Bob,
I was in 8th grade that Summer, and convinced my parents to take us to Denville Jct, to watch the train go by on its way to Morristown. It was listed in the Star Ledger of passing thru Denville, about 11:40PM. Needless to say, we got home much, much later the following morning. The Denville Jct. station still stood in those days. I missed getting one of the coins they threw from the last car, sadly.
My Mom spotted Ross Rowland the day we went, and asked for his autograph, which he declined. That soured her on him from then on.
As for the Lionel car, I don't think they had a mold for the AFT tail car, until they came up with the set, which made me wonder why they made it 85'. Of course, that way, the cars were all the same length, but it might have been cheaper to make an accurate 73' version.
In the years after the AFT, I took some b&w photos of #1 on the siding in Lebanon, without all the brass, headlights, etc, as my Dad would detour thru there, to 'see what was in the siding,' on our way to Flemington and Philly. I can remember my Dad saying how terrible he thought the CNJ track was thru there, at the time, compared to the UP track he was used to our West. He had to explain what he meant by 'bad track' as I had no clue in those days.
Carl