Don Ehrenbeck ~80 pages softcover
The Lackawanna Electrics is a
richly detailed chronicle of the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western
Railroad’s pioneering fleet of electric multiple-unit (MU) cars — an
engineering marvel that defined suburban rail travel in northern New
Jersey for more than five decades. From their debut in 1930 through
their final years of service under NJ Transit in the 1980s, these
dependable “electrics” carried countless commuters between Hoboken and
the growing suburbs of Morris, Essex, and Somerset Counties.
Blending thorough research with vivid
photography, this book explores every phase of the MU cars’ lives: their
design and construction, their reliable performance through the Great
Depression, World War II, and the Erie Lackawanna merger, and their
graceful decline amid modernization and re-electrification. Featuring
rare historical documents and over 150 images, The Lackawanna Electrics
is both a tribute and a technical history of one of the most
distinctive and enduring commuter car fleets ever to run in the United
States — a true New Jersey icon remembered with affection by generations
of riders and railfans alike.
