Skip to main content

James Eichhorn's Scoot Engine No. 84

Thu, 06/17/2021 - 11:38

This photograph from the Amagansett Historical Association's Carleton Kelsey Collection shows the Long Island Rail Road's engine No. 84, with James C. Eichhorn's name painted on the side.

Local engines making short trips were known as "scoot" engines. This engine was one of four of the most modern types available when the L.I.R.R. put them into service in 1898. The railroad began naming locomotives after their operating enginemen in 1924, which helps date this photo.

In it, Amato (Little Nick) Dellapolla appears on the footboard of the engine, and Eichhorn's youngest son, Clement (1905-1976), poses in front with his father's name. As an interesting aside, James Eichhorn's name adorned at least one other locomotive, No. 18.

James Cornelius Eichhorn Sr. was born in Brooklyn on April 14, 1869, to John S. Eichhorn (1836-1915) and the former Catherine Connor (1843-1925). He began his service with the L.I.R.R. in June of 1887 as a laborer. He married Jennie L. McCoy (1873-1936) in 1889. Soon after, he was promoted to locomotive fireman, and by June of 1890 he was promoted to engineman. The first train he operated ran between hotels at Brooklyn's Manhattan Beach, where he would complete at least 100 trips a day.

By 1902, the Eichhorn family moved to Amagansett, where the L.I.R.R. had expanded. Two sons, George E. Eichhorn (1898-1966) and James C. Eichhorn Jr. (1894-1914), followed in their father's footsteps, becoming enginemen for the railroad, as did a grandson, John S. Eichhorn (1915-1983).

James C. Eichhorn was honored by the L.I.R.R. at a joint retirement party with a fellow engineman, L.G. Griffing, at the Henry Perkins Hotel in Riverhead on June 20, 1937. Eichhorn had worked for the railroad for 50 years, covering an estimated three million miles. He died on May 19, 1951, at 82 and is buried in Oak Grove Cemetery in Amagansett.


Mayra Scanlon is a librarian and archivist in the Long Island Collection at the East Hampton Library.

Villages

Springs Food Pantry Sees the Need, Addresses It

The last few years have presented challenges the Springs Food Pantry’s founders could not have anticipated when it was first established. More than 600 families are now registered to receive the assistance it provides, and an average of 355 families are served each week.

Jun 26, 2025

A Newsletter on Being a Jew in Today’s America

One of the essential roles of religion, Rabbi Jan Uhrbach of the Bridge Shul in Bridgehampton said this week, is to “help us hold onto our humanity, and remind us of the higher values that go beyond money and power and position and all of those things, in a time when the values that I hold dear are not only being violated, they’re being rejected as values.”

Jun 26, 2025

Item of the Week: The Hemerocallis Garden, 1962

Hemerocallis may be an unfamiliar term, but the garden adjacent to Clinton Academy once bore the name. This photo shows the gate to the garden some two decades after its establishment in 1941.

Jun 26, 2025

 

Your support for The East Hampton Star helps us deliver the news, arts, and community information you need. Whether you are an online subscriber, get the paper in the mail, delivered to your door in Manhattan, or are just passing through, every reader counts. We value you for being part of The Star family.

Your subscription to The Star does more than get you great arts, news, sports, and outdoors stories. It makes everything we do possible.