more vintage footage of the Lackawanna Yards in Elmira along with lots of footage of the Phoebe Snow! You'll see freight trains, EMD F units, FM Train Masters, AQ tower action, great views of Nicholson bridge and much more!
Fantastic footage! I loved every second. It gives one pause however, to be reminded of just how much we have lost as a country. I would sure love to have the DL&W or EL back.... I would trade the interstate highways away in a heartbeat....just to have those glorious trains back!
Rode the Phoebe Snow once between Hoboken and Binghamton. Rode other DL&W trains between the two destinations going to and from college. The diners had excellent food. Views through the Delaware Water Gap were just lovely.
1958 - was seven years old and lived near Bath Pa. I remember sitting on my front step when the El passed. Lots of pictures where taken by photographers prior '58. I also remember the EL sitting on the rails by the Keystone Cement Plant. Thanks for the memories.
Growing up my dad would always talk of this train. My grandfather was a conductor the Erie Lackawanna RR(for more than 40 years, my dad still has his pins for service). According to my father his dad was the conductor on this trains last ride. I was never able to verify it (my grandfather passed away a year before I was born).
Great footage of the Phoebe, mostly in Western NY. at 9:41 my GROVELAND sign appears as #15 the Owl with 12 mail and express cars, a coach, sleeper and buffet-lounge car, added at Elmira, comes down off of Dansville Hill into the Genesee Valley,; followed right after by the Phoebe Snow #6 making speed to attack Dansville Hill, the second steepest, after the Poconos on the Lackawanna. Following footage is Cohocton with the offset train order signal, and the through truss bridge at Avoca.
+David MonteVerde Thank you for the great info. I spent a lot of time growing up in Cohocton, never would have recognized the place in that short clip. Priceless!
When I was in college, we'd take a bus from Ithaca down to Owego and catch the eastbound Phoebe Snow heading to Hoboken. I'd get off in Summit, NJ. Back in those days, the drinking age was different in NY than in PA. So 18 year old would go to the lounge car and have a beer. Magically, the staff on the train knew the very moment they crossed into PA and shut off the under age drinkers.
The concrete viaduct in Nicholson PA is still there. It's a couple of hours from my house. Saw is last year. No trains went over it..I think the Susquehanna may use it at times..I believe it's the largest concrete bridge or structure in the US or the world
At 1:00 I finally got to see how Thurston St. Tower was configured in relation to Eldridge Park. Wow. And then blowing by Thurston and slowing down. Amazing.
I live in Elmira, & where DLW yard was is now few lanes of Clemen's Center Pkwy, Wegman's plaza & open lot.The Elmira station is empty lot next to the former Albee truck sales I have videos of it.@5:33 the DLW on the bridge is cream without the lettering :( I love the past look, in the 80s/90s it was white & red cuz of Conrail or the city.@6:00 what tower is this?@7-7:14 the factory looks like Kennedy Valve right after that wow,Newtown Creek bridge along I86/RT.
+Martin Smith You need to understand that back in the 1950s, Kodak Movie film had a very low ASA speed of 10 or 16.. For the most part, it was only usable during a bright sunny day, as close to high noon as possible. For shaded, evening or night photos or movies it was damn near impossible unless you had floodlights. It tended to be grainy in the 8 mm size, which was actually a 16 mm roll that you shot, and then turned the rolls over inside the camera once you had used up one side. Combine that with the not-so-great lenses on the 8 mm cameras, and you were darn lucky to get anything that wasn't dark or fuzzy. And it was ungodly expensive in the 1950s. Most railfan photographers stuck to their 35 mm black & white Single Lens Reflex or Kodak Brownie cameras (German and Swiss cameras had the best lenses), 120 or 127 size twin lens reflex cameras because the color film costs were prohibitive.
