A Lehigh and Hudson River Railway Scrapbook

The Lehigh and Hudson River Railway

Visiting Equipment

Over the years, and for many reasons, the L&HR was host to a quite a variety of visiting equipment from other roads.

Several passenger excursions were run (in whole, or part) over the L&HR's trackage, dating back to the thirties.

Before the merger of the DL&W and the Erie, the Lackawanna used the L&HR as it's gateway to southern New England, from it's Port Morris yard (Port Moris to Andover Junction on the DL&W's 'old main', Andover to Maybrook on the L&HR). Especially during the steam era, Lackawanna power was a common sight passing through Warwick.

The Baldwin Locomotive Works in Philadelphia would often route new deliveries to southern New England roads over the L&HR, either in tow, or under their own power. By the mid fifties, dead steam power in a train heading the other way, usually to the scrapper's torch, became a not-uncommon sight.

To balance power milage, CNJ RS-3's and cabooses were regulars through the sixties. When the L&HR found itself short of power, diesels would be rented from other roads to ease the crunch (mostly the Reading- everything from Fairbanks-Morse 'Trainmasters' to nearly new yellow and green Alco Centuries). There was even a pair of EMD F-7's from a leasing agent, still lettered Norfolk and Western.

When harbor strikes in the Port of New York shut down the extensive car-float operations there, all of that traffic headed to and from New England, New York City and Long Island had to be diverted around the harbor- most it was sent via Maybrook and the Poughkeepsie Bridge, and the Lehigh & Hudson would be flooded with extra traffic.

When neighboring (and competing) roads had line blockages for whatever reason, they would often detour over the L&HR to maintain their access to Maybrook. Like the 'Little Giant' (as Lucius Beebe dubbed the road), the Lehigh and Hudson handled everything that was thrown at it over the years.

In later years, in addition to foreign power and rolling stock passing through, several pieces of equipment were stored at the Warwick yards by their owners- everything from a passenger car being used by an actor as an 'east coast' home to wintering mainline steam excursion locomotives to a tourist railroad's entire roster during a move to a new location.

Growing up only a few blocks from the L&HR's busy Warwick yard and servicing facilities would have been good enough, but the fairly regular extra activity was like icing on the cake.

Train watching was seldom dull.

Former Erie-Lackawanna Business Car No. 1, parked on one of the turntable leads in Warwick (the table bridge arch can be seen to the right).

The car had been bought by actor Richard B. Shull (starred in the TV series 'Holmes and Yoyo' with John Shuck in the mid-seventies); he arranged with the L&HR to set it up on their property as his 'East Coast' home. It was tied in to electric, water, sewer, and telephone, and resided here for a half-dozen years or so, until 'C'-day. Conrail wasn't as friendly as the L&HR, and the car was moved out within a few weeks of April 1, 1976.

The 'ultimate' mobile home?

Twice a year the rails had to be inspected for internal flaws. The Sperry Rail Service maintained a fleet of self-propelled cars to do this under contract to the individual railroads. This is Sperry car 149 in what remains of the Warwick yards on a February day in the early eighties; by this time it was Conrail from Maybrook to Pelton Road. The Susquehanna owned the segment between Pelton Road and Spart Junction, and was running double-stack trains through Warwick.

After a day of rail inspections, the car would tie up for the night, usually wherever it happened to end up; a remote siding miles from anywhere wasn't unusual. Warwick wasn't too bad as a layover- Main Street was a short two blocks behind the car.

Reading T-1 4-8-4 2102, disguised as D&H 302, stored for the winter- 1973.

As an added source of revenue (and because of its strategic location), the L&HR would often be utilized for storage of rail equipment- especially in the later years.

In 1973, the Delaware & Hudson was celebrating its 150th birthday and wanted to go all out, with steam excursions over the system. Reading T-1 #2102 was given a cosmetic make-over to make it appear as much as possible like the D&H's classic K62 class 4-8-4's. Distinctive 'elephant ear' smoke deflectors were added, the headlight recessed into the smokebox door, trademark 'frog-eye' class lights added, and paint and trim turned it into a credible stand-in for D&H 302.

After the excursion season, it was moved with its auxiliary tender to Warwick and stored, dead, for the winter. It spent most of this time parked in front of the lumber shed, where this shot was taken looking toward the shop building and parked C-420's.

(Click here for seven more pictures of the 'D&H 302' at Warwick.)

Being a 'bridge line' didn't just mean freight. Case in point:

The Baldwin Locomotive Works was located in Philadelphia. The eastern end of the New Haven was Maybrook. How better to deliver new locomotives from Baldwin to the NH than over the L&HR?

In 1937, the New Haven bought ten semi-streamlined 4-6-4's from Baldwin, specifically to handle heavy passenger trains on fast schedules on its Shore Line between New Haven and Boston. They were dubbed Shoreliners by the railroad, and were very handsome pieces of machinery.

At the time, a friend (the late Milt Helt) was working at Warwick Auto- the local Chevrolet dealership, then located on Railroad Avenue across from the passenger station. This day, he happened to have his camera with him when he heard a 'foreign' whistle blowing for the Elm Street and Main Street crossings. He managed to get out to the street in time to get this 'grab shot' of one of the Shoreliners, apparently being delivered to the New Haven as a deadhead move.

This was probably late spring- early summer 1937. The L&HR was still in the passenger business, and the Station Green looks almost as manicured as a golf course!

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