In 1931, the Lackawanna railroad inaugurated electric suburban service from Hoboken to Montclair, NJ, in an effort to keep smoke down around New York. Thomas Edison himself was at the controls of the first multiple-unit train to leave Hoboken Terminal. The “wickerliners” were so named for their early wicker seats. To supply electricity, the railroads erected bare overhead wires, called a “catenary.” The locomotives had a special, cage-like contact on the roof that touched the catenary to provide a flow of electricty from the contact to a large electric motor. Short-run commuter electric trains did not need large engine power because they carried passengers. The locomotive looked like a passenger car, but with an engineer's compartment in front.[Image: unidentified train.]