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Classic Train Questions Part Deux (50 Years or Older)

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Posted by daveklepper on Tuesday, June 30, 2015 11:07 AM

Well, 48 years is just shy of 50, but my face should still be red.   The conventional coaches on the Wall Street were those rebuilt into streamlined coaches, much like so many PRR  P-70's, many B&O coaches including the Cincinnatian, and the NYCentral's Mercury.   Anyway, glad you gave thorough and correct answer and look forward to your question.

But you could have added that the announcer did not wish people waiting for a regular PRR or Amtrak train to Philly to suddenly decide that they would leave on the first train leaving for there and then find they were on a train with many more stops, a slower overall trip, and a different destination than expected, so simply announcing .... and Reading Terminal, got the people to board that were supposed to board.

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Posted by rcdrye on Tuesday, June 30, 2015 1:06 PM

It didn't occur to me that there was a problem until I started thinking about the NY & LB, the joint PRR/CNJ property that I didn't even mention.  Once I remembered that NY&LB trains operated by CNJ used to go to Jersey City....

Some of the cars belonging to this large railroad were sublettered for a particular division (not a subsidiary) right into the 1960s.  Name the railroad, the division, and the reason for the sublettering.  This division was also the last one where a particular type of service car operated until 1960.

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Posted by daveklepper on Wednesday, July 1, 2015 6:52 AM

Could be the Boston and Albany, which for a long time was a leased railroad, not actually owned by the New York Central, and the suburban arch-roof non-air-conditioned, walk-over seat cars were used until 1960 and were lettered Boston and Albany.  This type of car was not used on the West Shore or in Grand Central Terminal suburban service.  It was used on the Putnam Division, but that quite before 1960.  Obviously, the cars on the Putnam Division were labeled New York Central.  among these cars were those extensively rebuilt for the streamlined Mercury.   The cars on the through trains that ran through to Chicago and other points were always lettered New York Central.  Locomotives, including the famous Birkshires, but I believe excluding 600-609, the J2 Hudsons, were also labeled Boston and Albany.

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Posted by rcdrye on Wednesday, July 1, 2015 8:00 AM

Boston and Albany (and Big Four, Michigan Central et al) were all subsidiaries.  This division was an integral part of the railroad.

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Posted by daveklepper on Wednesday, July 1, 2015 9:13 AM

Two divisions of Lehigh Valley Transit:

Liberty Bell Limited for the Phildadelphia Division and Easton Limited for the Easton Division.  The local cars and freight equipment were labeled Lehigh Valley Transit, with some freight equipment also having large letters, Trolley Freight.

Another case would be the B&O passenger equipment assigned to Jersey City - Washington service, labeled Royal Blue Line.

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Posted by rcdrye on Wednesday, July 1, 2015 10:01 AM

Boxcars and other cars were lettered

Railroad Name

XXX Division

As far as I know, no passenger equipment was so lettered.

Remember this was a very large railroad, with only this one division treated this way.

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Posted by CSSHEGEWISCH on Wednesday, July 1, 2015 10:09 AM

The railroad in question is Canadian Pacific,  International of Maine Division.

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 rcdrye on Wednesday, July 1, 2015 11:13 AM

CSSHEGEWISCH

The railroad in question is Canadian Pacific,  International of Maine Division.

 

Bingo!  The IofM sublettering lasted until the first batch of cars with the new CP Rail symbol.  Most of the cars so lettered were in paper service, and often ended up traversing southern Quebec before heading south into Vermont to serve the Mid Atlantic market.

The piece of service equipment was a pay car, for delivering workers' wages in cash, due to the lack of banks in that part of Maine.  Pay car #52, rebuilt in 1914 from an 1886 wooden coach, lasted until 1957, the last two and a half years' service provided by heavyweight sleeper-observation car "Fort Simpson". The service lasted until 1960, covering the swampy areas between the Quebec border and Mattawamkeag. 

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Posted by daveklepper on Thursday, July 2, 2015 12:34 AM

Other railroads also had pay cars.  Even the UP and CP building the first transcon.

The car "G"at Branford, the Shore Line Trolley Museum, about the same vintage, Jackson and Sharp about 1880, converted to an mu control trailer upon electrification of the elevateds, then converted into a revenue collectoin car.  It is believed to be the oldest rapid transit car anywhere.  The subway system has always had steel revenue collection cars, some purpose built, current ones (I think) converted from the "Red Bird" fleet now replaced by newer cars.

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Posted by daveklepper on Saturday, July 4, 2015 5:50 PM

Waiting for CSS's  question.

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Posted by CSSHEGEWISCH on Monday, July 6, 2015 10:02 AM

I'm going to have to pass on this one.  rcdrye can select the next questioner.

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 rcdrye on Monday, July 6, 2015 10:57 AM

Well, Dave had the most guesses...  Take it away, Dave!

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Posted by daveklepper on Monday, July 6, 2015 12:56 PM

Please answer if you think you know the answer to both questions:

1.  What was the first conversion of a steam railroad line to a true light rail line in infrastructure that is still operating today, and what type of rolling stock was first used, and what today?   Why is it distinguished today from all other North American true light rail lines?   What was the major modification to this equipment?

2.  What was the first conversion of a steam railroad line to a true rapid transit line, using steel, not wood, equipment, that is operating today, and what type of equipment was this steel equipment, what were the innovations of this equjipment (all standard practice today), and what equip;ment is in use today?

(By excluding wood equipment, I mean to remove Chicago's Northside Elevated extension to Evanston and Winnetka via ex-CMSt.P&P RoW and the conversion of the four railroads to Coney Island to handle BRT elevated trains.)

Extra point.   Air conditioning as we know it was not available when the second line was opened.   What was the practical substitute, generally not available on other systems?

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Posted by daveklepper on Tuesday, July 7, 2015 12:03 PM

need`a hint?

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Posted by daveklepper on Wednesday, July 8, 2015 4:45 AM

Hint: Both conversions, the heavy rapid transit line, and also the light rail line, were from the same steam railroad line.   Freight service has NOT been handled since conversion except for a parallel freight siding track not connectied to the adjacent line, but only to the major carrier.

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Posted by daveklepper on Thursday, July 9, 2015 10:45 AM

Second hint:  The steel rapid transit cars were the heaviest ever built for subway service, but inspired the design of a much larger group of considerably lighter but otherwise similar cars for a different system in a different city.

Both groups of steel cars operated well into the post-WWII era.

The light rail line has never had cars specificalliy designed for light rail as opposed to streetcar or mixed streetcar-light-rail use.

Since both the light rail line and the heavy rapid transit line were both created from the same steam railroad line, it should be obvious that both have always been part of the same transit system.

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Posted by rcdrye on Thursday, July 9, 2015 11:13 AM

I'm thinking Boston, where today's "D" branch of the "T"'s Green Line is ex-B&A/NYC, originally using PCCs (with left side doors) and later various types of articulated subway/surface LRV cars.  The "T" did have some very heavy subway cars used in East Boston Tunnel service, today's Blue Line, but that doesn't match up (at least for me) with B&A/NYC.  A bit of the Blue Line is parallel to the B&A's branch that served East Boston and Everett.

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Posted by daveklepper on Friday, July 10, 2015 8:39 AM

The requested light rail line was converted from a steam railroad line much earlier than the Highland Branch, and I do not know of any NYC/B&A trackage converted to heavy rapid transit.  The original E. Boston Tunnel rapid-transit cars were the smallest and lightest of their time, not the largest and heaviest, and this is true of their replacements today.  The Highland Branch has been worked, since conversion to now the D Green Line, by PCCs, by Boeing Light-Rail cars, and now by a mixture of Breda and KinkyShearo Light-Rail cars.  But there is a physical tie-in from your answer to the correct one.

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Posted by daveklepper on Saturday, July 11, 2015 3:23 PM

There was a track connection, not existing now, between your answer and the correct answer.

The LRT has always been run with streetcars, never the latest type.

The steam road branch was largely in a cut, which has been roofed, making most of the heavy rapid transit portion like a typical subway.

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Posted by daveklepper on Sunday, July 12, 2015 4:37 PM

the last hints before I give up, give the answers, and ask a new question.  The rapid transit portion of the line had a station that not only connected with streetcars of the system, but also streetcars of a second system.  Long after bus conversion of all streetcars at this station, not the station connecting to the light rail line, which still runs, a branch of the rapid transit line, again using an ex-railroad right-of-way restored electric rail service to the town reached by the second system.

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Posted by daveklepper on Monday, July 13, 2015 8:14 AM

There is enough information given that coming up with the answer should be very easy, and I cannot fathom why nobody has done so.   I'll give it a day, but no more.

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Posted by rcdrye on Monday, July 13, 2015 8:53 AM

Red Line and Mattapan high-speed line, from NYNH&H Old Colony? 

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Posted by daveklepper on Monday, July 13, 2015 3:23 PM

I will say you are the winner.  The branch to Quincy is on the old Old Colony RoW, but the route from Andrew through Ashmont to Mattapan is on what was the New Haven's Shawmut Branch.  The Old Colony itself had passenger service through to about 1949 or 1950.  Of course, also part of the NYNH&H. 

The original Cambridge Dorchester Tunnel cars were the heaviest rapid transit cars built and the first to be ten feet wide.  They were 71ft. long with three large doors on each side and no vestibules.   They set the pattern for the BMT "Standards," or B-types (A and B-types actually), which Stillwell designed to be much lighter.  They ran from the original opening of the Cambrdige subway in 1914 to around 1967.

The Ashmont - Mattapan high-speed line was the area's first true light rail line but always used less than the latest streetcar equipment,  It opened in 1929 with Type 4s based at the Dorchester Car House.  Conversion of the Dorchester lines to trackless trolley and bus in 1948 led to an April move to the Arborway yard with use of Type 5 cars instead following.  The purchase of the second group of Dallas double-end PCCs saw six or seven of the 25 total ex-Dallas fleet replacing the 5s at Mattapan.   The present "Wartime" single-end, now air-conditioned, PCCs went there when the Boeing fleet was complete on the Green Line.

One of the Boston Elevevated, later MTA, streetcar lines connecting with the rapid transit line at Fields Corner Station was the Fields Corner - Neponset line converted to bus and then trackless trolley in 1948.  The Eastern Massachusetts line to Quincy used these tracks to reach Fields Corner station, with operaters exchanged at Neponset and the Eastern Mass cars providing additional service on the Boston Elevated - MTA line, with a few E. M. cars overnight at the Dorchester carhouse.  The replacement buses ran nonstop Fields Corner - Neponset.

 

Look forward to your question

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Posted by rcdrye on Monday, July 13, 2015 4:12 PM

I should have gotten the Quincy line.  Of course it's paralelled by the restored Old Colony service today.  I'll probably post something tomorrow AM.

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Posted by rcdrye on Monday, July 13, 2015 7:38 PM

This was the location of the last stern-wheel railroad car ferry, replaced by a barge in early 1961.

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Posted by daveklepper on Tuesday, July 14, 2015 7:05 AM

Detroit - Windsor?   CN-GT?

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Posted by rcdrye on Tuesday, July 14, 2015 7:18 AM

daveklepper

Detroit - Windsor?   CN-GT?

 

Bit further south.  Remember - sternwheeler.

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Posted by daveklepper on Tuesday, July 14, 2015 7:46 AM

Ifcar ferries were used at New Orleans, then it would be a logical place.  I know there is a passenger ferry in use there, but I forget the name of the opposite terminal.

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Posted by rcdrye on Tuesday, July 14, 2015 9:06 AM

Now you have it nicely bracketed. The Algiers car float at New Orleans didn't last too long after the Huey Long Bridge opened.

The stern wheeler was replaced by a tug and a steel barge, which continued the operation until 1982.

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Posted by daveklepper on Tuesday, July 14, 2015 1:37 PM

In 1982 was it a bridge or a line abandonment that put the carfloat operatoin out of business?

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