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Restoring "New Haven" East Bronx Service

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Posted by daveklepper on Monday, July 18, 2011 9:32 AM

As far as I know, EP-4's never got the McGinnis paint jobs, according to the book The New Haven Railroad in the McGinis days.   What you saw were EP-3 and EP-2 non-streamlied units, three or four of which did get the McGinnis colors.   One streamlined EP-4 and one streamliner EF-3 were prepared for painting with undercoat, and then Alpert (McGinnis' successor) decided to go with the GM plan and buy the additional FL-9's and scrap the electrification, scrap the Van Nes electric repair facilities, and scrap all electric locos except the EP-5's, which were to be retained for pulling trains from Stamford to Penn Sta. 

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Posted by Dutchrailnut on Monday, July 18, 2011 8:06 PM

no one said anything about EF-4's in McGinnis, he just stated orange with white stripe.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/johannes-j-smit/5675534011/sizes/m/in/photostream/

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Posted by AntonioFP45 on Monday, July 18, 2011 8:44 PM

Dave,

Dutchrailnut has the correct photos of the units I was referring to.  EF-4, not EP-4.  (The EF-4s were designated as E-33s in the PC era).   The EP5s looked rough with their paint peeling.  But the time period I was watching this action was 1964-67, before my family and I moved to the north Bronx (near the Allerton Ave #2 EL Train station).   Even though I was a kid, the EF-4 stood out to me as the combination of that bricked shaped body and the white/orange horizontal paint scheme was hard to forget!

I was hoping some of you guys that are in your 50s or older might remember the Hunts Point section of the Bronx and the station's history.  There are photos featuring that area of the Bronx today, but it seems so difficult to find photos of that same area in the 1960s-70s

"I like my Pullman Standards & Budds in Stainless Steel flavors, thank you!"

 


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Posted by daveklepper on Wednesday, August 3, 2011 9:35 AM

Sorry, of course the EF-4's wer ethe ex Virginian, ex-N&W rectifier electrics thjat re-electrified the LIRR Bay Ridge branch (although diesel switchers were still used instead B's).   Yes, they were painted McGinnis orange-red and while and one is at the Danbury railroad museum.

Possibly the M-8's will run into Penn Station whenever the Amtrak electrification from Sunnyside and Harold Tower west to wherever is converted to 60Hz.   But then no GG-1 restoration operaton unless rebuilt as a rectifier locomotive.  YOu are correct about transformer cores.  Originally, the idea was to have 25Hz capability, but I guess the added weight and expense doomed the idea.   The original FL-9 shoes were dual mode by being double sprung, and yes I rode behind a pair into Penn using electric power.  Lack of perfect maintenance doomed that idea.   The upper and lower shoe springs had to be balanced, the third rails in good alignment and third rail ramps on both systems in proper alignment.   I gues it will be easier to extend the LIRR third rail to the frequency break point on the Hell Gate Bridge approach, and set aside a group of cars for Penn Station operation.   However, both NJT and Amtrak electric locomotives can operate on all three AC electrical systems.   Anyone know about the dual-modes?    Since they will run into Penn Station now, they must be equpped for 25Hz operaton, and it would not take much added expense or weight to allow them to work at both 60Hz voltages.

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Posted by DMUinCT on Wednesday, August 3, 2011 11:48 AM

Received yesterday (Aug 2) the latest issue of the "Shoreliner"  (Vol.33 - Issue 2).   "Shoreliner" is the (color and B&W Photo) magazine of the "New Haven Railroad Historical & Technical Association".

This issue contains a 36 page history of "West End Freight".  It covers service to Oak Point and over the Hellgate Bridge to Bay Ridge.   Much detail on Car Float operations in New York Harbor.  

The next issue will cover "West End Freight - The Trains"    www.nhrhta.org

Don U. TCA 73-5735

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Posted by daveklepper on Monday, August 8, 2011 8:14 AM

If it were not for the condition the dollar is in, I would become a member right away just to get those issues.

Does any member of the Society know whether the last New Haven Railroad Passenger VP, Bill Goodman, is still alive?

If you pull up the website www,.CBFisk.organs.com (or something like it) and get the pages on personal remeniscences on the late Charles B. Fisk, who was the founder of the company and a good friend, (and many believe rivaling G. Donald Harrison and Ernest M. Skinner as North America's greatest organ builder) you will find a short story relating Bill Goodman, me, the composer Danny Pinkham, and the New Haven Railroad.   And the Episcopal Church across from the station at Westerly, R. I.

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Posted by mellowone on Thursday, December 11, 2014 11:25 AM

Pelham Manor Station

Mellow One

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