A Different Erie Lackawanna: The ERIE's Old Allegheny Division Before and in EL Times -Mike Schleigh

This presentation celebrates those early years of the railroad when past practices had yet to be reformed into a more modern railroad. While signs of change had arrived with repainted and re-lettered passenger equipment, this presentation predates the arrival of all those large six-axle EMD and GE locomotives lumbering around super-elevated double-tracked curves. Former passenger “E” units were yet to receive new coats and repainting of a full DL&W-style freight locomotive fleet was soon underway but nowhere near completed. As a teenage burgeoning railfan, Mike Schleigh witnessed all this unfold on the Allegany Division, which was particularly special given the hometown tracks were a nearly ‘ERIE-unique' single track mainline operated by timetable and train order (TT & TO). This was a different sort of place to watch the newly merged railroad unfold into the very special railroad it became by the 1970s. The handout for this talk first given some 14 years ago became the written basis for a “Diamond” article published in Vol. 22, No. 2, 2008. Issue Vol. 27, No. 2, 2013 contains supplemental information about X Tower in Olean, and both issues will offer more information about this interesting part of the ERIE LACKAWANNA.

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