Category: General Post

Are you a hold out for jumping into the social media circle?  Afraid you’ll get unsolicited friend requests and suspicious messages from people you don’t know and may not want to know?  Reluctant about getting your account hacked?  Well, if you’re willing to change your password every 6 months or so you can avoid most of these demons. 

The truth is, in my opinion, the advantages and benefits social media offers to rail fans and model railroads far outweigh the occasional frustrations experienced by many of us, myself included.  Here are just a few examples of rail-related Facebook pages and/or groups:

Nashville Steam – a FB page dedicated to promoting the restoration of NC&StL steam locomotive 576.  It is chocked full of pictures and current information about the restoration process.  You can post questions and make comments on each post. 

Illinois Central Railroad – A public FB page designed for former (and current it still says) employees of The Illinois Central – “A place for former and current employees of the Illinois Central Railroad to hang out and keep in touch.”

L&N Railroad Modelers – A public FB page for those modeling anything L&N. 

Railroad Fools – I think the name of the public page speaks for itself.  One of  my favorites.

Railroad Oddball Locomotives and MOW Equipment – A closed group so you’ll have to click on the “Join Group” button and wait to be granted entrance.  A unique site for unusual railroading equipment. 

West Kentucky Chapter of The National Railway Historical Society – keep in touch with what your chapter mates are up to and post your own photos, comments, and ideas.  Jim Pearson does a great job keeping the public page updated and looking good. 

I hope these samples have encouraged you to give social media a try.  If you do not have a computer, smart phone, or tablet, you can use your public library’s computers.  Just ask the library staff for help. 

Bill Thomas, editor

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On July 27, 2019, Rick Bivins hooked up with Matt Gentry at his home in Champaign IL for a day of railfanning. The following pics are from that trip. First stop was the old CB&Q line from Chicago to Galesburg via the quad cities. 

Earlier this month, May 10th,  marked the 150th Anniversary of the Gold Spike ceremony at Promontory, Utah.    I thought it appropriate to rerun this picture story from a few years ago. 

The  “Thank God it’s Friday”  graphic is one of several intro’s for my slide shows to groups.  It’s good for a laugh, however,  the 1869 meeting of the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific in Utah was somewhat similar.  Rather than joining in such a slip-shod manner, they simply passed one another, and kept on going.   Seems the two railroads were being reimbursed by the Government for work performed, by the mile.    The joining of the rails at Promontory, about three miles around the bend in the picture,  was the result of a negotiated settlement.

In the picture, you can easily see the railroad right-of-way on a fill.  That is the work of the Central Pacific, charging eastward into the picture.   But look closely to the left half of the picture.  You can see two earthen bridgeheads with a gap in between.   The distant one is easy to see, the other is in the foreground, lower left of the pix.   The Union  Pacific, working westward, filled the gap with a trestle, long since lost to the elements, salvage, or fire…..  not sure.

If you go to Google Earth, you can see both landmarks by tracing the twin right’s-of-ways of both railroads eastward from the Gold Spike Monument site.  In a little over three rail miles, or 2.8 the way the crow flies you will see clearly the filled curve, the bridgehead a little less obvious.   (Hint: use the ruler in the tool bar, to gauge the distance.)

Credits:   (Artwork, unk., can anyone out there ID the artist.?)    Photo by Drake Hokanson as seen in TRAINS Mag June 2015

By Bill Thomas

In April 2005, Liam (age 5) is helping me set boundary stones. 

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I was fortunate to have Ron Johnson as a friend and neighbor.  He freely loaned me his Kubota front-end loader to move dirt to the railroad area.  I was careful to keep dirt away from the base of my big hickory tree.  The depressed area around the tree is now covered with Vinca vines.

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It’s been my pleasure over our 16 years here in Madisonville to share my backyard with friends, family, neighbors, and many others.  – Bill

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A selection of photos from our recent trackside gathering at Mortons Gap, Kentucky included photos of the two new CSX painted units. 911 for First Responders and 1776 for the Troops on their first run up the Henderson Subdivision.

Submitted by Gary Ostlund

A few weeks ago, my picture story on the New York Central’s “Water Level Route” included the use of track pans and scooping water, and raised several questions.  .

There were 19 track pans between New York City and Chicago, and ten between Buffalo and Chicago on their line through Ontario and Michigan.  Other U.S. railroads using track pans were:  the Pennsylvania, Jersey Central, Reading, Baltimore & Ohio, the New Haven and the Milwaukee Road.  In the UK, the London & Northeastern scooped water as early as 1859.  The American RR Journal labeled these devices: “Jerk Water.”  The term is still in use today such as in Jerkwater Town, describing a hamlet too small to merit train stops.  At one time water scooping was considered for cattle cars.  By law, cattle were required to be offloaded for feed and water after 36 hours.  The logistics must have doomed that concept.  In the days, before air-conditioning, passengers in cars near the front of the train were wary of opening the windows. 

The (New York) Central performed extensive testing finding that above 35 MPH speed had little effect on the amount of water delivered to the tender. Efficiency, the percentage of water from the track pan delivered to the tender, fell off very little between 45 and 55 MPH.  However above 55 MPH efficiency dropped rapidly as the scoop sprayed water from under the tender.  The recommended maximum speed was set at 50 MPH.  Conductors (who are in charge of the train) and Engineers clearly paid little heed to wasted water.  Schedules and timetables ruled and management looked the other way.

A special thanks to former New York Central motive-power dispatcher Jim Ferrante for technical data.

Submitted by Gary Ostlund

As railroads grew, trains got longer and heavier, the power to pull them got larger. Roundhouses with the ubiquitous turntable suddenly needed updating. 

Roundhouses stalls were extended, and turntables had to be lengthened. The individual stall extensions were minor, compared to the lengthening of a turntable. 

Speedy construction was essential as you can see with multiple cranes, equipment, supplies and a hefty workforce. 

When a turntable was out of service for even a short period, the task of maintaining the motive power came to a standstill.  Time was of essence.

The last new roundhouse complex to be built by a major railroad was the Nickel Plate facility in Calumet, IL., near Chicago in 1951.  Most roundhouses are a thing of the past, as diesel maintenance required long bays, with pits and overhead cranes.  Yet today you will still find many a turntable to turn and position power and certain pieces of rolling stock.

You will notice when a train passes with multiple units up front, the rearmost is almost always facing rearward.  Locomotive sets usually return to their terminal of origin, thus no turning of equipment.

So one must wonder, are those remaining turntables symbolically poking their finger into the eye of management as revenge for the demise of steam….?

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These photos of NC&StL 576 are taken from Nashville Steam’s Facebook page.  See Nashville Steam on Facebook for credits.  576 sits beneath the shed at the Tennessee Central Museum (Nashville). 

Work continues to disassemble No. 576 and prepare the locomotive’s appliances for repairs and servicing. One of the biggest tasks was to remove the front end of the smoke box for access to the boiler’s interior. Now we have a better approach to the superheaters and eventually the tubes and flues. Lots of progress!

(taken from Nashville Steam Facebook page)

In the days of “clickety-clack” railroading Fishplates are what connected rails end-to-end.  A pair protrude from the rail on the flood damaged trestle.  Depending on the weight & size of the rail there were four or six bolt holes.  In this scene it could have been either, but the bolts on the missing rail definitely failed under much duress.

  The introduction of ribbon-rail reduced track maintenance, provided a safer and more reliable track and eliminated the clickety-clack that helped put you to sleep in those Pullman sleepers.  Track maintenance crews, known as Gandy-Dancers, would routinely inspect, and tighten rail-bolts. 

  The scene is storm damage in the upper mid-west earlier this Spring.  The flash-flood lifted the trestle off the pilings, and left it bowed with the stream-flow.  A closer look will show the right-of-way disappearing to the horizon, in line with the exposed pilings.

Credits:   bridge photographer unknown, seen in TRAINS Newswire.  Apparatus from the internet, (also called track jewelry by some…)

Camelback locomotives (also known as a Mother Hubbard or a center-cab locomotive) is a type of steam locomotive with the driving cab placed in the middle, astride the boiler.  Camelbacks were fitted with wide fireboxes which would have severely restricted the engineer’s visibility from the normal location at the rear.

You can see in the picture (above) the size of the firebox, extra wide in order to burn cheap and readily available anthracite coal.  Placement of the cab above the driving wheels also provided added traction.   Camelbacks were widely used on the Central Railroad of New Jersey and the Reading Railroad.  The fireman worked from a large platform on the tender, and in some cases had a chute to allow him to deliver coal to the front of the grate.

The Camelback’s cab astride the boiler design raised concerns for its crew. The engineer was perched above the side-rods of the locomotive, vulnerable to swinging and flying metal if anything rotating below should break. In addition, the fireman was exposed to the elements at the rear. The Interstate Commerce Commission banned Camelbacks but gave exceptions to allow those under construction to be completed.

A broken side rod swiped clean the engineer’s side of the cab on this Delaware & Hudson engine.  This ever-present danger to the engineer explains the eventual outlawing of center-cab locomotives.

Credits:   Two pics at top by the late Phil Hastings as seen in Kalmbach’s Steams Lost Empire.  Damaged camelback photographer unknown, in Train Wrecks a Robert C. Reed book.        -Gary O. Ostlund