Nostalgia & History > The tale of ND91... bad day for the EL and me

The picture hear is a reminder of an ill fated trip I took on westbound Erie Lackawanna ND91, a Croxton to Buffalo generally mixed freight. We are passing Fifth Street tower in Elmira New York. It is December of 1975, and EL is on life support. This photo itself was never worth printing at the time, but seeing it now rekindled a flood of memories. As usual, I picked up my ride at Scranton, timing my arrival to the availability of one of my favorite crews. Back then the telephone was my crew caller, and I would call my buddy engineer in Hornell to find out when he was called for Scranton. Depending on the train, I could figure running times, his rest, and the return call. Didn't always work, because the EL could be, to put it kindly, unreliable at that point in its existance. In this case it did. I got to Scranton and called him at the hotel. He was called for ND91, a mixed freight out of Croxton that would pick up off the main in Scranton. I enjoyed these moves because they were quick but interesting. ND 91 this day had an unusual consist of all empty autoracks, and was picking up more. The crew let out a collective groan as the train pulled in. The weather was bitter cold as I remember, and they were telling me that the light rack cars had problems holding their air and tended to "bounce." These were the old style cars, not the enclosed racks of today. Picup was made and the trip was smooth through Binghamton, all the way west to about two miles past where this shot was taken. I can't swear to it, but I think the engineer was going above the posted speed of 40 by a fair bit. We hit a kink in the rail and the train did a real bounce that lifted me inches out of the seat. Next thing we know the bell goes off and we go into emergency. Thinking it was an airhose problem, the cursing brakeman started bundling up to walk the train.  The engineer called the caboose to have the rear end brakeman start forward. I opted to sit this one out, happy to not be on the payroll. Time passed, and then the rear brakeman radioed that the front of the train was several hundred feet in front of the last 25 racks! Not only had the train pulled apart, it had damaged the whole coupling assembly. The train could not be put back together!   Fifth Street tower was notified, and then we heard nothing for what seemed an eternity, while the suits figured out what to do. The division superintendent was on his way from Binghamton, and in the finest tradition of the day, my buddy removed the speed tape that recorded the train velocity. Not too guilty was he?? It was not unusual for the units then to not have the tape at times, and he wasn't going to chance a furlough. As it turned out,  the plan was to wait for the next westbound, CX97 also out of Scranton. The power from CX97 cut off its train in Elmira, picked up the back of our train, reversed back to Elmira, set the offending car off, and put us back together. We were at this point 10 hours into this trip. It was now dark and it was cold!! The crews trip ended short of Hornell as they ran out of time at Gang Mills yard west of Corning. My trip ended right here. The superintendent came into the cab to question the engineer and fireman. He did the math and asked exactly who I was. Being honest, I said, a friend! He looked at me and said, "Well friend, your ride is over."I rode back to Binghamton with him in his car. I did my best to become his friend, but this guy was no nonsense. I learned later that from that point on I was to duck in the cab going through Binghamton. He took me to the bus station in Binghamton and left me there to catch a bus back to Scranton. Fortunately, the bus station in Scranton was near the west end of the EL yard. Weirdest ride I ever had on a train, but a great story triggered by that one photo you see here.

 

Bill Rettberg
Bel Air, MD



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 03/25/19 10:29 by Roadjob.

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Neat story! Growing up along the Southern Tier at Owego in the late '60s and early '70s, I remember watching EL freights bobbing and weaving at 50mph down not-so-pristine jointed double track. There were a number of derailments back in the day.

Questions: Was the Fifth St Tower just west of the where the Erie/EL passenger station was located? And in the distance beyond the road overpass would be the Elmira freight yard? And LV's Horseheads locals and PRR freights to/from Watkins Glen and beyond used this section of EL track, as well? Thanks.

Good one and narrative.
JB

Looks like you were riding a U25B?

Well Bill, at least he took you back to Binghamton to catch the bus. I guess he could have left you standing in Elmira. Did your buddy get into any trouble over this?  These kind of stories and memories are the greatest companion to go with a photograph.

It was a U25B, very observant of you!  Three of them to be exact that day. Fifth Street tower was on the west side of the city of Elmira.Believe it or not, I never was in it, or on the ground by it, just rode by it. There was a small engine facility and yard in that area, or at a place called Horseheads, which I also remember having a tower at that spot. Unfortunately I am not intimately familiar with that area as a fan, because I generally avoided getting tangled up in Elmira and Corning. Best to drive around them, or be lucky enought to be on a train through them.

Bill Rettberg
Bel Air, MD



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/23/19 08:53 by Roadjob.

No evidence was presented to show they did anything wrong. At that point they did not overly care anyway, since all knew that they would be working somewhere else within several months.My buddy was worried as to what happened to me. They all got a good laugh at the rest of my adventure though, when I told the story of my trying to win the super over. It was a very surreal time on the road. Never saw the superintendent again. Never wanted too!

Bill Rettberg
Bel Air, MD

Across the street from FS Tower what you see is the PRR Freight House which was torn down in the early 70's. The track right in front of the tower is the Canandaigua Track which was the Pennsy Track where they were able to get to there Freight House off from the Erie. Farther west on the other side of Washington Ave Bridge was the hill switch which took you down over the hill to the lower yard where the PRR had interchange tracks with the LV and DL&W before the EL merger..



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/23/19 13:14 by PCCRNSEngr.

Last night of operations for FS Tower March 7, 1984 and the end on September 20, 1985

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What a trip! Thanks for sharing these memories.
Bob

That's a superb night shot of a tower!  You don't see night shots of towers too often.