March 29, 1957 - The end of the NYO&W

I checked the December 1944 Guide last night, and it shows the normal operation through to Weehawken. That transfer at Cornwall certainly looks like a money-saving effort (like the PRR adding P70's to northbound trains at Baltimore to save Washington Terminal charges, or the GM&O terminating the Rebel at East St. Louis). What I'm wondering now is where the locomotive got turned and spent the night. What was the closest engine terminal to Cornwall, or the closest place it could be turned and serviced?

According to my O & W employee timetable for the summer of 1945 there was still a turntable at Cornwall although 400 class engines (4-8-2's) could not be turned there. By that time I suspect the vast majority of O & W passenger trains were powered by ten wheelers. There were also water plugs there and probably the engines simply laid over there between trips.
Noel Weaver

Thanks for checking that; I never knew what facilities the O&W actually had at Cornwall. Was the junction with the WS interlocked? I would think the WS had a tower there, but sometimes there's a surprise.

ExCon90 wrote:Thanks for checking that; I never knew what facilities the O&W actually had at Cornwall. Was the junction with the WS interlocked? I would think the WS had a tower there, but sometimes there's a surprise.

From http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopi ... 28&t=48732 : "According to "A Guide to the NYO&W Southern Division - Cornwall to Liberty," Cornwall Tower (MP 53.05, "CN") was operated by the West Shore (NYC) to control exiting and entering movements off the NYO&W. So "CN" was not an NYO&W facility."
JS

"CN" tower at Cornwall was a New York Central facility but it existed soley for the New York, Ontario and Western. After the O & W closed down the tower was also closed down and when I passed that location during the summer of 1957 on a West Shore passenger train the building was boarded up. The Central did not even list the tower in the employee timetable for the summer of 1957. The tower was more or less a joint operation as the operator handled O & W business including clearance cards, train orders and anything else ordered by the O & W dispatcher.
Noel Weaver

Interesting reading ...

So here's a question for those of y'all who apparently study this railroad ... the ticket punch I use on the Blue Ridge Scenic RR was advertised (when I bought it for $20 on ebay) as coming from the NYO&W ...

Anyone have any idea how to find out if that's actually the case or not?

Looks like this :


and punches like this :

litz wrote:Interesting reading ...

So here's a question for those of y'all who apparently study this railroad ... the ticket punch I use on the Blue Ridge Scenic RR was advertised (when I bought it for $20 on ebay) as coming from the NYO&W ...

Anyone have any idea how to find out if that's actually the case or not?

Looks like this :


and punches like this :

I do not have many, only a couple of punches in my collection but this one looks like one of mine which came from the New Haven Railroad way back when. I am unable to locate the punches that I have but I suspect it could have come from the O&W. The New Haven and O&W were closly aligned way back when so it is certainally possible, not definate but possible.
Noel Weaver

Old & Weary wrote:Went through my collection of O&W public timetables and in regard to the easy part of the thread found that all the time tables between 5/15/42 and 6/17/45 - 12 issues although there may be a couple more - all state "Eastern War Time." The Time table for 9-30-45 - the first one after VJ Day - returns to stating "Eastern Standard Time". After 7-2-46, those time tables issued during a Daylight Saving TIme period state: " Time shown in this folder is EASTERN STANDARD TIME. For example when it is 11:00AM Eastern Standard Time it is 12:00 Noon Daylight Saving time." The O&W like most railroads at the time was loath to admit Daylight Saving Time really existed. Now for the strange part. The two time tables effective 12-3-44 and 1-1-45 both state passengers to and from New York must transfer to West Shore trains at Cornwall. All the other timetables and the next one I have, issued 6-17-45, reference O&W trains stopping at West Shore stations to let off or pick up passengers for stops on the O&W. This had been standard from the beginning and then continued to the end of passenger service in l953. Like most, I had always assumed this was the case. I can't recall ever hearing about O&W passenger trains terminating at Cornwall and there does not appear to be any reason for it I can think of. The biggest part of the war build up, on the East Coast at least, was over and the mass return of troops would await the end of the war. Perhaps this was an attempt to save terminal costs at Weehawken during the winter when passenger counts would have been small and was not repeated although the ICC rules of the day might not have allowed such an experiment. Hopefully some light can be shed on this.

In looking at the May 1945 Guide again, I see that 5 officials -- a Freight Traffic Manager (Solicitation) and an Asst. Gen. Freight Agent at New York, the Supt. of Motive Power and a Commercial Agent at Middletown, and the General Agent at Pittsburgh -- are shown as (Furloughed) in parentheses after the title (notably, the Asst. Supt. of Motive Power at Middletown was not furloughed; keep the lower-paid guy on?). Things must have been really tight on the O&W at the end of 1944. The Supt. of Motive Power in question was Otto C. Gruenberg; did he later go to the NYS&W?

Reference the earlier discussion of War Time in this thread:

The Lehigh Valley Railroad passenger time table effective 09 February 1942 states: "Schedules Shown Herein Are on United States Standard Time (War Time)".

Therefore it appears that War Time was standard time and railroad timetables published during the war that stated "standard time' indeed meant War Time.