The Courier-News from Bridgewater, New Jersey • Page 17

Readers Ask The Courier-News 8 mum Section Obituaries Weather Monday, April 3, 1972 C-l Don't trust it CNJ freight train mokes last run "There's no hard work in railroading," the brakeman I've read HELP! constantly and learned a lot from it, and now I have a problem. I have (or had) a beautiful imported crystal punch bowl. The covers, cups and ladle are intact, but the bowl itself broke cleanly into almost two even halves during washing. Inquiries at a glass company were discouraging such as there was no way to fix it and a new bowl would cost $120. However, a knowledgable friend said there was an adhesive especially for glass.

Also, are mere fix-it shops for glass? Mrs. J.P., Flemington A Let's take it from the back. It all depends upon the degree of If it's a chip, a leading glass firm in your area can probably smooth it out. However, a glass expert told HELP! he did not know of any adhesive especially for repairing glass. He said that Epoxy, easily obtainable, can be used for mending such things as glass and metal and is the strongest adhesive he knows.

However, when it comes to using anything that would be guaranteed to hold two once-broken halves of a punch bowl together when filled, it's "a gamble." That's possibly why you weren't told about the product, because you might have tried it, had a disaster and then blamed 1 the man who told you about Epoxy or 2) the product itself. HELP! was told you might get away with this glued-together punch bowl for years. Then, all at once, "crac-c-c-k" and you've got a small flood because the pressure broke the adhesive seal. HELP! can only suggest you glue it together and use it as a nice-looking centerpiece. That is, unless you like punch bowl roulette.

Lehigh Valley will service CNJ customers in Pennsylvania. HJ-4 gathered speed rolling past the Bethlehem Steel mill and past a wrecked train lying in the canal. Industry gave away to farms and the signals were green all the way. At Easton the train slowed for bad tracks left somewhat repaired since another wreck years ago, a wreck in which friends were killed. "A few years ago, one of the superintendents asked me if I could find some firemen," Bimler said.

"I asked some of the young kids around home it's a railroad town if they'd like to go firing in New Jersey. They laughed. They said they'd go to work in the steel mills or at RCA." At 7 a.m. HJ-4, a mile-long freight of 97 cars, started to roll as Bimler eased open the throttle. He is heavy-set.

His touch driving an engine sensitive. George Bimler was making history of a sort, history of the sort he didn't want to make. At Bloomsbury, N.J., the last westbound freight to Pennsylvania, JH-7, and Bimler would pass one another. Two ducks swam in the canal along the Lehigh River. "They follow me out every morning," Bimler said, "I bet they know its the last run too." Through the AUentown and Bethlehem yards railroad personnel paused from the last work they would be doing there to photograph or to wave.

Sometimes smiling and sometimes impassively, Bimler would wave back. "Ninety-seven cars," he said. "We usually go about 180. We're running light." The first embargo, effective immediately, embargoes traffic empty equipment consigned to or intemded for delivery to all stations on the CNJ in the State of Pennsylvania. CNJ letter to customers, March 17, 1972 The CNJ as part of its "Blueprint for Survival" abandoned all freight operations in Pennsylvania to cut losses that have totalled $100 million in the past 12 years.

Freight will now go as far west as High Bridge, N.J., to be shunted over a spur to the Erie-Lackawanns or to Bound Brook, N.J., to meet the Lehigh Valley which parallels the CNJ in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The He signed the register, the bulletins, read the general orders. Bimler has always railroaded in Pennsylvania. This day would be his last here. Brakeman John Clausius joined him in the lead locomotive cab.

They kidded and joked briefly, then they sat looking down the tracks. There was nothing to do but wait until the CNJ's last freight from Pennsylvania got orders to roll. embargo n. 4: an order that is issued by a common carrier or public regulatory agency and that prohibits the acceptance of all or of specified kinds of freight for transportation on its lines or between specified points or areas because of traffic congestion, labor difficulties or other reasons Webster's Third New International Dictionary The railroad's been good to me. I'm not bitter.

I put my three kids through college. They got an education. I'm glad they didn't go on the railroad. George Bimler, CNJ engineer By ROBERT B. THOMPSON ALLENTOWN, Pa.

Central Railroad of New Jersey's freight train HJ-4 was waiting in the yards at the foot of S. Carlisle its two blue and yellow diesels idling as dawn began tentative steps to light the steel mills and the Lehigh River. George Bimler, 56, CNJ since 1941, originally a fireman on old Mikado and Camelback steam locomotives, drove 30 miles from his home in Jim Thorpe. Sexy product mm I received material in the mail which offered me the opportunity to buy pills that would provide sexual stimulation. I didn't send for any, but maybe HELP! ought to look into this and see if it is a fraud.

A.S., Somerville A HELP! forwarded the advertisement to the state Department of Health, which advised it had never heard of this product, supposedly marketed by a N.J. firm, but it will immediately start an investigation. You will be advised as to the outcome. said, "it's just the conditions. Away from home most of the time, working holidays.

Being on call all the time." "I went years before I knew my kids had teeth," Bimler added. "I saw them that little. I'd get home late at night and be gone before they got up. I never had a chance to play ball or anything with the boys." The eyes under the gray hair and engineer's cap looked out. He saw someone else's child in a house near the tracks waving.

He blew the whistle and waved, back. "All kids like trains." HJ-4 rumbled past houses with parents and their children in the yards. The train never stops, Bimler never got to talk to any of the people, but he said, from seeing them every day "you get to feel you've known them for years. They're like good friends." At Somerville, N.J., six cars were cut. HJ-4 moved down the main line through Bound Brook and Dunellen, past Plainfield and Fanwood at its top speed, 48 m.p.h.

At Elizabethport, "E-port" to railroaders, 47 more cars, including many carrying truck trailers, were dropped. About 5 hours after HJ-4 left Allentown, engines 3069 and 3066, 24 freight cars and a caboose pulled into Jersey City. The last freight from Pennsylvania was in. Bimler made a final inspection of the engines "just to see if any thing's hanging loose underneath." George Bimler, engineer; John Clausius, brakeman; Tom Boyle, conductor, and Steve Plansky, flagman, walked off to try to find a way home to Pennsylvania and enjoy not working on Easter. There were no buses running.

There weren't any freight trains either. 1. v. It A slight leak 0 1 It Past abandoned, boarded passenger stations the last service to Allentown was five years ago and over the Delaware River. Through Phillipsburg and towards Bloomsbury, N.J.

"One son's a chemist he's in the Army now," Bimler said, and my daughter's an X-ray technician she used to work at Somerset Hospital. The other boy has a year to go in pharmacy school. Boy, I'm glad they didn't go on the railroad." Out of Bloomsbury and on to Hampton, High Bridge, Annandale, Lebanon, Whitehouse Station, North Branch and Raritan. A key element of the Blueprint is the elimination of unprofitable operations an essential step if any portion of the CNJ is to survive. The Blueprint also formed the heart of a CNJ abandonment application filed with the Interstate Commerce Commission on May 25, 1971.

CNJ message to passengers, March 20 In the cab of locomotive 3609 the rumble of 6,000 horsepower was muted. "I'll be coming to New Jersey to work. I'll lose 20 years seniority to do it, but I'll come. Maybe I'll get an apartment for me and my wife. Maybe some of us will get an apartment to share and go home whenever we can.

Where's a good place to live in New Jersey anyway?" Bimler asked. I need HELP! about a water bill. Our bill for a quarter of last year was $54.02. The company said the high reading was due to the fact no one could get in to make a meter reading. The estimated bills were underbilled, but many times we called in the readings.

When it finally was read by an employe, consumption came to 22,700 cubic feet I can't see how we could use that much water, as there was no leak anywhere. My health has forced me to retire early so funds are important, and now we're being threatened about the water being turned off. I think I should get a refund. J. Westfield A A refund you won't get, but there will be a reduction.

HELP! honestly feels that these situations(of which there have been several) could be averted if families who are not home most of the day would make arrangements for an appointment to have the meter read regularly. Other companies do this, and so might yours. The company still alleges there was a leak, but it occurred about seven months prior to billing. The readings you sent in were correct, but so high the computer rejected them, so a lower one was used. An ultimate reading resulted in the high bill.

The company, after studying your appeal through says you should not be penalized for leakage in 1970. You have been given a $38 credit, cutting the bill to $15.02. I rUf i if, yi '-J't MM 7m Vj Judge Augelli's directive to cease CNJ operations in Pennsylvania on April 1 was affirmed by an appellate court in Philadelphia on March 10, 1972. CNJ press release, March 20, 1972 The sisters too Making history of a sort, history of the sort he didn't want to make, CNJ Engineer George Bimler looks ahead as he embarks upon his train's final run. Behind The News Commuters moke way for urban renewal I'm having a problem with a pie filling refund offer.

I sent in three pie filling can labels for my son, and he was to receive 50 cents. He never did. I sent in similar offers in separate envelopes for my sisters in Arlington, and Chappaqua, N.Y. Neither of them received their money. I did write and inquire, but never had an answer in return.

I hope you can be of HELP! Mrs. D. P. South Plainfield A The company making the offer apologized to you and HELP! about the "confusion." It sent you the 50 cents for your son plus an equal sum to each of your sisters. park legally for no cost or for have to drive to a town farther as much parking space as the vague they don't know yet 11 A.

1 1 A 1 By CHERYL MORRISON lot now does. where or when that will be. east with an equally crowded small change. Borough officials say a Meanwhile, as one borough parking lot will eventually be official says, "Parking's going provided near the train station, to be mighty tight in Somer- But their plans for it are so ville." parking lot. They'll be able to park along Urban Drive when it's finished, but the street will hardly offer When the Somerville parking lot goes, probably within about four months, commuters who have cars to park probably will Otherwise, the old train station will come down.

An architect's rendering of the building that will replace it isn't available, but it will surely lack the venerable charm of the old station. (Some commuters might think of the tiny glass shelter box that replaced the North Branch CNJ station, which burned down about two years ago.) Aesthetics, though, won't be the main concern of the commuters who use the train station. When the old station disappears, so will the parking lot where scores of commuters leave their cars for the Light is shed 1iii ----VtxV-i. FT ML 0k SOMERVILLE Urban Renewal might solve some of the borough's problems, but it will add to the daily aggravations for commuters who ride to and from Somerville. The urban renewal project calls for a new street, Urban Drive, over what is now the Central Railroad of New Jersey station and the station's parking lot.

The borough will build a new train station before it tears down the old one, but it has no immediate plans to replace the parking lot. The Borough Council will take bids on the construction of the new train tonight. The new station actually will be an addition of a ticket office to the waiting room along the east-bound tracks. Borough officials predict that the addition will cost between $10,000 and $15,000. Your paper recently carried a story about a Middlesex firm, the Mason Candlelight which sent a particular type of flame lamp to Britain when that country lost electricity because of a strike.

I'd like to find out if the product is for home use because we have power troubles, too. The only trouble is: The article didn't have an address. Any Mrs. M. B.

Basking Ridge A Mason is located at 820 Lincoln Middlesex, as the story stated. i 'J" -w mj.1i-i.jj, 4 zr a Aside to: A.C.G. of North Plainfield who wrote asking for 2-pound coffee tins to pursue a hobby: Many readers applied with offers. However, HELP! has misplaced your address. Please send it and reader replies will be forwarded.

A SHORTAGE of parking spaces at the Raritan station has made the Somerville station and its parking important to many commuters who live west of there. Commuters from North Branch and Hunterdon County towns used to drive to Raritan if they wanted to ride trains other than the two each way per weekday that go west of Raritan. The recent imposition of a $4 per month parking fee at the Raritan station has pushed many of those commuters to the Somerville station when they need the greater variety of trains. Many of them wouldn't mind paying the $4 if it guaranteed a daily parking place, but it doesn't. If they find another car in their assigned space, they must park illegally and risk a ticket.

So they drive to Somerville, where they can THE COST of the frame and stone station when it was built in 1891 was $16,000. Furniture for it cost $880. The 30 by 61 foot building belongs to the borough. Somerville officials say they'D welcome offers to move the building from the site rather than demolish it. The station, with its sturdy walls, green wood trim and Victorian flourishes might appeal to some railroad or history buff with sufficient money to move it.

HELP! is a public service column which attempts to solve problems after reader efforts have failed. Send problems and COPIES of supporting documents to HELP! The Courier-News, 1201 Route 22, West, Somerville, N.J. 08876. HELP! cannot accept phone calls, personal interviews or return materials. Send your name, address and phone number.

All letters must be signed with full name. HELP! reserves the right to withhold publication and to edit any correspondence received. ,1 Somerville officials said they would welcome offers to remove old Jersey Central Railroad Depot, built in 1891. If they find no takers, the green trim and Victorian flourishes will be demolished..