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PRR Mischief

More Pennsylvania Railroad in Rahway memories from Ed K.

One evening back in 1955, Myself, Red C, Rich S, after watching PRR. train 735 leave Rahway, hung around the Shanty at Mc Graws yard with Paddy Mulqueen, the car knocker, till he had left to go up to Rahway Station to do some work there, Paddy was somewhat pickled as per usual! Anyway, the PRR. saw fit to leave a complete Speedster outfit along with seven two Axel flat cars loaded with stuff on one of the yard tracks.

We all looked at one another. The idea came to light, what if we could hot wire the speedster, get it started, run it up and down. It was dark, so no one would see us from New Brunswick Ave. The speedster wasn't the usual Fairmont, powered by a corn popper two cycle engine which were noisy. It had a flathead Ford V-8 60 in it! Somewhat quiet. Wow! Bet this rig could fly! It did. We had a ball running it up to the bridge crossing the Rahway River and back. We didn't venture further than the bridge because we thought if we went up to the pot signal on the trailer track, we would break the circuit, we thought, and be detected by Union Tower, hence, the dreaded cops!

After a while of running up and down, we decided to see how this rig could haul. We coupled up the drawbar to the lead car, shifted into first, let out the clutch, off we were, all seven flats in tow. Cool!

Just about that time one, of us looked back, and saw a pair of headlights turn into the yard off New Brunswick Ave. Holy Cow! Chicky You guys! ( a saying used back in the 50's which meant move fast) we were doing about 15 mph. I shifted to neutral, hauled back on the hand brake lever which was ratcheted, and we all bailed off!

The area around the Rahway River which sat in back of Allen Industries was mostly swamp, cattails and weeds. It was a hot August night. we crouched low in the weeds for about an hour laying low. Sure enough, it was the Rahway Cops! We could hear them swearing about the G Damned kids. We were scared, and dared not move! Soon they left.

The downside of all this was, while hiding, the infamous Jersey Mosquitoes did a fine job on Rich, Red, and Me! We were in misery. The Speeder had stopped shy of the bridge, sitting there idling, I guess to cops shut it off. To this day we never found out who tipped off the cops.

I personally suspect it was Mrs. Hunter, who's deceased husband worked for the PRR. She lived on New Brunswick Ave. She must have felt the she was the PRR. in Rahway's personal guardian, and always calling the cops on us kids, especially when we used to sleigh ride down the coal piles at the Colonial coal yard. Every neighborhood had one like her.

By the way, this is a true story. Ask Red C. in Avenel, or Rich S. in Montrose, Co.

Ed K. cp Laurel Run

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