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Classic Railroad Quiz (at least 50 years old).

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Posted by daveklepper on Tuesday, December 10, 2013 2:53 AM

Mark, consider yourself the winner, but only graverty was among those I had in mind, and that was the Mt. Tamalpas (Sp?) of Pacific Electric.   Others I had in mind were conduit current collection for streetcars and for the WB&A interurban while operating on Washington, DC streetcar tracks, aircraft propeller propulsion, used by German Avaiators at their Afula airbase during WWI to make R&R trips over the narrow gauge line to Hafia and then around 1929 used for an experimental railcar by the German railways, in use sporadically until the middle of WWII,  the linear motor system used at Scarboro, Vancouver, and the JFK  Airtrain, and the experimental high speed electric railcar that raced a steam train in Germany, and that picked up three-phase electric power from three or four wires at the SIDE of the track.

rc:  contribution appreciated, but steam is steam, and fireless of any type are in that catagory, note no separation of oil and coal-burning. Ther donkey engine with cable attached is really the same technology as a funicular, or am I mistaken?

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Posted by narig01 on Monday, December 9, 2013 11:48 PM
I throw this out for laughs.
Human powered. On several occasions when the power was temporally off at the then California Railway Museum. The docks at Port Elizabeth to move the passenger cars of the French built RTG turboliners. The cable cars of San Francisco. At the cable car turntables on the Powell-Mason and Powell-Hyde lines as well in inside the carbarns.
Rubber tyre vehicles without hirail wheels. Several cold storage warehouses use yard trucks designed to move truck trailers that have a knuckle coupler on the front. This probably counts as diesel mechanical.
Thx IGN
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Posted by NorthWest on Monday, December 9, 2013 8:26 PM

Hydrogen (BNSF locomotive).

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Posted by KCSfan on Monday, December 9, 2013 7:20 PM

Gravity - The most well known being the D&H Canal & Gravity RR between Carbondale and Honesdale, PA

Distillate - Electric (not gas or diesel electric) - Powered many rail motor cars and  IIRC the UP1000

MagLev - Still largely experimental. Japan will have the first such line.

Natural Gas - Electric - I think only experimental so far and BNSF is one railroad that comes to mind as currently exploring this power source.

Mark

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Posted by rcdrye on Monday, December 9, 2013 4:57 PM

Fireless cookers run on house steam and Baldwin's Soda Motor, that took a hot charge of some kind of caustic soda mixed with an acid to produce steam.  In the words of the author of "The Locomotives that Baldwin Built",  "History does not record the reason for its demise, but it probably burped once too often."  There were also gravity railroads and the fabulous Gripwheel logging engine which used a donkey engine to run a cable wound on a drum.

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Posted by daveklepper on Monday, December 9, 2013 3:15 PM

Railroads have been powered by oxen, sails, horses, mules, cable with grips, cable attached as in furniculas, reciprocating steam, turbine steam, steam-electric, diesel-mechanical/hydraulic, gasoline-mechanical, electricitiy from overhead wire, electricity from third rail, storage batteries, diesel mechanical-hydraulic, diesel-electric, gas-electric, jet engine.

Name at least two I have left out, with description and location where used.  (There are at least four!)

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Posted by KCSfan on Monday, December 9, 2013 11:39 AM

Bravo Dave, your perseverance has paid off. Those are the railroads and trains I was looking for. The MP's Tennessean ran between St Louis and Memphis at the same time as the SR's Tennessean ran between NY and Memphis. Likewise a section of the MP's Southerner ran between Little Rock and New Orleans  while the SR's train of the same name ran between NY and New Orleans. The next question is yours.

Mark

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Posted by daveklepper on Monday, December 9, 2013 11:09 AM

The way I read the question, if the Southerner of both railroads served New Orleans and the Tennesean  of both railroads served Memphis, the other four terminals of the four trains don't matter.   So I have a right answer.   Is it THE right answer? 

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Posted by Deggesty on Monday, December 9, 2013 10:58 AM

Dave, the MP did have a Tennessean, but it did not run between Washington and Memphis, as the Southern's Tennessean did. Nor did the MP's Southerner come from Washington.

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Posted by daveklepper on Monday, December 9, 2013 10:34 AM

Did not do well on that search, but did learn the fact new for me that the MP had a Southerner that ran to New Orlens, suggsing that the two cities you want are New Orleans with an MP and a Southern Southerner, and Memphis.   Did the MP ever run a Tennesean?  Or did the MP NOT run to Memphis?

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Posted by daveklepper on Monday, December 9, 2013 10:15 AM

Well, the Sante Fe did once have a train naned the Kansas Cityan, I believe, and I think so did one other railroad.   TB&Q?   But if it was the Wabash, then I have part of the answer.   But what would the other city be?

More likely the two cities are KC and St.L, and the two railroads are the Wabash and the MP.  Now to find the train names.

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Posted by KCSfan on Monday, December 9, 2013 6:23 AM

Dave, I believe you are correct about the Buffalo trains but as far as I've been able to find out only the PRR ran a Gotham Ltd. so the Pennsy and NYC and their trains are not what I'm looking for with this question. I don't know of any Exposition Flyer other than that of the CB&Q, D&RGW and WP.

Here's a hint that should help you and others. The common cities that were served by the two trains of each railroad were both located on a major river.

Mark 

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Posted by daveklepper on Monday, December 9, 2013 4:40 AM

I think both the Central and the PRR ran a Buffalo Night Express, the PRR's from Harisburg with through cars or the train itself from Baltimore and Washington, and Central from both Boston and New Yorki.   And I think that at one time or another both had a Gotham Limited, possibly not at the same time, but both serving New York and possibly Chicago as well   There is also the Exposition Flyer of the WP-D&RGW-CB&Q, into Chicago, and I think one other railroad into Chicago also had an EF, but I forget which, and of course I would also have to come up with another name and another city.

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Posted by KCSfan on Sunday, December 8, 2013 12:40 PM

Dave, the two trains I'm looking for were not interchanged between the two railroads. I don't think the Erie ever ran a Manhattan Limited. I've looked at several OG's going back as far as 1910 and couldn't find one listed.

Mark

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Posted by daveklepper on Sunday, December 8, 2013 9:39 AM

A possible answer would be two through trains that were interchanged between the same two railroads at two different interchange points, for example:  New Haven - Boston and Maine:    State -of-Maine Express and Day Express, NY - Portland-Bangor, interchanged at Worcester, MA, common city No. 1;  Ambassador and Montrealer/Washingtonian, Montreal - NY or Washington, interchanged in Springfiled, MA, common city No.2.  I do not lthink this is what you had in mind, however.

Did not both the PRR and the Erie have Manhattan Limiteds that ran from Chicago to New York (the latter served by the Erie via ferry boats.)?    Now all I have to find is a different city that had the trains of both PRR and Erie with the same name.   Cleveland, possibly?

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Posted by KCSfan on Saturday, December 7, 2013 12:55 PM

For a time each of two different railroads had two trains with exactly the same name as two trains that ran on the other road. Trains named xxx of both railroads ran to the same city and trains named yyy of both roads ran to a second common city. What were the names of these trains, the railroads which ran them and the two common cities each pair of trains served. ?

Mark 

 

  

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Posted by Deggesty on Friday, December 6, 2013 4:39 PM

Mark, you have the routing.

Another illustration of how people went from here to there before some roads that we of today know were completed, creating shorter routings.

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Posted by KCSfan on Friday, December 6, 2013 12:49 PM

Deggesty

Mark, Chattanooga was not on the route. A hint: in 1930, the Seaboard took part in a Portsmouth-Memphis sleeper route.

Based on this hint I'll take another guess as to this sleeper route.

Greensboro - Atlanta: Richmond & Danville

Atlanta - Birmingham: Georgia Pacific

Birmingham - Memphis: Frisco (in 1893 it may have been the Kansas City Memphis & Birmingham)

Mark

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Posted by Deggesty on Friday, December 6, 2013 11:03 AM

Mark, Chattanooga was not on the route. A hint: in 1930, the Seaboard took part in a Portsmouth-Memphis sleeper route.

Johnny

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Posted by KCSfan on Friday, December 6, 2013 10:30 AM

Johnny, other than the Memphis & Charleston, the only other road into Memphis from the east that seems logical was the NC&StL. Earlier I had guessed that this sleeper ran over the NC&StL between Nashville and Memphis but you didn't say that was correct so I'll revise my answer to say NC&StL from Chattanooga to Memphis. If that's right did it run over the CNO&TP to Chattanooga from some point where it connected with the Richmond and Danville; possibly Knoxville. The problem is I can't find a readable map of the R&D so I don't know if and where it might have connected with the CNO&TP.

Mark

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Posted by Deggesty on Thursday, December 5, 2013 7:44 PM

Mark, you have one of the three roads--the Richmond and Danville. However, ETV&G did not enter into it, nor did the Memphis and Charleston. However, the R&D went to Paint Rock, N.C., where it did connect with the ETV&G. In later years, the Southern did offer Memphis-Asheville service via Chattanooga and Knoxville. The Memphis and Charleston was being operated by the ETV&G, and it ran over the NC between Chattanooga and Stevenson. However, there were no good connections if you wanted to travel that way; it was necessary to spend one or two nights in a hotel each way.

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Posted by KCSfan on Thursday, December 5, 2013 7:09 PM

Johnny I'll take another stab at this question.

Richmond & Danville: Greensboro - Asheville

East Tennessee Virginia & Georgia: Asheville - Stevenson AL

Memphis & Charleston: Stevenson - Memphis

Mark

PS: The Memphis & Charleston may have been extended to Chattanooga in which case that would be where it connected with the ETV&G.

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Posted by Deggesty on Tuesday, December 3, 2013 8:03 PM

Good try, Mark, but: the Southern Railway did not exist in June of 1893--and it would have taken at least two railroads to get from Greensboro to Harriman Junction--and there was no connection between Harriman and Nashville at that time (eventually, the Tennessee Central did run between Harriman and Nashville, and the Southern and it had, for a time, overnight service between Nashville and Knoxville).

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Posted by KCSfan on Tuesday, December 3, 2013 6:09 PM

Since I my earliest OG is a 1910 issue I'll just take a guess at this one.

Southern Ry - Greensboro to Harriman Jct.

Tennessee Central - Harriman Jct. to Nashville

NC&StL - Nashville - Memphis

Mark

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Posted by Deggesty on Tuesday, December 3, 2013 5:03 PM

In 1893, there was a through sleeper operated between Greensboro, N.C., and Memphis, Tenn. Three railroads carried the cars. Name the railroads and the junctions.

Johnny

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Posted by rcdrye on Tuesday, December 3, 2013 12:29 PM

Deggesty

The Rutland?

Rutland it is.  The Rutland-Canadian was built from Burlington VT to Alburgh VT to connect with the recently acquired Ogdensburgh and Lake Champlain.  One of the forerunners of the O&LC had spanned the lake west of Alburgh with a floating span, which was replaced after it dumped one train too many into the lake.

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Posted by henry6 on Tuesday, December 3, 2013 10:03 AM

Madison Wisc.  CNW.

RIDEWITHMEHENRY is the name for our almost monthly day of riding trains and transit in either the NYCity or Philadelphia areas including all commuter lines, Amtrak, subways, light rail and trolleys, bus and ferries when warranted. No fees, just let us know you want to join the ride and pay your fares. Ask to be on our email list or find us on FB as RIDEWITHMEHENRY (all caps) to get descriptions of each outing.

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Posted by Deggesty on Tuesday, December 3, 2013 9:25 AM

The Rutland?

Johnny

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Posted by rcdrye on Tuesday, December 3, 2013 6:33 AM

This regional railroad completed its main line by crossing a lake to connect its original section with a recently acquired line that once crossed the same lake on a floating bridge.  Only the original section remains in service in its entirety.

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Posted by NorthWest on Monday, December 2, 2013 11:55 PM

Rob gets it. The Bellingham and British Columbia was intended to build to the CP to provide rail connections to the area, and possibly build east over the Cascades. Actually, very little is left, a branch from near Sumas to Lynden, some track in Bellingham, and industrial spurs in Sumas. The main line was in use until the Milwaukee folded. The wooden truss bridge over the Nooksack River lasted until the mid 1980s(!) before an arsonist burned it down.

RCDRYE, your question. 

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