Anything B&O will do quite nicely. 
Rich
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I admit that I’ve never heard that term either. In railroad use it often referred to engines that lacked a cab or controls of their own. Some B-unit also lack diesel engines and electric generator equipment.
The closest I can think of to a “dummy” steam locomotive would be a fireless cooker. These locomotives get their steam from an external plant because they have no firebox of their own. Usually they resemble short oversized boilers but Age of Steam has one with three small tanks.
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Great explanation, thanks.
Rich
Cleveland Terminal and Valley was owned by B & O and the grade up to Akron from Cleveland is used today by the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railway through the Cuyahoga Valley National Park.
I know that B & O used the Union Station in Mansfield, but there’s no information in the description to say who’s train this was: “The train carrying Company M to the Texas - Mexico border pulls out of Union Station during the summer of 1916. Women, some of them shaded from the sun by parasols, wave while children mill about. Men in dark suits look on as the local National Guard unit heads towards an uncertain future. Union Station is on the left while the railroad signal tower is to the right. In the distance is the Ohio Brass works where, undoubtedly, man of the Company M men work.”
B & O on the east bank of the Cuyahoga circa 1924.
“Iron horse goes back to work to keep railroad employees warm. The heating system failed at the Clark Ave. office and shops of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. So old No. 405, relegated to a scrap heap when diesels came into service, was fired up today to furnish steam heat. Employees, with icicles overhead, are thanking fireman Kenneth Irvine for his help.” --photo caption as published in the Cleveland Press, Jan. 9, 1959. “Miss Catherine Senyak, Mrs. Annie Thompson, Walter Schnell, & R. E. Cottrell, B & O railroad employees in a shop building, thanking fireman Kenneth Irvine for furnishing heat to their bldg from steam locomotive. Building is located under Clark Ave. bridge.”
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More goodies.
Workers install the temporary spur in Brookside Park in 1965(?).
There Kanawha (Ka-gnaw) 2707 resided until she was re-rescued by IRM in 1983.
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Baltimore & Ohio Railroad engine number 5360 stopped in an unknown area in Akron, Ohio in 1937.
Looking east from area north of Houston Ave. and east of West 3rd St. at the grade crossing of the Wheeling & Lake Erie, Baltimore & Ohio, and Newburgh & South Shore railroads circa 1916.
Looking north along the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad right-of-way from the Erie Railroad right-of-way
Postcard, undated. Caption: “One of Many Lift Bridges on Cuyahoga River, Cleveland, Ohio, Cleveland Sixth City.”. I believe this was the east bank bridge which was replaced by bridge 463.
“B & O Crossing over Denison Avenue at Jennings Road Intersection” --photo verso.
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A steam dummy is a small steam locomotive “dressed up” as a horse car (street car before cables or trolley). The steam dummy would pull one or more trailer cars carrying passengers through city streets. The idea was that something that looked like a horse car would be less threatening to the large number of horses on the streets - cleaning up after the horses was a very serious problem in most major cities. Steam dummies pretty much disappeared in the 1890’s being replaced by electric street cars.
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I decided that I needed to learn about Pine Junction, just west on Gary, Indiana to make sense of the route into Chicago for the trains coming from the east, namely, the New York Central, B&O and Pere Marquette. What I hadn’t realized was that the EJ&E was elevated at Pine Junction, not grade level.
Source: Industrial History: Conrail Nero and NYC+B&O Pine Tower
The view on that preceding photo is looking east with the EJ&E elevated at that point. The two-story structure is the Nero Tower. The double tracks on the left are the New York Central mainline.
The following photo is looking southwest.
Source: Industrial History: Conrail Nero and NYC+B&O Pine Tower
That crossover is the B&O track coming from behind Nero Tower to join the New York Central track in the foreground so that B&O trains could get to Porter Indiana to reach the PM track to Michigan.
The following photo is from Instagram and details points of interest at Pine Junction. The view is looking east.
The final photo is a Google Images aerial view of Pine Junction
Pine Junction is above Gary Airport, left of center. EJ&E’s Kirk Yard is at the lower left where the turntable is still visible. Lake Michigan, of course, is the large body of water on the upper right.
Rich
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B&OCT, now CSX, also operates under lease the east end of the RI. Their lease was Joliet to Bureau then to (IIRC) Henry IL. Some of the western portion is sublet to the IAIS, that also has overhead rights to Joliet. Both have overhead rights over Metra to the Chicago area.
The original lease was for 50 years and i believe it has been renewed/extended. I was kind of hoping the IAIS would’ve picked up that trackage.
Jeff
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Ah! Now I get it! Thanks!
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Middleton’s book, The Time of the Trolley has a nice overview of urban transit in the 19th century which includes descriptions of steam dummies. A related note: While cable cars are associated with San Francisco, there were a number of cities that had cable railways in the 1880’s and 1890’s. Most of these were replaced with electric streetcars, though some lines were converted to the conduit (slot) system of power distribution, e.g. Washington, D.C.
Supplying motive power through trolley wires was cheaper and more efficient than a wire rope ‘cable’.
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The Chicago Harlem & Batavia was first chartered as the Chicago & Western Dummy Railway in 1881. Becoming the CH&B in 1883, it became the Harlem Division of the Wisconsin Central. The CH&B and the Wisconsin Central south of Madison St. in Forest Park were spun off from the WC and became the C&NP’s Altenheim Sub in 1890. Between 1890 and 1893 a new line under the name Chicago & Southwestern was constructed from Kostner Avenue along 16th St between the Belt Ry. (at the time still controlled by the Chicago & Eastern Illinois) and Harlem Avenue, with connecting tracks to the C&NP main line at both ends, becoming the Southwestern Division. This was to service the planned Grant Locomotive Works plant. The plant was never built as Grant failed in 1893 due to a strike and the stock market panic.
In 1896 the Suburban Railroad leased the Harlem and Southwestern Divisions and then bought the Harlem Division. The Chicago Terminal Transfer took over the Altenheim Sub in 1897, terminating all local passenger service on the C&NP/Wisconsin Central and Southwestern Divisions. Suburban converted the Harlem to streetcars and left the Southwestern to the CTT. CTT was purchased by the B&O in 1910, becoming the B&OCT. The former Southwestern survives as an industrial track along 16th Street between Kenton and 55th Avenue in Cicero.
All of this info out of CERA Buletin 138 “The Chicago & West Towns Railways”…
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Wow, that is quite a deep dive!
I’m going to need my trusty Chicago railroad map to trace this info.
Rich
David
Must have been 8414 as 8408 is the Wilmington & Western’s “daily driver” lettered as Baltimore & Ohio 8408.
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Rich:
Do you have a CORA map? Those are quite valuable for tracing all these junctions. I also have a 1940’s Chicago rail map (issued by a Traffic Dept group) which is quite a detailed map - interesting to compare the 40’s to today.
That CSX lease from Joliet west must be pretty valuable. Unsure of the CSX ops but there is quite a bit of sand out there and also chemical plants. At first glance that lease does not make sense for a Class 1 carrier as those lines typically handle long haul point to point, but my guess is there is considerable tonnage and revenue originated/terminated on that segment. Would appreciate anyone’s first hand comments on those operations.
Regarding the NW Indiana CSX, NS, and CN…the amount of freight in that area is heavily influenced by steel mills and refineries. Lots of local freights running in that region. One gets an idea by listening in on the Chesterton cam and scanner.
Ed
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Despite the damage, I believe the engine was repaired and continued in service. By the time it was repaired I had been moved on to my next assignment with the company.
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I do not have either map, but both sound interesting. I will see if I can track down copies. Thanks.
Rich
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Thanks.
Rich
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