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Classic Railroad Quiz (at least 50 years old).

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Posted by rcdrye on Tuesday, September 29, 2015 4:17 PM

California Railway or Rail Road.  I can find maps with references, but they're inconsistent.

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Posted by narig01 on Monday, September 28, 2015 6:36 PM

PS The Central Pacific line was the SP line thru Altamont, currently used by the Pacific Locomotive Association's Niles Canyon operation further west.

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Posted by narig01 on Monday, September 28, 2015 6:31 PM

rcdrye

Central Pacific Rail Road built the line along the Bay in the late 1870s, connecting it via ferry at Port Costa with the California Pacific line from Vallejo to Sacramento, giving it a much shorter route than the Altamont Pass route via Stockton.

 

The Central Pacific first route to the San Francisco bay area was subsidiary Western Pacific(of 1862 not the later WP backed by Jay Gould) . 

     The California Pacific was built from a ferry landing in Vallejo, Ca north thru American Canyon east to Fairfield thence northeast towards Sacramento. Completing Vallejo to Sacramento in 1870. However not until after the Central Pacific purchased the line was the line built to Benecia some years later.

Another railroad was there first.

 

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Posted by rcdrye on Monday, September 28, 2015 1:49 PM

Central Pacific Rail Road built the line along the Bay in the late 1870s, connecting it via ferry at Port Costa with the California Pacific line from Vallejo to Sacramento, giving it a much shorter route than the Altamont Pass route via Stockton.

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Posted by narig01 on Sunday, September 27, 2015 7:02 PM

I will try something simple and easy.

For many years in Berkeley, Ca the bayfront had signs proclaiming No Trespassing, per xxxxx  Railxxxxx.  Which railroad and what was the original land grant railroad (I think that is the correct term for how the railroad acquired the property).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thx IGN

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Posted by daveklepper on Sunday, September 27, 2015 6:09 AM

waiting for Narig's question

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Posted by daveklepper on Friday, September 25, 2015 6:44 AM

More,the Fulton Street C-types were made possible by using door controls taken from the original steels when most of the latter were formed into three-car formations, with the center-of-side door controls retained only in the middle car.  These became the numerous B-types, with the remaining minority single cars retaining the A-type designation.

The Q=types were similarly rebuilit from gate cars, around 1937, in recognition that the gate cars on Flushing (and Astoria) would make a bad impression on NYWFair visitors.  They were more conventional and modern looking.   Most were two motors flanking a trailor, some were just two motors.  They went to the Third Avenue Elevated and then replaced North America's last open-platform operation on the Mytle Avenue Elevated.

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Posted by daveklepper on Friday, September 25, 2015 1:58 AM

Your first paragraph is suffiently correct for you to ask the next question.   Correction, the Fulton, both running all the way to Park Row, Citiy Hall, Mnahattan, over the Brooklyn Bridge, and then cut back to Rockaway Avenue with free transfer to the A in the subway, used C-type cars, not Q-types.  Both types were rebuilds of old gate cars.  The C's were configured as three-car units, with the end platforms of the center trailer simply removed, and one end platform removed on the end motor cars.  This put the trucks suffiently close to the ends, so that metal diaphram-type connections between the two motor cars and the center trailer permitted passenger movement.  All thee cars had two sliding doors on each side, except the first prototype, which had one larger door.  The Fulton Elevated, and the Brooklyn Bridge had platform and other clearances close to subway's 10-ft wide, and the C-type had a sill on both sides that supported the slides under the side doors and bridged the gap to the platorms.  After the A ran to Lefferts, they took over the rush hour Culver shuttle until the D ran to C. I. Up to unification and the cut back to Rockaway Avenue, gate cars still ran on Fulton during rush hours.  After unification, day Lexington Avenue elevated trains were extended over the Fulton line, on Pitkin and Liberfty Avenues, as far as Grant Avenue, withsome rush-hour trips running all the way to Lefferts Avenue. And some rush hour Lexington Elevated trains continued to run on the Jamaica Linr as far as 118th Street. So before the A ran to Leffets, you had the modern multi's displaying the 13 sign, C-type, and gate cars, on that remaining elevated structure.  The14th-Street- Lefferts 13 service ran only during rush hours, with some multi-s remaining in 16 Canarsie service, supplimented by standard A-B steel cars, seen on Canarsie only during the rush hours.  The experimental Blue Bird was also a regular on Canarsie dudring the rush, usually the 4:55PM departure from 8th Avenue.  The Bulebird could also run to Lefferts, but I never saw it on that rout.  The multis and the three expermentals were the only steel (or aluminum in the case of the Green Hornet Pullman) light enough for the structure on Pitkin Avenue.  The   Five bodies, six trucks, total length about 165feet, one large door on each side of each body. Both Pullman and St. Louis.    Th Green Hornet's only revenue service was on the regular Fulton Elevated service before Unification and before LaGuardia insisted on its donation to the WWII scrap drive, and on the Franklin Shuttle.  The first prototype St. Louis Blue Bird also was used in revenue on Franklin, and the Budd Little Zephyr was a regular.

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Posted by narig01 on Thursday, September 24, 2015 11:54 PM

Doing this from vague memores of what I've read and heard(very unreliable)

The outer end of the Fulton El, I think, had Q types and until the the east end was connected to the Fulton INC subway used route 13(according to :http://www.thejoekorner.com/lines/suball-frame.htm ). These cars were then used on the Myrtle Av el replacing the last of the gate cars.(IIRC)

       I have to admit my ignorance about some of this.

 

The other route that comes to mind is the "bankers express on the Brighton line that used triplex' s to the Nassau St loop. That route looped in thru the tunnel and back out on the Manhattan Bridge I think. Service ended in 1967 when the Christie St connections took away the connection to Nassau St. And the triplex' s were scrapped, I think.

I probably am missing something.

 

The IGN 

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Posted by daveklepper on Wednesday, September 23, 2015 2:32 PM

The 14th Street Canarsie Line does not operate over the Williamsburg Bridge but its East River Tunnel is parallel to it.  There were rush hourr Broadway locals to Canarsie, and they can be reinstated with some control work.   The 14th Street Canarsie Line is now a stand-alone line, with the switches connecting to the Nassau - Wmsbg. Br. - Broadway - Jamaica Line used only for shop moves and maintenance equipment, and it the first automated line.  Think about what equipment used that line before the introduction of postwar equipment.  And after the Fulton Street subway was extended from Rockaway Avenue to Euclid Avenue, it ran under the Fulton Street Elevated both from Rockaway Avenue to East NY - Broadway Jc. under Fulton St. and from under the Canarsie Line RoW to Euclid Avenue under Pitken Avenue.  Neither elevated structure exists now, last used in 1956.   You did mention Fulton Street and you did mention the 14th Street Canarsie Line, No. 16.  The number assigned to Fulton was 13, but this obviously was not shown on the fronts of the C-type cars, which were rebuilt from gate cars, and which provided the regular service . They were relocated to replace the gate cars in 9th Avenue - Coney Island rush-hour shuttle service (during the rush the steel cars went only as far as Kings Highway, and the shuttles connceted with both them and the West End line at 9th Avenue), being scrapped when the "D" was extended south from Church Avenue to C. I. and the traditional Culver trains cut back to Ditmas Avenue before being just a Ditmas - 9th Avenue shuttle and then nothing.

But the modern cars continued years after this, last used in 1961, transferred from 14th Street Canarsie to Williamsburg Bridge - Myrtle and Metropolitan Avenue serivce, now mostly part of the M Line. but now turning north up 6th Avenue instead of south on Center St, and Nassau to Chambers St.  (The J from Jamaica, still turns south.)

There should be enough hints for you to come up with the anwer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Posted by narig01 on Wednesday, September 23, 2015 1:14 PM

Dave, what comes to mind is the BMT(I forgot the line) out to Lefferts Blvd in Ozone Park. From what I remember having read about it, in the end, before being connected to the IND, It was a stub to Rockaway Av above the IND Fulton St subway. I also vaguely remember reading at one point there was service down Broadway over the Williamsburg Bridge to the Nassau St Loop.

      The other thing that comes to mind is the Canarsie Line(I think) at one point had service down Broadway over the Williamsburg Bridge to the Nassau St Loop.

 

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Posted by daveklepper on Tuesday, September 22, 2015 4:12 AM

anotheor hint:  Except for some rush hours gate-car trains, service on the regular rout used rebuilt cars, rebuilt from gate cars, and this was the only line where these were used.  When the extension of a subway line removed the regular service, like the rush-hour newer cars, these were related, in this case far away, for a rush-hour only service, replacing gate cars.

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Posted by daveklepper on Monday, September 21, 2015 3:04 PM

The restored service was lost again for a considerable period more recently and then restored.

There were periods of time when the old regular service and the rush hour service with the cars that made it possible operated on an old elevated structure right above the service in a subway whose later extension replaced them both.

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Posted by daveklepper on Monday, September 21, 2015 9:48 AM

Hint:  Unification in June 1940 saw the regular rout using older cars curtailed considerably but still operating.  The rush hour rout with the newer cars contininued until a specific construction project replaced both it and the regular rout with a regular service's extension that operates today, and months later opened a new rout that revived rail service where it had been lost.

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Posted by daveklepper on Sunday, September 20, 2015 3:00 AM

In the 1920's, when the BMT's D-Type, three unit articulated cars were designed, with at least two preserved in the museum fleet and operated on special occasions, the BMT's routes received numbers:  1 - Brighton, 2 - Culver, 3 - West End, 4 - Sea Beach, 5 - 4th Avenue, 6 - Bay Ridge-5th Avenue Elevated, 7 - Franklin Shuttle, 8 - Flushing, 9 - Astoria, 10 - Nassau Street Loop Service, 11 - Broadway - Jamaica, 12 Broadway - Canarsie and Broadway Short Line, 13 - Fulton Street, 14 Myrtle Avenue, 15 Lexington Avenue.   The full 14th Street - Canarsie Line was opened a few years later and assigned 16.   This number was regularly used on end-signs, but many never were.  The original steels, making up most of the subway fleet, and the wood elevated cars did not have end signs.  But one of the numbers listed was used for a new service that only in-part used the route of the original line that was assigned the number, and only this new service used cars that carried this number.  The cars regularly ran on a route with a different number, but most were shifted to this route during rush hours.  These were cars that made possible the establishment of this new rush-hour route.  This route was established before WWII, survived unification, and continued well into the post-WWII period.  What ended it and where were the cars relocated?  What was the number displayed on the regular route and what on the rush-hour route?  What was unusuall about these cars that made the route possible?  All the information you know will be welcome.  And if my list of numbers needs correction, please supply.

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Posted by rcdrye on Thursday, September 17, 2015 7:52 PM

The cars regularly operated to Westchester (though seldom to Mannheim Rd).  In North/South service they did operate through the subway, though they were later restricted from it.  That leaves one division where they couldn't operate, even though trolley pole equipped.  They were posed for one good publcity shot on the line, though nowhere near the end.  The restriction did have something to do with platforms, but not curves.

 

I'm going to give this one to Dave.  He got the right line (Lake Street) but for the wrong reason.  Lake Street had island platforms at street level west of Laramie, with station houses on the ends that were full platform width and therefore wide enough to be hit by cars wider than the 8"6" standard car width.  The 5000 series articulateds had fishbelly sides like North Shore's Electoliners which were 9'4" wide and thus stuck out 5" over the platforms.  The 6000  and 1-50 series were also prohibited west of Laramie until November 1962 for similar reasons.  The new platforms on the raised C&NW ROW would have allowed their use, but by that time Lake Street was fully equipped with 4000 series "plushies" and was waiting for the arrival of the 2000 series high performance cars from Pullman.  5000s and 6000s only operated there in fantrip service.

Articulated cars 5001-5004 were later renumbered 51-54 in Skokie service.

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Posted by daveklepper on Thursday, September 17, 2015 2:04 PM

Or, even though built as single cars, they were regularly used in trains, especially for Evansnton EXpress service.  But since they were equipped with poles, their service on lines that had no trolley wire was probably pretty minimal  No wire existed on the Metropolitan Division.   Remember the CA&E tracks that CRT-CTA used were all third rail.  I think the Manheim Shuttle was also third rail, but I am not certain.  If I remember correctly, certain tracks in the Englewood Yard on the South Side did use overhead wire, but that did not prevent "baldy" 2000's from providing most of the through Howard Street - South Side service.  Lots of gate cars had trolley poles, but the woodies for the Met and for the two South Side shuttles did not.

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Posted by daveklepper on Thursday, September 17, 2015 10:48 AM

Or posibly operations at the outer end of the line involved hand-throw switches, more accessable with the door or door-and-gate arrangement on the old equipment, again possibly the outer end of Gaqrfield.

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Posted by daveklepper on Thursday, September 17, 2015 6:21 AM

Were there stations on the line located on curves?  The equipmenet preceeding the Spams (5000's) and the single cars all had doors or gates at the ends, and could load at platforms out the outside of a curve.  The post-WWII cars had quarter-point doors, resulting in a gap to such platforms.

Of course platforms on the inside of curves are a problem for any equipment except center-door cars.

The division most likely to have such an outside-curve  platform or platforms would be the Metropolitan at the outer end of Garfield and possibly the Manheim Shuttle

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Posted by rcdrye on Monday, September 14, 2015 6:50 AM

CRT/CTA's divisions traditionally consisted of the following:

Metropolitan (Garfield/Westchester, Douglas, Logan Square, Humboldt Park)

South Side (Englewood, Jackson Park, Kenwood, Stock Yards)

Northwestern (Howard, Evanston, Niles Center (Skokie), Ravenswood)

Lake Street

 

The cars that ended up on the Skokie Swift could not operate to the end of one of the divisions.

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Posted by rcdrye on Sunday, September 13, 2015 7:15 AM

As built, the cars had poles.  They operated for several years in Evanston Service on overhead wire before reassignment to Skokie (and Pan Trolleys).  The cars only had a brief service period on one major division, but never even reached the end of the line I'm looking for.

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Posted by daveklepper on Sunday, September 13, 2015 6:15 AM

If the Skokie Swift started up before outer Lake Street was moved from on-grade side-of-road running to sharing the C&NW RoW, then lack of trolley poles would have prevented their operating on Lake.

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Posted by rcdrye on Friday, September 11, 2015 11:43 AM

Some of the cars used by CTA on the Skokie Swift were ordered by Chicago Rapid Transit before the CTA takeover.  They were used in some regular service on each of the CRT/CTA's L divisions before ending up in Skokie Swift service, with one notable exception.  Which line was never used, and why?

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Posted by CSSHEGEWISCH on Friday, September 11, 2015 10:06 AM

Rcdrye has the right answer so he gets the next question.

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Posted by wanswheel on Friday, September 11, 2015 10:00 AM
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Posted by rcdrye on Friday, September 11, 2015 7:44 AM

George Krambles was the project manager for the Skokie Swift.  Shore Line Interurban Historical Society's  "First and Fastest" magazine had some excellent material in the Spring 2014 issue.  The overhead section was converted to third rail in 2004.  The "Yellow Line" has been out of service for some months due to a sinkhole on the eastern end.  CTA is trucking cars to and from the Skokie Shops.

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Posted by wanswheel on Thursday, September 10, 2015 8:14 PM
Excerpt from Skokie Swift, the Commuter’s Friend (1968)
"Skokie Swift," the high-speed, two-station commuter shuttle, began service as a locally-sponsored mass transportation demonstration project, federally aided by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The project rehabilitated five miles of abandoned interurban railway extending to the Village of Skokie from main line rapid transit at the Chicago city limits and operated rail transit service over this route. Skokie Swift now continues as a part of the comprehensive mass transportation system of metropolitan Chicago…
Although it represented a bargain to the CTA, the right-of-way was not without fault from the standpoint of an ideal route for rail rapid transit operations. For one thing, half of the right-of-way was electrified with the third rail, while the other half had overhead trolley wires…
One of the first problems to solve was that of the trolley power collector. Since the project was to feature non-stop operation with one-man cars, a new way had to be found to change from the third rail with which the line was powered east of Crawford to the overhead trolley west of East Prairie. North Shore Line had used ordinary trolley poles, but raising or lowering them was a manual job that had to be done from the rear of a car.
As an alternate, a pan trolley was developed in the CTA's shop. It resembles in a general way the bow trolley occasionally found on European or Japanese tramways. The device consists of two standard trolley poles with spring bases, mounted parallel and joined by a light frame supporting a pantograph bow. A motor-driver retriever controls the trolley rope, and a solenoid latch holds the pan down. The tendency of wind pressure to blow the pan from the wire at speeds in excess of 35 miles per hour is offset by the lift of an airfoil attached between the poles. CTA had to design this special remote control pan trolley because available pantographs did not meet the combined requirements for a 22-foot high wire, low car roof, and a light weight limit on the car roofs. One suitable pantograph, which was made to order in Germany, was placed in use in the final three months of the project.
Push-button controls for the trolley devices were also provided so that a Skokie Swift operator can conveniently make the changeover at Crawford-East Prairie without interrupting train movement. The controls include automatic changeover contactors to transfer the car electrical load to the live power source and overriding automatic trolley pull-down when a car runs from trolley to third rail.
Excerpt from CTA Quarterly, Spring 1975
George Krambles: his vocation is his avocation
Some people never lose interest in electric trains — especially if they are members of an elite railroad fraternity called the Central Electric Railfans Association.
Based in Chicago, the 36-year-old group of electric railroad enthusiasts thrill at the sight of any antique on the tracks — from an obsolete Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee Railroad S-606 line car which was used to maintain the trolley wires to the CTA Paul Revere Spirit of '76 train.
They're people who will spend hours travelling to an almost obliterated set of tracks to unravel the story of a now defunct rail line. It's play for them.
They're well established as part of a little known half-century old tradition which includes such devotees as band-leader and composer David Rose, the late Harry Truman, and Chicago architect Arthur Dubin.
And their research is valued by city and transportation planners as well.
CERA was formed by George Krambles, CTA Operations Manager, and Frank Butts, owner of a Wisconsin bus company, in 1938.
Attending an early CERA meeting was not unlike going to the Friday night movies.
Held on chartered 'L' cars, with rows of seats facing one direction, the lights would even be dimmed for a slide show.
They had plenty to talk about then too — 621 electric rail companies which, at their peak used 16,000 miles of inter-urban track across the country.
CERA established itself as a scholarly society by issuing an historical bulletin on the Gary Railways at its first excursion. The group was riding the Gary Railways from Gary to Valparaiso, Ind.
These annual bulletins have evolved into full fledged books. The largest, 600 pages, traces the history of The Milwaukee Electric Railway and Light Company.
A few CERA publications, such as the original "Electric Railways of Iowa," published in 1956 as a limited edition that sold for $9 in bookstores, now display pricetags of $75 as collector's items.
A history of Chicago rapid transit, 1892-1947, will be brought up to date with volume II, currently on the press.
Most of the research materials for these books comes from the private collections of CERA members.
While some members boast basements full of railroad hardware, others collect timetables, tokens, and photographs.
Krambles, for instance, is well known for his donations of photographs of tracks and aerial views of the city, which curators at the Chicago Historical Society relate, prove invaluable as research material for city planners.
Krambles explained that the CTA also once saved itself a lot of unneeded work thanks to a photograph in the collection of William Janssen, a CTA engineer.
The picture, taken in Decatur in 1935, showed an experimental usage of a pan trolley on an Illinois Terminal car.
"The fact that their experiment failed gave us an indication of what went wrong. We redesigned the pan trolley and got ours to work," Krambles said.
The air foil on the pan trolley, which uses the principle of aerodynamics used in an airplane wing, creates lift at the same time the train is moving, assuring good sliding contact with the overhead trolley wire.
But lest you think CERA is merely a bookish crew of railroaders, consider that they have interrupted parades and started fires while "at play."
For it is on rail trips that these railfans let it "all hang out" (cameras, lenses, tripods, note pads, and timetables) as they hang on for a ride on the oldest or most unusual electric train they can find.
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Posted by rcdrye on Thursday, September 10, 2015 7:13 PM

The pan trolleys tended to pull away from the wire at speed.  CTA solved the problem by fitting an airfoil between the poles which pushed the shoe upward.  The original pan trolleys were made from actual trolley poles fitted with shoes borrowed from the South Shore Line.  All CTA Skokie swift equipment before the 3200 series were equipped with at least one pan trolley, though car 24 had a custom-design oversize pantograph for at least some time.

Apparently the airfoil design was made on opening day, with cars equipped "on the fly" at nearby Skokie shops.

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Posted by CSSHEGEWISCH on Thursday, September 10, 2015 10:05 AM

Hard to believe that this qualifies, but it does.  When CTA first started service on the Skokie Swift, it ran into a problem with the pan trolleys fitted to the single unit cars.  What was the problem and how was it corrected?

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Posted by Wizlish on Wednesday, September 9, 2015 2:09 PM

Do we know for certain that the Precursors were black?

 

On the other hand, many tales of Alexander's horse are legends, and...

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