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Classic Railroad Quiz (at least 50 years old).

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Posted by ZephyrOverland on Friday, January 21, 2011 12:01 PM

al-in-chgo

 

 ZephyrOverland:

 

 

 wanswheel:

63 hours.

 

That may have been true for awhile, but the attribute I'm looking for applied to both trains during the entire time each train existed.  You can say without this, the trains could not have operated on a regular basis.

 

  Fred Harvey's catering?   

 

Good guess but your answer could apply to a number of Santa Fe trains.  The answer I'm looking for has to do specifically with the de-Luxe and Chief.

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Posted by al-in-chgo on Friday, January 21, 2011 11:33 AM

ZephyrOverland

 wanswheel:

63 hours.

 

 

 

That may have been true for awhile, but the attribute I'm looking for applied to both trains during the entire time each train existed.  You can say without this, the trains could not have operated on a regular basis.

 

 

Fred Harvey's catering?   

 

al-in-chgo
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Posted by ZephyrOverland on Friday, January 21, 2011 10:16 AM

henry6

Wasn't it the interchangablity of trainsets' equipment so that a Chief could be turned to a Super Chief and vice versa?

The question that I'm asking relates to the de-Luxe and Chief only.  The attribute I'm looking for transcends equipment.

This may help -  look in the timetables.......

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Posted by henry6 on Friday, January 21, 2011 9:28 AM

Wasn't it the interchangablity of trainsets' equipment so that a Chief could be turned to a Super Chief and vice versa?

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Posted by ZephyrOverland on Friday, January 21, 2011 7:13 AM

wanswheel

63 hours.

 

 

That may have been true for awhile, but the attribute I'm looking for applied to both trains during the entire time each train existed.  You can say without this, the trains could not have operated on a regular basis.

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Posted by ZephyrOverland on Friday, January 21, 2011 7:05 AM

daveklepper

Pullmans detached at Williams? and run to the Grand Canyon and then back to Williams? and continuing on the trip in which ever direction they started.   A one-day layover in each direction with a side trip to the Grand Canyon .

Nope, the de-Luxe was always a solid Chicago-Los Angeles train.

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Posted by daveklepper on Friday, January 21, 2011 3:59 AM

Pullmans detached at Williams? and run to the Grand Canyon and then back to Williams? and continuing on the trip in which ever direction they started.   A one-day layover in each direction with a side trip to the Grand Canyon .

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Posted by ZephyrOverland on Thursday, January 20, 2011 10:43 AM

daveklepper

A barber

That may be true, but the answer I'm looking for is more operational in nature.

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Posted by daveklepper on Thursday, January 20, 2011 4:41 AM

A barber

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Posted by ZephyrOverland on Wednesday, January 19, 2011 8:17 PM

FlyingCrow

Extra Fine - Extra Fast - Extra Fare

Is that it, Myron?

That may be true for both trains, but that's not what I was looking for.

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Posted by FlyingCrow on Wednesday, January 19, 2011 7:19 PM

Extra Fine - Extra Fast - Extra Fare

Is that it, Myron?

AB Dean Jacksonville,FL
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Posted by ZephyrOverland on Wednesday, January 19, 2011 1:32 PM

Next Question -

The Santa Fe de-Luxe and Chief.  The purpose of these trains was to provide the best and fastest service to the cream of the Chicago-Los Angeles market.  Both trains were operated as all-Pullman, extra fare runs but were separated by about a decade, the de-Luxe operating between 1911-1917 and the Chief from 1926-1968.  Both trains shared one more attribute - what was it?

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Posted by daveklepper on Wednesday, January 19, 2011 2:06 AM

Looking forward to Zephyr's question.

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Posted by Deggesty on Tuesday, January 18, 2011 10:22 AM

daveklepper

Z-O definitely should ask the next question.   As you can tell by the tone of my reply, I did have doubts that it was the train you wanted.   I knew about the Cape Charles service but did not know the name of the overnight train.  Now you have told me.  Thanks!   There was also the day train, which I did know, the Del-Mar-Va Express.   Would have also made a good quiz question:   Train name including three states (abreviations) where the passengers were mostly headed for a place------

Yes, Dave, that would have been an excellent question, with the conclusion-----which they had to use a ferry to reach. Incidentally, the N&W Cavalier did carry one sleeper with a more southern destination than the train itself--Richmond-Bristol, which traveled over the ACL Richmond-Petersburg and the Pelican carried it between Roanoke and Bristol.

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Posted by daveklepper on Tuesday, January 18, 2011 10:04 AM

Z-O definitely should ask the next question.   As you can tell by the tone of my reply, I did have doubts that it was the train you wanted.   I knew about the Cape Charles service but did not know the name of the overnight train.  Now you have told me.  Thanks!   There was also the day train, which I did know, the Del-Mar-Va Express.   Would have also made a good quiz question:   Train name including three states (abreviations) where the passengers were mostly headed for a place------

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Posted by Deggesty on Monday, January 17, 2011 12:19 PM

ZephyrOverland

 daveklepper:

I believe the N&W operated the Cavalier, and possibly sleepers ran from New York, certainly Washington and Norfolk, and one of the National Parks was an ultimate destination for at least some of the passengers.   This may not be the train you are looking for, but I do know that at one time the N&W did run a train called the Cavalier. 

 

I think daveklepper is right, but as an FYI, the PRR also operated a Cavalier between New York-Philadelphia-Cape Charles (Norfolk)

It is true that the N&W operated a train called the Cavalier--but it was an east-west train, with no southern terminal, running between Norfolk and Cincinnati, and it took a night and a day westbound and a day and a night eastbound. 

The PRR operated an overnight train which had sleepers New York-Cape Charles and Philadelphia-Cape Charles. Since Cape Charles is at the southern end of the Del-Mar-Va peninsula, a ferry was necessary to get to and from Norfolk (I am certain that were more people going on to the Norfolk area than there were going just to Cape Charles). The PRR had its ferries make direct connection with its trains, and the ferry cost was included in the ticket to/from Norfolk. The Virginia Ferry Corporation had more trips across the Chesapeake Bay, and first class PRR tickets were accepted; coach passengers had to pay a little more.

Nowadays, you pay a toll to get from the Norfolk area to the tip of the peninsula, and drive across three bridges and through two tunnels; it's quite a trip (we traveled that way four years ago).

ZO, you did name the right road (though you seemed a uncertain that it was right), and you named the terminii of the sleepers.

At the time I posed the question, I completely forgot about the N&W's train (which I rode in 1966), but I think that I did exclude it with "overnight" and "southern."

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Posted by ZephyrOverland on Monday, January 17, 2011 5:45 AM

daveklepper

I believe the N&W operated the Cavalier, and possibly sleepers ran from New York, certainly Washington and Norfolk, and one of the National Parks was an ultimate destination for at least some of the passengers.   This may not be the train you are looking for, but I do know that at one time the N&W did run a train called the Cavalier. 

I think daveklepper is right, but as an FYI, the PRR also operated a Cavalier between New York-Philadelphia-Cape Charles (Norfolk)

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Posted by daveklepper on Monday, January 17, 2011 5:08 AM

I believe the N&W operated the Cavalier, and possibly sleepers ran from New York, certainly Washington and Norfolk, and one of the National Parks was an ultimate destination for at least some of the passengers.   This may not be the train you are looking for, but I do know that at one time the N&W did run a train called the Cavalier. 

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Posted by Deggesty on Sunday, January 16, 2011 6:11 PM

Dave, I wish I had been able to ride the Royal Gorge (and a few other trains), but by the time I had the wherewithal and time, many of them were absolutely gone. I am thankful that I was able to take a trip to the Pacific Northwest in April of 1971 (my first trip out west).

Henry, did the Pennsy and Lackawanna show such stops in the train timetables? I have been treated to an unscheduled stop on a bridge over a gorge between Nanaimo and Victoria, and I thanked the engineer for it after we arrived in Victoria.

New question: what road operated the overnight Cavalier, what were the terminals of the sleepers on the train, and what city was the ultimate destination at the south end (not by rail) of most of the passengers?

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Posted by FlyingCrow on Sunday, January 16, 2011 5:45 PM

Johnny got it !     The Royal Gorge stopped for 10 minutes so you could get out and ooh and ahh at the steep canyon walls of the Arkansas PLUS the very scary suspension bridge across the canyon ...1051 feet straight up.

OR..if you were a rail historian as we all are..you could look across the river at the once ATSF grade on the other bank and remember the infamous "Royal Gorge War" between the D&RG and ATSF, in which (obviously) the Rio Grande prevailed.    I personally think it was diversion so Santa Fe could grab rights to the Wooten toll road over Raton Pass.

 

Johnny ...step up to the plate.

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Posted by Texas Zepher on Sunday, January 16, 2011 1:35 PM

Well the GN/BN stopped at the entry to Glacier National Park, but that was actually a station.

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Posted by henry6 on Sunday, January 16, 2011 8:51 AM

Deggesty

 FlyingCrow:

Gee. this is a bit of a hard act to follow.....

Well, a quicky that everyone should jump on:     On what train on what railroad would you be allowed a 10 minute stop to look UP at an outstanding wonder?

Huh? 

 

Buck, that sounds like the Rio Grande, which stopped the Royal Gorge (and earlier, the Scenic Limited) 164.8 miles out of Denver so that passengers could get a good look at a bridge that spanned the Royal Gorge.

 

The Pennsy stopped on Horseshoe Curve for a gander at the valley and the curve as did the Lackawanna on Tunkhnnock Viaduct for views up and down Tunkhannock Creek at Nicholson, PA.  Curiously, what other roads stopped their trains for a short stint at a squint?

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Posted by daveklepper on Sunday, January 16, 2011 5:07 AM

Also, note publicity shots of DD-1's with the overhead third rail pantograph, but missing in the in-service postcard photo.

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Posted by daveklepper on Sunday, January 16, 2011 5:05 AM

Correct and you got it first, but I actually did it!   Look forward to your question.

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Posted by Deggesty on Saturday, January 15, 2011 10:03 PM

FlyingCrow

Gee. this is a bit of a hard act to follow.....

Well, a quicky that everyone should jump on:     On what train on what railroad would you be allowed a 10 minute stop to look UP at an outstanding wonder?

Huh? 

Buck, that sounds like the Rio Grande, which stopped the Royal Gorge (and earlier, the Scenic Limited) 164.8 miles out of Denver so that passengers could get a good look at a bridge that spanned the Royal Gorge.

 

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Posted by FlyingCrow on Saturday, January 15, 2011 9:29 PM

Gee. this is a bit of a hard act to follow.....

Well, a quicky that everyone should jump on:     On what train on what railroad would you be allowed a 10 minute stop to look UP at an outstanding wonder?

Huh?

 

 

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Posted by wanswheel on Saturday, January 15, 2011 4:28 AM

Excerpt from The New York Tunnel Extension of the Pennsylvania Railroad (1910)

From experience obtained in the service tests of three different types of electric locomotives, and the results of the special track instrument tests, it was decided to make quite a radical departure from general practice in the final design of the high-speed locomotives for the terminal equipment. An attempt has been made to pattern the locomotive mechanically on the fundamental characteristics of modern steam locomotive design in the following particulars:

(a) High center of gravity of the machine as a whole, and especially of the heavy electric motor portion;

(b) The large proportion of the total weight spring-borne, and equalized by a system having considerable amplitude of motion;

(c) An unsymmetrical distribution of wheel-base of the locomotive;

(d) A combination of driving and carrying wheels.

All the above characteristics, it was thought, would conduce to ease of riding, flexibility in tracking, and the reduction of destructive action to the roadbed by heavy masses moving at high speeds.

To accomplish these results required an important modification in the customary method of mounting and connecting the electric motors; instead of being placed concentric with or in the plane of the axles, and direct-mounted or geared to them, they are placed on the main frames above the wheels, and driving connections are made with rods...The locomotive is double, or articulated, each half being similar to an "American" type, or eight-wheeled steam locomotive, in the wheel arrangement, frames, and running gear. These halves are permanently coupled back to back by a drawbar and equalizing buffer connection. Each half has its own cab, and carries above the frame one series-wound electric motor, having inter-poles and a divided main-field winding. The large space available for the motor enabled its design to be liberal in all parts, and its location makes the entire motor accessible for inspection. The motor shaft, or axle, carries quartered cranks which are connected by rods to a cranked jack-shaft set between the frames and having its center in the plane of the driving axle center. From this shaft, rod connections are made to the wheels, as in steam locomotives. All moving masses of the rods and cranks are revolving, and are susceptible of accurate counterbalancing. The system adopted for motor control enables one motor to be out of service and the locomotive to be operated in emergency by the remaining motor; also, two or more locomotives may be coupled together and operated as a single unit. The division of the fields into sections for manipulating the field strength, gives four, instead of the usual two, running positions of the speed controller, and thus, also, economizes current during acceleration.

Special attention has been given to the arrangement of control and other apparatus in the locomotive cabs, to enable all parts to be readily accessible for inspection and adjustment, such as electrically-driven air pumps for brakes and control, pneumatic sanding devices, contact shoes for the third-rail, overhead pantagraph shoes, sleet-scraping devices for removing ice and snow from the third-rail, automatic train stops for applying the brakes and shutting off power in case of over-running signals in the tunnels, etc. The locomotives are also equipped with boilers for steam generation by electrically heating the water in the boiler to supply the steam-heating system of the trains.

In fixing the capacity of the locomotive, the probable maximum and average train weight was established, and the unit was designed for the most economical distribution of equipment for the Terminal service. It is obvious that on a short run the condition of starting a train from rest and accelerating on the tunnel grades fixes the maximum train which can be hauled, rather than the limitation of motor capacity due to the heating. The maximum weight of train to be hauled by one locomotive under the given conditions was specified as 550 tons trailing load; the actual capacity, however, in intermittent service, has approximated 700 tons trailing.

A sample locomotive of this design was built, placed under road test in October 1909, and run 15,000 miles on a continuous test, with a train of 400 tons trailing; also, complete dynamometer-car tests were made of the hauling capacity, speed, and motor characteristics. The detailed design of the mechanical portion of these locomotives was made by the Motive Power Department at Altoona, and the running gear and cabs were built complete at the Juniata shops.

In speaking of this development, it is not out of place to refer to the part taken by the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company, the contractor for the electric apparatus of the locomotives. From the first this company not only co-operated with the Committee in all needful respects in furnishing suggestions and information, but built at its own expense the electrical portions of the first two electric locomotives, and subsequently a complete locomotive of another type, all of which it placed at the disposal of the Committee for service and other tests.

http://www.northeast.railfan.net/images/prr4780.jpg  Sunnyside

http://arrts-arrchives.com/images/qqdd1wf.jpg    New York World's Fair

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Posted by Deggesty on Friday, January 14, 2011 10:29 PM

Texas Zepher

 wanswheel:

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e390/MikeMacDonald/DD1motor.jpg

Strange way to transmit the power to the wheels.  Take the nice circular motion of a motor and add all the inefficiencies of a steam locomotive drive rod.   I'm assuming they took a standard frame of a 4-4-0 locomotive and just adapted the motors to it instead of starting from a blank sheet of paper.


Yes, indeed. Rotary to reciprocating to rotary.

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Posted by Texas Zepher on Friday, January 14, 2011 8:50 PM

wanswheel

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e390/MikeMacDonald/DD1motor.jpg

Strange way to transmit the power to the wheels.  Take the nice circular motion of a motor and add all the inefficiencies of a steam locomotive drive rod.   I'm assuming they took a standard frame of a 4-4-0 locomotive and just adapted the motors to it instead of starting from a blank sheet of paper.

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