I am attempting to come up with a roster of preserved Delaware Lackawanna & Western (later Erie-Lackawanna) multiple-unit electric cars. These heavyweight cars were used on the Lackawanna's suburban electric service in New Jersey, and after retirement in the early 1980's a large proportion of them were sold to tourist railways and museums. If anyone has any information on preserved Lackawanna MU cars, I would like to know. Particular organizations that have them, but which I know little about, include the Maine Coast Railroad, the Gettysburg Railroad, the Tioga Central, and the Indiana Museum of Transportation.
Any input is welcome and appreciated.

> I am attempting to come up with a roster of
> preserved Delaware Lackawanna & Western
> (later Erie-Lackawanna) multiple-unit
> electric cars.

Steamtown has the following:

Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Electric Passenger Trailers #315, #320, #330, #333, #334, #335, #343, #346.
Built: Pullman Car Co., 1925, as suburban passenger coaches.
Info: American Car and Foundry rebuilt these all-steel coaches in 1930 as electric trailer coaches seating 82 passengers.
Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Electric Passenger Trailer #681
Built: Pullman Car Co., March 1917
Info: Rebuilt in 1930 as #2333
Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Electric Passenger Trailer #705
Built: Pullman Car Co., November 1920
Info: Rebuilt in 1930 as #2357.

For a full Steamtown roster see the attached link. This roster was last updated in 1999 and may not be current.

Steamtown roster
eledbetter@mail.rypn.org

> I am attempting to come up with a roster of
> preserved Delaware Lackawanna & Western
> (later Erie-Lackawanna) multiple-unit
> electric cars. These heavyweight cars were
> used on the Lackawanna's suburban electric
> service in New Jersey, and after retirement
> in the early 1980's a large proportion of
> them were sold to tourist railways and
> museums. If anyone has any information on
> preserved Lackawanna MU cars, I would like
> to know. Particular organizations that have
> them, but which I know little about, include
> the Maine Coast Railroad, the Gettysburg
> Railroad, the Tioga Central, and the Indiana
> Museum of Transportation.
> Any input is welcome and appreciated.

Check back issues of the Tri-State Chapter NRHS's Block Line Magazine from the mid-1980's. I recall they had a list of purchasers of the individual DL&W m.u. electrics and trailer coaches from the NJ Transit Auction in 1984. It was a long list, almost five pages in length, and cross-referenced purchasers with car numbers.

http://rrmuseumpa.org

> I am attempting to come up with a roster of
> preserved Delaware Lackawanna & Western
> (later Erie-Lackawanna) multiple-unit
> electric cars. These heavyweight cars were
> used on the Lackawanna's suburban electric
> service in New Jersey, and after retirement
> in the early 1980's a large proportion of
> them were sold to tourist railways and
> museums. If anyone has any information on
> preserved Lackawanna MU cars, I would like
> to know. Particular organizations that have
> them, but which I know little about, include
> the Maine Coast Railroad, the Gettysburg
> Railroad, the Tioga Central, and the Indiana
> Museum of Transportation.
> Any input is welcome and appreciated.

Frank:

Funny you should bring the subject up at this time. Tom Travis and I were looking at the San Diego Railroad Museum site this evening and Tom pointed out that the ex-EL cars were shown as SD&A on the museum roster. Tom worked on these cars when he was at SDRM and does NOT (!) have happy memories about them. Perhaps Jim Lundquist or someone else from SDRM can get you information about the cars.

midlandblb@cs.com

There are a couple of E-L cars at the Nevada Northern (White Pine Historic Ry) at Ely, Nevada. If I recall correctly, it obtained these from an operation in the Northwest after the head-on with the runaway load of ties did damage to the classic steam engine and its train.

Brian Norden

bnorden@gateway.net

> There are a couple of E-L cars at the Nevada
> Northern (White Pine Historic Ry) at Ely,
> Nevada. If I recall correctly, it obtained
> these from an operation in the Northwest
> after the head-on with the runaway load of
> ties did damage to the classic steam engine
> and its train.

> Brian Norden

Illinios Railway Museum has a few. They are listed on the museum roster at the museum's official website.

Paul Kattner


Illinios Railway Museum
paulkattner@hotmail.com

> There are a couple of E-L cars at the Nevada
> Northern (White Pine Historic Ry) at Ely,
> Nevada. If I recall correctly, it obtained
> these from an operation in the Northwest
> after the head-on with the runaway load of
> ties did damage to the classic steam engine
> and its train.

The Nevada Northern Railway Museum has coaches No.'s 1433 and 1439. I didn't know that they were originally E-L coaches, but here is some information about them from the NNRy Museum's Fall 1995 newsletter.

Built by Pullman in 1928, all steel, 33" multiwear steel wheels, 50 ton friction bearings. 34 walkover and four bench seats. Contain vintage electric lighting fixtures. They had some restoration performed in 1965. Retired in 1978. In excursion service in Indiana afterwards. Sold to the Mississippi Railroad at Armory, MS and operated from c1983-1986 behind their No. 77 locomotive. Sold April 1989 to Lewis & Clark Ry in Battle Ground, WA for partial restoration and service. Acquired by Railmove Inc. and moved to Willamette & Pacific Railroad in Albany, OR in July 1993 and used occasionally. Purchased with help of Magma Nevada Mines Co. for the NNRy Museum and operated there first on 12 Aug 1995. Still in service on the excursion trains.

There's a photo of coach No. 1433 on the passenger service page of my website "Nevada Northern & Railroads of White Pine County, NV. The direct URL is given below.

Cheers,
Keith Albrandt

Nevada Northern & Railroads of White Pine County

kalbran1@san.rr.com

> There's a photo of coach No. 1433 on the
> passenger service page of my website
> "Nevada Northern & Railroads of
> White Pine County, NV. The direct URL is
> given below.

Let me try posting that photo again! It was taken 19 June 1999 at East Ely, NV

Cheers,
Keith Albrandt


Nevada Northern & Railroads of White Pine County

kalbran1@san.rr.com

Conway Scenic has 4 Ex-Lackawanna MU cars....one has been rebuilt as a nifty dining car, one is a fully restored coach and two are rotting away on a siding at Bartlett, NH with no plans to restore as far as I know......


gbrail@yahoo.com

The Valley Railroad has eight former DL&W suburban coaches:
500-Food service car, exDL&W?
501-Open platform coach, exDL&W#516
502- " " " " #577
503- " " " " #551
600- Open car, exDL&W#4327, exSt&LV#1004
601- coach, " #4305?, " #1001
602- " " #4338? " #1002
603- " " #4344? " #1003
I would also note that VRR had one other ex-DL&W open platform coach which was scrapped in the 1970s'.
If any one knows for sure the DL&W#s for the StJ&LV cars, please do let me know, thank you.
>

jdconrad@snet.net

> The Valley Railroad has eight former
> DL&W suburban coaches:
> 500-Food service car, exDL&W?
> 501-Open platform coach, exDL&W#516
> 502- " " " " #577
> 503- " " " " #551
> 600- Open car, exDL&W#4327,
> exSt&LV#1004
> 601- coach, " #4305?, " #1001
> 602- " " #4338? " #1002
> 603- " " #4344? " #1003
> I would also note that VRR had one other
> ex-DL&W open platform coach which was
> scrapped in the 1970s'.
> If any one knows for sure the DL&W#s for
> the StJ&LV cars, please do let me know,
> thank you.

Strasburg RR's six former DL&W m.u. coaches were sold sometime ago to other parties. They were purchased in the mid-1980's following the the NJ Transit Auction for use in main line excursion service with PRR 7002 and 1223 on Amtrak and Conrail, which required the use of steel equipment. Four other cars were also used variously on these trips--PRR P70 1006 on loan from the RR Museum of PA; SRR's Western Maryland steel coach 836 "London Run"; and two DL&W m.u. trailers loaned by the Gettysburg RR. When the tight lock coupler requirement and the escalating insurance crisis landed on the scene in the late 1980's, the main line trips quietly ended, and the DL&W cars were rendered surplus. They were occasionally used for auxiliary seating on the SRR, but seldom saw use. I wasn't able to locate all of the car numbers in my files, but at least one of them was #4367. Four of the cars were sold in 1989 to the Tarantula RR in Texas where they were modified extensively with open vestibules. The last two, #2237 and #2242, I believe, went to the Delaware-Lackawanna Railway in Scranton in 1992. The SRR's retired ex-MP54 steel open air car "Conestoga Creek" also went to the D-L as part of the sale. Check "Steam Over Scranton" by Gordon Chappell for a good historical overview of DL&W m.u. cars. It is available from the Steamtown Museum Store.


The American Experience
Kurtrbell@hotmail.com

Many thanks to everyone who provided information about preserved Lackawanna MU cars - a great deal of it was helpful. Keith Albrandt's post was especially intriguing. I looked at your photo from the Nevada Northern, and realized that those cars aren't Lackawanna MU cars but electric cars considerably more rare - Illinois Central cars from the Chicago suburban electrification! As far as I know, only about half a dozen of these cars survived, compared with dozens of Lackawanna MU cars. Mr. Beckman mentioned the San Diego Railroad Museum; just recently I have been corresponding with that organization, and they have been overwhelmingly helpful. Paul Kattner posted that there were Lackawanna MU cars at the Illinois Railway Museum; I work at IRM, and know this not to be true. IRM does, however, have NON-electrified open-platform Lackawanna coaches built for use on the Boonton (?) branch.
Again, thanks to everyone for their help - and I'm always listening for more information about preserved electric cars!

Frank Hicks

Four otherwise-lost cars:
Two have been incorporated into the RR station restaurant, Front Street Station, in Northumberland, Pa.; and two more are decaying on a siding somewhere along the North Shore RR, owned by the same restaurant owner (and reportedly for sale).

LNER4472@gateway.net

My mistake. I volunteer at IRM to and should have known better.

Paul Kattner

> Many thanks to everyone who provided
> information about preserved Lackawanna MU
> cars - a great deal of it was helpful. Keith
> Albrandt's post was especially intriguing. I
> looked at your photo from the Nevada
> Northern, and realized that those cars
> aren't Lackawanna MU cars but electric cars
> considerably more rare - Illinois Central
> cars from the Chicago suburban
> electrification! As far as I know, only
> about half a dozen of these cars survived,
> compared with dozens of Lackawanna MU cars.
> Mr. Beckman mentioned the San Diego Railroad
> Museum; just recently I have been
> corresponding with that organization, and
> they have been overwhelmingly helpful. Paul
> Kattner posted that there were Lackawanna MU
> cars at the Illinois Railway Museum; I work
> at IRM, and know this not to be true. IRM
> does, however, have NON-electrified
> open-platform Lackawanna coaches built for
> use on the Boonton (?) branch.
> Again, thanks to everyone for their help -
> and I'm always listening for more
> information about preserved electric cars!

> Frank Hicks


paulkattner@hotmail.com

The IRM cars are Boonton line trailer cars. This could be a book in itself. Frank Hicks' original request was for electric equipment.

Steve

> Illinios Railway Museum has a few. They are
> listed on the museum roster at the museum's
> official website.

> Paul Kattner


SZuidervee@aol.com