Month: May 2010
The May 24, 2010 chapter meeting will be held at the L&N Depot at Hopkinsville, Ky with a program by some of the following individuals: Ed Whitfield, Michael Pape, Wallace Henderson or William Turner. Topics are yet to be determined. Refreshments will be provided by our members from the Hopkinsville area.
SUMMERAIL AT C.U.T. from 1:00 PM to 10:00 PM and RAILROAD SHOW AND SALE 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM, in the Rotunda Saturday, August 14, 2010 at CINCINNATI UNION TERMINAL at 1301 Western Avenue, Cincinnati, Ohio
Join us at this historic art deco railroad terminal to escape the summer heat and enjoy a day of high quality railroad photography. There will be twelve 222 multimedia digital and dual-projector slide presentations, all set to music. The programs will run from 1:00 – 10:00 p.m., with a break for dinner (on your own) from approximately 4:30 – 7:00 p.m. Admission is $15.
A railroad show and sale will be set up in the terminal rotunda from 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Admission is free. Friday August 13 in CUT Auditorium will be some traditional “talkie” programs from 8:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. Admission is free. Thursday August 12 in Tower A will be the Cincinnati Railroad Club’s monthly business meeting at 8:00 p.m. Admission is free.
I was headed down to USI for my 1:30 class a couple weeks ago and as I was headed west on the Lloyd Expressway/SR62 I happened to noticed some thick black smoke rolling out of the city from what seemed to be the area around Franklin St. and Wabash Ave. I didn’t think anything of it as there had been some fires in town recently and it is part of the industrial area of town. I kept heading west and noticed the smoke kept moving south. As I just crossed over Fulton Ave., I realized that the smoke was following the main line south into Howell yard! My next thought was “I gotta get a picture!” So I zoomed ahead and turned down St. Joe to cut back up Ohio St just in time to snap these few pics. As the locomotive was limping into the yards, I was honestly looking for a fire to start billowing out the exhaust port anytime, but it didn’t. This locomotive had some serious problems though. The second unit was revved way up to compensate for the loss of power from this one, which sounded like it was only running on about 13 cylinders. Needless to say, an exciting few minutes. – Matt Gentry
BRUSH CREEK, Tenn. – A group of train enthusiasts were among the many people stranded by flood waters on Saturday. Five-hundred fifty passengers were on a train ride from the Middle Tennessee Central Railway Museum. They were trying to make it to Crossville when the train tracks were washed out by floods. Wilson County school buses worked through the evening to take the passengers back to Nashville.
Last week the UP began delivering 35 retired C40-8’s to the CN at Memphis. UP 9065-9099 were built in July-September 1991 as C&NW 8543-8577 (although not in that order), and are now CN 9100-9134, although not all of them are in the correct numerical order. They are still in UP paint. Mike Palmieri – Ft. Worth, Texas
Cliff Downey’s new book, “Kentucky and the Illinois Central,” is now on sale at the Paducah Railroad Museum Gift Shop. The price is $ 23.25, including tax. This is a great book with many rare pictures. The museum is open on Friday 1:00 to 4:00 and Saturday 10:00-4:00. or by appointment by calling 270 559-5253. You do not have to tour the museum to buy the book, but we hope you will want to. Bob Johnston. – submitted by Chuck Hinrichs.
Mark your calendars! The Annual Chapter Picnic will be held trackside in Crofton on Saturday, October 9, 2010. Noon til ???
The Illinois Senate today voted 59-0 to create the Illinois and Midwest High Speed Rail Commission with the intent of issuing a roadmap for the creation of bullet train lines in Illinois and neighboring states. Under General Assembly rules, such a commission can be created by a vote in just one of the two legislative chambers. No further legislative action is required. The resolution creating the Commission, Senate Resolution 806, defines the group’s mission as “recommending the best governmental structure for a public-private partnership to design, build, operate, maintain, and finance a high-speed rail system for Illinois and the Midwest.”
The Commission is to be composed of 19 members as follows:10 public members appointed by the Governor; 3 members of the Illinois House of Representatives, 2 appointed by the Speaker of the House and one appointed by the House Minority Leader; 3 members of the Illinois Senate, 2 appointed by the Senate President and one appointed by the Senate Minority Leader; 3 ex-officio members as follows: the Illinois Secretary of Transportation; the Executive Director of the Illinois Commerce Commission; the Executive Director of the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority; Earlier this week, mayors and county officials from across Illinois issued an open letter to fellow elected officials that said, “We urge you to work actively to secure approvals and funding for the planning and implementation of a Chicago-St. Louis 220-mph high speed rail line.
This line would bring our business, research and government capitals within less than 1.5 hours of each other, and open vital new connections to O’Hare Airport.” The letter also was sent to U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood. The Midwest High Speed Rail Association proposes to transform the Midwest into one cohesive, compact economic entity with a network of 220-mph bullet trains with Chicago at its heart, including a St. Louis to Chicago line that would serve Edwardsville, Springfield, Decatur, Champaign, Kankakee, the Southland, McCormick Place, Downtown Chicago and O’Hare Airport.
Crew members came from various locations on the CSX system to work on upgrading crossings and track along the Henderson Subdivison that runs through Madisonville, Ky. Photos by Bill Thomas and Jim Pearson
April 23, 2010 saw P&L GP40 2119 and slug 2112 leading freshly rebuilt Metra FP40 “Village of Orland Park” #116 and Indiana Railroad’s SD90 #9009 out of Progress Rail and toward Paducah where they would spend the weekend. Monday afternoon both units made their way to Fulton where they departed Tuesday headed north. Progress has stayed busy with the FP40s as many units have made their way in and out of Mayfield. The SD90s are being re-engined with V-12 replacing the ill fated V-16s of the original units. They will be used almost exclusively in coal service. – submitted by James Futrell
Charter members gathered for a group photo (right) during the April meeting of the West Kentucky Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society in Madisonville, KY. These members formed the consist of the chapter’s beginnings in 1985, after several had been active in the Owensboro chapter.
Each Charter member was awarded a 25 Year commemorative shirt and pin. Unfortunately, the cake was devoured before photos could be taken. It was delicious!
We had a very interesting slide presentation by Dr. Fred Ripley that covered some interesting portions of the Pennsylvania Railroad last month. Fred is an accomplished photographer and had some great morning and twilight time photos to show us.
It looks as if The Center will be turned over to the City of Madisonville on July 1st of this year. They could not find a buyer for the old train depot and the City has agreed to take it over for possibly several kinds of future uses. I have met twice with our Mayor and he is agreeable to our continued use of the facilities so we should be in good shape for at least the near future. This is an excellent facility for us and I was able to joke with him about how the train noise does not bother us in the least. I am not sure about the status of the audio/visual equipment so we are trying to put together programs that can be shown without the fancy equipment that we have become used to. Hopefully, we will know more about this in a month or two but for now the June and following meetings will be held as usual.
Remember that the May meeting will be held in Hopkinsville as usual but this year it will be at the old L&N train depot downtown where we have had meetings in the past. Also, because the 4th Monday of May is not Memorial Day this year we will be meeting on this day which is May 24th. So, I am hoping to see all of your smiling faces in beautiful downtown Hopkinsville at 7pm on May 24th.
If you’ve been anywhere near the Henderson Subdivision lately you have noticed the new ties and rail equipment present all along the line, even the supposedly ill-fated Earlington Main through Madisonville (which is also in the process of receiving new grade crossings between Mortons Gap and Atkinson Yard). Chuck Hinrichs sent these shots in from the Hopkinsville area.
Just like the prototypes, running a garden railroad has its hazards. Falling tree limbs seem to be my nemesis lately. I suppose it is due to all the loosely-attached hickory limbs – ice storm damage from 2009. These before and after photos tell the story of the hard work put in by the 2-man (in 1/29 scale, each hand counts as a man) track gang on the Hook Line & Singer RR this Spring. So far the station has been spared, but more wind is probable. – Bill Thomas, President and CEO, Hook Line & Singer RR
- WKNRHS – April , program by Dr. Fred Ripley, refreshments by Donnie and Betty Knight. 25th Anniversary!
- WKNRHS – May 24, Chapter Meeting in Hopkinsville, at the Hopkinsville L&N Depot.
- Homewood, IL, 7th Annual Rail Heritage Weekend, May 15-16, 2010.
RAILMARK ACQUIRES ORLANDO DINNER TRAIN OPERATION – NEWS RELEASE – (Walled Lake, MI) – April 7, 2010 – Railmark’s RAIL ENTERTAINMENT USA INC. subsidiary announced today that it has acquired the assets and operations of Florida Rail Adventures LLC and commenced operations on March 19th. Railmark’s iconic Star Clipper Dinner Train®, the first and oldest dinner train in North America, will begin its 26th season in the Orlando Florida market, moving from the Metro-Detroit Michigan market where it has been since 1985. The Star Clipper Dinner Train made its debut run on August 4, 1984 in Osage Iowa and since that time has entertained over 2,000,000 passengers. Railmark’s other branded rail entertainment trains such as its family oriented excursion trains, adult entertainment trains and its unique Pullman Palace Bed & Breakfast operation, will relocate to the Eustis, Mount Dora and Tavares Florida area, all lake front communities along the train’s primary route and located just northwest of Orlando. The Company’s Florida-based operations website is www.orlandotrains.com.
Railmark has named Mr. Neil Bagaus Vice President of Rail Entertainment USA Inc. & General Manager of the Company’s Florida-based retail train operations. Mr. Bagaus has spent a good majority of his career in retail train operations and Railmark welcomes him as an important part of its management team.
Mr. B. Allen Brown, Railmark President & CEO comments, “We are looking forward to integrating our themed trains into the Orlando Florida market and building upon the successes of our predecessor’s trains, such as the Orlando Magic Express operated on certain home game nights. Railmark’s experience and expertise will transform this historic railroad into an important rail oriented tourist attraction in the central Florida market.”
Final Blades To Fall…
With news of the pending demise of the south end of the Monon between Bedford and Louisville, the final blades on the Monon’s north end are scheduled to fall by the end of 2010.
A major signal upgrade between Lafayette and Linden took out a large number of sempahores last year – being replaced with rather utilitarian Safetran hooded signal lights.
In March 2010, work began southward from Linden to Crawfordsville to replace the old “upside down” signal lights which have their aspects reversed from “normal” position. Even the old L&N-style searchlight at South Linden is being replaced as well, truly changing the route to CSX.
With this project, the dwarf blades of North Crawfordsville and the one adjacent to the Ben Huhr museum will see their last trains soon. The only ones to remain along the line will be museum pieces being restored at Linden. That’s progress! – Chris Dees
Cliff Downey’s new book, “Kentucky and the Illinois Central,” is now on sale at the Paducah Railroad Museum Gift Shop. The price is $ 23.25, including tax. This is a great book with many rare pictures. The museum is open on Friday 1:00 to 4:00 and Saturday 10:00-4:00. or by
appointment by calling 270 559-5253. You do not have to tour the museum to buy the book, but we hope you will want to. Bob Johnston. – submitted by Chuck Hinrichs.
