Church is probably close to 500 feet below Summit and beyond on either line (Montclair line came in east of this photo) so there could have been drifts in some cuts which would have warrented the plow unit. Also, on the Gladstone Line in particular, any road plowed crossings would have the build up to warrant a plow…Morristown Line crossings were not heavy traffic crossings like on
You know what, that’s a great answer. I actually recall taking the picture at the time (although I don’t recall the exact time, it was definetely during morning rush hour). This was an express that didn’t stop. The next train that came through stopped and I rode it to Hoboken.
If you could narrow the time, I could check the tt’s…probably have either public or employee table thats close enough (especially AM rush wouldn’t change that much) unless of course, things were so far off because of the storm!