Classic Railroad Quiz (at least 50 years old).

[daveklepper]

CORRECT!!!     The MU's are run around the loop on a scheduled basis, smothing like once every two months.  I don't know how the diesels and unpowered coaches are handled.  Tt is pssible to trn equipment at both Croton Harmon, and at Brewster.  Think the New Haven line fleet can currently only be turned at Grand Central.

[passengerfan]

daveklepper

 So far incorrect.   Keep trying!

To promote even wear on the wheels.

Al - in - Stockton

[daveklepper]

 So far incorrect.   Keep trying!

[henry6]

But Mark, today's commuter coaches...those in push pull service especially...often have permanent seating so that half the riders are always riding backwards!  Otherwise, commuter coaches have flip over seats.  But that is not the reason trains use the loops today...

[KCSfan]

I'm guessing it must be to turn the train because unless the cars had flip over seats passengers would be riding backwards heading either outbound or inbound from GCT.

Mark

[daveklepper]

It is widely known that there are loop tracks for both the upper and lower levels at Grand Central Terminal.  Given that most trains, all pushpulls with dual-power and nearly all multiple unit electrics simply reverse ends at Grand Central, the push-pull dual power locos always on the north end and the cab car on the south, what really essential purpose do the loops served and why are they used regularly?

DO NOT ANSWER IF YOU ARE A METRO NORTH EMPLOYEE!!!!

[henry6]

Perspective!  I've seen the equpment changes, et al, on a regular basis, so I didn't even think all you have included, Dave!  But you are right.  There are still some position light signals around.  But in my shallowness I was thinking the complexity and multi meanings of the word "change", in this case, as an active verb.  Therefore I limited my sights to the AirTrain to JFK and the new stations for the F and J train services tunneled below the station building allowing for a covered passage from LIRR to subway instead of the three block hike to Jamaica Ave for the old BMT (the el structure is gone), or the further hike to the E&F train's old IND designated station; E train is still there but F's are on new line. 

At anyrate, Dave, your answers trump mine for sure...your turn...

[daveklepper]

There were still some trains that exchanged steam for DD-1 electrics for a run to Penn Station during and after WWII.   I don't know whether this lasted into the diesel era but I think it did.   The rolling stock is very different.  No more MP-54's, no more postwar conventional mu's.  No more baggage car service and checked baggage.  No more mail handling.   No Push Pulls back then or dual power, which exist today.   Position light signals back then, are they still around?   The track arrangement has been somewhat simplified with higher-speed switches.   No more active Union Hall Station East of Jamaica Station.   Newer platform train identification signs.   New public address system.

[henry6]

But that's only one change!

[wanswheel]

AirTrain

http://www.railpictures.net/images/d1/9/0/5/1905.1071727920.jpg

http://www.railpictures.net/images/d1/8/9/2/2892.1248711279.jpg

http://www.airliners.net/photo//1413609/L

http://www.airliners.net/photo/JetBlue-Airways/Airbus-A320-232/0936050/L/

[henry6]

CHANGE AT JAMAICA means so much to those riding the Long Island RR...I even have a 1950's era book of that title written by a hapless commuter who happened also to be a NY Times writer...but Mike's pictures posted above and in the question also point out another set of reasons for the phrase.  My grandparents lived just a block north of the station near the Arena and I could wax nostalgic of the many hours we spent train watching on those platforms a half century ago...cleaninng out the phone coin returns for up to $5 bucks for both of us after the rush hour; the long string of freight cars trundling eastbound around the station on the far south track away from the platforms, the double deckers the FM cabs the Owl eye cars the, well...enough...

... But it does bring up a question to ask about change at Jamaica in fact.  I can see...and have used...two major changes (note the word changes) at Jamaica station which were not extant back in the mid 20th Century.  What are those changes (aside from the platform and bridge work)?

[wanswheel]

Henry, yes your turn again. Change at Jamaica.

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1287522

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=675668

http://world.nycsubway.org/perl/show?54645

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/08/Jamaica_Station_Arch.jpg/800px-Jamaica_Station_Arch.jpg

http://www.trainsarefun.com/lirr/jamaica/Jamaica_c.1971RGlueck.jpg

http://world.nycsubway.org/perl/show?42314

http://world.nycsubway.org/perl/show?10541

http://world.nycsubway.org/perl/show?10558

http://world.nycsubway.org/perl/show?42534

[henry6]

Pic one made me think Pittsburgh...but two and three changed my mind about 400 miles east to:

Jamaica, Queens, on the Long Island!?

[wanswheel]

What station is this?

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e390/MikeMacDonald/1913.jpg

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e390/MikeMacDonald/1927.jpg

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e390/MikeMacDonald/Track.jpg

Mike

[henry6]

wanswheel

Rutland RR and B&M at Bellows Falls. They look like tin cans.

http://www.tcaetrain.org/articles/chronicles/collora/COLLORA_06.jpg

B&M at White River Junction

http://books.google.com/books?id=TISRZNN0sCMC&pg=PA19#v=onepage&q=&f=true

Maine Central and B&M at Whitefield, NH

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=347353

Ouch! I forgot White River Jct.!  That makes five...my other picks were Quebec and Waumbec Junctions.  Most protected diamonds.  B&M  in all with the Rutland and Central Vermont factored in at Bellows Falls; CV was also at WRJ.  Maine Central was at Whitefield and Waumbec while CN's other NE line, the Grand Trunk, was at Quebec Jct.

I can't wait for what Wanswheel will spin out for the next question:

[wanswheel]

Rutland RR and B&M at Bellows Falls. They look like tin cans.

http://www.tcaetrain.org/articles/chronicles/collora/COLLORA_06.jpg

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=892014

B&M and CV at White River Junction

http://books.google.com/books?id=TISRZNN0sCMC&pg=PA19#v=onepage&q=&f=true

http://naphotos.nerail.org/showpic/?200705141143099857.jpg

Maine Central and B&M at Whitefield, NH. 

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=347353

http://www.signalbox.org/overseas/usa/whitefield.htm

[Texas Zepher]

henry6

Into the 60's I can think of three, maybe four, locations where actual ball signals were in use in the New England States...name them, thier reason, and as a bonus, the railroads involved in each location.

Funny, I remember just seeing an article on ball signals in the NE.  Unfortunately, now I don't know where that was.

[Deggesty]

DSO17

henry6

The obvious then would be rag or towel,to wipe handrail-grabiron.

     Correct. I guess some railroads were more careful about wiping the handrails than others. Around here you always saw it on the B&O and PRSL, usually on the Reading and very seldom on the PRR.

     Henry6 gets the next question by a couple minuites.

I think that the conductors, flagmen, and porters on all the roads I rode in the South were careful to wipe the handrails down before letting passengers off or on. (Even I did so the time I played Pullman porter and boarded a passenger at a scheduled stop when the porter was eating his lunch) However, I do not remember seeing anyone take a towel or other cloth out of the stepbox; I did see the men using paper towels that were either fresh or had been tucked behind one of the rails. Such a compartment is a better place to keep the wiper.

Johnny

[henry6]

It's been a while...harder to think of a question sometimes than to answer...but, fresh from a weekend in New England here goes....

Into the 60's I can think of three, maybe four, locations where actual ball signals were in use in the New England States...name them, thier reason, and as a bonus, the railroads involved in each location.

[DSO17]

henry6

The obvious then would be rag or towel,to wipe handrail-grabiron.

     Correct. I guess some railroads were more careful about wiping the handrails than others. Around here you always saw it on the B&O and PRSL, usually on the Reading and very seldom on the PRR.

     Henry6 gets the next question by a couple minuites.

[KCSfan]

I believe it was for a rag which the porters and trainmen would use to wipe down the railing which the passengers gripped when getting up or down the car's steps.

Mark

[henry6]

The obvious then would be rag or towel,to wipe handrail-grabiron.

[DSO17]

henry6

I'm willing to bet: gloves.

    Close, I'm thinking of something a little more passenger friendly.

[henry6]

I'm willing to bet: gloves.

[DSO17]

     I left out the dash. Should be "Have Train - Will Haul". Around 1960 there were a lot of slogans going around based on the popular TV western "Have Gun - Will Travel".

     Here's a question that came up recently at a large railroad facility where a couple of the old passenger stepboxes are being used to reach parts on higher shelves. The only man who could answer it had worked in passenger service many years ago: Inside each stepbox is a little rectangular compartment or cubbyhole. What was it supposed to hold?

[Texas Zepher]

DSO17

Bevier & Southern ?

"Have Train Will Haul"?

And we have a winner.  

The B&S connected to the CB&Q in Bevier Missouri (about 1/2 way between St. Joseph and Quincy IA.)  in 1961 it ran south through Keota (a place geologists will recognize as being famous for geodes). to the mine in Ardmore. 

Prior history goes back to 1898 under the Kansas & Texas Railway constructed the original line (and part remaining) from Bevier to Ardmore.   Branches where extended from Ardmore to the two other trunk lines in the area.  North to the CB&Q (it is a little fuzzy where it connected before this unless CB&Q moved their Galesburg-Kansas City main) and 4 miles east to Excello and the Wabash.

in 1902 the K&T was merged with the Missouri & Louisiana Railroad in the books only. When the M&L was dissolved in 1914 the Missouri portion remained with the Bevier & Southern name. 

The mine changed hands along with the railroad a few times until the mine went to the Peabody Coal Company at which time the railroad became independent.

In 1945 a 7-mile branch was built southwest to Jacksonville and in 1953 a six mile section to Darksville.  These were both abandon by 1957.   On that hilly seven mile branch to Jacksonville the railroad experimented with electric power.  It was a failure.

In 1961 the railroad was delivering 1500 cars of coal to the Burlington each month.

A fire destroyed the turntable and roundhouse in Bevier sometime in the 191x time period.  They were never rebuilt. Instead a 4 bay engine house. Locomotives are fueled by a gondola load of coal. The only classic steam structure was the round wooden water tower.

Active Locomotives in 1961 -

2-6-0 #112  bought new in 1920 from Baldwin
2-6-0 #109  obtained in 1945 from the IC (3700 series) originally Brooks built in 1900
2-8-2 #4943 obtained in 1955 from CB&Q O1A class
2-8-2 #4963 obtained in 1955 from CB&Q O1A class

inactive
2-6-0 #110 former M&StL from Baldwin 1907
2-6-0 #111 Baldwin 1907 kept for parts for #112.
2-8-2 #4955 - former CB&Q O1A class
 

DSO17 gets to ask the next question.

 

[Deggesty]

DSO17

Bevier & Southern ?

In 1950, the Bevier and Southern ran 15.50 miles from Bevier (connection with CB&Q) to Binkley, Mine #2.

Johnny

[wanswheel]

Have engine will save

http://donsdepot.donrossgroup.net/dr0100/bs112.jpg

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=704895

[DSO17]

Texas Zepher

I am thinking of a railroad. It was a short line (feeder).  In October 1961, seventeen months after the last revenue run for a steam locomotive on a class 1 railroad, this railroad's roster consisted of two Moguls and two Mikados.  These were not sitting around, but in use every day, making it the highest concentration of active steam locomotives in the USA.   The railroad was only 10 miles long.  It mainly hauled coal. Because of this longevity of steam it is now quite famous.  It also had a catchy and famous slogan. Name that railroad.

 

     Bevier & Southern ?

     "Have Train Will Haul"?

[henry6]

Texas Zepher

henry6

Buffalo Creek and Gauley!?

Not the one I'm thinking of.  Where was that railroad?

 

A coal road in West Virginia...very famous for it's hospitality and steamers!