Cortland corset company

The New York, Susquehanna and Western Railroad (NYS&W, Susie-Q) was a shortline that served customers on branchlines off the Conrail mainlines in upstate New York and New Jersey. The president of the railroad was a railfan himself, so the line was very accommodating for passenger specials. They had a fleet of their own passenger cars, and went so far as to purchase a new steam locomotive from China to power their specials. The railroad was very cooperative with area rail groups in allowing them to operate their own equipment.

I lived not too far from one of their routes, and for many years got to see regular passenger excursions. Every spring the line would operate trains to ferry passengers to and from the small town of Marathon, New York, for the annual Maple Festival. Various trips would be operated throughout the summer, and Autumn always brought fall foliage trips.

Today's picture is of one of those fall color excursions.  The train is being powered by the Lackawanna 808, and one of the railroad's own units. The 808 was privately owned by the local chapter of the National Railway Historical Society who restored it to operational status for use on these specials. The passenger cars were a combination of the chapter's and the railroad's. I caught it passing through Cortland, New York, home of the Cortland Corset Company. The company was long out of business by the time of this shot, but someone kept the sign on the building in good shape, perhaps recognizing it's historic significance. The CCC was the workplace of one Chester Gillette, who in 1906 committed the "crime of the century" for upstate New York. That crime was novelized by Theodore Dreiser in 1925 as An American Tragedy, and the film "A Place in the Sun" with Liz Taylor in the early 1950s. Since one of my other interests is American history, I found Cortland a strangely fascinating place because of it's connection to that story.