From the Catskill Mountain News,
November 7, 1941
Conductor Craw
Completes Forty-six Years of Service
As the milk train on the former Ulster &
Delaware railroad rolled into the West Shore depot Thursday evening,
Conductor Emery E. Craw brought to a close his railroading career
which has spanned 46 1/2 years. Most of this time has been spent on
the railroad which runs through the Catskills.
Many of Conductor Craw's relatives and
friends were present to congratulate the veteran railroadman at the
end of his last run, and official recognition was represented
through Trainmaster S.J. Keating of the River division, New York
Central system.
When asked if he had any statement to make
concerning his last run. Conductor Craw replied, "I sure am
surprised to see so many people here to greet me. I did not expect
such a reception."
Emery E. Craw's career as a railroader when
he hired out as a brakeman on the Ulster & Delaware
railroad.
"We didn't get far on my first trip," stated
Mr. Craw, "for we had a wreck at Brodhead's Bridge. That was a fine
beginning, wasn't it?"
In 1897, for a period of a year, Emery Craw
was employed by the Metropolitan Street Railways in New York city,
and then he returned to the Ulster & Delaware, where he was
promoted to the position of conductor. In 1907 Mr. Craw became a
conductor on Train 32, the Catskill Mountain Express.
When asked concerning his experiences on the
railroad, Mr. Craw said he never had been in what he termed a
serious wreck, "but I have had some queer experiences--- some of
which I wouldn't tell you," he replied with a chuckle. The veteran
conductor did remark about a wreck which his train had coming down
Pine Hill. "We lost the ninth and tenth cars right out of the middle
of our train and then teh train coupled together by itself. The cars
went down the bank alongside of the track and never derailed the
rest of our train."
In conjunction with the accident of losing
two cars en route, Conductor Craw pointed out that when he "first
went on the railroad we had few airbrakes -- the line and pin
coupler holding the cars together. If you didn't watch out, you
could have your hand crushed. You had to pull your arm down and not
up; but Mr. Westinghouse made it safer."
Replying to a question by Trainmaster Keating
concerning his long years of service, Conductor Craw remarked, "When
I began railroading I remember you as a little, so high!" To which
the trainmaster replied that he could remember "hanging on the fence
and seeing Mr. Craw going past on the trains."
Amid the congratulations of his friends,
Conductor Emery E. Craw trudged away from his train to register his
last run. ---Kingston
Freeman.
