Eastern Rare-Mileage Trip
"The Pacific Express"
August 2-9, 2011
Photos by Dave Ingles
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The private-car excursion itself was a 4-day endeavor, Friday thru Monday, from Hoboken, NJ, to Philadelphia, set up by Bennett Levin of Philadelphia, with Clark Johnson and his usual private cars, operated by Iowa Pacific's High Iron Travel Corp. subsidiary, comprising 3 of the train's 7 cars. Bennett used the title "Pacific Express" for the train to honor a long-gone Erie Railroad train, since the first half of the trip was basically the old Erie main line from Hoboken to near Youngstown, Ohio. Some of us just called it "Erie Limited," and PRR fans probably had their own name(s) for the second half. The trip finished on NS's old PRR main line from Youngstown to Philadelphia. "The twins," as Bennett calls his two PRR E8s, were the motive power; they wear their original numbers of 5711 and 5809. Out of Hoboken, the consist was: 5711, 5809, and 7 private cars: Mount Vernon (sleeper lounge, ex-UP Pacific Island 10&6), Cimarron River (sleeper, ex-SLSF 14&4, still that), Swift Stream (sleeper lounge, ex-NYC, our section's diner), Caritas (business-car layout, large lounge at rear, former SLSF 14&4), C&O 3 Chapel Hill (business), Warrior Ridge (parlor lounge, lettered Juniata 1157, ex-SP, with ex-New Haven parlor swivel seats), and PRR 120 (business, assigned to PRR presidents). Levin sold space in the 2 rear cars, Clark Johnson's High Iron Travel in his 3 cars (behind Mt. Vernon, ahead of C&O 3), and the other two cars by their owners. To reach this trip, local friend and mileage-collector Otto Dobnick and I rode the High Iron Travel cars right out of Chicago, on the back of Amtrak #48, the Lake Shore Limited, on Tues., Aug. 2nd. By midnight the next night, we were in Sunnyside Yard, New York; |
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Otto explored the city and rode the Staten island rapid transit line on Thursday, while I stayed on the cars and sight-saw in Sunnyside Yard. In the afternoon Amtrak moved us thru Penn Station to a small yard by Hudson Tower in North Jersey, where we watched Amtrak and NJ Transit trains parade by on the Northeast Corridor (plus PATH rapid transit next to the NEC), and also saw the PRR E8's and 3 cars arrive. After the rush hour, NJT moved our 7-car consist to Hoboken Terminal, where we spent the night until the Friday morning departure. Other passengers boarded at Hoboken upon our arrival, or early Friday morning. Friday's trip was 242 miles to Bath, NY. The entire trip was under Amtrak insurance auspices and rules, with NJ Transit, Susquehanna, Norfolk Southern, Bath & Hammondsport, Western New York & Pennsylvania, and Amtrak the operating carriers. NJT took us to Port Jervis, NY, and Susquehanna's Central New York subsidiary on to Binghamton, where NS took over to Painted Post. From there we went up the portion of the old Lackawanna main line that the "new" B&H operates, basically now a single-track slow branch. B&H's original line between its namesake cities is still there, but long dormant. Saturday's segment was from Bath north to near Avoca, NY, on the old Lackawanna "to get all the (extant) mileage," then back thru Bath to NS's former Erie at Painted Post, outside Corning. From there we went west to Meadville, PA, for a total mileage for the day of 302. Two stops interrupted travel this day -- an hour-plus at Jamestown, NY, for the dedication of the under-renovation old Erie station (plus a photo runby), and dinner off-train at Cambridge Springs, PA, at the 1885 Riverside Inn. Sunday's segment was on Norfolk Southern from Meadville to Hubbard, OH, near Youngstown, the westerly end of the old Erie main line, then a short segment of NS connecting to its ex-NYC Youngstown-Ashtabula line. From a point in Youngstown where we segued off ex-NYC onto ex-PRR, the rest of the entire trip was on ex-Pennsy. The day began with a round trip from a junction 3 miles west of Meadville, southeast to Franklin, PA, and back. This line goes on to Oil City, PA, but curvature is such that 6-wheel-truck passenger cars are not permitted. We were supposed to do the 6-mile ex-PRR Koppel Secondary near New Castle, PA (from Control Point Wampum to Control Point Wood), but at Wampum the NS dispatcher kept us on the main line from Youngstown to keep us moving. We overnighted in the Pittsburgh Amtrak station after running a total of 175 miles. Monday's concluding segment was from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia, beginning with the Conemaugh Line out of Pittsburgh, via Kiski Jct. to Conpit, near Johnstown, thence the normal NS main line thru Altoona to Harrisburg, PA, and Amtrak's Keystone Corridor on to Philadelphia. Having ridden 135 miles for the day, I detrained at Altoona in midday with friend Chuck Weinstock of Pittsburgh, and we returned to Pittsburgh in a one-way Hertz rental minivan. He would be at home in his own bed that night, and in late evening he took me back to the Amtrak station, where I caught #29, the Capitol Limited, to Chicago, returning home on an Amtrak Hiawatha Tuesday afternoon. |
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