Keep heading south…
Annapolis Junction, and the Baltimre Washington and Annapolis to Fort Mead?
AH! Camp Meade (now Fort Meade) went from a sleepy post to a booming training area within a couple of months in 1917. The LIRR cars were the only rolling stock WB&A could get in a hurry. The WB&A put 1200v lighting jumpers and coal stoves in the ex-LIRR cars (built to BMT dimensions for planned operation on the El and Subway, rendered surplus when wood cars were banned from tunnels in Manhattan) and ran them on fairly short headways in trains pulled by box motors. Because the cars were not particularly suited to street trackage, the WB&A built a connection to B&O’s Pratt Street line in Baltimore, loading the trains in the street. A couple of years later WB&A built its new Baltimore terminal on Pratt Street near the earlier loading site.
These cars had been used as trailers with the steel Gibbs MP41 motor cars into Manhattan in summer months over the Williamsburg Bridge in Essex Street, later Chambers Street - Rockaway Park over the bay joint service where a connection between the Jamaica elevated and the LIRR Atlantic Avenue line existed. You can still see the steel for the switch just before Cypress or Cresent St. on the J today. Alternate trains used the 1300-series composit steel-and-wood Brookliyn United convertable gate cars. The service was discontinues after the last summer before Penn Station opened. But the wood cars never ran into Penn Station. I donj’t u nderstand the reason for coal stoves, since the cars should have had elecric heat via jumper cables from the MP-41s. Possibly the reason was insufficient power on the interurban for heat and light and box-motor traction, and/or jumper cables could not handle a whole train-load of hotel power. On the LIRR the configuration was m-t-m-t-m for a five-car train. The MP-41’s were narrower than the later LIRR equipement, identacle in dimensions to the first IRT steel cars, and so could fit on BU elevated lines. Ditto the wood trailers, which had run behind steam into the BU Sands Street Brookliyn elevated terminal but only once, by error, ran across the Brooklyn Bridge, at least accoreding to legend.
Somewhat related next questionl. I visited the Mason City and Clear Lake, now Iowa Tractionl, in 1952. In the yard was a derelict wood open-platform coach, identacle in most respects to gate cars as used in Chicago, Brooklyin, and Manhattan elevated service. I was told it had been used as a trailer, bought second-hand, when passenger service had been provided, much like the cars the question answered. The big difference was that it wa
The WB&A used coal stoves because the heaters in the LIRR cars were 600V, and WB&A’s electricians didn’t want to connect two elements in series. The need for speed won, so coal stoves it was - OK in the generally mild climate.
The car you saw in Mason city was built for the Brooklyn Bridge Railway, and was originally cable hauled. MC&CL got it in the teens? George Hilton covered it in his book “The Cable Car in America”
Correct and your question. It may have been used as a trailer on tje Fulton Street line, which always had the wide clearances, before it went to MC&CL.
Hard to believe this question fits our 50 year rule…
When the N&W merged with the Nickel Plate and leased the Wabash, it purchased a secondary line from another railroad to tie the merged/leased lines to the original N&W. Name the selling railroad and the endpoints of the purchased line.
Rob:
The answer is a PRR secondary line between Columbus, Ohio and Sandusky, Ohio.
Yes–time does fly.
Ed Burns
You are correct. Without the PRR line, the N&W merger would not quite have worked, with a gap of about 70 miles between the nearest points on the NKP and the N&W.
You are up, Ed!
Or are we just getting older. Hard to believe how many “Museum Pieces” we all remember brand new from the builder when we were in High School!
Thx IGN
The Columbus-Samdusky line was known as “The Sandusky Line” and was where PRR Js replaceced the Decopads on mostly coal, then were supplemented with Sante Fe Texas types for a fiinal great steam show.
And some equiment built new when I was a younster has spenet more time in railroad museum service or just display than in revenue service. In fact, this is true of the locomotives in UP’s steam program. And 611.
Rob and All:
The Milwaukee Road had a line between St. Paul, MN and Duluth, MN.
Did the Milwaukee use their own tracks or use another railroad. If so, which railroad did the Milwaukee use?
Also, Milwaukee trains headed north (geographically), but what railroad direction was used and why?
Happy Hunting!!!
MILW used NP’s “Skally Line” from St. Paul to Duluth and Superior. Even though the compass direction was north by northeast, the line was east-west by timetable. The NP lines were timetable west away from St. Paul. The MILW used NPs direction (and rules), though of course Duluth was also “west” of Milwaukee and Chicago.
Rob:
Yes, the MILW used the NP from St. Paul to Duluth, but both the NP and GN timetables had trains going to Duluth or Superior was eastbound and trains from Superior and Duluth were westbound. At Coon Creek, trains were westbound on the NP/GN joint line, but eastbound from Coon Creek to Superior.
Next question to Rob.
Ed Burns
Depending on the year, this Chicago to West Coast streamliner either had the most engine changes or tied for the fewest.
I did see that the NP trains were even-numbered from St. Paul to Duluth. All three pool RRs (GN, NP and SOO) used the same timetable direction.
My firwst thought was The City of Portland. Originally an articulated train with no engine changes between Chicago and Portland. But in later years was combined with other west-coast trains without loosing its name, and when switched with the others from the C&NW to the Milwaukee it had at least two engine changes, one at Omaha and one at Green River or Ogden, depending on routing.
But then there was the Olympian Hiawatha, with occasional use of deisel power running right through Chicago - Tacoma. and at other times two changes diesel to electric and two electric to diesel. 0 - 4!
I was definitely thinking of the Olympian Hi. Some years the power ran through Chicago to Tacoma, others there were three engine changes, at Harlowton MT, Avery ID and Othello WA. UP’s streamliners didn’t get more than two. Good Job!
If the Olympian Hi was combined with one of the other Hiawathas between Chicago and Minneapolis, there could be a fourth. The electrics (or diesels) ran around the train at Seattle and pulled it backwards between there and Tacoma, so, at least technically, no engine change.
Name all the railroads that had a marine operation of one type or another in the New York City area in the 1930’s. A partial answer is acceptable if it includes at least four railroads that had no waterfront terminal in the State of New Jersey, but terminals elsewhere, and at least six that regularly had passenger equipment enter Manhattan Island, serving GTC or Penn or Both. Information on the location of each waterfront terminal (some had more than one) and freight houses in Manahattan and other boroughs will be a bonus for us. Note that some railroads reached their waterfront terminals using other railroads’ tracks and sometimes trains.
And one of the railroads reached its waterfront freight terminal only by using the tracks of two other railroads.
And one of the railroads did not have a waterfront terminal on a body of water abuting New York, but still had a navel presence and freight house.
And one of the railroads’ oassebger equipment reached Manhattan only in the trains of two other railroads.
I’m going to start with GCT and Penn in the 1930s. The FIVE railroads whose trains appeared under their own names were NYC and NYNH&H (GCT) PRR, LIRR, NYNH&H and Lehigh Valley (Penn). B&O trains arriving via Reading and CNJ rights had used Penn under USRA control, but gave up the rights to do so in 1924, reverting to CNJ’s terminal.
LIRR, and NYNH&H had a joint carfloat terminal at Bay Ridge, NH had another bridge at Oak Point in the Bronx. NYC had its own float bridges near the 60th street yards, West Shore’s were across the river in Weehawken. B&O had its main float operation on the Staten Island Rapid Transit (which is in New York), but it also had rights to use CNJ’s near the New Jersey waterfront. Brooklyn East District Terminal had some of its own floats, served by Moran tugs.
B&O, CNJ, DL&W and LV all had Harlem River freighthouses reachable only by water. Tugs set up for Harlem River service had short stacks to clear the swing bridges so they didn’t have to be opened. DL&W had an small yard next to the Brooklyn Navy Yard that was electrified. The South Brooklyn Ry, an arm of Brooklyn Rapid Transit, interchanged with Bush Terminal for float access.
I need a better magnifying glass to pick out some of the freight houses or piers where station floats were used. I’m sure of NYC, PRR and LV. Most of the Hudson piers south of the NYC yards could handle station floats, but some were only served by particular carriers. A station float has a track on each side of a central platform to allow direct loading of break-bulk freighters.
Central Vermont had a freight house on the East River reached by steamer from New London, but no carfloat operations.
At least NYC(West Shore), CNJ, Erie, and DL&W had their own passenger ferries in the 1930s. All of them plus PRR, LIRR and B&O also had their own tugs, though Moran did contract wo