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Classic Train Questions Part Deux (50 Years or Older)

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Posted by rcdrye on Wednesday, February 26, 2014 6:20 AM

The GTWCN/LV routing is one, with the LV handoff at Niagara Falls.  I'm going to disqualify the Canada Southern routing because it's the same as the NYC trains.  So here's the hint: Some of the Boston-Chicago routing was shared with the LV car. His arc just doesn't go far enough north.

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Posted by daveklepper on Wednesday, February 26, 2014 7:20 AM

Between the 1912 opening of the Poughkeepsie River Bridge and the 1918 opening of the Hell Gate Bridge, a through Pullman Grand Trunk Western - Lehigh Valley - L:ehigh and New England - New Haven Chicago -Boston car was operated.   Willks-Barre or Strausberg was the LV-L&NE hand-off point, and probably Maybrook or Campbell Hall L&NE-NYNH&H

The car was replaced by several via the Hell Gate Bridge and the PRR, really serving a different but larger market.  There may have been some overlap until the USA entered WWI. 

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Posted by rcdrye on Wednesday, February 26, 2014 7:30 AM

Still has to go via Canada!  We're looking for the Boston car.  It shares part of the route with the LV car, but doesn't involve the LV...

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Posted by daveklepper on Wednesday, February 26, 2014 7:58 AM

And at one time, I am pretty sure, there was a GTW-CN-CV-B&M car via St. Clair, Toronto, Montreal, White River Junction.   I remember reading that once upon a time, Concord, NH, had a through sleeper via Canada to Chicago.   Very unlikely that it originated in Concord, however.    Must have been a two night trip, however!

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Posted by daveklepper on Wednesday, February 26, 2014 8:01 AM

And the LV Poughkeepsie Bridge Boston car DID also go via Canada, between St. Clair abd Niagra Falls, like the NY car. 

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Posted by rcdrye on Wednesday, February 26, 2014 8:14 AM

So ask away...

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Posted by daveklepper on Wednesday, February 26, 2014 9:04 AM

Frank Julian Sprague invented two competing forms of multiple unit control.  Each, by the proper details, could operate successfully with the other.   What were the differences between the two types and why were two different types invented?  Further details welcome.

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Posted by rcdrye on Wednesday, February 26, 2014 10:35 AM

Let's see if this can be simplified a bit...

Sprague's initial control used pilot motors to control a type "L" controller.  His system worked pretty much like an elevator control in that the control position switched from "On" to start the motors through the acceleration to "Off" which more or less rewound the controller.  There were also relays to control forward and reverse, and to reset the circuit breakers. On South Side Sprague cars, the relays were under the bench seat behind the operator's cab, and are reported to have been fairly loud.

The next Sprague version was type M, which used a motor controlled cam to open and close switches. The principal difference from the operators point of view was that the type M had "notches" rather than on/off control, usually "Switching", "Series, and Parallel".  There were a couple of different versions of the type M, depending on whether the contacts were arranged in a line or in a circle, with the circular version known as "Turret" controls. Type M was used in new cars with modifications into the late 1940s.  Almost all CA&E cars, and most Chicago Rapid Transit wooden cars had type M control.

Type M and Sprague controls cold interwork with a low-voltage jumper connection for the breaker reset. Chicago's South Side Rapid Transit did this with success.  (It's actually a little more complicated than just a low-voltage jumper - I'll just have to dig around for the full explanation.) 

Westinghouse marketed the "Unit Switch",  which used magnetically controlled pneumatic switches, using current limiting relays rather than a cam.  Westinghouse had versions with both hand and automatic acceleration, whereas all type M's were automatic..

The decoder ring for Westinghouse Unit Switch

A - Automatic acceleration

H - Hand (Manual) acceleration

B - Battery powered

L - Line powered

F - Field Control

M - pin assignment and extra lead for interworking with GE Type M

Put it together and you get HLF controls on CNS&M steel passenger cars and most Baldwin-Westinghouse freight motors (most of the rest had HL), and ABLFM on Chicago Rapid Transit 4000 series, which were expected to operate on line power on the Met Division, and train with wooden cars with M control on all divisions.  Although it might work, training ABLFM with Type M with Sprague in the same train was not, to my knowledge, ever used in regular service by Chicago Rapid Transit.

GE's replacement for the M was the PC (Pneumatic Cam) which replaced the pilot motor on the type M with electropneumatic control of the cam.  PC type controls could work with Westinghouse AB or AL controllers.  Boston Center Entrance cars had both PC-10 and AB types, but crews didn't like to mix them as the accelleration characteristics were slightly different.

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Posted by daveklepper on Wednesday, February 26, 2014 12:15 PM

Before asking the next question, can you be specific as which of these systems, to the best of your knowledge, Sprague actually designed, and on which he basically was a consultant to the actual designers?   My own understanding is that Sprague did the basuc design on all these controls except the last, the GE pneumatic cam, but did consult on that control also.   You mentioned a lo voltage control cable for circuit-breaker control.  But the type M was basically line voltage control, and the control circuits were high voltage, if I remember correctly.   The 1904 Gibbs cars, both LIRR and IRT, used line voltage controlers, and the first low voltage control cars in the New York area were the Hudson and Manhattan cars that were tested on the 2nd Avenue elevated before opening the first H&M line in 1908.   Sillwell designed the H&M cars and then the BMT steel cars.  The IRT then ordered low-voltage control cars and even converted some high-voltage control cars to low-voltage, but they had to operate as a separate group.

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Posted by rcdrye on Wednesday, February 26, 2014 1:52 PM

I don't have the book here but I'll look at it tonight.  I know that there were both high and low voltage parts for the circuit breaker control, but I'm pretty sure the jumper wire between cars was part of the low-voltage circuitry.  How about we start a new thread?

Sprague was directly involved in the original MU and the type M.  By the time Westinghouse was getting involved Sprague had left GE so its not unlikely that he consulted.  The PC-type controls were not, as far as I know, developed by Sprague.  Incidentally GE continued to develop cam controls until at least the 1970s, with SCM (Simplified Cam Magnetic) and MCM (Modified Cam Magnetic) controls used on both experimental and production post-PCC equipment on the CTA.  GE's version of the PCC control is physically very similar to the "Turret" control used on wooden L Cars, though the internals are different.

I refer you to CERA's bulletin 115 for a really detailed discussion.

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Posted by FUSE- on Wednesday, February 26, 2014 2:45 PM

ANY VETERANS OF THIS TIME IN IC HISORY  

FUSE

Tags: 10DAY WONDER
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Posted by daveklepper on Thursday, February 27, 2014 12:40 AM

Sprague did do consulting work after he left GE and was reported to have done actual design work on a consulting basis for Westinghouse.  He went back to GE to do consulting, my guess this was on compatibility issues primarily.   He had his own manufacturing business, but this was not in competition with either GE or Westinghouse.

The picture window PCC's in Boston use the GE cam control and not the usual GE PCC motor-driven resistor bank control.   They are the only PCC's with this control. 

The CRT steels, the 4000's:   How did one switch from LV to HV (Battery to line) control?  Was the switch under the car, where?

If you know the control system for the IC electrification, you can answer the previous post and many would be interested.   And all this can be on your new thread, which had not seen when starting this post.

Look forward to your question.

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Posted by rcdrye on Thursday, February 27, 2014 6:31 AM

According to a 1940 CERA bulletin, the IC electrics used GE PC control, of type PC-103-D1.  The four Baldwin-Westinghouse Class E locomotives which later went to the South Shore had Westinghouse HBF (Hand acceleration, Battery, Field Control).

Back to the Quiz:

A major midwestern carrier had subletters on some of its early E-Units, for subsidiaries of the form AB&C and A&BC.  Name the parent and the subsidiaries.

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Posted by daveklepper on Thursday, February 27, 2014 6:37 AM

Chicago Burlington and Quincy, Fort Worth and Denver (City?), Colorado Southern

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Posted by rcdrye on Thursday, February 27, 2014 8:18 AM

Those are both AB&C, and CB&Q is the parent.  The units I'm looking for operated on top-of-the-line trains, and didn't operate on either of the subsidiaries until later E-units were on the property. The last place name on the AB&C railroad was once a very common part of railroad names, that most railroads never got anywhere near...  The A&BC line paralled the parent, the AB&C line crossed it.

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Posted by daveklepper on Thursday, February 27, 2014 9:51 AM

Chicago and  Northwestern Railway

subs:

Chciago, Mineapolis, St. Paul, and Omaha Railroac, Chicago and Great Western Railway

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Posted by rcdrye on Thursday, February 27, 2014 11:21 AM

C&NW didn't get the Great Western until 1967.  Both of the subs I'm looking for have names in them that reflect parts of an important Civil War campaign.

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Posted by daveklepper on Thursday, February 27, 2014 1:14 PM

Previoius two postings were based on misunderstanding, that diesels were NUMBERED sAY 1000A, 1000B, 1000C  when joined together for one streamliner.

Louisville and Nashville

Nashvile Chattaooga and St. Louis,   Atlanta and West Point

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Posted by rcdrye on Thursday, February 27, 2014 1:31 PM

The A&BC had two river names, the AB&C had two cities and a body of water.  The parent company had a two word name with no "&".

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Posted by KCSfan on Thursday, February 27, 2014 1:59 PM

Yazoo & Mississippi Valley and Vicksburg Shreveport & Pacific.

Mark

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Posted by daveklepper on Thursday, February 27, 2014 2:15 PM

Those are Illinois Central subsidiaries and Mark is clearly the winner.

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Posted by rcdrye on Thursday, February 27, 2014 2:38 PM

daveklepper

Those are Illinois Central subsidiaries and Mark is clearly the winner.

Those are them.  Some or all of IC's E6's were "owned" by the VS&P and the Y&MV for tax purposes. I guess Illinois got a little more relaxed by the time the E8s and E9s came along.  Of course later in life they could be found on their "owner's" rails.

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Posted by KCSfan on Monday, March 3, 2014 12:57 PM

A Class I railroad owned and controlled four shortline roads that had a common set of officers. Each of the four shortlines had a connection with the parent road but were operated independently under their own names. What were the names of these four and their Class I parent?

Mark

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Posted by Deggesty on Monday, March 3, 2014 4:14 PM

Mark, this sounds somewhat like the Southern and four of its little adopted children--Louisiana Southern, Live Oak, Perry and Gulf, South Georgia, and Albany and Northern-- but the Live Oak, Perry, and Gulf did not connect directly with the Southern, but did connect through the South Georgia. The November, 1965, Guide listings of these roads shows a local superintendent or a local general manager (the same one for the two roads that serve Florida, and, I would say, that the listing in the higher echelons at the beginning of the Southern representation also applies to these shortlines.

Johnny

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Posted by KCSfan on Monday, March 3, 2014 5:38 PM

Johnny, you're in the right general area but the Southern was not the parent of the roads I have in mind. Two of the roads were completely abandoned prior to 1965 and today only a portion of one of the other two still operates as a branch of the NS.

Mark   

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Posted by Deggesty on Monday, March 3, 2014 10:52 PM

Mark, your comments brought me to look at the Wrightsville & Tennille, the Wadley Southern, and the Louisville & Wadley--which are shown in the March, 1953, Guide after the Savannah and Atlanta, which is shown after the Central of Georgia. Their Auditor was the Vice-President and Controller of the Central of Georgia, which indicates that the CG had control of the roads.

Johnny

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Posted by KCSfan on Tuesday, March 4, 2014 6:28 AM

Right on Johnny. You've got three of the four and the next question is yours to ask. The fourth road was the Sylvania Central which had the same officers as the W&T, L&W and WS. I don't have a '53 OG and you might check your copy to see if there is a representation for the SC - should be as the SC wasn't abandoned until March 1954.

Mark

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Posted by Deggesty on Tuesday, March 4, 2014 10:35 AM

Yes, Mark, I did miss the Sylvania Central; it is tucked in between the CG's freight lines listing and the Savannah & Atlanta--all of these roads (or what is left of them) are now in the Norfolk Southern.

It looks as though the Wadley Southern and Louisville & Wadley may have shared an engine and a coach--except Sunday, the WS ran a mixed train to Swainsboro and back each morning, and then the L&W ran a mixed train to Louisville and back.

It'll take me a while to work up a new question.

Johnny

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Posted by Deggesty on Tuesday, March 4, 2014 4:06 PM

For you have ben panting, with your tongues hanging out, as you wait for another question, here it is.

In early 1950, eight each five double bedroom buffet observation cars were built for five roads. All but one had two-word names, and one word was common to all seven. What word was common to these?

One car was operated on a train with the same name part of the year, and on a train with a variation on the name the rest of the year. What were the two trains?

Why did the eighth car have an entirely different name?

What two roads that handled one of the trains they were built for did not own any of them?

Johnny

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Posted by NP Eddie on Tuesday, March 4, 2014 6:28 PM

Johnny:

Are looking the eight cars built for the Crescent and Royal Palm trains? They were in the "Royal" series except for the FEC car "Azalea".

I don't know the answers for the other questions.

Ed Burns

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