We’ll stick with steam road electrifications for this. Which group of electrics was owned by the most Class One roads and which roads were the owners?
VGN’s EL-C class C-C rectifiers 130-141.
To N&W by merger 230-241 (230 retired)
To NYNH&H EF-5 by purchase ($25000 each!) 300-310 (301 retired)
To PC E-33 by merger 4601-4610
To Conrail E-33 by default 4601-4610
We have a winner. He also got the class changes, too. If I recall correctly, N&W 230 briefly operated as a slug.
rcdrye, your question.
230 was turned into a slug, but was also sold to NYNH&H for parts.
Keeping with overhead wire…
Dome cars were operated by the CMStP&P under wire behind electrics, by B&O (and Amtrak) behind diesels (at Washington Union Station) and by UP under CMStP&P wire at Seattle Union Station. Name the other regular use of dome cars under overhead wire (pulled by diesels) that lasted into the mid 1960s.
The California Zephyr under Sacramento Northern wire in Sacramento?
I’ll accept that. It was actually in Marysville, about 40 miles north of Sacramento. SN did the switching there and in Yuba City across the Feather River for WP, using 600V overhead until 1965. Two of the SN motors used at Marysville in the 1960s are in California museums.
What Bird flew internationally and also carried a domestic sleeper that helped provide a particular grocery item? Name the roads involved.
I believe that would be the Gull. It ran between Boston and Halifax on the B&M, MEC, CP and CN.
Mark
right so far, Mark–but what about the sleeper that stayed in this country, and rode with the groceries?
Johnny, I’ve looked in obvious places with no success but I’ll keep trying. I suspect it was Potato something or other as Maine was famous for that crop. Incidentaly, the route of the Gull was: B&M Boston to Portland, MEC Portland to Vanceboro, CP Vanceboro to Moncton and CN Moncton to Halifax. Quite a roundabout was due to the Bay of Fundy.
Mark
CP-CN change for the Gull was at St Johns NB, not Moncton. I think the car you’re looking for was the Calais-Boston car, usually accompanied by express reefers full of fish. Milk cars were also handled, at least from Bangor to Boston, having been collected by milk trains for forwarding.
You are right and I should have known better. The CP didn’t even go to Moncton.
Mark
Mark, you have the right food–but where did the car go, on what train and what road?
Johnny, I’ll make a semi-educated guess. The car was the Boston - Vqn Buren sleeper that ran in the BAR’s Aroostook Flyer.
Mark
Mark, you have the right destination–but the car did not go up to Van Buren on the day train, but on one that left so early that it was transferred at Northern Maine Junction, and not at Bangor, where the southbound Van Buren-Boston car was transferred from the BAR. What was that train’s name?
It had to be the BAR’s other name train, The Potatoland Special.
Mark
Yes!
This through train ran over several different railroads and was diesel powered on all but one of them when inaugurated. Its route over one of these roads was entirely behind steam and was advertised as being the longest steam powered run without an intermediate fuel stop in the world. Name the train, the railroad and the end points of its marathon steam run.
Mark
Mark
Was that the L&N’s power for the South Wind (200 miles Nashville-Birmingham)?
Johnny, you’ve got the right railroad and train but the run through without refueling was considerably longer. The L&N shipped a costly high grade of coal to its southern end point to make the feat possible. Water was taken on at several intermediate stops. While not the norm, occasionally some coal would have to be taken on enroute to ensure completion of the run.
Mark