I grew up with the SuzyQ 100 yards down the street (Passaic Branch). It was one of the first class 1s to be completely dieselized when we entered WWII (RS-1 & S-2s). The govt took the RS-1s and had them converted to RSD-1 and sent them to the Trans-Iranian Railway to get war supplies to Russia. The Suzy-Q went back to steam, and I _think_ I remember steam but would have been a toddler at the time.
As 3rdrail posted, they had Streamliner service back in 1940! (Built by ACF, later traded in on RDCs). When they wanted to drop the commuter service, they sold their stainless steel coaches (non-AC) to Saudi Arabia, their 4 RDC's later went to CNJ.
Even though they were in bankruptcy, they didn't get sucked into Conrail. When one of the NYSW pile trestles in the Meadowlands (NJ) caught fire, a bunch of Conrail honchos were out there, deciding what should be done to repair the damages. When someone told them it wasn't their railroad, they didn't believe it. They thought everything in NJ belonged to them. (There was some B&O/SIRT trackage that wasn't CR also).
The current NYS&W owes it's existence to Walt Rich/Delaware Ostego System who bought it in the 80's and got trackage rights on the ex_EL lines. C-430s, doublestack trains, ex-BN F45s and SD45s, B40-8s, running the D&H... quite a wild ride for something CR didn't want.
Bob in IDaho
