A CHANCE MEETING
It Happened at Hart Lot
BY KEN HOJNACKI/PHOTOS BY THE AUTHOR
Junction, only the Shortline inter- change kept this stretch of track from being more than a milepost notation in an employee timetable.
Heading north from the Stauffer plant, No. 7 was encountered carefully stepping up the undulating track to the interchange with a boxcar and a cov- ered hopper in tow. The side rods, an anomaly in the diesel age, flashed up and down, clanking merrily just as her predecessors on steam locomotives had done for decades. It wasn't hard to chase the slow moving train to the Junction, as the highway paralleled the track no more than 60 feet away. Crossing the highway in front of me,
protected by unique semi-circular wooden crossing signs, we swapped viewing angles until the short train came to a stop along side the Wheeler House Hotel at Hart Lot. Looking be- yond the asphalt shingle material that hid the hotel's true character and soak- ing in the graceful cornice and roof trim of the veranda, one could tell the Wheeler House was once a fine estab- lishment built for the respite of the weary traveler. Ironically enough, the locomotive number and the soft drink sign on the pillar served to punctuate the long relationship between the Shortline and the hotel.
No sooner had the diminutive
switcher stopped but the blaaatt of Alco RS-3 5212, still decorated in New York Central’s black livery, disturbed the af- ternoon calm as she poked her long hood into view in front of the Wheeler House. The Auburn-bound local stopped to leave some cars for the Shortline and pick up the two just ar- riving. Some cars were left on the main and some on the interchange track. The Penn Central locomotive then pulled ahead and waited in front of the depot until the Shortline had made its ex- change.
Number 7 moved out onto the branch with her cars and began seesawing back and forth between the inter-
OPPOSITE: The Skaneateles Short Line prepares to enter the Penn Central Auburn Branch to exchange cars with the local freight on a sunny summer day in June 1968. ABOVE RIGHT: Soon after the Shortline and the Penn Central local convened to swap cars, a Penn Central hi-rail truck carrying officials commanded the right-of-way. The 999 prepared to depart for its less-than-record-breaking run to Syracuse.
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