QUOTE: Originally posted by nickinwestwales Hey,Tom-another of those cold Molsons please and as it`s payday a round for the house,as and when they straggle in!! Well it`s a day off for me(the best sort-everyone else is working) and blowing a gale out there so time to sit a while. So,Ontario Northland,classic or not?...discuss....[takes me back to schooldays] Well ,first a disclaimer,I`ve never travelled on any of these lines,so all this is "received wisdom" picked up from the (un)official O.N. railfan site,but they caught my imagination. In part because of the manageable size of the outfit (in modelling terms) and partly the off the beaten track,frontier feel of the place. So,the trains, The Northlander runs daily from Toronto up to Cochrane via North Bay ( C.N. trackage to N.Bay ) Normal formation seems to be G.P.38-2,A.P.U (converted "B" unit for car heating ) 2 coaches and a food service car ( coverted G.O.cars ) until fairly recently,power was any one of the last 3 F.P.7a`s dating back to `51 or 2 but retro-fitted with 2000 hp Caterpiller prime movers. Also seen on this service although not sucessful and long withdrawn ,were a number of Dutch built Werkspoor T.E.E units. This service meets bus connections along the route serving the various `branches ` although It`s predecessor the Northland sleeper carried connecting portions and could include virtually anything. Heading north from Cochrane we have the Polar Bear Express,a summer-only tourist run up to Moosonee up in the arctic circle--this is usually a twin G.P38 lashup although Cochrane shed will happily use whats available,usually a dozen plus cars including domes,food service etc ( think these came from B.C.Rail and C.P.R . The Little Bear is the 3-times-weekly mixed to Moosonee--Beyond Cochrane you are in the tree line and the track is the only land route in or out so this is a community lifeline, The little bear runs about a dozen freight cars(lots of flats with big plant,containers etc,fuel tanks,general stores. According to season,a "canoe car" ( bulkhead flat with special racks fitted) and a "moose car" (50` box for dressed carcases) are available. so a thumbnail essay. Thats left me thirsty so same again and i`ll just perch over here at the end of the counter,take care now,nick
QUOTE: K-Line Announcement from Jerry Calabrese 04/25/2006 Dear Friends, I must confess that I so enjoyed the speculation and armchair lawyering about the future of K-Line that I almost hate bringing it to an end. But, as one of my former mothers-in-law used to say, “Appoint a day and it will come.” After a lot of legal wrangling, the K-Line transaction has finally been concluded. As of last week, right before York, Lionel took control of all K-Line assets, including its inventory, intellectual property, tooling, and trademarks. Lionel’s deal is with Sanda Kan, K-Line’s principal manufacturer and creditor, who, in turn, worked out its own deal with K-Line’s bankers before we could move forward. Under the terms of our arrangement, Lionel will control and run the K-Line brand, in all respects, and will have the exclusive right to buy it outright sometime in the near future. Our first step was to take possession of the existing K-Line inventory and move it from its former headquarters in North Carolina. As of today, that’s just about done. Our next challenge is to sort through K-Line’s books and records to make sure that everyone who pre-paid for products receives them. This will take some time, as most of what’s owed to individuals and clubs is not in existing inventory and will have to be manufactured. As I’ve said before, Lionel is committed to making good on unfulfilled orders. I anticipate that it will take us at least 60 days to sort out what is owed to whom. During that time, I cannot stress strongly enough how much we will need your patience and cooperation. As hard as it may be to control the urge to call us throughout this transition, I would really appreciate it if you will give us a couple of months to figure things out. One bit of good news is that we’ve already managed to get most of the trains that had been stuck in K-Line’s repair department during its bankruptcy fixed and shipped back to their owners. Once the smoke clears, we plan to re-launch K-Line later this year, in our second catalog. Because getting the deal done took so long, there will be only a limited line of new products in 2006. But we plan to make them very special. Next year, in 2007, we plan to make K-Line a larger part of the Lionel product line, positioning it with our own LionMaster offerings, in our ongoing effort to offer you even more quality mid-priced choices. Finally, I’d just like to say thanks to all of the people who worked so long and hard to get this deal done. Best Regards, Jerry Calabrese
Life's hard, even harder if your stupid John Wayne
http://rtssite.shutterfly.com/
QUOTE: Originally posted by barndad My next submission is on the RPO (Railroad Post Office), and isn't one I'm too proud of. The subject matter is interesting, but the way it was told is not. But you be the judge. I included some pix to help it along. Here's Part I Sorting on the Road by Don Rohrer – Rail Classics Jan. 1984 The last mail car has departed and the Railway Mail Service remains only in memory, as a bright and unique chapter of our railroad history. The Post Office Department, perhaps purposely, failed to publicly recognize the mobile organization. To the vast majority of Americans the RMS was an unknown quantity. The average observer was inclined to fix the express messenger, baggageman and railway mail clerk into the same category. Nevertheless, for a full century the RMS, with an interlocking system of trains and distribution expertise, provided the main trunk in delivering the mails before the advent of the zip code and the electronic sorting machine. In spite of lack of recognition, the road clerks were a proud and productive group. Team work was essential to successful operation, and clerks responded with an amazing esprit de corps. To best interpret RMS action, we wi***o take you for a ride with an R.P.O. crew on a fairly typical trip in 1966. With the RMS on its last wheels, we will occasionally refer back to more vital days in RMS annals. St. Paul, Minnesota in the winter can serve up a first-class blizzard and biting, cold wind was sweeping through the Milwaukee Road yards one 5 a.m. As I walked out to the Chicago and Minneapolis mail car, part of the consist of the Twin City Hiawatha which was on track No. 11. The Hiawathas were still superb trains in 1966, sleek and streamlined flyers, bearing the Milwaukee Road’s traditional orange and maroon colors. The locomotives were powerful 3600 hp diesels. Inaugurated in the early ‘thirties, the original Hiawathas were quite spectacular, with locomotives patterned after Britain’s Flying Scotsman, sporting shrouded boilers and skirted wheels and consists of a dozen shining coaches, with distinctive beaver-tailed observation cars bringing up the rear. With my sheepskin coat pulled up around my ears, I banged on the mail car door until Basil Loney flung it open. I was grateful to be able to climb into the welcome warmth of the “Minnie.” I exchanged greetings and observed the crew as I set my road-grip on the counter in front of my Illinois letter case and changed into my working clothes. Five subs (substitutes) in a crew of fifteen. Not too encouraging. It was reassuring, however to see Old Wall Erickson at the pouch case, the core of our operation. A good performance there was essential to a successful trip. Incidentally, our organization included another capable Wallace Erickson, dubbed Young Wall. The pouch and paper racks had already been set up and labeled, and headers and slips run in the letter cases, by the time the mail handlers arrived with the first load of pouches and sacks. A freezing blast of cold air and snow swept through the car when Norm Podratz, the paper case man, opened the door. Old Wall helped him take in the mail, while I checked off the pouches as they were called. The rest of the crew formed a chain gang and relayed the pouches and sacks up or down the aisle to their assigned stalls. The #1 and #2 mails close by for first attention, and the #3 – for distant states – farther down the 90-foot car, to be worked later. Our immediate task was to “get the jump on it” in the yards. To “clean up” the mails, to avoid “going stuck,” was the primary goal of the railway mail crews. If there were unworked mail at the end of the trip, the boss would be forced to come up with a reason. One of the few acceptable excuses was “sub in crew.” These poor subs really earned their stripes! There existed within the ranks an esprit de corps of the kind needed for swift, sustained and cooperative action. The clerks were required also to devote much time between trips to the study of schemes and schedules. An example of the knowledge needed, Platteville, Wisconsin, alone had eight different supplies, depending on our location on the line. I put substitute *** Kelly dumping pouches. He was a new hand, and knew very little about distribution. Basil Loney picked up the first bundles of letters to hit the table and returned quickly to his “hot” local letter case. Other clerks continued to assist at the pouch and paper tables, tossing directs, and mail for connecting RPO lines, into their respective pouches and sacks, until their own stated working packages arrived. Harry Anderson, the registery clerk, had caught up on his mixed letters, and as no “reds” had arrived as yet, prepared coffee. Mail lock coffee it was called; when it was think enough to float a mail lock it was considered satisfactory. The Great Northern and the Northern Pacific trains, due from the west coast with our heaviest deliveries, had been delayed by the storm and had not yet arrived. However, we had taken on extra loads from earlier trains that had missed their regular connections. Shortly after 8 a.m. our “drop” load arrived – and we were ready to take off. Our train was hardly ever held back, for we were geared to important connections in Chicago. At 8:15 a.m. we felt our big road engines hook on, directly ahead, but we failed to hear the rattle of closing couplings and suspected that something was awry. We tried to peer out the windows, but they were completely frosted over. We were a world unto ourselves, in the center of an icy gale. “Better sit down,” Ron Kiel cautioned. “We’re frozen to the rails.” The engineer had to jump the cars several times before breaking them loose. If we had tried to remain standing we would have been knocked to the floor. We didn’t highball out of the yards as usual and our pace was greatly modified on the curving stretch down the river. Since we were up on the local mails, we sat down to cold sandwiches and hot coffee. I noticed Kelly nodding over his food. He had been dumping and closing pouches since starting work, and he was bushed. “Take over for ***, will you, Tiny?” I asked giant Art Sederholm. To Kelly I said, “Take out the directs on Tiny’s case. He’ll work the residue later.” Besides me Bill Pinette muttered, “In the old days we had wooden cars and iron men instead of iron cars and wooden men.” That joke too was an oldie. [B)] Hmmmm ...is this interesting yet? [B)]
QUOTE: Originally posted by siberianmo Gentlemen at the bar! I leave you with two gestures tonite - Boris Ring the bell for a round on me - and a ENCORE! Fallen piece for a nite-cap! [tup] ENCORE! ENCORE! ENCORE! Here’s another Fallen Flag for the gang from Classic American Railroads: New York, New Haven & Hartford (NYNH&H) (NH) Headquarters: New Haven, CT Mileage in 1950: 1,800 Locomotives in 1963: Diesel: 381 – Electric: 22 Rolling stock in 1963: Freight cars: 6,925 – Passenger cars: 1,055 (including self-propelled) Principal routes in 1950: New York City (Grand Central)-New Haven-New London, CT-Providence, RI-Boston, MA New York City (Pennsylvania Station)-New Rochelle, NY New Haven-Hartford, CT-Springfield, MA New Haven-Middletown-Putnam, CT-Boston (Readville) New Haven-Northhampton & Holyoke, MA Devon-Winsted, CT Waterbury-Hartford-Plainfield, CT-Providence Providence (Valley Falls)-Worcester, MA Norwalk, CT-Pittsfield & Station Line, MA Derby, CT-Campbell Hall & Beacon, NY New London-Worcester New Bedford & Fall River-Framingham-Lowell & Fitchburg, MA Boston-Brocton-Provincetown & Hyannis & Woods Hole, MA Attleboro-Taunton-Middleboro, MA South Braintree-Plymouth, MA Passenger trains of note: NEW YORK-BOSTON Bay State – Bostonian - Commander – Forty Second Street – Gilt Edge – Hell Gate Express – Merchants Limited – Murray Hill – Narragansett – New Yorker – Owl – Puritan – Roger Williams – Shoreliner – Yankee Clipper BOSTON-PHILADELPHIA-WASHINGTON (operated by PRR west of NYC (Penn Station) Colonial – Federal – Patriot – Pilgrim – Quaker – Senator – William Penn OTHER RUNS Bankers (New York-Springfield) Berkshires (New York-Pittsfield) Connecticut Yankee (New York-Springfield) Day Cape Codder (New York-Hyannis & Woods Hole Day White Mountain (New York-Berlin, NH; operated by B&M north of Springfield) Montrealer (New York-to-Montreal, operated by B&M, CV & CN north of Springfield) Nathan Hale (New York-Springfield) Naugatuck (New York-Winsted) Night Cap (New York-Stamford, CT State of Maine (New York-Portland, ME via Providence & Worcester; B&M beyond Washingtonian (Montreal-to-Washington counterpart to Montrealer ENCORE! ENCORE! ENCORE! Enjoy! [tup] Leon the Night Man has the bar! Tom [4:-)] [oX)]
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