As a kid I hung around at the Black River and Western in New Jersey, and by age 9 I was proud to have taken up to 150 trips on the line before having lost count. Like Steamtown, the BR&W acquired lots of equipment over the years (especially passenger coaches like Erie Stillwells, DL&W Boontons, CNJ commuter coaches and baggage cars, CNR coaches, et al) which seemingly came and went as consumable relics. Interestingly, it seemed a lot of the High Iron Co. guys were involved at BR&W, since it was not far from their HQ in Lebanon, NJ. I can recall Ross Rowland was on their BOD for many years and even started out there in the 60's before his main line trips took off. Don Smith, another HICO veteran, gave me my second ever steam loco cab ride in No. 60 back in 1985. I also recall Bill Withuhn mentioning that in their early years (1965-1970), the BR&W had trackage rights with the PRR on what at that time was their Flemington branch. All BR&W engine crews were tested on the PRR book of rules and took PRR physicals. In fact they were issued engineer's licenses by the PRR--Bill still has his, and can rightfully claim to have been a qualified PRR engineer on steam!! A bright memory in my young life was looking up the track from the Flemington depot platform with ticket clutched in hand and watching No. 60's headlight and wailing chime whistle (oriented tender-first) approaching from miles away. For a nine year old kid bitten by the steam bug, it was an unforgettable moment.

So I pose the question to the Rypn family: any all-time rosters out there for BR&W equipment?? Anyone want to give it a try?

K.R. Bell

http://rrmuseumpa.org

> So I pose the question to the Rypn family:
> any all-time rosters out there for BR&W
> equipment?? Anyone want to give it a try?

The link below and the following Web pages may be a good place to begin.
http://www.geocities.com/brw148/rosters.htm
http://home.earthlink.net/~mikemcnh/boxcar/brw9809.html
http://moyer.ws/trains/

Cheers,
Keith Albrandt

All-Time BRW Roster
kalbrandt@rypn.org

Many thanks for the links, Keith. I'm pretty good on motive power, but what about BR&W rolling stock?

> The link below and the following Web pages
> may be a good place to begin.
> http://www.geocities.com/brw148/rosters.htm
>
> http://home.earthlink.net/~mikemcnh/boxcar/brw9809.html
> http://moyer.ws/trains/

> Cheers,
> Keith Albrandt


http://rrmuseumpa.org

At one point, around the early 1980's, there were several electric cars on the grounds of the BR&W at Ringoes. Most of these were not actually owned by the BR&W. Here's the roster I know of:

Philadelphia Trans'n. Co. #C122 (Brill, 1923) - wood snow sweeper, body only - was and still is owned by BR&W, now used as bunk house

Public Service of New Jersey #2651 (homebuilt, 1917) - wood streetcar, body only - now owned by North Jersey Elec. Ry. Hist. Soc., stored in Phillipsburg NJ

Danville & Bloomsburg St. Ry. #10 (Brill, 1903) - wood semiconvertible, body only - was and still is privately owned, now in storage near Doylestown

Red Arrow #63 (Brill, 1926) - center-entrance interurban, body only - was owned by NJERHS, sold to private owner and now stored near Columbus OH

Frank Hicks


fullparallel@wideopenwest.com