Grand Central TERMINAL 100th anniversary is coming....

Otto Vondrak wrote:I hope MN considers some sort of tribute for the 100th anniversary of GCT. I know that the railroad is very reluctant to acknnowledge their predecessors.

Any idea why Metro-North is so reluctant?

If you wander through Grand Central Terminal, you'll see very few acknowledgements that the New York Central or New Haven ever existed. There are a few elderly wall plaques (probably protected by GCT's landmark status), the old Arrivals Board in the Biltmore Room, and the tabletop graphics in the lower level food court. But that's about it.

The same goes for the Harmon shops on "open house" day. Apart from a few vintage payroll cards displayed just inside one of the entrances, and the lightning-striped FL-9 (a paint job paid for, I believe, by the city of Poughkeepsie), you'd think Metro-North had been running the place since it was built.

It's as if the predecessor railroads are a shameful family secret. What gives? And why hasn't the name and long history of the Long Island Railroad been similarly shuffled off into oblivion?

Actually, all three lightweight trains only ran for a short time between
New York and Boston. After they were withdrawn from that route, the
Roger Williams ran for an equally short time between Springfield and
New York before the railroad decided that the ideal use for this equipment
was to be broken up and used as regular conventional Budd Cars and
because they were able to couple up and MU with regular Budd Cars, this
became the normal use for this train.
It only ran into Grand Central for a few months, not a few years.
Noel Weaver

David Telesha wrote: Omar: There are no New Haven passenger electrics - a display of the Merchants would just be a string of beautiful HW passenger cars.
As for "what the public wants" half of them don't care and would send Thomas the tank for all they know.

Not wanting to split nits - there are two New Haven Passenger (MU) electrics extant - the NYNH&H 5111 Pullman Electric MU, private commuter club car built 1954 currently in the RMNE's collection and a 4400 series MU Combination coach in Danbury. There may be one or two other combos in MNCR as work cars.

None of the cars have seats I'd venture to guess and all cannot run on electricity.

As far as the Merchants Limited Heavyweights
NYNH&H Springfield Wason Dining car, from "Merchants Ltd.", work svc. W-153 BUILT 1904.
Other heavyweight cars were used at times and the "Yankee Clipper" cars can also be used to fill up the consist.

As far as the Public & Thomas the Tank is concerned - what do they know? They never saw the real thing & more than likely would be suitably impressed given the proper environment. That's what railroad preservation is about - not getting your jollies by counting rivets or talking about 'when I was working for the New Haven...'. Its about seeing people getting enthusiastic over something they never knew existed.

Without preservationists, all most foamers can do is drool over the long gone pictures and play MS TrainSim.

NCAA Season Go Bannana Slugs!!!

Otto Vondrak wrote:If we can distract the misguided folks over at the URHS, maybe we can get the NYC Hickory Creek on display at the bumper of Track 28 for a week. That would be awesome. Next step- we have to start a movement to rescue the only existing T-3a motor from the abusive home M&H Chapter is providing up in Albany (and maybe bring the S-motor with it). There is enough NYC equipment out there where we could have some suitable displays somewhere in the terminal. Would love to see the "NYC" FL9's make one last trip with some specials out of GCT...

...those are just my gut thoughts. Anyone else?

-otto-

Otto, A little disturbing to hear a comment such as "If we can distract the misguided folks over at the URHS, maybe we can get the NYC Hickory Creek on display at the bumper of Track 28 for a week". I'm sure the misguided folks at URHS would certainly be interested in entertaining a request to display the tail car from one of the finest trains in the country for such an event. As for you reference to track 28, the Century always left from track 34 - often arrived on either 26, 27 or 28. Hey maybe you could even ask that they bring along NYC Tavern Lounge 43 as well. I heard it looks great.

I fully stand behind my opinon- disparaging as it may be. I have had several contacts with folks involved in the restoration of the Hickory Creek- they have told me they have no itention of returning the car to NYC lettering. Yes the car was delivered with PULLMAN in the letterboards, but it spent most of its service life with NEW YORK CENTRAL markings. They would rather not acknowledge that NYC served New Jersey, I guess. *That* is misguided.

However, why anyone would attribute any weight to my commentary is beyond me.

-otto-