Mystery Photo (Erie Motorcar on Moodna Viaduct)

Moodna Viaduct was for carrying freight, the passenger main was a separate track. Not saying this isn't Moodna, but this would have to be an excursion of some sort if we had the motorcar running on the freight main.

Does anyone know what routes Erie was using motorcars and trailers in the 1930s? That might give a good start... if this is a random excursion somewhere on the system, well then that might not be as much help...

-otto-

That's what I said. There was a Sat. aft. trian in the 30s over the Graham line and this could be it. The person who looked at it yesterday immediately pounced on Moodna with that statement about the Sat. train over the line.

is this possibly the old paterson high bridge across the passaic river or maybe the one
in the totowa/west paterson area. i seem to remember some concrete supports at the
river's edge on the east side. if this is correct the trains would have been on the old
booton line coming out of paterson

MYLAYOUT wrote:is this possibly the old paterson high bridge across the passaic river or maybe the one
in the totowa/west paterson area. i seem to remember some concrete supports at the
river's edge on the east side. if this is correct the trains would have been on the old
booton line coming out of paterson

You're thinking old DL&W...these pictures are definitely Erie!

I believe the picture on page 46 of Jack Grasso's book "Diamondbugs" is the same train but shot at a different angle. The same windows are open at the same heights, the same fellow is sitting by the second from the back window of the motor unit, etc. It is Moodna Viaduct and it was an excursion in 1948 with 5014 on the point.

To answer another question posed on this thread about disposition of these units: Most of these units contained passenger sections, such as 5014 but there were a few that were baggage, express and mail only. For the most of their careers, these latter units generally spent their time on runs between Buffalo and Jamestown, Buffalo and Hornell and Rochester and Corning (later Avon and Corning). The "passenger" units worked the commuter trains out of JC. The later 4000 units, (4050's and 4070's) replaced the electric operations between Rochester and Mt. Morris. More detail can be found in Grasso's book.

All of the 5000-series were 600hp. Nevertheless, they could work when they had to. On the Corning milk train, they would be pulling a string of milk cars and a Stillwell coach.

A correction to my previous post about the Corning- Rochester trains 467-8. Before 1939, one crew made the entire run between these points but in 1939, they broke it up. One crew brought 467 from Corning to Avon. A second crew took it the rest of the way into Rochester with a 4070-series gas-electric. Passengers had to change. 468, the milk train, did it in reverse. If it started out of Corning with steam, the consist was a baggage-express-mail car and a Stillwell coach. If it was a 5000-series, then that replaced the Stillwell coach. (I said previously that they used the b-e-m units, like 5000 and 5001. They didn't) Either way, the 4070-series had to pull the b-e-m car in and out of Rochester. So, if 468 (the milk train) had a 5000 on the point, it pulled a b-e-m car, plus all the milk cars - rather than what I said.
I believe the reason for all this was that in 1939, they cut the Rochester- Mt. Morris commuter service almost in half including one pair of trains that ran just between Avon and Rochester. This crew could then handle this new assignment and the Corning crew ended up with about a 150-mile round trip for the day.
It got worse. In 1940, they abandoned the Avon-Mt. Morris branch. In 1941, they discontinued all passenger service between Avon and Rochester. 467-8 remained in service between Avon and Corning until 1946. Similar things were going on out of Buffalo for Hornell or Jamestown. The flip side was that the Erie came out of receivership and started paying dividends.

It's definitely not Woodbury...Woodbury is much shorter and curved.

Otto Vondrak wrote:Moodna Viaduct was for carrying freight, the passenger main was a separate track. Not saying this isn't Moodna, but this would have to be an excursion of some sort if we had the motorcar running on the freight main.

Does anyone know what routes Erie was using motorcars and trailers in the 1930s? That might give a good start... if this is a random excursion somewhere on the system, well then that might not be as much help...

-otto-

Weren't Highland Mills and Central Valley popular passenger stations on the Graham Line?

Looks like Moodna Viaduct to me.

I repeat my earlier post. If you look at page 46 of Grasso's book, Diamondbugs,it appears to be the same train but shot at a different angle. The same windows are open at the same heights, the same fellow is sitting by the second from the back window of the motor unit, etc. It is Moodna Viaduct and it was an excursion in 1948 with 5014 on the point.

The Eire Updated the appearance of these gasoline powered "Doodle-bugs about 1936-7.

They were built boxy looking with a cow catcher made of steel rods.

The Erie altered the the front ends in light of the "stream-line" craze that became popular in the middle 1930s.

They replaced the Cow-catcher the with plow shaped steel plates shown in the picture.

And added the flaring yellow lines to get the Streamlined look.

When they first came out with refurbished interiors I thought that they were a newl modes.

But of course I was just a kid then.

It is definitely not Kinzua Viaduct. The cross girders at the tops of the bents are too long for Kinzua. The Erie had three bridges built to the same general configuration as the one in the photo - Moodna Viaduct on the Graham Line, and Belfast and Rush Creek Viaducts on the River Line east of Cuba. All three were built with two lines of girders. I know that Moodna carried a gantlet track, and was later single-tracked, and I don't know if the other two ever had gantlets. They were all designed so that a second full track could be added by setting two more girder lines, one on either side of the existing track, with connections already placed on the cross girders. The Erie also left empty rivet holes on the columns so reinforcing steel could be added to increase the capacity to carry a train on each track.

From the gas car and general lay of the land I would say this is Moodna Viaduct. I remember the single handrail on Moodna in 1968 had that configuration but as far as I can remember the other two had the same handrails. The second handrail and walkway were added on Moodna after MTA/NJT began passenger operation on the Graham Line.

Gordon Davids

My guess is Moodna. The doodlebug is coming from Pt. Jervis to Suffern.

Moodena. The land beneath the viaduct at
Kinzua was much further down.
Train looks to be eastbound. There was a meadow
on the right side of the bridge now covered in
McMansions.

n2xjk wrote:Does anyone know where this is, about when it was taken, the model and make of the rail car, etc?

Full view:

Zooming in:

TMNY Collection, catalog #369

This is the Moodna Viaduct in the late forties or early fifties. Those of you who have observed that the gas-electrics were primarily in New York Division commuter service are correct--this is a weekend fan trip over several of the freight-only branches. This trip may also have traversed the Newburgh Branch to Newburgh. If someone has a collection of the Erie Employee Magazine, you will find an article on this trip complete with photos at other obscure places.