Month: June 2019

Earlier this month, May 10th,  marked the 150th Anniversary of the Gold Spike ceremony at Promontory, Utah.    I thought it appropriate to rerun this picture story from a few years ago. 

The  “Thank God it’s Friday”  graphic is one of several intro’s for my slide shows to groups.  It’s good for a laugh, however,  the 1869 meeting of the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific in Utah was somewhat similar.  Rather than joining in such a slip-shod manner, they simply passed one another, and kept on going.   Seems the two railroads were being reimbursed by the Government for work performed, by the mile.    The joining of the rails at Promontory, about three miles around the bend in the picture,  was the result of a negotiated settlement.

In the picture, you can easily see the railroad right-of-way on a fill.  That is the work of the Central Pacific, charging eastward into the picture.   But look closely to the left half of the picture.  You can see two earthen bridgeheads with a gap in between.   The distant one is easy to see, the other is in the foreground, lower left of the pix.   The Union  Pacific, working westward, filled the gap with a trestle, long since lost to the elements, salvage, or fire…..  not sure.

If you go to Google Earth, you can see both landmarks by tracing the twin right’s-of-ways of both railroads eastward from the Gold Spike Monument site.  In a little over three rail miles, or 2.8 the way the crow flies you will see clearly the filled curve, the bridgehead a little less obvious.   (Hint: use the ruler in the tool bar, to gauge the distance.)

Credits:   (Artwork, unk., can anyone out there ID the artist.?)    Photo by Drake Hokanson as seen in TRAINS Mag June 2015

By Bill Thomas

In April 2005, Liam (age 5) is helping me set boundary stones. 

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I was fortunate to have Ron Johnson as a friend and neighbor.  He freely loaned me his Kubota front-end loader to move dirt to the railroad area.  I was careful to keep dirt away from the base of my big hickory tree.  The depressed area around the tree is now covered with Vinca vines.

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It’s been my pleasure over our 16 years here in Madisonville to share my backyard with friends, family, neighbors, and many others.  – Bill

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A selection of photos from our recent trackside gathering at Mortons Gap, Kentucky included photos of the two new CSX painted units. 911 for First Responders and 1776 for the Troops on their first run up the Henderson Subdivision.

Submitted by Gary Ostlund

A few weeks ago, my picture story on the New York Central’s “Water Level Route” included the use of track pans and scooping water, and raised several questions.  .

There were 19 track pans between New York City and Chicago, and ten between Buffalo and Chicago on their line through Ontario and Michigan.  Other U.S. railroads using track pans were:  the Pennsylvania, Jersey Central, Reading, Baltimore & Ohio, the New Haven and the Milwaukee Road.  In the UK, the London & Northeastern scooped water as early as 1859.  The American RR Journal labeled these devices: “Jerk Water.”  The term is still in use today such as in Jerkwater Town, describing a hamlet too small to merit train stops.  At one time water scooping was considered for cattle cars.  By law, cattle were required to be offloaded for feed and water after 36 hours.  The logistics must have doomed that concept.  In the days, before air-conditioning, passengers in cars near the front of the train were wary of opening the windows. 

The (New York) Central performed extensive testing finding that above 35 MPH speed had little effect on the amount of water delivered to the tender. Efficiency, the percentage of water from the track pan delivered to the tender, fell off very little between 45 and 55 MPH.  However above 55 MPH efficiency dropped rapidly as the scoop sprayed water from under the tender.  The recommended maximum speed was set at 50 MPH.  Conductors (who are in charge of the train) and Engineers clearly paid little heed to wasted water.  Schedules and timetables ruled and management looked the other way.

A special thanks to former New York Central motive-power dispatcher Jim Ferrante for technical data.

Submitted by Gary Ostlund

As railroads grew, trains got longer and heavier, the power to pull them got larger. Roundhouses with the ubiquitous turntable suddenly needed updating. 

Roundhouses stalls were extended, and turntables had to be lengthened. The individual stall extensions were minor, compared to the lengthening of a turntable. 

Speedy construction was essential as you can see with multiple cranes, equipment, supplies and a hefty workforce. 

When a turntable was out of service for even a short period, the task of maintaining the motive power came to a standstill.  Time was of essence.

The last new roundhouse complex to be built by a major railroad was the Nickel Plate facility in Calumet, IL., near Chicago in 1951.  Most roundhouses are a thing of the past, as diesel maintenance required long bays, with pits and overhead cranes.  Yet today you will still find many a turntable to turn and position power and certain pieces of rolling stock.

You will notice when a train passes with multiple units up front, the rearmost is almost always facing rearward.  Locomotive sets usually return to their terminal of origin, thus no turning of equipment.

So one must wonder, are those remaining turntables symbolically poking their finger into the eye of management as revenge for the demise of steam….?

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These photos of NC&StL 576 are taken from Nashville Steam’s Facebook page.  See Nashville Steam on Facebook for credits.  576 sits beneath the shed at the Tennessee Central Museum (Nashville). 

Work continues to disassemble No. 576 and prepare the locomotive’s appliances for repairs and servicing. One of the biggest tasks was to remove the front end of the smoke box for access to the boiler’s interior. Now we have a better approach to the superheaters and eventually the tubes and flues. Lots of progress!

(taken from Nashville Steam Facebook page)

In the days of “clickety-clack” railroading Fishplates are what connected rails end-to-end.  A pair protrude from the rail on the flood damaged trestle.  Depending on the weight & size of the rail there were four or six bolt holes.  In this scene it could have been either, but the bolts on the missing rail definitely failed under much duress.

  The introduction of ribbon-rail reduced track maintenance, provided a safer and more reliable track and eliminated the clickety-clack that helped put you to sleep in those Pullman sleepers.  Track maintenance crews, known as Gandy-Dancers, would routinely inspect, and tighten rail-bolts. 

  The scene is storm damage in the upper mid-west earlier this Spring.  The flash-flood lifted the trestle off the pilings, and left it bowed with the stream-flow.  A closer look will show the right-of-way disappearing to the horizon, in line with the exposed pilings.

Credits:   bridge photographer unknown, seen in TRAINS Newswire.  Apparatus from the internet, (also called track jewelry by some…)