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Classic Railroad Quiz (at least 50 years old).

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Posted by rcdrye on Thursday, May 18, 2023 12:54 PM

The current corridor route was used from Jersey City to Philadelphia (United New Jersey Railroad and Canal Companies).  Both today's main line and the Camden & Amboy were part of UNJRR&CC but even then the direct route would have been preferred.  The Philadelphia Wilmington & Baltimore (today's Corridor) was used to Baltimore, including a ferry crossing of the Susquehanna River.  In Baltimore the car Lincoln was in was drawn through the streets (President St and Pratt St.) by horses from PW&B's President Station to the B&O's Mt. Clare station, today's B&O Museum.

Amtrak's New York Division mileposts are measured from Jersey City. PRR built its Baltimore & Potomac line in 1872.  B&O built its line to Philadelphia in the 1880s after PRR got control of the PW&B

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Posted by Overmod on Thursday, May 18, 2023 11:36 PM

As soon as I saw the West Side &Yonkers terminated at 30th St. I thought about Mike's question about Lincoln detraining at 30th St. on the NYC West Side line.

I can't get to NYPL to read the 1870 report, but it occurs to me that the 'Yonkers' might have been reached that way, a bit like a NYW&B in reverse.

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Posted by daveklepper on Monday, May 22, 2023 2:53 AM

Waiting for RC's or Overmod's next question.  Thanks.

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Posted by rcdrye on Tuesday, May 23, 2023 6:06 AM

This railroad's passenger trains bounced around Chicago's stations perhaps more than any other, missing only Chicago Union Station.  In the early years its trains could be found in Central and later Dearborn, before a cutback druing the depression required passengers to change trains near the city limits.  Re-entering by merger after WW II, it was a tenant at yet another station for 20 years before moving with its landlord to its last pre-Amtrak station.

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Posted by daveklepper on Tuesday, May 23, 2023 9:54 AM

Chesapeak and Ohio, who returned to downtown Chicago with purchase of the Pere Marquet (Sp?). 

Before that, its remaining train from Cincinnati terminated at Hammond, with passengers expected to use the South Shore.

Passengers on the three important trains, George Washington, Sportsman, and Fast Flying Virginian, werre routed to use the NYCentral between Cincinnati and Chicago. 

The stations it used at the return were Grand Central and then Northwestern.

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Posted by rcdrye on Wednesday, May 24, 2023 7:12 AM

Technically C&O of Indiana was a different company but it and PM were always considered part of the C&O system.  C&O of Indiana trains used a joint station (with the Erie) in Hammond.  Locomotives and gas cars were serviced at Nickel Plate's roundhouse near 95th st. inside the Chicago city limits.

Pere Marquettte/C&O used the New Tork Central from La Porte Indiana to Pine Junction in East Chicago Indiana to reach the B&OCT for access to Grand Central and later North Western's CPT.  As a result B&O and C&O trains went through Gary Indiana on different tracks.  The PM/C&O trains did not stop at Gary Union Station due to a limitation in the trackage rights agreement.

 

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Posted by daveklepper on Wednesday, May 24, 2023 10:27 AM

Without  your saying so, I trust you want me to ask the next question,  I've picked a very easy one, but a detailed answer should be interesting to just about everyone and may remove some myths.

The diesel locomotive revolution spelled the end of numeruous existing electrifications and put the end to some planned ones.

As far as  I know, however, there is only one Class One North American railroad that replaced a major electrification with STEAM!

Explain, who, where, how, why, results.

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Posted by CSSHEGEWISCH on Wednesday, May 24, 2023 2:21 PM

That would be Norfolk & Western.  N&W did a line relocation around the area of Elkhorn Tunnel which eliminated the need for electric operation through the tunnel.

The daily commute is part of everyday life but I get two rides a day out of it. Paul
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Posted by daveklepper on Saturday, May 27, 2023 11:55 PM

You are correct.  In addition bto eliminating a tunnel operation, was not there also grade reduction?

And the next question is yours.

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Posted by daveklepper on Wednesday, May 31, 2023 9:02 AM

Waiting for South Shore's question.

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Posted by Overmod on Monday, June 5, 2023 4:56 AM

In the meantime, how about a quickie?

There was a second example of de-electrification that would have very likely have been run with steam if implemented even a couple of years earlier, less than a decade after the N&W's Elkhorn Tunnel project.  It was run with comparably very modern power, unlike the N&W's clunking squareheads; in fact one of its classes of locomotive had more lives than a cat on a fairly amazing number of electrified railroads elsewhere.  So no lack of either utility or distinctive competence led to the abandonment.

Where was this, and what were the specific reasons for it?

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Posted by rcdrye on Monday, June 5, 2023 6:25 AM

N&W retired the ex-Virginian electrification west of Roanoke VA it got in the 1959 merger after shifting traffic so that it ran one way on the ex-Virginian, the other way on the "old" N&W.  Since the electrics could only run on the ex-Virginian, their utility was greatly reduced.  N&W had barely retired steam before the VGN merger.  The VGN's 1955-built GE EL-C class (by then N&W EL-C) went on to become New Haven EF-4 class, then PC and Conrail E-33 class, eventually operating on almost all electrified trackage extant when they were built.

VGN's 1925 Alco-Westinghouse EL-1A and EL-3A equivalent of N&W's "Sqareheads" were retired in the mid 1950s after the arrival of the EL-Cs.  VGN's huge motor-generator EL-2B units were scrapped without resale.

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Posted by Overmod on Monday, June 5, 2023 9:21 PM

Correct on all counts.

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Posted by rcdrye on Tuesday, June 6, 2023 7:16 AM

Virginian, like C&O and N&W was known mainly for sending coal to Tidewater.  The west end of the Virginian's main line was in a location with an unlikely name, considering this...

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Posted by Overmod on Tuesday, June 6, 2023 6:17 PM

Deepwater.  Kinda like the Jersey Shore, PA of West Virginia...

There was a Deepwater Railway and a Tidewater Railway that were developed (by William Page) as intrastate components of what became the Virginian Railway.  I always considered them examples of 'wishful thnking' about what would be done with the coal that was shipped over them.

The earliest Mallets on the Virginian were actually 'Tidewater Railway' engines -- they were interesting in contemporary technical details.

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Posted by daveklepper on Wednesday, June 7, 2023 1:18 AM

Are the technical details what you are requesting as your question?

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Posted by rcdrye on Wednesday, June 7, 2023 7:25 AM

Overmod pretty much got it.  The Deepwater Railroad was completed first, the Virginian resulting from the completion of the Tidewater Railroad and the merger wih the Deepwater.  The junction on the opposite side of the Kanawha River from Deepwater (with the New York Central's Toledo & Ohio Central) was, and may still be, known as DB Tower after the Deepwater Bridge).

Pennsylvania has lots of strange place labels.  North East, PA, near Erie in northwest PA, still makes me laugh.

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Posted by daveklepper on Wednesday, June 7, 2023 7:36 AM

What was unusual about the Virginian's early Mallets?

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Posted by rcdrye on Wednesday, June 7, 2023 9:10 AM

Off the top of my head they were hand-fired and saturated steam as delivered, so they can't have been much fun for firemen.  (They were later equipped with stokers and superheaters.) 22x30 high pressure, 35x30 low pressure cylinders. In common with many contemporary Mallets, they had piston valves on the high pressure cylinders and slide valves for the LP cylinders.

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Posted by Overmod on Wednesday, June 7, 2023 6:42 PM

That sectional boiler with the front part as a feedwater heater.

This was the same general idea as the ATSF 'hinged boiler' Mallets -- the firebox and boiler were the rear; the front was all, or nearly all, chock full o'tubes for more heat transfer surface.

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Posted by rcdrye on Wednesday, June 7, 2023 7:10 PM

The AA class 2-6-6-0s were the first with a lead truck.  They were among the largest hand-fired locomotives ever built.  The story goes that Virginian tried to hire both right- and left-handed fireman so they could work in pairs.

I think the experimental boiler was on the AB class 2-8-8-0  600 (1911).  The engine suffered from cracked frames and boiler leaks.  After Baldwin supplied a new Boiler and frame it settled down to mine run service, but was even less popular with crews than the hand-fired AA class. 

The slightly larger AC class 2-6-6-0s (1910) were also hand-fired.  All but one of the AA and AC classes eventually got stokers and superheaters.

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Posted by daveklepper on Thursday, June 8, 2023 1:45 AM

Thanks!  Hapy to learn that information,  And did not some of those earlybMalletws last a very long time?

 

And are not you up to ask the next question?

 

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Posted by rcdrye on Thursday, June 8, 2023 5:26 AM

The AA and ACs lasted until the mid-1930s.  Overmod came up with Deepwater.

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Posted by Overmod on Thursday, June 8, 2023 2:29 PM

The earliest of the Mallets were so early that they were nominally Tidewater engines, not Virginian.

Very interesting that they were the first evolutionary step after Old Maud.  For some reason I thought a 2-8-8-0 was the first to need a Bissel -- iirc on the Erie.

Interestingly enough I was gearing up to ask about that feedwater heater equipped Mallet power and got beaten to the punch.

Were the Virginian engines the ones that got no complaints from the unions about crewing because they were double-manned for firing?

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Posted by Overmod on Saturday, June 17, 2023 1:21 PM

I'm giving this to rcdrye because Deepwater was so simple to locate in even a crude search for the Virginian.  It was a few seconds longer to find the distinction in the corporate records for the 'state' entities (Tidewater and Deepwater) used during the initial planning of what became the Virginian... and that accounted (no pun intended) for the unusual name.

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Posted by rcdrye on Sunday, June 18, 2023 7:42 AM

I asked the question you answered.  I just added a little explanation after you did.

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Posted by Overmod on Sunday, June 18, 2023 7:32 PM

I thought the question Mr. Klepper asked about the Tidewater Mallets was the next one on the quiz!

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Posted by daveklepper on Tuesday, June 20, 2023 3:12 AM

I just wanted information.   Thanks!

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Posted by Overmod on Wednesday, June 21, 2023 10:28 AM

Rats!  I guess that means I have to find a question of the caliber of the stops on the B&A going into Boston.  That's going to take time.

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Posted by rcdrye on Wednesday, June 21, 2023 12:26 PM

Kneeland Street pre-dated South Station.  The other two stations in Boston city limits were Columbus Ave (later Huntington Ave AKA Trinity Place, replaced by Back Bay, and Lansdowne, AKA Beacon Street or Brookline Junction.  The station that replaced it when the Mass Pike was built is (or at least was) called Yawkey.

I seem to remember that B&A and Boston & Providence crossed each other at street level near the present Back Bay station.  B&A's Boston-Framingham local service via the main line and the Riverside branch made local stops at all three stations.

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