QUOTE: Originally posted by trolleyboy . CLASSIC JUICE # 24 HAMILTON"S ELECTRIC LINES Despite being Ontario's second largest city. Hamilton is largely forgotten in the rail,industry, yet the raiway history in Hamilton is long and verried and viable. This piece will attempt to show the highlights of Hamilton's lost electric railway heritage.Hamilton was the centre of one of canda's most extensive system of radial electric lines, known locally as the "Cataract". In 1896 the Cataract was first incorporated as the Cataract Power Company to develope hydro-electric power from the cataract at Decew Falls near St Catharines. In 1903 it changed it's name to Hamilton Cataract Light and Traction Company, and brought the separatly operatingradial systems in the area under one corporate banner. In 1907 they built a four story terminal building in downtown Hamilton on the corner of Catharine and King streets, this building also served as the head office for the various rail lines in the network, and as such was considered the only "grand" station in Canada built exclusivly for the use of radial electric lines. From this terminal line radiated out from Hamliton easterly to Vineland,southwesterly to Brantford,northwesterly to Dundas,and northeasterly to Oakville.Plans were to expand right to Lake Erie and down south to St Catharines and to Guelph and Toronto. However other jurisdictions and the roads and buses ended these plans. By the late 30's cars and busses had replaced the these electric radial lines.Many indeed say today that with all this infrastructure lost as most of these lines were running on private ROW's imagine how much less gridlock & polluition would plague southern Ontario's roads and highways, had the shortsitedness of ending this form of wide ranged transportation not been so quickly killed off ! Short synopsis of each line now follow. This is part 1. Part 2 will follow. The Hamilton & Dundas Street Railway Company: Hamilton to Dundas One of Canada's oldest street railways was the Hamilton & Dundas. It began in 1876 using a device known as a dummy engine. Because many residents(and their horses ) objected to steam engine puffing down the middle of the street,the railway placed the steam locomotive inside the bidy of a streetcar. Which pulled a trailer behind it.This worked well for two decades until 1897 when the line was electrified. It's route took it from Hatt and Foundery Streets in Dundas, along Hatt St. to Dundas St ,then along Dundas Creek, through Ainslie woods into Hamilton via Aberdeen, Queen,Charlton,Mcnab and Main St's. In the beginning it ended at the GT station on Ferguason,then used the new Terminal station once it was built in 1907. At it's peak, they would run half hour service.By 1923 bus competition became too much and the service ws ended.Some portions of the trackage were taken over by the TH&B, while the Hamilton Street Railway assumed control of the in city portions of the track. Hamilton Grimsby & Beamsville Electric Railway Co: Hamilton to Vineland In 1894 when the radials began running between Hamilton and Grimsby, the HGB became Canada's first major electrified radial railway line. In 1896, it was extended to Beamsville where a single stall car house was built, with a small passemger waiting room attached.For a few yearsn it operated as far as Vineland,anticipating a further expansion to St Catharines. However the municipal council of St Catharines,refuded to front the cash for the necessary bridge to cross twelve mile creek, so the Vineland portion of the line was scrapped. Many radials carried passengers and freight the HGB was no exception as it had access to the fruitlands between Hamilton and Beamsville.Both the GT and TH&B had connections to the HGB: GT's was at Winnona, and the TH&B's was at their Kineer yard ontop the escarpment in Hamilton. Produce was transfered physically from HGB cars to those of the steam railway's,later the larger HGB cars would pull one or two refer's behind them. From the new downtown terminal which the HGB began using in 1907, it's route took it along Main St to Sherman, then along Trolley ( now Gage St ) to Lawrence, then east on Lawrence to Bartonville. Here it switched to private ROW to Red Hill, and then back to what's now HWY 8 all the way to Beamsville.Station stops were made at Bartonville,Stoney Creek,Fruitland,Smith's ( site of busy cannery now ED Smith )Winnona,Pattisons,Grimsby,Grimsby Beach,and then the car barn/station at Beamsville.Most of the stations were small leanto type flagstops or located inside an existing line side building. Like alot of radials it was involved in speacial recreational excurisions;"blossom speacials, trips to Grimsby Beach, and Grimsby Park etc. By 1927, Catract started using busses on some of this route, and following the takeover by Ontario Hydro commission on 1931 the bus line was sold to Grey Coach and this part of the electric line was shut down. End of Part one. Rob
QUOTE: Originally posted by nickinwestwales Well good evening fellow tipplers,drink up please cos it`s time for a round from across the water [4:-)]TOM-If you would be so kind-I`ll try a Staropramen,one yourself and refre***he company. Well,I bear glad tidings from our touring member PETE-he called me this afternoon from Swansea,due to cancellations and late running he was unable to make the last 70 miles across to here,but he and his lady wife are both in fine fettle,enjoying their holiday and he is eager to get back amongst it and catch up with the ebb & flow. He is of the opinion that he will be back over in june for a family wedding and we will definately raise a glass or two together ( We have a tall ships regatta due around then and waterborne high jinks are positively indicated ). Am late tonight after a 3-way real-time conversation-a facility I didn`t realise this machine possessed-with the remaining members of the band,both of whom are as eager as myself to treat Charlie`s desertion as a positive opportunity and to move onwards and upwards a.s.a.p--splendid stuff [^] General query-I heard somewhere recently that Lionel Trains are now owned by Neil Young,the well known Canadian troubadour and Steven Spielberg,who I understand is something in moving pictures-I know Young has a huge ( barn sized) Lionel spread which is part of the therapy for his deaf-blind kids,which gives the rumour some substance--can anyone shed any light on this ?? LARS-thank you for the kind words,my function here is largely one of `court jester`-since I have little to contribute in the `Classic Trains` area,I try to flesh out the bar & grill side of things and prevent it all becoming too dry and dusty and technical--aided and abetted by those masters of the surreal MANAGER TED & BAR CHANDLER ROB,without whom.... [4:-)]TOM-Oh yes,us Brits were drinking cider long before you Teutons first turned barley into beer-indeed,I have given the best years of my liver to the stuff-at one stage in my development,it was not uncommon to drink a bottle of T-Bird before going out and to then wash it down with 10 or 12 pints of farmhouse cider-a murky and cloudy brew of about 9% alcohol content-happily missisnick rescued me from that particular evolutionary dead end and I now regard it as a learning experience ( although it would be nice to have retained a few more teeth.........) Pix will be with you as soon as found-will try to put together a `piece` about the R.N.A.D Trecwn railway-given the maritime heritage hereabouts I feel it would probably be relevant SIR THEODORE-agree entirely with your thoughts re band organisation-at best its like trying to herd cats in the dark,at worst it`s the short route to madness..lets raise a glass to M.L.K jr and freedom-salut,mon ami [tup] CM3-thanks for kind thoughts also-tis darkest before the dawn and all that--There were still a couple of airship sheds around over here back at the end of the 50`s,when my dad was inducted into the R.A.F ,one of them was used for model glider flying contests since it provided the largest volume of still air in the country. [4:-)]TOM-that N.P. cruise does sound tempting-they must have employed some very clever writers-very strong imagery... ROB-if you get Lightfoot tickets,do the decent thing and bootleg it for those of us less fortunate-I`ll do a straight swap for my only-4-copies-ever-made,(including Keith`s) straight-from-the-desk Stones rehearsal session ( scrappy but fun ) O.K-looks like time for my self-improvement class (as advertised in the Gazette)so,starkle,starkle little twink-moonlight mile for me-be good chaps,see you soon,nick[C=:-)]
QUOTE: Originally posted by barndad A Brief History of Russian Decapods – by Thomas J. Schneider and Hugh R. Harris – selected from November 1996 Rail & Wire Train 21 departs Harrisville en route to Springfield. The Decapods were used on this line as they were very “light footed” and easy on track. Photo collection of Don Wirth. The first Decapods ordered in 1914, were shipped in 1915. Locomotives were built by Baldwin Locomotive Works and Alco (at both the Brooks and Schenectady Plants) with additional units from the Canadian Locomotive Company. These orders, starting in 1914, were to re-equip the state railroads of Russia. Specific orders for Decapods by year are listed in Table II. In May of 1917 the Russian government notified the United States government through the US Ambassador in Moscow, or their desire to order another 2,000 Decapods. In June of 1917, Professor Lomonosoff of the Russian Mission discussed the need in Russia for another 2,000 Decapods in meetings with the American press in Washington. The order was cabled to the federal government in October of 1917, and in November, 1917, it was assigned to Baldwin and American by the United States Railroad Administration (USRA). However, by November of 1917 the federal government was undecided about the situation in Russia, and the new order was placed on hold. In any case, by the middle of 1917 the locomotive builders already had backlogs that were full through 1918, so there was no capacity available to start the new order even if it had been released. Both Baldwin and Alco were already building locomotives for the French, Italian and British railways as well as large orders of “Pershing” (Consolidation) locomotives for the American Expeditionary Force (AEF). There is no evidence that any work was done on any locomotives for the new Russian 2,000 unit order. During 1917, world order had changed. The Russian Revolution was underway. The communist revolutionaries would likely not be long-term friends of the United States, and Russia had started negotiating a peace treaty with Germany in any case. The strategic reasons for supplying Russia with locomotives were no longer valid. So in November, 1917, the US government not only canceled work on new orders for Russia, but stopped delivery of locomotives already built but not shipped. Earlier in 1917 two orders had been placed. In May the Russian government ordered 60 Decapods from Baldwin along with another 53 small gasoline locomotives. In June a further order of 500 Decapods was placed, split equally between Baldwin and Alco. On all the orders, the locomotives were erected and tested at the builder’s plant and then were broken down and crated for shipment. When shipments were suspended, most of the orders for Russia had been built and shipped with the exception of this last one. The last order for 500 locomotives was largely complete with some shipped, others crated and prepared for shipment, and the balance of the process of final erection at the builders or already completed and being stored at the builder’s plants. The numbers of locomotives actually completed and shipped is a subject of substantial controversy. According to William D. Edison’s well-researched article cited above, somewhere between 831 and 857 locomotives actually made it overseas. We do know from the United States Railroad Administration records that 200 locomotives were completed and then converted for American service. These were 100 units from the last Baldwin order, USRA 1101-1200 (originally Russian numbers E926 to E1025), 35 from Alco Brooks (USRA 1066-1100, Russian E1176 to E1210) and 65 from Alco-Richmond which became USRA 1001-1065. Also at least half of the last Baldwin order was canceled, as well as some portion of the Alco orders. One of the last locomotives built but not shipped eventually became our Frisco 1630, but not immediately. Meanwhile, railroads in the United States were facing a crisis. Even though the United States did not declare war on Germany and Austria until April, 1917, America’s industrial might was busy supplying the needs of Allied countries already at war. The railroads were suddenly strained to capacity. The winter of 1916-1917 was the worst in many years and caused immense delays on the railroads. Track was frozen, equipment breakdowns were frequent and much of the effort of the roundhouse and shop crews was expended digging locomotives out of snowdrifts. One report suggests the one division of the Pennsylvania Railroad used over 50% of their shop crew time that way one month. During most of 1917 the railroads were trying to recover from the damage done by the bad weather and by the enormous losses in skilled personnel both to the armed forces and to better paying jobs in the manufacturing industries. Unfortunately the winter of 1917-1918 was a repeat of the previous year. Shipments were delayed, warships were unable to sail on schedule because there was insufficient coal at the docks and material for the troops couldn’t be gathered ready for ocean transportation because there were too few cars available. Late in 1917, the United States Railway Administration (USRA) was created to take over operational control of the railroads and try to bring unity and order to the transportation system. By moving locomotives from one area to another and having roads with spare shop capacity repair locomotives for other lines much progress was made. However power was still in critically short supply. And with the demand for locomotives to be built and shipped to France to support the American Expeditionary Force there was little chance of enough new locomotives coming from the builders for domestic use. However, the Russian Decapods which had been built but were not shipped were available and could be modified for use in the US. And that is what the USRA decided to do. According to the USRA report for 1918, 200 of the Decapods were modified and leased by the War Department to US Railroads at $45.00 per day (see Table III). One Baldwin leased to the Pennsylvania Railroad bore the builder’s number 47953. This is the locomotive that ultimately became the Frisco 1630. Operating as USRA 1147, she ran on Pennsylvania lines west of Pittsburgh from March 1918 until 1920. Some old PRR employees recall that USRA 1147 ran on the PRR lines in Illinois in the 1918-1919 time period. We have little other information about the kind of work she did or any specific trains that she pulled while with the Pennsylvania Railroad. [:I] One part to go ! Have a great evening !![:I]
QUOTE: Originally posted by West Coast S THE PACIFIC ELECTRIC ARROWHEAD BRANCH How did you get your spring water in the old days? We all are no doubt familar with the brand, Arrowhead Waters.. Yep, you guessed it, orginally a Pacific Electric enterprise. As PE was extending it's hold on the Southern California transportation market, tourist and city dwellers were prime motivation for devloping resorts and spas in the mountains surrounding the LA basin. To that end PE, in 1913 built a branch to access Arrowhead Springs, high above Pasadena, intending to develop it as The Arrowhead Resort to counter the world renowned Mt. Lowe. PE never completed the grading or surveys upon reaching the base of the canyon due to WWI, at the conclusion of the conflict and the impact of the automobile it was no longer ecnomically viable. PE was at a loss of what to do with the line, it generated some freight traffic, but was expensive to maintain, being subject to floods and fire every season . PE entered into a agreement with Arrowhead Waters to complete enough trackage to access the springs. Arrowhead Water was intent on expansion to meet growing customer demand, but lack of adquate, reliable transportation facalities prevented growth. Except for the occasional special, the passenger days were done for the Arrowhead branch. Arrowhead and PE entered into a mutual agreement to developed the springs to included facalities to transport bulk spring water in specially designed and built tank cars. PE assigned selected box motors at first and later steeple cabs to handle these heavy trains, as the box motors and steeple cabs wore out, leased Southern Pacific Baldwin S12s or the three PE owned GE 44 Ton switchers operating in mutliple did the honors. It was one of several PE freight operations that proved extremely profitable and one of the last PE domains in operation after takeover by the SP upon complete PE abondoment in 1960. Dave[8D]
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