Trains.com

Classic Railroad Quiz (at least 50 years old).

741861 views
7952 replies
1 rating 2 rating 3 rating 4 rating 5 rating
  • Member since
    September 2003
  • 21,669 posts
Posted by Overmod on Wednesday, June 21, 2023 1:13 PM

You've answered in the wrong question thread! Laugh

  • Member since
    May 2012
  • 5,017 posts
Posted by rcdrye on Wednesday, June 21, 2023 6:18 PM

Oh, Ah.  My bad.  Please continue your search for a good question!

  • Member since
    September 2003
  • 21,669 posts
Posted by Overmod on Sunday, June 25, 2023 10:57 PM

Here's an amusement while I try thinking of a real question.

Why isn't this installed incorrectly?

  • Member since
    May 2012
  • 5,017 posts
Posted by rcdrye on Tuesday, June 27, 2023 8:55 AM

Is it part of a counterwight on a trunnion (bascule) drawbridge?  

  • Member since
    June 2002
  • 20,096 posts
Posted by daveklepper on Tuesday, June 27, 2023 10:38 AM

Or you just took the picture or processed it upside down?

Ooops, apologies.  Wrong shadows for that!

  • Member since
    September 2003
  • 21,669 posts
Posted by Overmod on Wednesday, June 28, 2023 11:53 AM

rcdrye
Is it part of a counterweight on a trunnion (bascule) drawbridge?

No.  It is very firmly attached permanently in the orientation shown, which is correct 'to purpose'

But you are getting ever so slightly warm... Smile

  • Member since
    September 2003
  • 21,669 posts
Posted by Overmod on Wednesday, June 28, 2023 5:39 PM

Or you just took the picture or processed it upside down?

Where would the fun be in that?

There is a very good reason why what you see is so.  And an interesting one...

  • Member since
    June 2002
  • 20,096 posts
Posted by daveklepper on Thursday, June 29, 2023 1:17 PM

is it normally under water?

  • Member since
    September 2003
  • 21,669 posts
Posted by Overmod on Thursday, June 29, 2023 3:14 PM

No.

  • Member since
    May 2012
  • 5,017 posts
Posted by rcdrye on Thursday, June 29, 2023 7:39 PM

Is it a turntable bridge made out of a bridge, or a bridge made out of a turntable bridge girder?

  • Member since
    September 2003
  • 21,669 posts
Posted by Overmod on Thursday, June 29, 2023 7:57 PM

Exactly so.

The interesting thing about this one is that the original 'flat' side that had the track is facing down, and the belly in the center (which on this one is a fairly pronounced V-shape) faces up.

  • Member since
    June 2002
  • 20,096 posts
Posted by daveklepper on Friday, June 30, 2023 2:04 AM

Which of the two, and who, how, where, and when?

  • Member since
    May 2012
  • 5,017 posts
Posted by rcdrye on Friday, June 30, 2023 6:55 AM

So - a former deck span (ties and rails on the flat side of the girder) turned "belly up" and widened to be a through span turntable bridge.

There were lots of former turntable bridges in use as regular bridges. 

  • Member since
    September 2003
  • 21,669 posts
Posted by Overmod on Friday, June 30, 2023 10:56 AM

The bridge is installed at Frankstown, Pennsylvania, and can readily be searched up on the Web by that location.

It was my naive expectation that most of the converted turntable bridges would be 'right side up' with shoes at the outer ends on abutments, and the deck widened from the flat 'railroad' surface by longer bridge-tie supports, welded brackets, or some other expedient short of separating the webs and inserting a whole new deck structure.

 

  • Member since
    May 2012
  • 5,017 posts
Posted by rcdrye on Thursday, July 6, 2023 5:50 PM

Is the turntable bridge in Frankstown Township?  There's also a Frankstown section of Pittsburgh.

Here's a question that ZO would like...

Before 1948 a train carried through sleepers from a major city, passing through four state capitals before handing off some of its through cars. The second, connecting, train went through two more state capitals before reaching its final destination, and handing off the sleepers to another, third, train which passed through four state capitals before the cars' run ended in another major city.  The connecting train also received cars from another train from the same origin point that only went through two state capitals on their way to meet the second train.

Postwar upgrades changed the competitive picture, ending the through service, but some form of the connections lasted up to the early 1960s.

Some parts of this question have been asked in a different form.  What I'm looking for are the state capitals touched by the third and final train.

  • Member since
    June 2002
  • 20,096 posts
Posted by daveklepper on Friday, July 7, 2023 5:09 AM

Well, not to spoil anyone else's chance for a completer answer, the first train was on the PRR, and the State Capitals were Trenton, NJ; Harrisburg, PA; Coumbus, OH; and Indianapolis, IN, with end-points NYCity & St. Loids.  The competitor ran only through Albany, NY and Indianopis, the NY Central.

I'll have to investigate the Katy, Frisco, and Missouri Pacific for the  rest of the answer, with my first guess being the MP and then the TP, with Austin Texas  and Oklahoma City possible candidates.  With a few hours, I should come up with the rest of the answer. 

  • Member since
    June 2002
  • 20,096 posts
Posted by daveklepper on Friday, July 7, 2023 6:26 AM

RC, I'm asking you to double-check.  You may be in error on one of the state capitals for the third train, which I believe could only be either SP or AT&SF.  And I have to check the St Louis Southwestern - Cotton Belt for the seconf train, in addition to the Katy, Frisco, and MP.  

The thru sleepers ran first-to[second train, second-third, but your wurstion does not demand first-thru-third.[   

  • Member since
    May 2012
  • 5,017 posts
Posted by rcdrye on Friday, July 7, 2023 6:30 AM

Don't restrict yourself to the capitals of U.S. states.  So far, so good.

  • Member since
    June 2002
  • 20,096 posts
Posted by daveklepper on Friday, July 7, 2023 7:04 AM

My server is giving me problems in pulling up the Aztec Eagle and attempting to find  Mexican State Capitals.  Probanly I'll be able to use a friend's computer and email connection this Monday.  But with this start, another reader might be able to complete the answer and win the right for the next question.

  • Member since
    September 2003
  • 21,669 posts
Posted by Overmod on Friday, July 7, 2023 6:24 PM

It's going to be a run-through with the Penn Texas, probably handling the sleeping car arrangement that I recall being MoPac-painted but lettered Pennsylvania.  Would have gone via that branch of the Sunshine Special until 1948, but that wouldn't have involved the lightweight car.  So Aztec Eagle (en Espanol) is likely it, as Mr. Klepper noted.  Someone with an OG can confirm the capital information... and get the credit.

  • Member since
    May 2012
  • 5,017 posts
Posted by rcdrye on Friday, July 7, 2023 7:50 PM

This was inspired by a coupe of quiz questions from ZO a while back.  Dave has all of the capitals east of St. Louis on both routes (Indianapolis is in both lists).  The through cars predate the Penn Texas, running under the "old" name. Postwar through cars to Mexico originated in San Antonio.

Here are some to choose from:

  • Aguascalientes – Aguascalientes
  • Baja California – Mexicali
  • Baja California Sur – La Paz
  • Campeche – San Francisco de Campeche or Campeche
  • Chiapas – Tuxtla Gutiérrez
  • Chihuahua – Chihuahua
  • Mexico City.-CDMX
  • Coahuila de Zaragoza – Saltillo
  • Colima – Colima
  • Durango – Victoria de Durango
  • Guanajuato – Guanajuato
  • Guerrero – Chilpancingo de los Bravo
  • Hidalgo – Pachuca de Soto
  • Jalisco – Guadalajara
  • México – Toluca de Lerdo
  • Michoacán de Ocampo – Morelia
  • Morelos – Cuernavaca
  • Nayarit – Tepic
  • Nuevo León – Monterrey
  • Oaxaca – Oaxaca de Juárez
  • Puebla – Puebla de Zaragoza
  • Querétaro – Santiago de Querétaro
  • Quintana Roo – Chetumal
  • San Luis Potosí – San Luis Potosí
  • Sinaloa – Culiacán Rosales
  • Sonora – Hermosillo
  • Tabasco – Villahermosa
  • Tamaulipas – Ciudad Victoria
  • Tlaxcala – Tlaxcala de Xicohténcatl
  • Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave – Xalapa-Enríquez
  • Yucatán – Mérida
  • Zacatecas – Zacatecas
  • Member since
    September 2003
  • 21,669 posts
Posted by Overmod on Friday, July 7, 2023 10:00 PM

I had a post about this but it disappeared.

The post-1948 PRR run-throughs didn't go further south than San Antonio.  I don't know about the pre-'46 Sunshine Special, or what was the '46 to '48 arrangement.

The stops on the Mexican side were Nuevo Laredo (due to the border crossing), Monterrey, San Luis Potosí, and Mexico City 

  • Member since
    May 2012
  • 5,017 posts
Posted by rcdrye on Saturday, July 8, 2023 7:40 AM

Saltillo and Guanjuato were the other state capitals.  Mexico City DF is sort of like Washington DC (Districto Federal).

Dave had the right idea.  Through cars off of the Sunshine Special and Southwestern Limited lasted until 1948.  Most NYC through service to Texas and points south ended with the postwar Budd-built Southwestern Limited.  The Sunshine morphed into the Texas Eagle and later the Penn Texas.

  • Member since
    June 2002
  • 20,096 posts
Posted by daveklepper on Sunday, July 9, 2023 5:28 AM

Obermod can have the next question if he wants it.

  • Member since
    March 2016
  • From: Burbank IL (near Clearing)
  • 13,540 posts
Posted by CSSHEGEWISCH on Sunday, July 9, 2023 10:16 AM

rcdrye

Saltillo and Guanjuato were the other state capitals.  Mexico City DF is sort of like Washington DC (Districto Federal).

Dave had the right idea.  Through cars off of the Sunshine Special and Southwestern Limited lasted until 1948.  Most NYC through service to Texas and points south ended with the postwar Budd-built Southwestern Limited.  The Sunshine morphed into the Texas Eagle and later the Penn Texas.

 

While the Sunshine Special did become the Texas Eagle, the Penn Texas was strictly a New York-St. Louis train.

The daily commute is part of everyday life but I get two rides a day out of it. Paul
  • Member since
    September 2003
  • 21,669 posts
Posted by Overmod on Sunday, July 9, 2023 3:53 PM

daveklepper
Obermod can have the next question if he wants it.

El Obermodor does not want it.

  • Member since
    May 2012
  • 5,017 posts
Posted by rcdrye on Sunday, July 9, 2023 7:22 PM

Por nada.

  • Member since
    June 2002
  • 20,096 posts
Posted by daveklepper on Monday, July 10, 2023 7:43 AM

The Penn Texas did handle through cars to Texas.  I do not recall either the Spirit of Saint Louis, for some time all-Pullman, or the all-coach Jeffersonian handling through cars.

Name a station constructed by a rairoad that was contained within one city, then during successors' ownership served both city-only and intercity trains, and then for a long period served only trains, intercity and suburban (with importance), that operated outside the  city, but now is  back to almost its original role, the city and possikbly one suburb if my geography is correct, but nothing that can be called intercity.

When used by intercity trains, you could buy food and drinks on some scheduled runs.

  • Member since
    September 2003
  • 21,669 posts
Posted by Overmod on Monday, July 10, 2023 1:47 PM

There were through cars (PRR) off the Penn Texas that operated as far south as San Antonio.  As far as I know, none ran further south than that, either to Laredo or across the border in Mexico.

  • Member since
    May 2012
  • 5,017 posts
Posted by rcdrye on Monday, July 10, 2023 3:39 PM

After the Texas Eagle replaced the Sunshine Special, Mopac connections via Laredo  were handled by change of cars at San Antonio.  Heavyweights lasted into the 1950s, after which MoPac 10-6s were used.  Through cars were operated by Pullman.

SUBSCRIBER & MEMBER LOGIN

Login, or register today to interact in our online community, comment on articles, receive our newsletter, manage your account online and more!

FREE NEWSLETTER SIGNUP

Get the Classic Trains twice-monthly newsletter