Summer 2009 Issue

[gbrewer]

Gee, is it permitted to discuss the actual magazine contents here?

I wanted to say how much I enjoyed the article by Bob Le Massena, Quadrupling Cerro Summit. It is great to see Bob's work after all these years.

I stopped by the Colorado Railroad Museum yesterday and had a nice chat with him. At 95 Bob still works in the museum's library about every day.  He is even writing another story at present, and he pointed out to me his picture of a GG1 hauled train back in a 1947 issue of TRAINS.

So, I want to see more of Bob Le Massena in Classic Trains!

 

 

 

 

 

[selector]

I read the magazine a bit at a time, and that is in bed.  Its contents are dream-stuff for me, so I manage maybe 10 minutes and then the eyes start to lose their focus and their lids get heavy.  All this to say...haven't seen it yet.

-Crandell

[SSW9389]

Just picked up a copy this afternoon and scanned through it. The story on the Peoria & Eastern and the Indy 500 caught my eye first. Will report back later on this issue, but it looks like a good one.

 

Ed

[AgentKid]

The GG1 section of this issue makes it one of the best I've seen.

AgentKid

 

[SSW9389]

Well if you want to find out more about the Pennsylvania Railroad's GG1s this is a great issue to start with. The article about Donald Dohner is the kind of revisionist history that is worthwhile. The Jack Neiss story about becoming an engineer on GG1s was great. The Camp 20 Graveyard Extra story by J. W. Schultz was a wordy hoot.

But what really got me was the Diane S. Segal page (p87) of this issue. Read all about the C&O C620. How did this mistake get in to print? No C620s were ever built. C&O had four C630s and the drawing on page 87 clearly shows a High Adhesion trucked C&O C630. The C620 was proposed by ALCO, but never sold. See http://alcoworld.railfan.net/ars15-20.htm and note the DL722A on that page.  

[daveklepper]

Yes, a great issue.   It might have been pointed out that when GG-1's were regeared for freight service, the top speed was dropped from 100 to 90!

[creepycrank]

I particularly liked the part about the GG1 also. The cutaway for me is the best part. When you look at one of this things in a museum you always wonder what is inside and I hope someday one of the units rusting away outside will be put inside and that they can cut away some of the sheet metal to see what's inside. The animated cutaway is a revelation in that I expected that there would be a motor-generator set to convert the AC to DC for the traction motors. Apparently they have a transformer with a lot of "taps" just like Lionel in the 20's with their old transformers. I think electric locomotives could be a whole lot more interesting if they were diagramed out.

[sgriggs]

The Summer issue is one of the best CT yet.  The articles on the GG1 were great--it is such a worthy subject for a cover story like this.  I could have read more.

Come to think of it, the cover stories in the past few issues of Classic Trains have been first rate--Alco PA's, Big Boys, and now GG1's.

[selector]

It is the only magazine I get sent to my door, and with good reason.  As a N&W fan, I found last year's edition on the Y6b's last weeks to be particularly interesting, good, and memorable. 

 I can't say I have had a bad issue yet.  They all hold tons of information.  The latest one is a prime example.  Well done to the Ed and team.

-Crandell

[tcox009]

When was I mailed as I haven't got mine yet

Tom

[BerkshireSteam]

I live by the National Railroad Museum and have seen/touched ol 4890 many times, but it wasn't untill I read this issue that I fell in love with them. The MILW night time switching story was what initially caught my eye, then I peaked in and saw all the GG1 articles, and especially the Indy 500 story. I'm a raceing fan and try to watch the Indy every year, but last upteen years since I'ved moved to Tittletown I think I've seen it once.

I caught the C620 screw up too. I was a bit appalled that a magazine called Classic Trains missed that though. I still made my ole lady mad by telling her I was going to subscribe. Well, she wasn't mad about that, or when she found out it was only four issues a year, she got a tad angry at me when I told it was on special for 24 dollars for the four issue per year subscription. She just kind of gave me one those "thats ridiculous, you're seriously going to pay that???" looks. I'm hoping to get my subscription thingy in before the fall issue comes out, then I can get it in the mail with ma name on it . Although judging by the condition of my Model Railroader issues the mailman isn't very....carying, about mailed items so maybe I better not get it mailed here.

[MJChittick]

SSW9389

But what really got me was the Diane S. Segal page (p87) of this issue. Read all about the C&O C620. How did this mistake get in to print? No C620s were ever built. C&O had four C630s and the drawing on page 87 clearly shows a High Adhesion trucked C&O C630. The C620 was proposed by ALCO, but never sold. See http://alcoworld.railfan.net/ars15-20.htm and note the DL722A on that page.  

That error was puzzling.  The body of the narrative references a 3000 hp unit yet she repeatedly referred to it as a C620 instead of a C630.  I'm sure the Segal "advertisements" are submitted ready for publication, but I would have thought someone in the Classic Trains staff would have caught it before it went to press!

[espeefoamer]

The GG1 issue of Classic Trains was the best ever! The GG1 is one of my favorite locomotives,and the main reason I am a Pennsy fan.

[Great Western]

Having a garden railroad, which I constructed three years ago and which has American type models running on it, I find Classic Trains a very interesting and useful magazine.

Not only does it tell me about American railroads of yesteryear it also shows many consists, structures and railway related items which help in authenticating a railroad and its models.

Looking at one of the on-line videos I was surprised to see a passenger train with two boxcars placed immediately behind the tender. (2.18 mins into video PRR GG1's in action)  I have never seen a model portrayed that way - always a freight train or passenger consist.  This kind of information is of great help to any modeler.

 A great magazine.

 

 

 

 

[gbrewer]

 Alan,

Those aren't likely ordinary boxcars. They are probably REA (formerly American Railway Express) express cars equipped for high speed and with passenger steam and communication piping added below.  Alternately, they might be storage mail, but still specially equipped.

Glen

 

[carnej1]

MJChittick

SSW9389

But what really got me was the Diane S. Segal page (p87) of this issue. Read all about the C&O C620. How did this mistake get in to print? No C620s were ever built. C&O had four C630s and the drawing on page 87 clearly shows a High Adhesion trucked C&O C630. The C620 was proposed by ALCO, but never sold. See http://alcoworld.railfan.net/ars15-20.htm and note the DL722A on that page.  

That error was puzzling.  The body of the narrative references a 3000 hp unit yet she repeatedly referred to it as a C620 instead of a C630.  I'm sure the Segal "advertisements" are submitted ready for publication, but I would have thought someone in the Classic Trains staff would have caught it before it went to press!

 Given that the Segal page is a paid advertisement and not an article the CT editors would be in the difficult position of telling her they would not run it unless she corrected it...