Long
Island Railroad - Newspaper Delivery
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Newsday
was delivered regularly on Babylon branch trains. Until checked baggage service was stopped (1967?),
newspapers were carried in MU baggage cars at the head end eastbound when
they were in service. You would see them on the rear end of a westbound
train ONLY when they were deadheading back west. Afterwards, papers were piled high in the vestibule of the first car.
Newspaper
bundles were at some stations full-stop (Patchogue) before papers were
unloaded at, while at others they were tossed or thrown as were the rolled individual papers.
Journal-American Newspaper bundle ticket at left.
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Riverhead was a BIG paper destination; half the
baggage car was full of them. LIRR #210 Train #204 newspaper baggage (and
RPO) at Riverhead Station view NW 7/01/64
The parlor behind the baggage is NH "Pine Tree State", a
sleeper-buffet-lounge car which I rode uncounted times on Clark Johnson's
rare mileage trips between 1998 and 2010. It's still in service for
charters, owned by the NRHS Piedmont Carolina's Chapter.
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LIRR
#210 Train #204 newspaper baggage (and RPO) westbound approaching Riverhead
Station view W 7/01/64.
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The
East Hampton shot is LIRR #217 pulling Montauk bound Train #4 in August 1968. The parlor
behind the baggage is NH "Pine Tree State", a
sleeper-buffet-lounge car which I rode uncounted times on Clark Johnson's
rare mileage trips between
1998
and 2010. It's still in service for charters, owned by the NRHS
Piedmont Carolina's Chapter.
Photos/Info: Brad Phillips
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There
were many stops where bundles of newspapers were unloaded. Unloading usually
consisted of throwing them out the baggage door. I specifically recall some
Hampton stations and Speonk, along with a few on the Main Line out East. The
shop owner would later drive up and pick up his papers. I saw bundles tipped
off moving trains at spots on the platform before the train stopped, but I
don't know if they were ever tossed at stations where no stop was made. Both
Newsday and the LI Press were delivered. I don't know about the City papers.
I recall the the LI Press being loaded at Union Hall Street. I recall seeing
piles of bundles lined up on the east end of that platform in the morning
for loading onto East End trains.
Since commuters always left their papers on the trains, crew members would
commonly drop one off at the towers and in early times, at the crossing
shanties. It was common practice. A "perk" of the job. A fringe
benefit that fostered inter-craft relations. Certain employees also provided
a paper for a friend or railroad neighbor by tossing one off in a particular
back yard each day. I recall two such Manorville and Amagansett LI Press
"subscribers".
Newspapers were also a resalable commodity. The owner of several large
newstands in Penn Station would employ freelance bums who would rummage
arriving trains to collect the papers, bringing them upstairs where they
would be added to the new ones to be resold. He'd pay the freelancers a
nickle each for the 20 cent papers. It wasn't uncommon for a purchaser to
find his crossword puzzle already completed. The same newstand had a secret
air conditioned lounge behind his shop where certain employees could relax,
watch TV and cool off.
Yardmasters and yard crews would often yell to the bums to "Stop'
garbaging' the trains". They'd fail to get their two-foot tall bundle
off on time, get brought down to the yard where they would have to be
brought back up.
Info: LongIslandTool
I
also remember some of the regular bar car attendants running off the train
at a station stop to buy a handful of newspapers at a stationery store/deli
adjacent to the depot and get back on again, reselling the newspapers at a
profit to their regular riders. Others bought the papers in advance
and brought them onto the train with them at the start of their runs.
There
were similar off-train runs like when they miscalculated and didn't load
enough bags of ice. They run out to the deli at a station stop and run
back lugging two bags of ice, and this was all accomplished in the short
duration of a station stop with no leaving late!!
I
can only speak from what I've seen. Bundled newspapers were taken off
the train at Patchogue while the train made the station stop.
Individual rolled newspapers were tossed off for the block operator as the
train left the station and proceeded eastbound to pick up orders at PD. No
idea if the train stopped anywhere else for papers to be off-loaded, OR if
papers were thrown off the moving train. I do not recall seeing this
anywhere else. Info: Dave Keller
This
certainly rings true, and I can attest to the gathering of used papers by
trainmen. That happened on many of the commuter trains I rode.
I'm sure they "cashed in" their lot as well. I always
wondered what those guys did with all the papers they picked up! I
frequently rode the "paper train" from Jamaica to Amityville and
don't recall any offloading while moving. In most cases, the butchers
at each station knew exactly where the baggage car (or, later,
vestibule) would stop and had their vehicles ready for a speedy pickup.
Info: Brad Phillips
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The first car is a combine. The second car
is one of three MPBM54 (Mail-Baggage-Passenger) cars the LIRR had. It had mail,
baggage, and a passenger section. Mineola Station view E 12/01/1950
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LIRR #1382 Combine MU Car - Mail/RPO, baggage, passenger at Jamaica
5/12/1940
Archive: Dave Keller
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LIRR
#1382-1384 MPBM54 Scrapped with cessation of mail service: Koehler roster
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Baggage car #7715 on Montauk bound train #4 Baggage man preparing to dump newspapers on platform
07/1971
Photo/Archive: Dave Keller
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Baggage car #7715 on Montauk bound train #4. The Conductor is walking up
front to speak to engineer. Newspapers ready to be off-loaded on platform
are visible in door of baggage car 07/1971 (second car is a lightweight
parlor) The LIRR and MTA are still in transition as is evidenced by the
conductor still wearing his "letter-carrier" gray uniform.
Photo/Archive: Dave Keller
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C420
#226 pulling train #4 Montauk bound at PD getting orders. Man standing
in the rear door of the baggage car is about to toss a rolled-up newspaper
off for the block operator - 1971
Photo/Archive: Dave Keller
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LIRR
FM CPA20-5 #2007 Greenport train
coming into Mineola
station with the Newsday truck and papers at the left to be loaded on the
baggage car. View
W from trestle 1950
Archive:
Dave Keller
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C420
#206 pulling train #204 Greenport bound on the trestle over North Ocean
Avenue east of Holtsville. The baggage car carries newspapers and the
rear door is open for the baggageman to get some air. 1969 Archive/photo:
Dave Keller |
Mattituck Station - Newspapers delivered
Summer, 1969 Photo/Archive/Info: John Schaub
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The Greenport daily newspaper
train. It had an Alco RS-3, a short string of fairly new air-conditioned
passenger cars, and a B-60 baggage car
loaded at Mineola earlier in the
morning filled with banded and bound NEWSDAY papers. Scheduled delivery to
stations on the North Fork.
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Train #9 (aka The Montauk Mail) heading west in Hillside. 7/1967
Photo/Archive: Jim Mardiguian |
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Until the early 1970's trains to Montauk,
Greenport and Port Jefferson carried the Long Island newspaper "Newsday".
Picking them up at Mineola. This photograph shows eastbound Montauk Train
no.6 with the necessary baggage car crossing Irish Lane in East Islip in
1972. This was the last train to carry papers and the last regular use of
baggage cars. By 1974 the service had ended. Photo/Archive/info: Art
Huneke
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