LIRR Hack use by crews

[NYandW]

  The Pennsylvania Railroad and LIRR officially referred to cabooses as "cabin cars". 

LIRR hacks were used as a freight conductor’s office even with their own desk built into the wall to do their paperwork. The desk was even illuminated by a wall-mounted kerosene lamp in some cases.  These desks and lamps were still in place in some hacks as late as the mid-1970s.

Cabooses, in general, were used as bunk houses for the crew which usually consisted of the freight conductor and two freight brakemen.  As the LIRR was a short-distance road, unlike the Pennsy which had freights that could’ve run overnight, they may have had no need to use their bunks and they may even have been removed over the years and used for storage, but originally the intent of the bunks was for crews to rest.

LIRR hacks were used to cook meals and were quite good. Personally, I never had a meal cooked on a pot belly stove. Of course in later years, the cooking ceased in the cars, but they did at one time cook meals. This cooking was done over the coal fired, cast-iron stove that was located in each of the older hacks.  Contrary to some belief, those stoves were not installed specifically for heat, although they did provide heat for the car while the hack was not connected to the train during switching and while in the yard prior to a run.


LIRR #12 Coal stove sans flue

As you can see, this is a stove with large, flat cooking surface on top and not a stove that was provided solely for heating. Also notice the cast-iron back stop to keep spatter as well as grease fires from scorching the walls of the hack.
Info: Dave Keller

The steel hacks were equipped by the crews with Coleman Gasoline stoves which were quite reliable. It was usually the flagman's job to prepare the meals. Concerning the crew consist; two brakemen were used on most MA trains and three were required on any MA job where a cross over move was part of their regular routine. Think Corona or Glendale . Jobs out of Holban headed east also carried that extra brakeman who worked as flagman.

The pot belly stove in #12 hack was used for heat during winter and that it did have an exhaust stack connected to the outdoors. Info: J.J. Earl

[Johnny F]

I would think that the bunks were used when the railroad ran Greenport & Montauk freights. Leave Holban Monday, Wednesday & Friday, return Tuesday, Thursday & Saturday. Crews could have bunked in the caboose on the overnight stays and not in a motel.

[n2qhvRMLI]

Evening Gents,

In the earliest days the bunks were indeed used for overnights at the end of the line.  As time progressed, the crews on both freight and passenger consists that laid over in Greenport were given room and board "chits" and went up the street to one of the hotels or rooming houses for the night.



Then there were the individual conductors who "owned" their hack.  

Stories go that one conductor had to have his caboose turned on the Greenport turntable ASAP after arrival.  The car was then shoved out onto the end of the long railroad dock for the evening.  He was an avid fisherman and spent the time fishing off the dock and preparing a mess of fish for the next days trip west.  In the summer the cool bay breezes kept his hack cool on the hottest of nights and during WWII, when the Coast Guard patrol boats would tie up for the night, they would throw him an electric line from the boat so he could have electric light to read and cook by.  To a protective conductor, his hack was his home and he did everything he could to delay the car going into the shops for a big overhaul.  They hated to give up their home for an annual cleaning and paint job!

Then there was the part Native American Brakie who shot fresh dinner meat as the freight train rambled through the Pine Barrens.  One trip they had a newbie conductor on board.  



As he was working at his desk, he didn't notice Brakie grabbing the rifle out of his locker and ascending the ladder to the roof of the hack.  Soon, shots rang out and Brakie descended to go grab his squirrel only to be met by a ghost white conductor who thought the train was being held up!  I guess you had to be there but it was a cussing good time.  Story goes the Brakie's squirrel stew - slow cooked over the coal stove - was THE BEST!



Photos are from LIRR Caboose #14 at Greenport RMLI.

de Don n2qhvRMLI

[ch00ch00]

The Montauk freight went close to Indian owned property. The population of the resrvation included a few Indians that were Gandy Dancers that first worked out of Hicksville and then later on out of Riverhead. I had the privilege to work with them when I was 16 years old. When I went into engine service it was a regular duty ,of mine, to call the men I knew, to tell them where we hit deer, after Amaganset. They always met the train on the way west to deliver steaks and roasts. I never got squirrel steaks.
 There was a retired Conductor at Amaganset that met the eastbound passenger trains that took orders for Bay Scallops and delivered them, by the quart, on the westbound. They cost $2.50 a qt in cardboard containers. The engineer Tommy Rome, had a standing order for 3 qts every time he went east. It was a tough timetable to get the scallops on the right day, The Montauk ran 7 days on and 3 days off. By the way, I have never had a bad meal in a Hack.

Ed Schleyer

[vince]

Thank you for sharing these wonderful stories

Vince

[RetiredLirrConductor]

When I first hired on in 73, there were still a few Jobs that you had to stay overnight in an eastern terminal and slept on the hacks or passsenger coaches.
Another time I was stuck in morris park during a snowstorm and slept on one of the cots in the engine house.

When I got divorced, my wife had me arrested on false charges that were later dropped. Guard told me in Queens county Jail I would probably be there 18 or more hours.
So I took my sweat Jacket, rolled it into a pillow, and went to sleep on a prison bench on the wall.
One of the perps locked up with mne said.. your gonna sleep now?
I said yes, we have 18 hours to kill.. and I am a RR Conductor I can sleep anywhere... true story.. time went a lot quicker sleeping lol

[RGlueck]

Interesting story - to say the least!

[RGlueck]

Aren't there a few bay-window hacks left on the Island?  What's the condition of them, and are they for sale?  Friction bearings?

[Anthony RMLI]

I will say though, speaking from experience hacks are the best thing in the world when your doing a shove move. Makes life so so much easier. And I think anyway it is much more easier then hanging off the back of a coach or freight car.

Nice to have a table and chair to eat at as well Hacks are the best.

Anthony

[RetiredLirrConductor]

A lot safer and dryer too!...
In reality they kind of got in the way when switching.. ya had to leave them on the main, and go back and get them after switching out freight.
I remember when I first hired on, there was a hack on the main near hillside, on mainline 4. This was when hillside was still a freight yard.
We passed it on mainline 2, and did not see a freight working in the area.
I called queens on the radio and asked if there was a freight with a hold on mainline 4. He said no.
Then it happened... remember I was new...
I said over the air, well ya have a caboose on mainline 4 near hillside.
The radios lit up from other trains like crazy..
It took months before i lived that down... Kid its a HACK not a CABOOSE!!!

[freightguy]

One of the retired LIRR hacks was on the back of the RS 50(NYA) around 2001. IT came back from the RMLI festival in August of that yr.  I remember having to get train orders at Jay tower that night.  Kind of a rough rider from Pineaire to Fresh Pond.   

[RetiredLirrConductor]

oh yeah frieght some of them bounced like basketballs.
as did some of the zip passenger cars..
but it was kinda fun hanging out on them.. the hacks i mean.
The RR was still using them on work trains right up untill the time I retired.
Do they have any left in service for work trains?
Or do the crews have to hang out on the engine?

[NYandW]

Just to finalize the post a while back that Hacks were not used for cooking, etc.

REMEMBERANCES OF THE LONG ISLAND RAIL ROAD CLASS N52 CABIN CARS by Bob Kaelin

Excerpt: "...CHOW TIME

Getting back to that little stove, all sort of things could be gotten together, depending upon the cleverness of the cook. When freight jobs were up for bids, the most important thing was to get a flagman who was a good cook. The men would then chip in to get what was needed and they’d be set for the day. Sometimes it didn’t even cost anything except a little extra effort..."

[RetiredLirrConductor]

not only did they cook on the hacks back in the day, but even on some passenger jobs we used to cook out in speonk on friday nights in the summer.
same deal in montauk.
This was back in the 70's and 80's, but im sure they still cook in montauk from time to time, especially on friday nights and sunday afternoons.
On friday nights, there were many Jobs that started in LIC and went to speonk.
Then there was no train back to Jamaica for the west end guys untill later in the evening.
So the first crew out would get the meat and fixings at the butcher shop in LIC, and put it in the refrigerator on the engine.
Then when they got to speonk they would start the fire and do the cooking as the following crews started arriving.
There were some pretty good cooks among the crews, some Guys made their own sausage at home, or other stuffed meats, and brought them to work.
There was one guy.. Ill just use his first name Kevin.. who was a great cook. Sadly Kevin left us in 1995, he passed away young.
The cooking tradition also continued while working Shea stadium collectors Jobs, when both  the mets and us open ran at the same time, those made for some long days, and supervision let us cook on a small grill.
point is cooking on the hacks was done for many years, especially before the Federal hours of service was put into effect.  Before the fedeal hours of service one could work many many hours.