modelersIn the Spring of 1961, PRR hotshot NF-6 (“Non-Feed”), a livestock schedule from Chicago to Harsimus Cove, NJ, passes under the signal bridge at MP 127.7, just west of Orrville, OH on the Pittsburgh-Chicago main line.  With cuts and consolidations in the railroad’s still massive passenger network, the PRR has taken advantage of surplus passenger power to assign E-units to the train on this day, suiting the high-speed nature of the schedule.  In the distance, a westbound loaded coal train (“mineral train” in PRR terms) heads for the Lake Erie docks at Sandusky, OH.  Submitted by Fred Ripley – photos on his Pennsylvania Layout.

With an early April snowfall as backdrop, we see this 1961 scene just west of Orrville, OH, on the PRR's Pittsburgh-Chicago main line. Three E-units head an all-stock consist, NF-6. The letter designation stands for "Non-Feed", which means not more than 36 hours can elapse from the time of loading in Chicago to unloading in northern New Jersey. Stock traffic picked up in the 1950's, and the PRR has invested in several hundred new stock cars, rebuilt from former automobile boxcars. -Photograph and layout by Dr. Fred Ripley

 

Just before 10:00 PM on a June night in 1960, the 4-track PRR Pittsburgh-Chicago main line at Smithville, OH (MP 129.5 west of Pittsburgh) presents this scene.  Facing the camera behind an A-B-A set of EF-15’s (the PRR’s name for F3’s) comes Advance WC-5/7, one of the “WC” fleet of westbound freights from the huge yard at Conway, PA.  The WC schedules are designed to expedite interchange traffic, pre-blocked at Conway for delivery to western roads at Chicago.   Going away, on No. 2 track, is No. 48, the eastbound General, second only to the all-Pullman Broadway Limited (following less than an hour behind the General) in priority.  No. 48, with 3 EP-20’s (E7’s) and 16 cars, has just crested the 1% grade of Wooster Hill, and will maintain the posted speed of 70 mph to the next stop at Canton.  The General is named for 1930’s PRR president W. W. Atterbury, who was director of rail operations for the American Expeditionary Force in France in 1918, and although a civilian used the title “General” for the rest of his life.