Some answers and some memory downloads:

The Stillwells were owned by the EL; they were the "long-distance" versions (2500 & 2600 series), and four had been used on the September 1975 148 "Ridgewood Railroad Days" shuttles on the Erie mainline between Ridgewood and Waldwick, NJ.

In the doubleheader pic, the first 3 cars are George Hart's RDG "steam coaches" (not MUs) and the EL cars are behind the RDG cars. I don't recall just how many of each car were in the train, or how many of each. The EL cars were rented for the LV trips.

Main Line Steam Foundation was the trip sponsor and MLSF personnel crewed Sam Freeman's FEC 148. MLSF leased CPR 972 from George M. Hart, and GMH's contract provided that his crew would exclusively crew/fire/service/etc. his engine. LVRR road foreman Vic Cole was lead engineer on 972 for much of the trip.

This is part of the MLSF crew posing in the rain at Bethlehem before departure. That's me in the front row, bearded and laughing.


MLSF leaders Bob and Jack Emerick were former High Iron crewmen. Bob has his hand on Jack's crewcut. Guess which brother is the real "cut-up"...

The "incident" occured on the westbound return trip after leaving the water stop at Flemington Jct. I recall that we hit a shopping cart in the gage, and it knocked down the brake hoses and put the train into emergency at about 35 mph.

It was quite a time, never to be repeated...


Howard P.

Memory Lane, NJ

There were eight Stillwells, six of George Hart's Readings, and Atlantic Central's P-70 food and bead car. The Stillwells came over from Jersey with the 148 on Thursday; a pair if EL Geeps brought them to M'town, then the Geeps "led" the 148 , with coaches behind, to P'burg. I say "led" in quotes because the EL Road Foreman had the Geeps shut down, he wanted to hear the 148 work. And work she did, spending far too much time down in the corner.

The LV met us with a station wagon, no diesels. Once on the LV, alone and hooked up, we were up to 45 or so about a mile west of Easton station, and Bob Emerick, firing, had a full glass of water and the pops were sizzling. Myself, I was back in the Stillwells, trying to get a charge on the batteries, when I wasn't leaning out a door, enjoying the sight and sound.

148 spent the night in the Beth. roundhouse. On Friday, we packed too many people in the 'rent-a-racer' and drove up to Jim Thorpe to fetch the 'rent-a-chooch', 972, complete with aux tank, the six RDG coaches used on the trip, a wooden crew car and a steel tool car. After topping of the coal in the tender by bucket brigade, in the rain of course, we backed down the river, canteen leading.

The train got put together Friday afternoon, and spent the night on what I remember was the old CNJ main. I remember car knockers going around and setting up the coaches all the same for either direct or graduated release (I forget which-). Looking at the photo, it came back to me that the RDGs were up front, then the AC car, with the Eries on the rear. The 148 was lead engine on the return trip.

As for the trip itself, I don't remember too much about it, save the rain, the water stops at Flemingyon Jct., turning and switching lead engines (and combine) at S. P'lfd. and the meet in the tunnel. I also remember that 972 lost her footing EB climbing up to the tunnel, and 148 dug in and kept the train moving. I was dead on my feet, as I had been up all night, keeping a light fire and water in the 148, which I was to do a month or so later on the CNJ trip.

Lots of memories; too bad those days are long gone, never to return-

E. D. Moxley

When the 148 arrived in Essex CT, the shoes and wedges were being shaved by the un chamfered edges of the driving boxes. I doubt they would have lasted long under the forces of operation (as opposed to being towed) The boiler had been reflued in Massachusetts by a lousy contractor. Tapered dome studs that had been broken had been replaced by hardware store threaded rod jammed into the tapered boiler threads. Tubes were poorly installed. Main turret valve studs were eroded from 3/4 inch down to about 3/8! think about that for a minute. Mud ring was so eroded you could see the sides of the lower course of rivets. Front sheet badly eroded and welded into the radius of the corner. Large areas of the shell had extensive thinning many rotted flexi collars needed replacement. Having worked on this machine,I'd guess that today it will be high six figures to make it run again.

Thanks to all for confirming my often failing, occasionally scrambled memories of events 35, 40, even 50 years ago.

I'm glad EDM's memory is better than mine. It was treat to ride south along the river from Jim Chunk in GMH's old RDG wood wreck train crew coach; it gently creaked and swayed like a wooden schooner on the bounding main. Come to think of it, most of the Northeastern "mains" in that era had the riding qualities of ocean swells.

EDM, do you remember the way 148 was fueled at Beth Eng Terminal for the return to New Joisey? Or more to the point, the "purchase price" of that tank of fuel? A reasonable quantity of fine liquid of another sort (just as combustible), as I recall...

Howard P.
Old Synapses, NY

Howard's tagline says it all: "Those days are gone forever, over a long time ago, oh yeah." Fagen/Becker, 1972

But I sure am glad I was around to enjoy at least some of it!

Yeah, I'd love to buy Howard and Preston dinner sometime just for the conversation, it would really be a hoot to hear the old stories!

Well, I remember the price we paid to get that perfectly matched set of CNJ coaches, with 1178 at the rear, for the Blue Comet. I also remember going through the enginehouse at Raritan, with a real light fire, to get sand and other 'essentials'-

I too regret that the boiler never got repaired/rebuilt to the same standards that the running gear was rebuilt to. That would have been a great 'go anywhere' fan trip engine. And although I'm an anthracite kind of guy, there were advantages to being able to service that engine through a pair of hoses back then, and even more so today.

EDM

This may have been brought up on here before, if not, then I hope it's enjoyed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esO3_wd5 ... re=related

Micah

Yeh, 148's boiler was pretty wasted. Wouldn't even make a decent hot water heater. Only hope for her now is a brand new boiler. I wouldn't want to be the current owners, better have deep pockets.

When 148 was for sale by RMNE in 1988, it was looked over by many prospective buyers. One well-known person from a well-known rail road offered the opinion that 148's boiler and tender were good patterns. A pretty good assesment, I think.

Howard P.
As Is Where Is, CT