As a boy of 3, I can remember the big steam engines roaring by my grandfather’s farm in Oxford, MA.This was my beginning to a lifelong love of railroads and model railroading. Now I have the space and time to build by 1st RR. I want to model the old B&A that ran from Boston to Albany , New York, with several branch lines along the main. Are there any old timers out there that have any information about the B&A? The type of steam engines they ran?
Thank You,
grayfox1119[:)]
If I recall correctly the B&A was owned by the New York Central and ran NYC equipment with B&A lettering. There will be others here who will have much more information than I do.
Cheers
I remember the B&A from when I hired out on the Central in 1967 as that crowd of New Englanders who thought their little corner of the NYC was much more important than the rest of the system.[:)] It’s unfortunately one of the few places on the System that I didn’t get a chance to visit; the closest I got was dealing with B&A people when working in places like Grand Central, Albany and Selkirk.
Modeling the B&A should be a good deal based on available equipment. I think B&A ran all of the smaller classes of steam (Consolidations, Pacifics and Mikados), Mohawks, Berkshires, and Hudsons. I don’t think Niagaras were allowed east of Albany (clearance or weight problem or maybe availability??) but I could be wrong on that.
Your steam power should be lettered “Boston & Albany” or “New York Central System” depending on the specific era. One or two engines lettered just “New York Central” might have wandered onto the B&A for short periods but they wouldn’t have stayed long. Power lettered “New York Central” was intended for main line NYC use – Harmon to Chicago, Cincinnati, or St Louis. Addition of the word “System” meant that the power could range over lowly subsidiaries like B&A, MC, and P&LE as well.
But do join the NYC Historical Society (may not be the right name) and there may well be a Boston & Albany society, too.
Chuck
Hi I don’t have any memories of the railroad myself but since it’s a NYsystem family member the NEBW club might have info on it as well since your talking about a road from their neck of the woods. trolleyboy
I remember it from photos in some of the really great Lucius Beebe/Charles Clegg pictorial books of the '40’s and '50’s. White-faced Hudsons with four-wheel tenders, REALLY handsome Mikados and Berks with those big ‘eyebrow’ overhung Elesco feedwater heaters. But I think that cefink Jr. is right about the Niagaras–as I remember, it had to do with tight overpass and tunnel clearances. If I remember correctly, the Boston and Albany was the testing ground for Lima’s A-1 Berkshire, and became well known as their stomping grounds.
Tom
I do remember those big Berkshires with Elesco heaters up front. And yes, the name “Berkshire” was derived from the Berkshire Mountains of western Massachusetts. This engine was designed to “conquer” the Berkshires, and that it did quite admirably. As the B&A ran from Boston (sea level) over the Berkshires (approx 3000 feet), these engines had their work cut out for them.
grayfox1119
grayfox1119,
You said in an another topic that you live in central Mass. Are you aware of Tucker’s Hobbies in Warren, MA? The owner, Bob Buck, is a living expert on all things B&A, since he was around for quite a bit of it. He also has a great picture collection that he may show you if you ask nicely. [:)]
Bob’s shop is probably the best in New England, one of the few that stocks new brass. His place is literally hip deep in HO products. His prices aren’t the cheapest (unless there’s a sale), but more to the point, he has just about everything or can get it. He once hunted down a brass bridge in Canada for a friend of mine, for example.
Bob is also the show chairman for the West Springfield, MA train show, perhaps the largest train show in the country.
www.tuckershobbies.com - I highly recommend his shop and Bob personally. Just watch out for his puns… [:D]
Paul A. Cutler III
Weather Or No Go New Haven
Yup! Love theyre Green Berks!
Hi Paul, yes, I have been to Tucker’s on Bacon St. in Warren, and had quite a nice chat with Bob about a year ago. I plan to visit again real soon, and yes he has a well stocked operation in that little old house. I did not know about his B&A pictures, so I will definitely ask to see those!!!
Thank you Paul,
*** ( grayfox1119 )
The green berkshires were the P&LE’s berkshires, NYCS class A-2a, built ALCo, 1948, and in fact, ALCOs last steam. The P&LE’s berkshires were not like the other ones on the various roads.
The original Lima design, first tested on the B&A was supposed to haul a larger train faster than the mikados then in use. It did so on its first test. The NYCS management was so convinced that it bought fifty as a result of the demonstration.
Prior to that the NYCS certainly did have its problems with mikados. The H-5s were converted from G-5s (2-8-0) and must have been less than satisfactory as many were retired early.
The H-7s were apparently allright, but some, though not all, of those were even retired early.
The major disaster was the H-8, unique to the P&LE.
The first really good mikados on the NYCS seem to have been the H-9s and H-6s, USRA heavy and light, respectively (the former being referred to as ‘government engines’ on the P&LE). The H-6s seem to have run on the whole system with the exception of the P&LE and B&A. The H-9s were unique to the P&LE. Many H-6s were conveyed to the NYC&StL when it took over the LE&W.
The really good ones were the H-10s. They ran system-wide. Some have evne called them the first 'superpowers. Some were even equipped with steam lines and signalling devices to allow them to be pressed into passenger service. The P&LE had five or so of these (in additon to its own) acquired used from the NYC and rebuilt with vestibule cabs. It was Woodard at Lima who designed the first H-10, MC 8000. Its success was the beginning of his ultimate design, the A-1, which , as stated, the B&A bought, eventually acquiring fifty-five of them, all Lima-built. Such was not the norm for the NYCS, it tended to prefer ALCo.
The P&LE’s berkshires were really overgrown mikados. Their sixty-three inch drivers were designed for drag freight rather than speed. Speed was included in the design concept for the
Thank you Brokemoto, you certainly are well versed on NYC, P&LE and B&A. Did your father work on the B&A?
grayfox1119
No, Dad never worked for the railroad, but he rode trains quite a bit, as did I. I learned this hobb y from him. He was a child and a young man along the North-South Main of the Boston and Maine and on the South Shore commuter lines of the NYNH&H. When he was a child and a young man, air travel was prohibitively expensive: you went either by rail or the Big Dog.
Rail, was , of course, the more comfortable of the two. If pressed fror a definition of cruel and unusual punishment, five hours in the back seat of a 'Hound would fit.
He never lived along the lines of the Boston and Albany, but as he went frequently to Boston, he was not unfamiliar with it.
Greyfox: As stated in another post you may want to check back issues of Locomotive Quarterly as I believe they did a two page spread on B&A. I’ll check when I get home and let you know what Volumes you’ll need.
Fergie