Classic Railroad Quiz (at least 50 years old).

[henry6]

Steam also at Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal and Brooklyn Dock Ry.  Similar freight terminals along the Harlem were Harlem Transfer for the DL&W plus the Erie and LV's yards.

[wanswheel]

Johnny, that's right you're up. I think the law was against steam in Manhattan, later amended to include the Bronx and cities that bordered the Bronx. Steam was allowed in the other borroughs, as far as I know. Certainly LIRR ran steam in Queens in the 1940s.

http://members.trainweb.com/bedt/indloco/crrnjbxt.html

http://www.port-kelsey.com/?cat=11

Mike

[Texas Zepher]

From a 1936 roster of the Ingersoll-Rand "box cab" type locomotive: 

Central RR. of New Jersey, Bronx Terminal, N. Y., Loco Number 1000, 300HP, 60 tons, Oct. 1925

For some reason it is called a steeple cab. 

Apparently this information is also available in the Train Shed Cylcopedia #43.

[henry6]

Wans...they've all been around the freight house several times!  Neat question...didn't think it would be a round this long, though.  If they see any joints they just might get it!

[Deggesty]

wanswheel

It was a fairly compact railroad, just over 700 miles of track. The locomotive it bought in 1925 was the first production model of a boxcab called an oil-electric due to Diesel sounding sort of politically incorrect in the wake of the Great War. It performed so well that all 50 of its kind produced were sold and it became known as the first commercially successful diesel. For 30 years it circled a little round freight house in a big city where steam was illegal, which was why they needed it there. The city is comprised of 5 counties of the state next to the state that the railroad was named for and where most of its tracks were. The county that the railroad's riverside terminal was in starts with the letter B and usually is preceded by the word "the."

The only city I know that is composed of five counties is New York City, and they are usually spoken of as "boroughs" (as Al - in -Chicago says). They are Bronx, New York (or Manhattan), Queens, Kings, and Richmond. Was steam outlawed all over NYC, or just underground? The Central Railroad of New Jersey is the only road I can think of with the name of a neighboring state in its name. If I am reading Mike's clues and Jerry Pinkepank's Diesel Spotter's Guide right, the locomotive was built by Alco, with GE electrical equipment and an Ingersoll-Rand 6 cylinder, 300 hp engine. Alco built 19 with one engine, and 5 with two engines. GE built 3 and 11, and Mr. Pinkepank was uncertain as to which company built another 9 and 1. There was also the demonstrator (round-nose, single end), which was built by GE; its disposition was unknown.

Johnny

[al-in-chgo]

wanswheel

It was a fairly compact railroad, just over 700 miles of track. The locomotive it bought in 1925 was the first production model of a boxcab called an oil-electric due to Diesel sounding sort of politically incorrect in the wake of the Great War. It performed so well that all 50 of its kind produced were sold and it became known as the first commercially successful diesel. For 30 years it circled a little round freight house in a big city where steam was illegal, which was why they needed it there. The city is comprised of 5 counties of the state next to the state that the railroad was named for and where most of its tracks were. The county that the railroad's riverside terminal was in starts with the letter B and usually is preceded by the word "the."

Would the civic entity be the Bronx, New York City?  NYC has five boroughs made up of former counties and Brooklyn is officially "Kings County." 

As for the locomotive's owner, I have no idea, but I hope it is't going too far out of the way to guess New York Central. 

[wanswheel]

It was a fairly compact railroad, just over 700 miles of track. The locomotive it bought in 1925 was the first production model of a boxcab called an oil-electric due to Diesel sounding sort of politically incorrect in the wake of the Great War. It performed so well that all 50 of its kind produced were sold and it became known as the first commercially successful diesel. For 30 years it circled a little round freight house in a big city where steam was illegal, which was why they needed it there. The city is comprised of 5 counties of the state next to the state that the railroad was named for and where most of its tracks were. The county that the railroad's riverside terminal was in starts with the letter B and usually is preceded by the word "the."

[blue streak 1]

could it be SOU at Ashville, NC roundhouse.? It still has the trackage to do that today  

[wanswheel]

Sunnyside?!  This railroad's first diesel was built a dozen eggs I mean a dozen years before Pennsy's first diesel.  Always too historic to scrap, B&O Railroad Museum keeps custardy.

[al-in-chgo]

henry6

I think I know this one...but I don't have another question, so I hope there are those who do know the answer for sure....

Just a WAG:  PRR, Sunnyside Yard, NYC.

[henry6]

I think I know this one...but I don't have another question, so I hope there are those who do know the answer for sure....

[wanswheel]

What railroad's first diesel pulled freight around a round freighthouse?

Mike

[henry6]

OK  Lets give it to Wanswheel as he did post pictures of the United Fruit Co. facility along with several other local landmarks...Wan  give us a question...please. If only because I don't know enough about anything to conjure up another at the moment...maybe in a couple of years, but not right now.  Wan, ask. 

[Texas Zepher]

henry6

Fuller, your turn to ask the questions....

[al-in-chgo]

Welcome!     

And congratulations!    -  a.s.

 

[henry6]

You got it, Fuller Road!  It was not just the Erie that used the dock but virtually all roads had full trains loaded there.  Fuller, your turn to ask the questions....

[Fuller Road]

United Fruit Company docks

[henry6]

You got the product...just name the site and you've won!

[wanswheel]

Yes we have known bananas

http://tbn0.google.com/hosted/images/c?q=16fdb314d9058567_landing

http://www.weehawkenhistory.org/view_item.php?id=65

http://www.weehawkenhistory.org/view_doc.php?id=156&ext=jpg&pages=2&base=156c&currpage=2

[henry6]

Close but no cigar...you are everywhere in the neighborhood but this place!  And BTW, Eva Marie Saint and Marlon Brando did On the Waterfront nearby, too.  And Tootsie Rolls were made threre, and the entrence to the Lincoln Tunnel in underneath and to the South, too.

[Texas Zepher]

henry6

There was a bigger and more important place there than what this picture depicts.  If you could monkey with the image you  might move it to the right spot.

Hmmmm, I believe that picture would have been taken from Park Avenue, so just to the right of this would have been the interchange and main yard of the Hoboken Shore RR, out in the water would have been the former "sea train" pier, and then the Bethleham Steel dry dock.    I don't necessarily take that as a hint that the object is to the "right", I just happen to know what is to the right because I did a model railroad layout of the Hoboken Shore RR for someone a few years back.

Sense of history?  Do you mean railroad history or generic history?  I don't know where you are going with this nor do I know the actual names of the place but railroad-wise this is the area where Steven's used a locomotive to pull carriages around his home estate. 

Not railroad related: most of the doughboy's departed / arrived for WWI in this area but I don't know what the name of the dock or pier they used (all of them?).  Then there is Elysian Field  & the Knickerbocker<sp?> club.  Finally there is the New York and New Jersey Port Authority, once again I don't know the name of the facility.   My knowledge of "history" especially beyond RRs of eastern cities and towns is not strong nor well rounded.

And after a bit of research would seem that Frank Sinatra was born around here, as well as something called Sibil's Cave seems to be historrically significant.

 

[henry6]

I have given you several clues. For instance,one is found in the italics part of a word, the other an animal reference.  I am so surprised that no one has gotten this yet. I appeal to your knowledge of history by askining this question.

[henry6]

There was a bigger and more important place there than what this picture depicts.  If you could monkey with the image you  might move it to the right spot.

[wanswheel]

Erie RR

http://www.weehawkenhistory.org/view_item.php?id=88117

[Texas Zepher]

henry6

Another clue: you can find a picture of the same thing I saw...I don't remember for sure where I saw the picture...but if I told you where I think I saw it, then you'd have the answer!

You know, now that you mention it.  I know that picture.   I just didn't remember where in my collection it is, nor was I been able to research it out by other means.  I had to say, "uncle" on this one.  I never thought to look in Beebe's book(s).

[henry6]

Love the pic of the terminal...it shows right where I was standing and where Virginia City was parked, right on the farthest track to the right of the picture.  But Dave, the Lackawanna Terminal and Ferry Slips was just over a mile to the right.  The important place I am asking about is just to the right, out of the frame, of the picture...and before Todd Shipyards, Stevens Institute, and Lipton Tea buildings and the air shafts for the Lincoln and North River Tunnels 

[wanswheel]

http://images.nypl.org/index.php?id=1630066&t=w

http://gateway.ca.k12.pa.us/memorial/weehawk.jpg

[daveklepper]

The Delaware Lackawanna and Western Hoboken Terminal with its ferry slips and car float facilities

[henry6]

OK.  What I saw was Lucious Beebe's private car Virginia City docked at the West Shore/O&W terminal in Weehauken, NJ.  I am told the he preferred the WS to the NYC just for the fun of it when he had the choice while visiting the Big Apple.

Make up question then: Presuming I was looking at the car above from the south end of the property, if I had partly around, what other major NY Harbor site would I have been looking at?

[henry6]

Another clue: you can find a picture of the same thing I saw...I don't remember for sure where I saw the picture...but if I told you where I think I saw it, then you'd have the answer!

 

I'm gonna leave this go through the weekend giving you all a chance to guess.  And besides, I don't have another question at hand!