Post Author:
csa | 10:10 PM |
Link
|
TrackBacks
Hi, Chris. I'm a veteran of three railroads, the Union Pacific, the NYCTA and the Erie-Lackawanna where I worked a summer as an engineering inspector.
The Lackawanna's M&E line used to pass through the anthracite region of Pennsylvania, for which the Lack adopted his trade name, "The Route of Anthracite." Scranton was a Lackawanna division HQ. To better publicize the low ash qualities of anthracite burning locos, the Lackawanna devised a cartoon spokeswoman, Phoebe Snow. When Phoebe got on the train in Hoboken on her way to, perhaps, Salamanca to even Chicago, her dress remained "clean and white because she rode the route of anthracite."
Many years later, a Newark native and singer, Phoebe Laub, wanted a stage name so her parents would not know she was working in bars and seemy nightclubs. She adopted the stage name, "Phoebe Snow" because, she said, from her apartment all she could see were box cars painted, "The Route of Phoebe Snow."
Actually, IMO, there is a demand for Scranton to the New York commutation. What we once called farmland or exurbia is now commuter territory. Places like Scranton and the area around the Delaware Water Gap are now loaded with ex-Jerseyites and New Yorkers whose jobs are still in the metro area.
On a totally unrelated theme, if you look at census data, the eastern railroad with the greatest rate of increase in demand is the Erie-Lackawanna. Besides demand from the former anthracite region, the Erie mainline is exhibiting an unbelievable growth spurt. As a kid in the '50s and '60s, I recall places like Goshen, Chester and Monroe meant dairy farms at the gateway to the Catskills. Now these are sprawling suburban communities. And the best part of a family trip to the mountains was the stopover at the Red Apple Rest -- not for burgers or hotdogs but to watch those fast Erie freight trains at the back of the Red Apple. The Erie mainline was an incredibly fast alignmenet through the mountains because it was originally designed as a 6' wide gauge road.
