Long Island Rail Road Parlor Cars – Part 2 · 2021. 1. 8. · Parlor Cars – Part 2 New England Chapter, Pennsylvania Railroad Technical & Historical Society . The East Wind 2

Winter 2021 Volume 17, Number 2 $6.00

Long Island Rail Road Parlor Cars – Part 2

New England Chapter, Pennsylvania Railroad Technical & Historical Society

The East Wind 2 Winter 2021

CHAPTER INQUIRIES

Please direct questions about the New England Chapter to Ralph Weischedel or Tim Garner:

Ralph Weischedel, President 17 Riverview Rd., Canton, MA 02453-6649 [email protected]

Tim Garner, Secretary 533 Brigham Street, Marlborough, MA 01752-5125 [email protected]

Chapter web: https://prrths-ne.org/

Published Quarterly by The New England Chapter of the Pennsylvania

Railroad Technical and Historical Society

OFFICERS President Ralph Weischedel Vice President Andy Miller Secretary Tim Garner Treasurer Keith Thompson

NEW ENGLAND CHAPTER

The New England Chapter of the PRRT&HS serves members in all six New England states. Official membership meetings are held quarterly in different locations in the region to “share the distance”. The Chapter sponsors additional activities such as model layout operating sessions, group railfan trips, and other events between meetings. Anyone with an interest in the PRR is welcome regardless of residence.

Annual dues are $15 payable by January 1. Dues cover mailing, email, and web hosting expenses for the club and fund donations toward PRR preservation projects. Anyone living or traveling through New England is welcome to come to our meetings and check us out.

Regular membership in the USA is $15 U.S. Mail your name, address, phone number, email ad-dress, Society membership number (if any), and your check to:

New England Chapter, PRRT&HS PO Box 624

Marlborough, MA 01752-0624

THE EAST WIND The East Wind is the official quarterly publication of the New England Chapter of the Pennsylvania Railroad Technical and Historical Society and is published in Oc-tober, January, April, and July of each year. Subscription is by membership in the New England Chapter.

We welcome any material dealing with the PRR for pos-sible publication. Please forward articles, photographs, and other materials to the Editor at the address below. We cannot pay for submissions. We will handle all au-thors’ property with the utmost care and return it after used. You may submit articles by email attachment, thumb-drive, CD-ROM, (or even paper) in PC format, preferably in MS Word, Excel, or text. We prefer ac-tual photographic prints, 35mm slides, 126 slides, or electronic image files. Image files should be 300 dpi at 5” x 7” in .jpg or.png format or larger. We can also scan or photograph your postcards and other memora-bilia for publication.

The information we publish is accurate to the best of our knowledge. We welcome your corrections and comments. Opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the Chapter.

The East Wind is copyrighted by the New England Chap-ter PRRT&HS. All rights reserved.

THE EAST WIND Tim Garner, Editor

533 Brigham Street, Marlborough, MA 01752-5125 [email protected] Mobile: 978-423-5085

THE

EAST WIND AUTUMN 2020 CONTENTS VOL. 17, NO. 2

UPCOMING EVENTS .............................................................................................. 2

FROM THE HEAD END Tim Garner, Editor ............................................................................................. 3

FROM THE BUSINESS CAR Ralph Weischedel, President ............................................................................... 3

MINUTES TO THE DECEMBER 19, 2020 VIRTUAL CHAPTER MEETING .............. 4

PARLOR CARS ON THE LONG ISLAND RAIL ROAD – PART 2 LIRR’S “BLUE RIBBON” PARLOR CAR FLEET OF PARLOR-LOUNGE CARS, OPEN-END OBSERVATION CARS, AND A DINING CAR, TOO! Mike Boland ...................................................................................................... 16

Front Cover

Oh, to ride the Long Island Rail Road on an open platform. This view of the rear of Setauket and its open-end platform on May 21, 1965 portrays what passengers will see from their seats. It will be more than just the Hunterspoint Ave-nue station and overhead highway bridges seen here but only after the train departs. Later sights and scenery to be seen in the Hamptons including the Atlantic Ocean as the train nears its Montauk destination will be much more enthralling to its many passengers but the most fortunate ones are those who have this view! (Dick Makse photo)

Coming Events Special Notice

Due to the nationwide Coronavirus threat, all in-per-son chapter activities are suspended until further no-tice. The health of our members, their immediate families, and the communities where each of us live are important to us.

Once conditions permit, we hope to schedule a regu-lar chapter meeting. Please periodically visit https://prrths-ne.org for updates.

Remember, Chapter members are eligible for a full range of finan-cial services through DCU – Digital Federal Credit Union. Visit their web site at dcu.org, call 800-328-8797, or visit any branch.

mailto:[email protected]

https://prrths-ne.org/


Winter Work Now that the winter chill has set in and Covid has us

pinned down in our cabins, it’s a good time to work on model trains.

The first project I finished was to reorganize the part of my basement where I work on equipment repair and con-struction. I had so many unfinished projects queued up on my work surface, I didn’t have enough room to work. My so-lution was to head to Target for more clear plastic storage boxes. I put one or two projects in each box with a removable label so I will know what is there. This keeps the parts from taking flight. I’m ashamed to say I found repair projects I for-got were waiting for my attention.

A second project I’ve nearly finished is a railing on one side of my duck-under. I’m a tall guy (6’-5”) and grabbing the railing keeps my head down as I pass under. I acted just in time. I’m tired of the tufts of my gray hair trapped in my lay-out framing – the evidence of prior cranial encounters. Sand-ing and some colored polyurethane will finish the job.

On the docket now is to rebuild my Union Junction inter-locking. I used Peco Insulfrog turnouts on my top level. The turnouts look great, but the live rails of opposite polarity are too close around the frog. It has resulted in occasional short circuits when a locomotives and cars have flat metal wheel treads instead of the appropriate taper. I’ve decided to re-place them with Peco Electrofrog turnouts with powered frogs. This will eliminate any possibility of short circuits.

Union Junction interlocking controls the east end of Balti-more Union station. There are four double-slip switches and twelve other turnouts. I will be building a model board with lighted controls for all of this, driven by Peco equipment al-ready on hand, so I know the switch positions.

Wish me luck. I think I may need it. Cheers…

Tim Garner, Editor

2020 was a difficult year. Our chapter got together informally for a few minutes at the end of January for the Amherst Model Railway Show, then had to cancel all in-person meetings. It was good to see those who joined our discussion December 19 via Zoom. At that time, we shared what we have been thinking regarding PRR modeling or history in 2020.

I was blessed in being able to work from home throughout the pandemic. That gave me at least an extra hour each workday; the commute time saved allowed me to read more about the PRR than usual. Given that extra time, for the first time I would read (or re-read) several books on the same region. For instance, my ap-preciation for the Pittsburgh area grew by looking to-gether at The Pennsy in the Steel City, Pennsylvania Rail-road’s Golden Triangle, Pennsy’s Conemaugh Division, The, Triumph VIII: Pittsburgh, and Railroads to Pittsburgh. Similarly, it was a delight to look at the Northern Cen-tral north of Harrisburg through The Pennsylvania Rail-road’s Elmira Branch, Trackside on the PRR in Central Penn-sylvania, and Triumph VII: Northern Region. Reading On the Main Line; The Pennsylvania Railroad in the 19th Cen-tury together with Traveling the Pennsylvania Railroad (Photography of William Rau) was also eye opening. The comparison showed how much the roadbed, trackwork, and environs around passenger stations were upgraded between the 1870s and the 1890s.

We may have to social distance for several months in 2021. If you have ideas for a topic for a Zoom meet-ing, please let us know.

From the Business

Car Ralph Weischedel


Minutes of the December 16, 2020 Virtual Chapter Meeting Our initial 2020 chapter meeting would have happened in

March 2020 had the Covid-19 pandemic not arrived to make in-person gatherings unsafe. PRRT&HS had a virtual meeting in November 2020, organized by our own Ralph Weischedel, which pointed the way for the New England Chapter.

Chapter member George Chiasson Jr. offered the use of his Zoom account to host our meeting and several members signed up to attend. Most attendees signed in ahead of our stated start-ing time.

At 3:06 p.m. Eastern Time, President Ralph Weischedel called the meeting to order.

Secretary Tim Garner shared his Secretary’s Report by Power Point. As of December 16, the membership count for 2020 was up to 779 of which 149 were renewals, 426 joined in the current year, 200 joined in the fourth quarter of 2019, and 4 were honorary. Of the total, 76 are members of the PRRT&HS. Tim indicated mem-bership for 2021 was up to 268 so far with 143 renewals, 121 new members, and 4 honorary with 69 being PRRT&HS members. Monthly new members signed up by DCU are running between 22 and 59 this year. The number received from DCU was down along with the credit union’s own new member growth due to the pandemic and recession.

Tim indicated the Winter 2021 East Wind is in production now with the full issue being Mike Boland’s long-awaited part 2 on Long Island Rail Road parlor cars. The issue will be loaded with photos and will be much longer than our traditional 28-page regular issue length.

Tim also mentioned that George Chiasson had a small num-ber of updates he wanted to make to his Special Issue 8, “The Third Rail Era of Penn Station,” which was published in Septem-ber. Tim promised to complete the revised issue by the end of January and post is on the 2021 East Wind download page for all members. Tim’s report was accepted.

Treasurer Keith Thompson was up next with his Treasurer’s Report. The chapter has $31,804 in cash over both accounts as of December 1. That was up from our balance at the same time pri-marily because we had no meeting or donation expenses since 2019. During 2019, we donated about $4,000 to PRR-related non-profit organizations and preservation projects.

Ralph was next with an update on activities at our parent or-ganization. He reported the new PRRT&HS web site is up now (www.prrths.org instead of www.prrths.com) and that is easy to renew online through the site. More content will be brought onto the new site throughout 2021. PRRT&HS is working with an out-side provider of membership organization management services to get this done and it promises to save a lot of work for society volunteers while giving members a better experience.

The society annual meeting is scheduled for mid-May in Co-lumbus, Ohio hosted by the Lines West Buckeye Region Chapter

with help from the Long Island Chapter. With the Covid situa-tion, an in-person annual meeting may not occur, though. We will share more when we can.

The society has three books in the queue for eventual publi-cation. The first is a book on Horseshoe Curve and environs by Ken Kobus and Gary Rauch. This has been approved for print-ing, but the price has not been set. Work has been done on books on PRR cabin cars by Bob Johnson and Conquest II by the late Dave Messer, but neither is ready for a decision on printing.

As is traditional for our December meeting, our annual elec-tion of officers was held. The current officers were all willing to serve another one-year term and there were no additional nomi-nations. The members unanimously approved Ralph Weischedel as president, Andy Miller as vice president, Keith Thompson as treasurer, and Tim Garner as secretary.

Under new business, Ralph made a motion to make $5,500 in donations for the following:

• $1,000 to PRRT&HS Station and Archives Account • $1,000 to Friends of the Railroad Museum of Pennsylva-

nia in Strasburg, PA • $1,000 to the Altoona Railroaders Memorial Museum for

restoration of K4s #1361 • $1,000 to the Railroad Museum of Long Island for resto-

ration of LIRR G5s #39 • $500 to Shore Line Trolley Museum toward restoration

of Hudson & Manhattan car #503 • $500 to Seashore Trolley Museum in Kinnebunkport, ME

for restoration of their PRR H31 hopper • $500 to T1 Trust toward construction of a new PRR T1 4-

4-4-4 duplex

The donation was unanimously approved. Next, Ralph opened the floor for members to talk about their

PRR learnings and modeling for 2020. Tim Garner kicked it off with a discussion of progress on his PRR layout and his research on the Ft. Wayne line at the National Archives in February. Andy Miller talked about his models of an MDC H9s 2-8-0, a Penn Line L1s 2-8-2, and a model of the “Yellow Kid” train constructed from Westerfield kits for Ralph Weischedel. He also mentioned his use of a self-resetting circuit breaker he is adding to his locomotives to prevent overloads from damaging his DCC decoders.

Christer Kedström, our member from Lund, Sweden, talked about his efforts to build and maintain model railroads in depart-ment store windows in his home town. He discovered that women from 55 to 80 spent more time viewing the displays than men, younger women, and children. Durability of a constantly running model locomotive is also a challenge.

Ralph commented that we would try to schedule our next meeting virtually on Zoom as well.

The meeting adjourned at 4:52 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Tim Garner, Secretary

http://www.prrths.org/

http://www.prrths.com/


Parlor Cars on the Long Island Rail Road – Part 2 LIRR’s “Blue Ribbon” Parlor Car Fleet of Parlor-Lounge Cars, Open-end

Observation Cars, and a Dining Car, Too! By Mike Boland

It was always interesting to see the reaction of regular railroad commuters – Dashing Dans? – when they saw The Cannon Ball with its parlor cars and either Setauket or Jamaica. At Woodside, a number seem to be waiting for another train as Train #22 passes through the station with Setauket at the rear. The lone gentleman with tie and suspenders will be joined by others once the train reaches Jamaica, where many parlor patrons are waiting to board after taking a connecting train from New York and Pennsylvania Station. The Cannon Ball began its trip from Penn Station in the days of DD1 operations, but this ended in 1951. (Dick Makse photo)

A previous issue of The East Wind (Vol. 15, No. 1, Autumn 2018) covered the history of ex-Pullman Pennsylvania Rail-road (PRR) heavyweight parlor cars used by the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) as well as the railroad’s parlor service through the years. While most heavyweight parlor cars used by the LIRR in its east end summer luxury service in the mid-1950’s to the late 1960’s were 28 chair-1 drawing room cars, there were other types of parlor cars that saw service to Mon-tauk and Greenport. These included 26-1 and 30-1 parlor cars. The history of east-end LIRR luxury service also included trains with parlor-lounge-buffet cars provided by Pullman un-til 1945 and thereafter, cars owned by the PRR and leased to and operated by Pullman.

When the LIRR bought nineteen 28-1 parlor cars in 1961 for The Cannon Ball, other parlor car trains, and mixed parlor-coach trains, The Route of The Weekend Chief, as its extra-fare service was called, augmented its “new” fleet with the pur-chase of six other cars for use in its summer service. Five of the six cars came from the PRR and all were parlor-lounge cars. Three of them were the same class; the other two cars were each one-of-a-kind types on the LIRR. The sixth and last car was unique as the LIRR reached out to the Lehigh Valley (LV) to purchase a diner so it could offer dining car service for Weekend Chief patrons during the summer months! Yes, a din-ing car on the LIRR!


Oneida Club was a true one-of-a-kind car on both the Pennsylvania and Long Island Rail Road’s parlor car fleet. Originally named Westdale, it’s shown here at Montauk, along with other parlor cars on September 30, 1962, at the end of the first parlor season with the LIRR now owning its own parlor fleet. (George E. Votava photo)

One car in the purchase was PRR #7052 Westdale. Westdale was a Plan #2917B car and the only one of its kind on the PRR roster of ex-Pullman heavyweight parlor cars. This car was built of all-steel construction by Pullman in June 1916. West-dale was one of six 32 chair-1 drawing room cars originally built for the New York, New Haven & Hartford (NH) for its Merchant’s Limited. The six cars in this lot, Lot #4390, were originally built as Plan 2917. The cars in this lot were King-ston, Larchmont, Sundsbury, Southport, Waterville and Westdale. They were built for general service on the NH while Westdale was assigned to the PRR.

Later, all six cars were rebuilt to 20 parlor chairs-buffet-lounge cars. Between March and May of 1933, two cars were modified to Plan #2917A and were sold to the New York Cen-tral (NYC) as coach-buffet cars #2804 and #2805. Four cars, in-cluding Westdale, were converted to Plan #2917B cars, with two cars going to the NYC as coach-buffet cars and one to the NH possibly as a coach-buffet car. Westdale, however, went to the PRR and later leased to Pullman in December 1945 after being purchased by the PRR. It was later assigned #7052 since all these cars originally had names and not numbers until they were assigned to them by the PRR in 1952.

Westdale and other Pullman cars, both sleepers and parlor cars were bought by the PRR and 56 other railroads from Pullman in De-cember 1945 and then

leased back to Pullman for operation. This was a direct result of a lawsuit known as the United States versus The Pullman Company, Pullman Incorporated and the Pullman Car & Manufac-turing Corporation. In a judgement entered May 8, 1944, Pull-man was found in violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. It built railway cars and operated them; the government said that it could no longer do both.

This case had begun back in 1940 when orders for passen-ger cars were increasing for Pullman and sleeping car traffic was growing. The United States Department of Justice filed an anti-trust complaint against Pullman Incorporated in the U. S. District Court in Philadelphia and sought to separate the company’s sleeping car operations from its railcar manufac-turing business. The government prevailed and Pullman di-vested itself of its sleeping car operation.

After three years of negotiations, Pullman’s sleeping car operations were sold to a group of 57 U. S. railroads for about $40 million. The railroads then leased the cars to Pullman for operation. In short, Pullman operated the cars but did not own them, retaining its manufacturing operation.

PRR’s Accounting Department published this map of the LIRR on November 1, 1941. (Tim Garner Collection)


Here is another view at Montauk of Oneida Club, and this time the car is placed behind the locomotive, probably an RS3. Originally, there were five other cars in this lot, built by Pullman in 1916 to Plan 2917. This car was rebuilt to plan 2917B on May 2, 1933. (Gene Collora photo)

This continued the slow and gradual decline of the Pull-man operation and its fleet of cars. Its heyday had been in the 1920’s, before the Great Depression, when it expanded its freight car production via several mergers. During this time, it manufactured new heavyweight passenger cars at a rapid pace as well as operating its famous sleeping car and parlor car services on railroads across the U. S.

On October 1, 1956 Westdale and many other Pullman cars were withdrawn from the lease by the PRR. Little is known about the operation of this car for the next six years, but it may have been in service on the PRR or possibly even the LIRR since the LIRR’s fleet of leased PRR cars was slowly ex-panding for its east end parlor service during the summer months. Westdale may have been in storage during this time but this is not known.

Westdale was an older car, without the signature Pullman “pedimented end” of later-built cars. Pedimented end is a term created by Aidrian Bridgeman-Sutton, an Englishman who used it in a post to the Passenger Car List in December 2001 and the term or description became immediately popular and was adopted at that time.

Pullman introduced the pedimented end for new car con-struction in October 1922 with its Plan #2410H 12-1 sleeping cars. Sometime in mid-1923 Pullman began applying this end, probably for economic and practical reasons, to older cars that were being rebuilt with steel plate sheathing. A pedimented end is identified by its horizontal lines across the car end at the roof line rather than a curved line separating the end sill from its roof. (Text continues page 9)

#2036, Oneida Club, a parlor-lounge car, is coupled to several PRR parlor cars at Montauk on September 9, 1962. (Harold Fagerberg photo)


#2036 Oneida Club was the only parlor-lounge car rebuilt by the railroad in the mid-1960’s, along with four other 28-1 parlor cars. Among other improvements, the car was given sealed windows and improved air-conditioning. This car was a one-of-a-kind on both the PRR, where it was named Westdale, and later on the LIRR. Note the new and larger Dashing Dan and Weekend Chief heralds. (Doug Nash photo) Here is the op-posite side of the car in Montauk in 1969. Note that several windows have been plated over or enclosed. (Jules Krzenski Photo/Dave Keller Collection)

Parlor-lounge car Oneida Club got one last chance to run behind steam when it was assigned to the consist of Ron Ziel’s fantrip to Montauk in No-vember 1966. Along with several P54D “ping” coaches and an open-end observation car, the train was pulled by Black River & Western #60; it was the last time a steam locomotive ran on the LIRR. (Dick Makse photo)


Onondaga Club was in the consist of Train #16 when this photo was taken at Montauk in the summer of 1962. This was a Plan #3999 car with a vestibule at only one end of the car. (Gene Collora photo)

The LIRR purchased Westdale, along with 23 other cars on March 16, 1961. It became LIRR #2036, Oneida Club.

The second one-of-a-kind car on the LIRR was ex-Pullman and PRR parlor-lounge car #7030 John Adams, built with one other car, George Washington, on September 5, 1930 as Lot #6383 Plan #3999. These two cars were built for the PRR’s Congressional Limited and carried the train’s name on their let-terboards with PULLMAN at each end of the car.

Only four cars were built with a Plan #3999 interior. Two other cars were built as Lot #6327 a year earlier in 1929. They were Stag Hound and Game Cock, and the two cars ran on the NH the Yankee Clipper.

Both cars in Lot #6383 were purchased by the PRR and then leased to Pullman in December 1945. George Washington was renamed John Endicott in June 1951; both it and John Ad-ams were withdrawn from lease in October 1956.

John Adams was sold to the LIRR in 1961, becoming #2035 Onondaga Club. It had 20 parlor seats, 19 lounge seats, a small buffet opposite a service door at one end of the car and a ves-tibule only at the lounge end of the car as well as a service door. The other car in the lot, John Endicott, the former George Washington, was scrapped. (Text continues page 11)

#2035 Onondaga Club sits in a train at Montauk on September 1, 1963. (Harold Fagerberg photo)


Onondaga Club is coupled between a PB57 combine being used as a bar car and a leased Pennsylvania Railroad 28-1 parlor car in a train photographed at Montauk on July 4th, 1963. Many parlor car trains had very interesting consists and made train watching a must! Montauk Yard was always worth visiting during the summer months as a railfan never knew what was there. (William Lichenstern Photo/Dave Keller Collection)

This is a rare shot of the service-door side of Onondaga Club at Montauk. Note the safety gate outside the door; this was the only car in the railroad’s fleet of parlors and parlor-lounges that possessed this feature. (George E. Votava/Dave Keller Collection)

Distinguishing Pullman Cars Cars built by Pullman were identified by three terms:

1. Car Name – Pullman applied a name to most cars when built. Many were renamed at some time during their service lives. Typically, cars of a similar interior arrangement shared some part of their name with other matching cars.

2. Plan Number – This is the number of a standard car design, typically four digits in the steel car era. Modifications to the original plan may have a letter appended to it starting with A and carrying through the alphabet.

3. Lot Number – This number represents a specific contract or order number for building a quantity of matching cars. Cars in the same lot may be built by more than one Pullman plant.


#2035 Onondaga Club is stored here at the Morris Park Yard in the mid-1960’s. Note the new and larger Dashing Dan and Weekend Chief heralds applied at both ends of the car. (Author’s Collection)

There was also a group of three cars that were similar; all were originally Plan #4002. They were 12 parlor chair-1 draw-ing room-buffet-lounge cars with 24 seats and a sun room. There were four cars in this first group; they were Lot #6326 and built in February and March of 1930. Two cars in this group, Flying Cloud and Flying Fish, were both used on the NH’s The Yankee Clipper. Two other cars in this group, Pilgrim and Plymouth Rock, were used on The Senator.

This fourth car, Plymouth Rock, was reclassed Plan #4002D on November 8, 1932 and reclassed again as Plan #4002J on January 28, 1943. It was sold to the PRR and leased back to Pullman on December 31, 1945; it was withdrawn from the lease on October 1, 1956. The LIRR bought the car, renamed it Cayuga Club, and renumbered it to #2032.

Two small lots of Plans #4002 and #4002A were also built by Pullman. Each lot had two cars and were built for other railroads; they were Lots #6364 and #6385, respectively.

The other two cars in this trio that came to the LIRR were PRR #7021 Alexander Hamilton and PRR #7022 Thomas Jefferson. There were only two cars in this lot, Lot #6385, and they were built to Plan #4002C in September 1930. Both cars were built in 1930 for The Congressional. Alexander Hamilton was reclassed Plan #4002H on April 6, 1942; Thomas Jefferson was reclassed Plan #4002H on May 12, 1942. Both cars were sold to the PRR and then leased to Pullman in 1945. (Text continues page 13)

Freshly painted #2032 Cayuga Club, along with the rest of the “new” LIRR parlor fleet, sits at the end of a train at Montauk during the early months of the 1962 summer parlor season. The blue stripe really made the cars much more attractive. (Henry Maywald photo)


The end of Cayuga Club had windows and railings as seen in this photo as the car sits in the yard at Montauk in the summer of 1962. This was one of three Plan #4002 cars that had several modifi-cations through its years of service, including the installation of collision posts and a diaphragm to allow it to operate in mid-train service. (George E. Votava photo)

This is a shot of Cayuga Club at Mon-tauk in 1963. The LIRR had five cars in the parlor-lounge class and strategically placed them in various parlor train con-sists, along with its fleet of 28-1 parlor cars. (Henry Maywald photo)

#2032 Cayuga Club is coupled directly behind the locomotive at Montauk during the summer of 1962. This was one of three similar cars used by the LIRR for its extra-fare east end service. It is a good example of the “pedimented” end of later Pullman heavyweight cars. (Gene Collora photo)


In the summer of 1963 Cayuga Club is coupled behind a C-Liner for its return to Jamaica, where parlor patrons can change trains for Brooklyn or New York and end their weekend in the Hamptons or Montauk as many do during the summer months. Parlor cars were always kept clean and washed regularly. (Gene Collora photo)

Alexander Hamilton was renamed Cornelius Hendrickson on August 10, 1951; it was later numbered PRR #7021. It was sold to the LIRR and became #2033 Mohawk Club. PRR #7022 Thomas Jefferson, which was one of many PRR parlor cars leased by the LIRR in the late 1950’s, was also sold to the LIRR and became #2034 Seneca Club.

These last three Plan #4002 cars would occasionally sub-stitute for one of the railroad’s four commuter club cars when one of them—all were ex-Pullman cars also—was taken out of service for repairs.

Each of these three Plan #4002 cars had a vestibule at one end and a blind end at the other, but interestingly, the blind ends differed. Cayuga Club had tall end windows, Mohawk

Club had end windows like its side windows, and Seneca Club had no end windows at all.

Unlike the other two cars, Cayuga Club had railings on its blind end, including a platform with a square panel on both sides of the diaphragm. A Weekend Chief herald was placed on the left side while a Dashing Dan herald was placed on the right.

The three cars had small platforms at their blind ends. All three cars had thick steel collision posts and were equipped with diaphragms, something apparently added before the cars came to the LIRR. It is unknown whether Pullman or PRR made the modifications, but the diaphragms permitted PRR’s use of the cars in mid-train service. (Text continues page 15)

#2032 Cayuga Club has been moved to Holban Yard for scrapping after a crash and derailment. It was one of three cars in the class on the LIRR. Note the broken windows. (Author’s Collection)


Mohawk Club sits in a train with other parlor cars in Montauk in August 1962. Montauk and the Hamptons on the south fork became a much more popular summer residence than Greenport on the north fork. Greenport did have limited summer parlor car service. (Gene Collora photo)

Mohawk Club as shown from its vestibule end at Montauk in 1962. Notice the top of the Dutch door is open. (Author’s Collection)

Mohawk Club is at the end of a train in the mid-1960’s at an unknown location. These three Plan #4002 cars were occasionally used to substitute for the railroad’s four regular commuter club cars when they were pulled from service for repairs; this might just be going on here. (Henry Maywald photo)


(Above left) The window end of Mohawk Club is shown while the car is in Richmond Hill Yard on November 30, 1962. This car had regular-sized windows while Cayuga Club had much bigger windows in terms of height. (Author’s Collection) (Above right) This is a good side shot of Mohawk Club showing its parlor and lounge windows. The three windows at the extreme right of the car were a sun room for passengers. (Gene Collora photo)

In the mid- to late-1960’s, #2033 Mohawk Club sits at the east end in a cut of parlor cars. (Doug Nash photo)

A great closeup of the window end of Mohawk Club at Montauk, showing two Dashing Dan heralds. Shouldn’t one of them be The Weekend Chief? (Gene Collora photo)

The railroad’s 28-1 parlor cars had been named after various Indian names for the local villages and towns throughout the island, so the railroad continued the practice; naming these five club cars after the five Indian tribes of New York State. Each car had large, locked storage spaces which served as liquor/beverage supply cars for the smaller spaced 28-1 parlors although most of them did have a small beverage space for storage. These five parlor-lounge cars were therefore spaced out accordingly in parlor train consists.

The Cannon Ball operated with four parlor-lounge cars in its con-sist. The Advance Weekender had two parlor-lounges. Both trains were all-parlor consists with no coaches. LIRR parlor patrons were treated to beverage service offering alcohol and soft drinks at their seats. An attendant would bring a drink to a seated parlor patron, serving it on a tray.

The LIRR placed at least one parlor-lounge car in all its Friday Montauk trains during the summer and in several trains with parlor cars during the week. Some of these trains also had coaches in their consists while two Friday-only trains were all-parlor cars. (Text con-tinues page 18)


Seneca Club at Montauk, along with many other parlor cars. Friday nights and weekends were probably the best time to see just about all the rail-road’s fleet of heavyweight parlor cars as they were here before returning to Jamaica on westbound trains. (George E. Votava photo)

Here’s Seneca Club coupled to a P72 on the left and another parlor car on the right; it’s in a train whose photo was taken at Montauk in the early 1960’s. (Gene Collora photo)

Train #4016, with Mohawk Club directly behind C420 #217, was known as the slowest train on the Montauk Branch in the 1960's. Here it is taking the siding at BH Block Limit Signal while the westbound Sundowner, Train #4011, with two Alco C420's and 15 heavyweight Pullmans waits on the mainline for it to move through the turnout. When it is in the siding, Train #4011 will roll by; then Train #4016's engineer will be given the signal to proceed east and move out of the passing siding to resume its run to Montauk. (Dick Makse photo)


Another great shot of Seneca Club, coupled to a PB57 combine, probably used as a bar car with a portable bar cart placed in the baggage compart-ment of the car. (George E. Votava photo)

As this photo clearly shows, Seneca Club’s blind end was truly blind; it had no windows. It’s shown at Montauk in the early 1960’s. (Henry Maywald photo)

#2034 Seneca Club, a parlor-lounge car with its blind end, is at the west end of a train at Montauk on September 1, 1963. (Harold Fagerberg photo)


Open-end observation car #2000, Jamaica, is shown as Montauk at the end of The Cannon Ball, one of two LIRR all-parlor car trains in the early 1960’s. Before being rebuilt, this car was originally a PP70 that was used as a chair car for service here until Pullman provided its own luxury ser-vice to the east end beginning in 1926. (George E. Votava photo)

During this time alcohol, soft drinks and snacks were served by LIRR Special Services attendants in several bar cars operated by the railroad: #8553, an ex-Bangor & Aroostook (BAR) car along with ex-Boston & Maine (BM) cars #7471, #7523, #7528, and #7542. These cars were added to parlor-coach trains but were for the use of regular passengers who wanted beverage service. The railroad also set up makeshift or temporary bars by adding tables to several PB57 passenger-baggage combines in their baggage section and added the combine to the train’s consist.

The sixth and last car in the group of club cars used in parlor service was Tuscarora Club. It was the only arch-roof car in the railroad’s heavyweight parlor fleet and the LIRR’s only dining car. The car was built by Pullman in 1911 as din-ing car #1000 for the LV and had a clerestory roof with a lounge for ten and a café for eight. In 1929 it was converted to a full club car for 44 passengers. It was rebuilt in 1939 and then modernized in the 1950’s as a dining car for 24 with a streamlined car body and roof. In 1953 it was rebuilt to a café-diner and then bought by the LIRR in 1961. The car had an aluminum kitchen and a charcoal stove.

For a short time, it was numbered #2005 by the LIRR, then named Tuscarora Club and renumbered to #2038. The car saw brief service in 1961 in LV Cornell Red complete with white-coated waiters on Train #28. It was used as a dining car in parlor car trains on Fridays and Sundays during 1962 through 1965 on Train #26, The East Ender, and served full-course din-ners. Other times the car served continental breakfasts and light evening snacks. The car had eleven tables and six lounge seats with a seating capacity of 50.

Unfortunately, the dining car operation proved to be too difficult to maintain and dining car service was dropped after the summer of 1965, but the car remained in service. With

dining service over, the railroad bought upright wooden arm-chairs and placed their backs to the car’s windows. The LIRR then used it an “overflow car,” allowing the railroad to ac-commodate last-minute or walk-up parlor patrons.

Its interior was rebuilt as a full parlor car in 1970 with 26 seats and the car was renamed Onterora but retained its origi-nal LIRR number. It remained in service until 1975. It was the only car in the heavyweight fleet that operated with the newer, lightweight sleeping cars that the LIRR introduced in 1968 and 1969 and it also wore the original MTA paint scheme.

Completing the railroad’s “Blue-Ribbon Fleet” of extra-fare service were two open-end observation cars, Jamaica, and Setauket; both cars had an interesting, colorful, and varied her-itage.

Built by American Car and Foundry in 1912 as a chair car for LIRR luxury service to the east end (Pullman did not oper-ate its cars on the railroad until 1926) and designated class PP70A, #815, Jamaica was converted to a business car, given an open-end observation platform, numbered 2000 and named Montauk in December 1925. It was sold to the PRR and in Jan-uary 1941 it was air-conditioned in the Altoona Shops. The PRR renumbered it to #7552 on July 30, 1942 and the car was bought by the LIRR on July 8, 1949, when it again became car #2000 and named Montauk. It was renamed Jamaica in 1952 and was used as a business car until 1962, when it went into parlor service.

Jamaica was removed from service by 1968 and was to be scrapped but it was moved off the scrap line at Corona Yard before it was to be cut up. In 1972, the car was saved by the Wantagh Preservation Society and moved to where it now re-sides alongside the old Wantagh station building in Wantagh, N. Y. The display is not far from the LIRR’s elevated Babylon Branch and Wantagh station.


(Above left) This is an interesting shot of car #2000 but with no name on its sides in the Tuscan Red paint scheme with gold lettering. Unfortu-nately, there is no date or location on it. (Author’s Collection) (Above right) Here’s a pre- “Blue-Ribbon Fleet” photo of #2000, Jamaica, at Montauk, probably taken before 1962. For many years Jamaica was used by the railroad as a business car before it was placed in parlor service. (Author’s Collection)

Car #2000 Jamaica is shown here at Richmond Hill Yard, before it was used in parlor service. It was given a blue stripe when it was assigned to parlor service and was one of two open-end observation cars used by the LIRR. (George E. Votava photo)

On Friday, June 8, 1962, Train #22, the railroad’s “Blue-Ribbon Fleet” of parlor cars made its debut and the all-parlor Cannon Ball made its inaugural run. The Cannon Ball ran on Fridays through the summer and made its last trip on Septem-ber 14th that year. Unlike other LIRR parlor trains which left Jamaica station, this train left the Hunterspoint Avenue sta-tion at 4:14p.m. The train had 16 parlor cars and was pulled by two Fairbanks-Morse H16-44 diesels with a touch of class bringing up the rear: open-end observation car #2000, Jamaica, at the rear.

In 1962, the LIRR bought another open-end observation car. The railroad purchased open-end observation #97 from

the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western (DL&W) during the summer. The car, built in 1915 for the Nevada Northern Rail-way, was used by its president, S. R. Guggenheim, until his retirement in 1934. Stored near New York City, the car was offered to him for sale, but he declined, and the car was refur-bished at the DL&W shops at Kingsland, N. J. It was put up for sale and the DL&W bought it, using it as a business car, naming it Anthracite. The car was later renamed Scranton and it was eventually numbered #97. The LIRR bought the car, named it Setauket, renumbered it to #2037 and in 1963 as-signed it to The Cannon Ball. This displaced Jamaica, the other open ender. Jamaica was then assigned to The Weekender. (Text continues page 21)


Here is open-end observation car #2000, Jamaica, in all its glory. At one time the vestibule at the left of the car consisted of a working door, but this was removed. Jamaica is shown at Montauk, having arrived at the end of The Cannon Ball in the early 1960’s. What a ride it must have been! (Henry Maywald photo)

Observation car #2000, then named Montauk, is shown at Sunnyside Yards on December 13, 1937. This car has an interesting history and left the LIRR for the rails of the parent company, the PRR, before being sold back to the LIRR and ending up in parlor service. (George E. Votava photo)


This impressive photo of The Cannon Ball was taken from Queens Tower on September 10th, 1965. Open-end observation car Jamaica was moved from this train and added to The Weekender. Bringing up the markers is Setauket, a former DL&W car. (Ron Ziel photo)

Thus, the LIRR had not one, but two open-end observa-tion cars in regular service! The Route of The Weekend Chief, as the railroad called its summer weekend service to the east end of Long Island, became the only U. S. railroad to achieve this remarkable feat. Not one, but two open-end observation cars in regular service! This fact alone made the railroad quite popular with railfans as well as riders.

Both Jamaica and Setauket were reserved for season ticket holders only.

While there were several leased PRR cars operated by the LIRR, there are no surviving records that indicated which cars were in this category; only photos have recorded this history. However, two PRR cars that were used to Montauk should be noted here: #7034 Elks Club and #7035 Lions Club. These two cars were originally named Mercury and Saturn and were Pull-man 28 coach seat-buffet-lounge cars which were rebuilt to Plan #3996C 16 parlor chair-buffet-lounge cars in July 1936. (Text continues page 23)

Observation car #2000, Jamaica, is at the end of The Cannon Ball, here where the track ends at Montauk. LIRR limited the popular train to 17 cars. (Doug Nash photo)


The Cannon Ball and its popular open-end observation car Setauket has quite a crowd as the train makes its slow turn and approaches Jamaica Sta-tion on August 23, 1968. Both Jamaica and this car were reserved for season ticketholders. All the heavyweight parlor cars will be gone after this summer season. (Frank Zahn photo)

The only thing better than riding the rear of Setauket and The Cannon Ball to Montauk was doing the same thing on the train’s western trip back to the city. Here is the train and popular open-ender ready to move in the summer of 1964 as it sits by the picturesque Montauk station building. (Ron Ziel photo)


Both these cars operated on LIRR par-lor trains to Montauk, along with another PRR parlor-lounge car, Thomas Jefferson. The later would be purchased by the LIRR in 1961 while both Elks Club and Lions Club returned to the PRR after the 1960 LIRR parlor season. Why? Perhaps they were needed elsewhere on the PRR since both cars could provide limited menu café ser-vice. No answer has been provided as to why the cars were removed from LIRR parlor service. Lions Club was believed to be still active in New York-Washington service as late as 1962. Both cars were scrapped in December 1965.

With eastbound (Montauk) trains hav-ing even numbers and westbound (back to the city) trains assigned odd numbers, here’s a rundown of how the LIRR used its parlor-lounge cars for Labor Day Weekend of 1964:

• Mohawk Club ran on Train #16 on Wednesday, September 2nd and re-turned to the city on Train #5. On Friday, September 4th, it went east along with Cayuga Club on Train #22.

• Oneida Club ran on Thursday, Sep-tember 3rd on Train #4, and Train #9.

• Mohawk Club and Cayuga Club ran on Thursday, September 3rd in the sec-ond section of Train #16 while Seneca Club also ran in the second section along with a protect parlor. Seneca Club would return on Train #5 Fri-day, September 4th.

Open-ender Setauket rests along with the rest of The Cannon Ball between runs at Montauk in the 1960’s. It has the first of several simplified drumheads on its rear platform. Notice how clean it and the other parlor cars have been kept. (Henry Maywald photo)

Doesn’t open-ender Setauket look great with all the bunting? Bringing up the rear of The Sundowner, a westbound train back to the city, the car was decorated for a special occasion. (Gene Collora photo)


• On Thursday, September 3rd, Tuscarora Club rode be-hind three parlor cars on Train #24.

• Oneida Club made a roundtrip on Friday, September 4th, going east on Train #4 and west on Train #9.

• Onondaga Club went east Friday, September 4th on Train #12 with four parlor cars.

• On Friday, September 4th there were six parlors, Mo-hawk Club, four more parlors, Cayuga Club, and four more parlors and open-end observation car Setauket bringing up the rear on Train #22.

• Oneida Club made a roundtrip with one other parlor car, going east on Train #4 and west on Train #9.

• Train #18 ran east with Seneca Club.

• Train #26 ran on Friday, September 4th, with diner Tus-carora Club, with parlor cars and open-ender Jamaica at the west end. The second section of #26 ran with Oneida Club.

• On Saturday, September 5th, Seneca Club ran on Train #4016; Oneida Club ran on Train #4012 and Onondaga Club on Train #4006; these were all eastbound week-end trains. Both Seneca Club, Onondaga Club and a second parlor car returned to the city.

• On Sunday, September 6th, Seneca Club went west on Train #4003 and then east on Train #4012, returning west on Train #4017.

• Oneida Club went east on Train #4008; Onondaga Club went east on Train #4010 and returned west on Train #4015.

• On Monday, September 7th, Oneida Club went east on Train #4008; Seneca Club went east on Train #4010 with two parlor cars; Train #4012 went east with Onondaga Club and open-ender Jamaica.

• Going to Montauk on Train #4020 were Seneca Club, Tuscarora Club, more parlors, Oneida Club and then

coaches; Oneida Club was next to the rear coaches with all parlor cars deadheading.

• Oneida Club went west with three other parlor cars.

• Mohawk Club went west with Tuscarora Club on Train #4011. Cayuga Club was also in the consist; it had 13 cars!

• Seneca Club went west on Train #4015 with two other parlors.

• Onondaga Club went west on Train #4017 with Jamaica.

• On Tuesday, September 8th, Tuscarora Club and Seneca Club were at the east end of Train #3 with seven other parlor cars.

• Oneida Club and four parlor cars went back west on Train #7.

• Train #4 had Onondaga Club going east and then west on Train #9 with one parlor car.

• Mohawk Club and two parlors—one a protect parlor car—went east on Train #16.

Except for the changing of cars in various consists, this parlor car pattern basically stayed the same through 1967.

On Friday, August 19th, 1966, the parlor operation looked like this:

• Train #12 had Cayuga Club on its west end with six parlors.

• Train #18 had Mohawk Club and one parlor car.

• Train #22 had 15 parlor cars including Seneca Club, Oneida Club, and open-end observation car Setauket.

• Train #24 had 11 parlor cars including Tuscarora Club and open-ender Jamaica.

• Train #28 had one parlor car. (Text continues page 27)

Open-end observation car Setau-ket added a touch of class to the LIRR’s parlor trains and helped gain the railroad much publicity, especially with railfans. Both open-end cars – it and Jamaica – were also used in fantrips so rail-fans could enjoy themselves in the same manner that parlor patrons did! Setauket is pictured at an unknown location during the 1960’s. (Henry Maywald photo)


Open end observation car Setauket sits with the rest of its train at Hunterspoint Avenue before it begins its trek to Montauk, at the island’s east end. The date is May 21, 1965 and this is The Cannon Ball. Unlike other parlor car trains, train #22, began its run here and not Jamaica. Ready for loading, its four rear seats are empty—for now. Note the Yale banners on the back of the seats on the rear platform and the white-jacketed par-lor attendant on the platform waiting for passengers; they’ll be coming soon! Also note the drumhead on the car; it’s not The Weekend Chief nor The Cannon Ball but the regular commuter, Dashing Dan! (Dick Makse photo)

After the first Jamaica was withdrawn from service, Setauket was renamed Jamaica and remained in parlor service. Here it is in the first MTA paint scheme at Richmond Hill on October 13, 1973. It, too, was later retired from parlor service and trans-ferred to the maintenance-of-way roster until it was scrapped. (George E. Votava photo).


On July 5, 1968, Train #22, The Cannon Ball and Setauket sit at Southampton station after unloading its passengers. Each car had an attendant dressed in white jacket for the convenience of parlor patrons and it appears that the train is ready to move to its next stop on the way to Mon-tauk, the end of the line. The three passengers are obviously enjoying themselves on Setauket’s rear platform; note the “SN” block limit sign to the right on the station platform. This was the last year for the remaining heavyweights in service since their 1961 purchase by the LIRR from the PRR. (Dick Makse photo) Train #22, The Cannon Ball, with open-ender Setauket, has just passed Win Tower by Woodside and is headed east to Jamaica where it will pick up more passengers for its run to Montauk. The date is August 8, 1968 and the era of the heavyweight parlor cars on the Long Island Rail Road will be no more after this summer season. It’s no sportscoats and shirt sleeve shirts this day on the rear platform; what summer is all about—even on The Cannon Ball! (Dick Makse photo)


Setauket would later be named Jamaica (II) after the original Jamaica was withdrawn from service. Here it is in an unusual assignment; it brings up the rear of a train with “pings,” arch-roof P54C’s and D’s near Mineola in the late 1960’s or early 1970’s. (Bob Sturm photo)

Lehigh Valley Railroad diner #1000 sits coupled to a leased PRR 28-1 parlor car at Montauk in 1962. The car originally ran on the LIRR in Cornell Red until the car was painted in the parlor car paint scheme, complete with blue stripe, and named Tuscarora Club. It, too, was later painted in the MTA paint scheme, then renamed and operated for sev-eral years as a chair car when its kitchen facilities were removed after dining service ceased. (Henry Maywald photo)

On Friday, August 30th, Mohawk Club ran on Trains #4 and #9. Oneida Club ran in Train #22. Train #18 and Train #212 to

Greenport had no lounge cars while Train #24 had Tuscarora Club and Mohawk Club. Ex-dining car Tuscarora Club was still in service, and now used as a 26-seat lounge car.

By 1968 several parlor cars were retired since they were in bad shape and could not pass inspection. Only 19 of the once-large fleet of 28-1 parlor cars and three of the old heavyweight parlor-lounge cars, Mohawk Club, Tuscarora Club and Oneida Club, were still available for service.

In need of cars the railroad, now owned by the State of New York and operated by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, a state agency, leased several sleeping cars from the Penn Central (PC) and NH railroads. (Text continues page 30)

With its staff on a break and in between runs, Tuscarora Club sits at Montauk behind a C-Liner on September 30, 1962. Providing staff and service proved to be too difficult and kitchen ser-vice ended after several seasons. (George E. Votava photo)


Tuscarora Club wore the first MTA paint scheme and colors of Nordic Blue and Platinum Mist in later years, after dining services ceased. It’s shown here in a photo from circa 1970. The car was later renamed Onteora and was a chair car. (Author’s Collection)

Tuscarora Club has been cut off from its train and looks like it’s being serviced by itself at Montauk in the summer of 1962; ob-serve the skirting panel that has been lifted to get access to the underbody. Although this car appeared very much unlike its heav-yweight counterparts, it looked exceptionally good in the dark smokey gray, blue stripe, and Brunswick Green (roof) colors of the LIRR’s parlor car paint scheme, fitting right in with the other heavyweight parlors. (Henry Maywald photo)

The Weekend Chief was a creation of the LIRR’s public relations department and a herald featuring The Chief in Indian garb com-plete with bow and arrows and tomahawk was placed at one end of each parlor car. At the other end was the standard LIRR Dash-ing Dan herald with Dan in more conventional attire: hat, suit, tie, and briefcase. (Author’s Collection)


PRR Thomas Jefferson as it appeared after 1945 when it was owned by the PRR and leased for operation to the Pullman Company. Notice the lack of collision posts and diaphragm at this end of the car; they were probably installed in later years but before the car went to the LIRR and was operated as #2034 Seneca Club. (Photo collection of Jay Williams)

Elks Club sits against the bumper block in Richmond Hill Yard on the LIRR in the late 1950’s. It, Lions Club, and a host of other PRR parlor cars and parlor-lounges were used by the railroad in east-end service. (Ron Ziel photo)


PRR Lions Club sits at the west end of a cut of parlor cars in Montauk in the late 1950’s. It’s not known why this car and Elks Club were not in the purchase made by the LIRR of PRR parlors offered for sale but most likely the relative condition of the cars—perhaps not being in such good shape—or specific plans for their operation other than on the LIRR precluded them from the purchase. (Henry Maywald photo)

C-Liner #2401 switches Lions Club and a leased 30-1 PRR parlor car, moving them towards the rest of a train of coaches that will soon return to the city. The coach at the right is an ex-B&M “American Flyer” coach bought by the LIRR in 1958. (Henry Maywald photo)

The interior of parlor-lounge car Oneida Club in the mid-1960’s. (Foster Gunnison Jr. photo, Dick Makse collection)

Interior of parlor-lounge car Mohawk Club in the mid-1960’s. (Foster Gunnison Jr. photo, Dick Makse collection)

A number of these cars were ex-Pullman PRR sleeping cars and were bought from the newly formed PC. Cars that were leased for the 1968 summer season were Pinetree State (#552) and Nutmeg State (#553) from the NH and four cars from the PRR, Pine Falls, Jefferson County, Hamilton County, and Imperial Trail. The Falls series was a 6-double bedroom-20 lounge seat car, the County series were 13 double bedroom cars, and the Imperial series were 4 double bedroom-4 com-partment-2 double bedroom cars, also known as 4-4-2’s. Of

the leased cars, only Pine Falls would return later to run again on the LIRR as part of a large purchase of sleeping cars from the PRR.

Sleeping cars had finally come to the LIRR but they were not used for sleep by their passengers. They were used exclu-sively as parlor and parlor-lounge cars in the railroad’s parlor service, making their use as parlor cars by the LIRR an unu-sual operation. (Text continues page 34)


Interior of an unidentified parlor-lounge car. (Dick Makse photo)

A roster of Long Island Rail Road from May 30, 1968 lists heavyweight parlor cars still in service, along with six leased sleeping cars, four from the PRR and two from the NH. These remaining heavyweight cars were all gone from the roster at the end of the 1968 summer parlor car season. (Author’s Collection)

1963 schedule of LIRR parlor and parlor-coach trains returning to the city from Montauk. (Author’s Collection)

Agent’s stub. (Author’s Collection)

1948 LIRR Timetable. (Author’s Collection)

1962 parlor car pamphlet with text and schedules. (Author’s Collection)


“Welcome Aboard” parlor car pamphlet with message and photo of Walter F. McNamara, the driving force behind the resurgence of the LIRR’s east-end summer parlor service. (Author’s Collection) 1962 LIRR parlor pamphlet. (Author’s Collection)



Ride relaxed parlor pamphlet. (Author’s Collection)


Front side of ticket envelope. (Author’s Collection)

Seating chart of Onteora. (Author’s Collection)

Welcome Aboard Message and photo of McNamara (Author’s Collection)

Back side of envelope for parlor tickets. (Author’s Collection)

1963 schedule of eastbound parlor and parlor-coach trains to the Hamptons. (Author’s Collection)

1953 LIRR schedule showing parlor car train. (Author’s Collection)


For one glorious summer, 1968, the railroad mixed its heavyweight parlor cars and parlor-lounge cars in its parlor trains with six newly leased sleeping cars from the PRR. Dur-ing this time Tuscarora Club was used as a chair car. At the end of the season, the remaining parlor-lounge cars—excluding Setauket and Tuscarora Club—as well as the heavyweight par-lor cars were all gone. More “newer” sleeping cars—a lot more—would soon be purchased for use from several rail-roads and the cars would go into service for the 1969 summer season. A hodgepodge of cars from different railroads—PRR, NH (both now part of PC), Union Pacific, Kansas City South-ern, Baltimore & Ohio and Erie-Lackawanna ran in their origi-nal owners’ paint schemes for several years. This made for some interesting and unusual looking consists until the cars

were eventually repainted and renumbered by the LIRR. They would also be assigned names, too, just like their heavyweight predecessors.

For the railroad, its employees, passengers and railfans, it was certainly a glorious and special era. The cars that made up the “Blue Ribbon Fleet” used on The Route of The Weekend Chief will always be remembered by many, both parlor pa-trons and railfans alike.

This era on the Long Island Rail Road was railroading at its finest. The Cannon Ball and The Weekender of the 1960’s were very much the equal to The Sunrise Special, the railroad’s “varnish” of the 1920’s.

LIRR memo showing use of several PRR parlor-lounge cars in 1959 summer service. (Author’s Collection)

LIRR schedule for 1968 showing trains with parlor cars. (Author’s Collection)

Long trains of solid parlor cars were not an uncommon sight on the railroad’s east end during the summer months. Here is such a train; it’s The Sundowner, complete with open-end observation car Setauket bring up the rear in the early 1960’s. (Gene Collora photo)


The Weekend Chief attends the Army-Navy Game on December 7, 1962! Here are two LIRR parlor-lounge cars coupled blind end to blind end. Visible is Mohawk Club in a consist that took football fans to the big game in Philadelphia, which Navy won 21 to 15. For several years, the Pennsyl-vania Railroad “borrowed” their old parlor cars, which had been sold to the LIRR for this occasion. (George V. Arnoux Photo/Dave Keller Collection)

It looks like the 17-car Cannon Ball has finished its run and needs some servicing, especially on the last car, open-end observation car Jamaica at Montauk on July 28, 1962. The car needs water. The Cannon Ball many times ran with so many cars that it needed several stops at the small, quaint stations in the Hamptons. (George E. Votava/Dave Keller Collection)

On July 4, 1963, Seneca Club sits behind an FM C-Liner and in front of an ex-B&M coach bought in 1958. The four C-Liners, which powered many parlor car trains along with FM H16-44’s, were replaced beginning in 1963 with 21 Alco C420’s. The C-liners had 2400 horsepower, much more than the Centuries’ 2000. (William Lichenstern Photo/Dave Keller Collection)


PRR #7042 John Hancock, another 30-1, is shown at Montauk in the early 1960’s, having been leased from the LIRR’s parent company. Oddly enough, the railroad bought one 30-1, PRR #7044 Robert R. Livingstone, from the PRR in a second purchase, renamed it Nesconset and renumbered it to #2039 but listed it as a 28-1 parlor car, along with all the other 28-1’s. Were two seats removed from the car at some point? When? And by which railroad? (Henry Maywald photo)

Observation car Jamaica before it became part of the Blue-Ribbon Fleet. (Henry Maywald photo)

Ex-New Haven sleeping car with PC logos and no identification at Montauk circa 1970. Two cars came from the Penn Central in this scheme. (Henry Maywald photo)


New Haven sleeping car #528 Crescent Beach at Montauk around 1970. It was one of seven cars purchased to replace the old heavyweight parlor cars. (Henry Maywald photo)

New Haven sleeping car #527 Bailey’s Beach at Montauk around 1970. It was a 6 roomette-4 double bedroom-6 seat car and was used by the LIRR in parlor service and lasted through the 1975 summer season. (Author’s Collection)

New Haven sleeping car #520 Race Point was one of seven “Point” cars purchased in July and August of 1969 to replace the old heavyweights. Race Point was a 14 roomette-4 double bedroom car. (Author’s Collection)


PRR #7067 Curtis Bay was one of many 28-1 parlor cars that saw service to Montauk. Here it is at Montauk on July 4, 1963. (Gene Collora photo)

PRR #7080 Glen Osborne was another one of many parlor cars that saw service to Montauk in PRR colors. It is shown at Montauk on July 4, 1963. (Gene Collora photo)

Under a cool but picturesque October sky at Montauk PRR #7035 Lions Club sits on a siding by the Montauk station awaiting its next run. It was one of two parlor-lounge cars leased by the LIRR for its summer parlor service. (Collection of Gerald Landau)


The Cannon Ball is east of Copiague in September 1962 in this photo as it charges its way to Montauk. Note the two RS3’s as motive power; they would be reassigned and replaced by the railroad’s new fleet of Alco C420’s when they arrived a year later. (Malcolm Young photo)

A weekend train, #4016, rolls through the Babylon Shoofly with C-Liner power, a PRR parlor car and the railroad’s diner, purchased from the Lehigh Valley. The shoofly was a result of the then-ongoing grade separation project, which elevated the tracks in Lindenhurst and Babylon. The date is July 13, 1963 and eventually these tracks will be elevated with no more grade crossings and automobile tie-ups while the gates are down. (Walter Zullig, Jr. photo)

A parlor car train, powered by a single RS3, moves through Oakdale in the early 1960’s. There were several trains with both parlor cars and coaches operated to the east end during the summer months. (Doug Nash photo)


A string of LIRR parlor cars on foreign rails but really back home. These parlor cars are in use by the Pennsylvania Railroad for the an-nual Army-Navy game in Philadelphia and are under the catenary again – if only for a short time. This photo was taken in the mid-1960’s. (Doug Nash photo)

This is Montauk Yard in the summer of 1969 and there is not a single old heavyweight parlor car to be seen anywhere. The tracks are now filled with sleeping cars from the Pennsylvania, New Haven, and other railroads. (Bob Sturm photo)

These former New Haven sleeping cars helped replace “The Blue-Ribbon Fleet” of heavyweight LIRR parlors in 1969 when the cars could no longer operate. Here are two ex-NH cars going east in a parlor car train in 1969. (Bob Sturm photo)


The interior of parlor car Commack with railfans on a NRHS fantrip that ran September 30, 1962. The special ran to Montauk and had both open-ender Jamaica and diner Tuscarora Club in its consist, with the dining car serv-ing Lobster Newburg to paying customers. (Malcolm Young photo)

Willie Wilson and J. H. Maul are at work at their duties as attendants aboard the railroad’s only dining car, Tusca-rora Club in 1963. Note the clean, modern looks of this ex-Lehigh Valley car and the large lounge section of the car to the rear. Wilson succeeded Walter McNamara as the head of the railroad’s Special Services, which included parlor car operations. Dining car service ended after only a few years and the car became a full-length lounge, han-dling last-minute passengers who wanted to ride The Can-non Ball. They did and this was the car where they rode! (Dick Makse photo)


Here’s a view of open-ender Jamaica in Montauk after it completed its run on Train #24 in 1967. Its drumhead shows Dashing Dan and not The Weekend Chief, a rather odd sight. Also, its smaller Weekend Chief and Dashing Dan heralds on the car’s sides have been replaced with larger ones. This was once a P70 coach with the vestibule at one end of the car converted to this open platform. (Dick Makse photo)

Parlor cars Nesconset, Moriches, and coaches on the scrap line at Corona Yard in Queens, N. Y. on April 14, 1969. (George E. Votava photo)

Documents

Long Island Rail Road Parlor Cars – Part 2 · 2021. 1. 8. · Parlor Cars – Part 2 New England Chapter, Pennsylvania Railroad Technical & Historical Society . The East Wind 2