[ARC5] Locomotives

[mstangelo at comcast.net]

More off-off-topic: Shouldn't that be the electrics ran on the western end of the LIRR?

I commuted into New York from Patchogue, on the south shore of Long Island, from 1976 until 1980.

The Montauk Line (south shore) is electrified as far east as to Babylon. The Main Line at that time was electrified as far as Hicksville. Electrification has since been extended to Ronkonkoma. 

I took a diesel and changed at Jamaica to catch an electric to either Penn Station of Flatbush Avenue station in Brooklyn.

The trains were chronically late. The LIRR ran a PR campaign to show how complicated the operations were and allowed passengers to ride in the diesel with the engineer. The LIRR was the busiest passenger railroad and used the two busiest train stations in the nation (NY Penn and Jamaica).

I eagerly volunteered to the ride and was the first passenger selected for the trip. I was contacted by a PR person and was instructed to meet him at the Patchogue station the following Monday. I met the PR person and he and I climbed up to the cab of the diesel to meet and ride with the engineer.

The engineer had years of experience and because of seniority chose his route. He began his run in Speonk, went west to Hunterspoint Avenue station (western terminus for the diesels), back east to Montauk (eastern terminus of the Montauk Line) the back to Speonk.

He was anxious to answer my questions but asked not to be disturbed when entering or departing a station. He mentioned to was tricky to stop the train because the load changed as more passengers came on board.

I enquired about the twos diesel on the front and back of the train. He mentioned the one we were in was the "Hotel" diesel, used to provide power for lighting, heating and air-conditioning. The rear diesel was used for traction.

He had a timetable showing when he should reach certain mileposts. It turned out the railroad ran like clockwork that day and me met each milepost on time.
Our last stop was in Bay Shore. We went from the south shore line up to the Main line at Hicksville. He mentioned the line is automated at this point going west and claimed that the train could run itself. I never followed up on this caoms and to this day I don't believe the trains are automated.

I got off at Jamaica to catch my train to Brooklyn and spent the day recounting to trip to co-workers.

They gave me a souvenir package with pictures of the rolling stock. I still have that package buring in my files somewhere.

Mike N2MS

----- Original Message -----
From: Geoff <geoffrey at jeremy.mv.com>
To: Michael A. Bittner <mmab at cox.net>, ARC-5 Mail List <arc5 at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Thu, 20 Dec 2012 13:54:59 -0000 (UTC)
Subject: Re: [ARC5] Locomotives

<snip>

I grew up when the steam era was ending and fondly remember the rides I took 
with my parents and then the dissapointment as they faded away. In the 
Northeast it was the electrics that took over in several runs such as 
NYC-Philly-DC and the eastern end of the LIRR.