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Pennsylvania Railroad’s Elmira Branch by Bill Caloroso Soft Cover
Pennsylvania Railroads Elmira Branch by Bill Caloroso
Soft Cover
96 pages
Copyright 1993
CONTENTS
Foreword 4
1 History 6
2 Motive Power 16
3 Operations 22
4 Close-Up: Pennsylvania 40
5 Close-Up: New York 58
6 The S&NY 86
7 Post Pennsy and PC 94
FOREWORD
My interest in Pennsylvania Railroad's Elmira Branch-and for there to be a book about it-has been long-standing. I grew up in Elmira, N.Y., during the 1940's and 1950's, and I recall on numerous occasions watching PRR parade coal trains through the city. In fact, by 1950 my family had moved to a homestead on the south side of Elmira some 250 feet from Pennsy's Southport Yard-hub of the Elmira Branch. Observing all this activity at my doorstep certainly helped create long-lasting impressions of this distinctive branch of the "Standard Railroad of the World."
For a time in the early 1950's, I became even more enamored by the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western and the Erie Railroad than with the PRR. Their new diesels seemed much more fascinating and unique to me than the old, dirty Pennsy steam locomotives. Even then, "DL" and Erie freight consists were more interesting to watch than train after train of hoppers on the PRR. And nothing could beat watching Lackawanna's passenger trains-the clean E units, the streamlined passenger cars and the square-end observation cars of the Phoebe Snow really outclassed Erie's "varnish" with their overabundance of head- end cars, rebuilt coaches and drab-colored streamlined sleeping cars.
Nonetheless, Pennsy's Elmira Branch had a charisma all its own. After all, steam power still ruled the line, and its passenger trains, though short, had their own sort of charm. Even the predictable coal trains were interrupted by interesting trains of general freight. Perhaps it's the fact that, as the years move on, one's perspective tends to change on things once taken for granted. What was once commonplace is now vanished, and suddenly these things become important and treasured. So it was with me and the Elmira Branch.
Although my memories of rail activity are vivid, I best recall the day-to-day flow of life along the Elmira Branch. I remember my mother hanging out her laundry to dry, only to have a shift in the wind blow Pennsy smoke and cinders over her clean wash. Normally a calm, serene person, she would phone the city smoke-control officer and tell him in no uncertain terms what she thought of him and the Pennsylvania Railroad. The smoke still came.
And then there was our dog. He would chase PRR employees all over the north end of the yard, much to their chagrin, while they climbed cars and locomotives to get away from him. Yard crews threw rocks at the dog and yelled at me to do something about the mutt. One day he had the misfortune of falling in the locomotive ashpit. He could not get out of the putrid mess and was on his way to an early demise when a sympathetic employee pulled him out, rinsed him off and sent him home. From that day on, he no longer chased employees.
As I grew into my teens, my interest in the Pennsy was renewed through my girlfriend (now my wife), whose family hailed from Troy, Pa., 25 miles from Elmira. now often spent Sundays with her and her parents, driving down Route 14 to visit friends and family in the Troy area. Despite the distractions of the backseat environment, I still managed to observe a lot of activity on the PRR-the tracks and highway paralleled each other for most of the distance between Troy and Elmira.
Looking back on all this, my fondness for the Pennsy and its Elmira Branch has withstood the test of time and is more deeply rooted than I would have first thought, gleaming Lackawanna passenger trains and handsome Erie Alco PA's notwithstanding. It's surprising how your values change with time.
The main inspiration to this book project must be credited to my friend Chuck Yungkurth and the 1992 release of his pet book project, THE STEAM ERA OF LE-HIGH VALLEY. Chuck's prodding plus a lot of encouragement from my wife Joann and my retirement from IBM were the final stimuli I needed to do a book on this small segment of a vast railroad.
This book is not meant to be a technical commentary on the PRR, its motive power or any other aspect of the Pennsy. Rather, I want to leave the reader with an appreciation and understanding of the magic that was the Elmira Branch.
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