Re: NNG: BEDT and /New York Dock Ry.

Thanks, John, for your superb BEDT photos. Subsequent to your visit, BEDT was merged into another Brooklyn switching carrier, New York Dock Ry. (New York Dock also rostered little 0-6-0T's to offload barges.) The combined operation was abandoned in 1983, although a bit survives today as New York-New Jersey Rail, the last float operator in New York Harbor. As another poster noted, you'd be hard pressed to find reminders of the Brooklyn switching operations, except that is, at the Surface Transportation Board.

Rail lawyers know very well "New York Dock Conditions", the labor protection rules dating from the merger of BEDT and New York Dock Railway. The rules still govern Class I sale and merger transactions. In general, they mandate six years' job protection for any workers affected by a sale - subject to some other modifications too technical to go into here.

So while the little New York harbor lines are history, their legacy lives on in railway labor relations..