Eastern Railroad Discussion > Truc -Train. .....PRR dies hard.

2nd trick Hagerstown dispatcher, located in Harrisburg,PA, referred to NS intermodal 203 as a "Truc train" as it passed through Manassas, VA tonight. Must be an ex PRR man now dispatching the ex N&W/SOU.
I suppose up on the old NYC they are still called "van trains"
harking back to the days of Perlman's "flexi-vans"

Posted from Android

You are correct. No such thing as a "truc-train" here... Its all "van trains" or "vans", and they get loaded/unloaded at a "van site". Another case of old names dying hard, as we haven't had any NYC oldheads in several years now.

mp208 Wrote:
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> I suppose up on the old NYC they are still called
> "van trains"
 

those Hagerstown dispatchers are very different from the old Crew and Washington District dispatchers

Welll...we still call them Mail trains on the Old NYC BIg 4, even though I don't think they've hauled mail since '65.  Old habits die hard.

"Old habits die hard"......Thank You,  Lord.   AA

Stanford White
Carmel Valley, CA

DrLoco Wrote:
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> Welll...we still call them Mail trains on the Old
> NYC BIg 4, even though I don't think they've
> hauled mail since '65.  Old habits die hard.

Thats a holdover from Conrail days as well...MAIL 3, MAIL 4, MAIL 8, and MAIL 9 ran right till the end.

Posted from iPhone

The lingo tends to get passed on. It's not likely that any former PRR dispatchers are still working. 1967 was 50 years ago, that's really stretching it!

halfmoonharold Wrote:
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> The lingo tends to get passed on. It's not likely
> that any former PRR dispatchers are still working.
> 1967 was 50 years ago, that's really stretching
> it!

Hard to believe 50 years have almost pase since Penn Central was formed..... I do not believe there are any more workers from the New Haven days still left....In the Boston area anyway.

NY/PRR merger into PC occured Feb 2, 1968, IIRC. A person hired in Jan 1968 at the youngest age of 18 would be 67 now. There could still be some around. RR Retirement can start at age 60 with full benefits; and I do not think it increases after that, but it is not mandatory. Some still choose to work on, because they can still earn good pay and health care, they like what they do, and being a railfan or not, they'd rather be on the railroad than stay at home. I will not go into the reasons I've heard, but use your imagination. Most of these folks are in the crafts, where they can choose the jobs they want to work.

Cincinnati Hamilton and Dayton Railroad was absorbed into Baltimore and Ohio in 1917, a hundred years ago. I had forgot about it because it is used by everyone but the crossing of the C H & D with the former N & W in Chillicothe is still known as the C H & D crossing. In part to differentiate the C H & D crossing from the B & O Parkersburg to Cincinnati crossing that was less than a mile north. That B & O diamond has been gone for twenty eight years but CH & D is alive and well in Chillicothe Ohio, or at least name is.

Jim