The DL&W club cars dated from 1912, and operated in steam locomotive-hauled service before being rebuilt for New Jersey suburban electric MU (Multiple Unit) service in 1930. Also known as “Subscription Cars” on the DL&W, they catered to the “gentlemen’s club” set. In order to ride in the car, an individual had to be sponsored and voted in by the other members, so the membership would have had a air of exclusivity. Members paid an extra fare each month, which was turned over to the railroad to pay the expenses of operating the car.

DL&W No. 2454 was assigned to the Hoboken to Gladstone Branch run… on a train known as The Millionaire’s Express . The Gladstone club car was the only one that had a porter, and it was the only Lackawanna MU car that received air conditioning. It was cool air vented out of the ceiling via ducts from ice bunkers filled with huge blocks of ice.

After the October 1960 merger of the DL&W and the Erie Railroad, which created the Erie-Lackawanna Railroad, No. 2454 was renumbered as 3454, the number which it carried until the end of its operating career in 1984.

“When my family and I first moved to Bernardsville in the spring of 1968 I noticed that one car on the 7:45 am train had air conditioning while the entire rest of the fleet depended upon little fans near the ceiling to move the hot air around and provide at least a little relief from the heat. The cars all sat in the Hoboken yard all day in the hot summer sun and were plenty hot each evening for the commute home.

I asked around about how one could avail themselves of joining the one subscription car that had the A/C and was told that it was a private commuters club whose members were a ” whose-who” of Wall Street senior leaders and heavy duty political figures from the NJ “establishment” and that one could only join if sponsored by 2 members and that there was a 3 year waiting list.

A few weeks later I discovered that one of my largest commodity futures customers (at Merrill Lynch) was a long standing member of the car and he agreed to ” sponsor” me and find the 2nd. sponsor. I was soon elected to membership and began enjoying the commute home a lot more all summer.

The car was divided near the middle with one end being non-smoking and reserved for members guests. The rules allowed us to bring a total of 4 guests aboard per year (one at a time) and guests were required to ride in the non-smoking/guest end. There were no women members.

I recall one day Webb Todd brought his daughter Christie aboard for the ride into Hoboken and she sat next to me (I rode in the non-smoking end mornings to read the paper in library silence, and this end was the only space females were permitted) and I remember being very impressed with her. It did not surprise me in the least when she went on to become New Jersey’s Governor years later.

And all this for the incredible price of $120. a year !!! Great memories….sadly never to be repeated!!”
Ross Rowland

No. 3454 was the featured lead car during NJ Transit’s “Lackawanna Electrics Retirement Celebration” in August 1984 at Maplewood, NJ, and once again during the Tri-State Railway Historical Society’s “Farewell to the DL&W MU’s” excursion on August 19, 1984. The 3454 “closed the show” so to speak by being placed at the head-end of the very last NJ Transit 1930’s-era electric MU train from Hoboken to Dover, NJ on August 24, 1984.