It’s been more than 10 years since Conrail was gobbled up by Norfolk Southern and CSX. There are still some units in the Conrail blue paint as seen here on the Henderson Sub at Nortonville. GE 7326 is on the point of CSX manifest Q595 waiting on a southbounder. (Photo by Chuck Hinrichs)
A cool, breezy but sunny fall afternoon greeted 14 members and 5 guests at the Veterans Park in Crofton for the 4th annual Chapter Picnic. CSX cooperated with 3 intermodals and 2 regular freights during the afternoon. Wally Watts brought his German steam engines for everyone’s enjoyment between trains. Steve Miller had his computer set-up to keep track of trains and Chuck Hinrichs provided the soft drinks and chips. The Easterlys were on hand with their new home – a travel trailer – and were headed to Missouri after the picnic. The Country Cupboard supplied the usual great sandwiches for those that didn’t bring lunch. All in all a pretty good afternoon with a good chance to mix with the members in a perfectly relaxed atmosphere. (Story and photos by Chuck Hinrichs)
Submitted by Dennis Carnal, (a reprint from L&N Magazine, October 1956)
Even if the way is clear, the moving of a 1,200-ton electric shovel some three miles across the county wouldn’t be easy.
Such a three-mile jaunt – made by a 1,200-ton electric shovel, belonging to the Homestead Coal Company, to a new strip mining area at White City, near Morton (now Morton’s Gap), KY, – was climaxed recently by moving the mechanical monster across the L&N main track and U. S. Highway No. 41, south of Morton.
Previously, for the past nine years or so, the big shovel had been hard at work at the Homestead Mine near Nortonville, KY, and had finally worked itself out of a job-temporarily at least.
This big shovel propels itself along on four double sets of caterpillar tracks with its boom facing forward. It is powered by a 5,000-volt electric power supply and drags up to 6400 feet of special high voltage cable. It has a rated capacity of 35 cubic yards of dirt but is normally equipped with a 20-cubic yard bucket whose size can be appreciated by the accompanying picture.
The crossing of our tracks and the highway was planned by Homestead Superintendent Frank Gilbert, working with representatives of the L&N’s maintenance of way department, the Kentucky Highway Department and the American Telephone and Telegraph Company whose lines are on our right of way. Prior to the day set for crossing the tracks, all telephone and signal wires had been replaced with underground cables in pipe conduit; large corrugated pipe had been installed to carry surface water in the various drainage ditches and the approach fill had been constructed. Several hundred cubic yards of dirt were also stockpiled nearby to be used as a “cushion” across the railroad and highway.
To protect the railroad and highway from the enormous weight of the shovel it had been decided to cover them with a four-foot earth fill and, in turn, use 18-inch timber mats on top of the fill for the shovel to move over. With the passing of No. 66, a northbound freight, the big job of filling over the tracks began. About an hour later the shovel was crossing our tracks and the highway was being covered and highway traffic was detoured over the fill covering the railroad. Shortly there after the shovel crossed the highway and connected into a power line previously constructed on that side, thereby clearing the way for the gigantic cleanup job of removing the earth fill from the railroad and highway.
By carefully planning the work and scheduling the time of the crossing, the entire operation was completed in two hours with no delay to trains and a few minutes delay to highway traffic. Several hundred on-lookers were on hand to give the matter their undivided attention and to watch history being made as the Railroad handled its largest movement ever.
Original article by M. W. Cox, Assistant Division Engineer, Evansville, IN.
Pictures and/or historical information on the Chattanooga Traction Company, predecessor line of Southern Railway’s Redbank or Signal Mountain branch in north Chattanooga, TN. (have checked web)
– Bill Thomas, bill@fbcmadisonville.com
- Madisonville Headquarted and Energized Railroad Buffs (MH&E RRB) meeting – Thursday, October 5, Location to be announced. All are welcome!
- Crofton, Ky Picnic and Train Watching – West Kentucky Chapter of the NRHS – Saturday, October 3.
- 42nd Annual Model Train Show – Presented by Cincinnati Division 7-N.M.R.A., Saturday October 24th, 2009 12:00 P.M.-7:00 P.M., Sunday October 25th, 2009 11:00 A.M.-5:00 P.M. Lakota West High School at 8940 Union Centre Blvd. in West Chester, OH. 45069 – Free Parking! – Model trains in all scales – Operation Layouts and displays – Retail sales – Hourly Door Prizes! – FREE-Engine checkup and How To” classes-Admission – Adults $6.00 – Children under 12 FREE – Scouts in Uniform FREE – Table rentals and layout space-Roy Hord at 513-777-5337 or rhord@fuse.net.
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — A $6 million railroad project in Chattanooga for the new Volkswagen plant and suppliers at the Enterprise South industrial Park will be funded partly with federal stimulus funds. The project set to start in August will help Volkswagen deliver cars when production starts in early 2011. – Chuck Hinrichs
Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum – Chattanooga, TN – a collection of historic photographs by noted commercial and industrial photographer O. Winston Link will be shown in a newly-created display gallery at the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum’s Grand Junction Station from August 22 through November 1. The exhibit Steam, Fading into the Night includes fine-art photographs documenting the last great steam locomotives used by the Norfolk & Western Railway in Virginia during the 1950’s. Link captured the sights and sounds of the powerful locomotives and the communities along the line. The majority of Link’s photographs were recorded in the dark of night using a complex system with dozens of flashbulbs triggered by a custom-built electric unit connected with hundreds of feet of wire. – TVRM Website
Note: anyone interested in a day-trip to see this exhibit, contact John Licht, madrrterminal@yahoo.com.
Hardin, KY – Just to let you all know that the former NC/L&N track operated by the Hardin Southern RR between Hardin KY and North Murray KY is being taken up and scrapped starting Monday 8/3/09 by A&K materials. They are starting at Hardin and moving South to just north of the former Webasto spur. This brings a sad close to the HSRR fiasco.
-Submitted by Chuck Hinrichs with permission to print email message from Steve Wilhelm.
Great Northern F45 441 will soon ride the BNSF Railway from Albia, Iowa, to Essex, Montana. This locomotive has been restored as luxury “Locomotive Lodging” and will be installed at the Izaak Walton Inn on the border of Glacier National Park.
The locomotive interior is being converted to a deluxe living accommodation featuring a master suite, spacious living area and fully equipped kitchen. It will be decked out with antique oak hardwood floors complimenting a fireplace, providing a rustic and inviting interior worthy of Glacier Park.
The operators cab, including control stand, seats and electrical cabinet, has been restored to better than new condition. The cooling fans have been converted to skylights with glass above the fans. At the flick of a switch, the engine access doors will open to a picture window view of the adjacent BNSF mainline.
Restoration work and rough interior construction was performed by RELCO Locomotives. They used original EMD paint diagrams to apply the resplendent Great Northern “Big Sky Blue” paint scheme. Interior finishing will be completed after installation at Essex, and it is expected to be ready for lodging in the fall of 2009. For more information including photos and floor plan, or booking information, visit: http://www.izaakwaltoninn.com
-submitted by John Licht, originally posted to Yahoo groups by Joel G. Kirchner.
WHEN: Saturday, November 21, 2009.
WHERE: Whistle Stop Restaurant (former IC freighthouse), 701 Main Street, Mendota, Illinois (just south of Amtrak station and Mendota Union Depot Museum)
PRICING: $25 per person for entire event. Includes entrance to swap session, dinner, and evening show.
$2 for those attending only the swap
$5 table fee for vendors
SEND CHECK OR MONEY ORDER TO: ICRHA 2009 Annual Meeting, c/o Mike Hogan, 15408 Pine Drive, Oak Forest, IL 60452-1623
PROGRAM: Double-header! Former ICG employee Jerry Pyfer will present a sound/slide presentation assembled exclusively for the ICRHA 2009 Annual meeting. Jerry, who is also currently president of the North Western Illinois Chapter-NRHS, is well-known for his clever, entertaining, and popular slide presentations (his program at the Milwaukee Road Historical Association meet in Terre Haute last year drew a standing ovation).
His show for the ICRHA will focus on the 1970s-era Illinois Central Gulf. For our second program, Rory and Cedric Peterson present a program featuring the work of their late father, Roy Peterson. We will see STEAM and early-diesel-era Illinois Central scenes in the Rockford/Freeport/southern Wisconsin area. (Picture if you would, a steam-powered IC Hawkeye flying over The Milwaukee Road at Genoa, Illinois, in the 1930s, or bucolic scenes of the Dodgeville, Wis., branch.)
Roy photographed much of northern Illinois from 1930 into the 1960s, and you will also see some Milwaukee Road, Chicago & North Western, and Burlington thrown into the mix. This will largely be unpublished material that has only been seen by a few people to date.
-submitted by Chuck Hinrichs
Submitted by Chris Dees
Do Not Hump – Norfolk Southern announced Wednesday, July 15, 2009, that they will close part of the operations at its Sheffield rail yard, a move that involves cutting 84 jobs. Robin Chapman, a spokesman for Norfolk Southern in Atlanta, said about 130 people work at the yard.
The rest of the local rail yard will remain open, company officials said. Chapman said 57 layoffs are train and engine positions, and 27 are mechanical employees. “The humping operations will be going to Chattanooga or Birmingham,” he said. “There will be some switching operations going to Decatur.”
Chapman said the nation’s economic climate forced the move. “The reason we’re idling humping operations is because of the traffic conditions,” he said. “In this economy, traffic is way down and we can’t support humping operations at Sheffield.” The rail yard is just east of the overpass on Wilson Dam Road, but is referred to as the Sheffield yard by company officials.
Those being laid off will be sent home immediately when the announcement is made Wednesday, but receive pay for 60 days, under a labor agreement, Chapman said. Chapman said employees work on a seniority basis, so those affected by layoffs can displace employees with less seniority in other cities within the railroad’s seniority district, which includes company operations in Alabama and Tennessee.
“The jobs could come back, theoretically, if we resumed humping operations at Sheffield,” Chapman said. “But whether specific employees could come back, that depends where they go and what they do from this point. The ones laid off are on furlough status and would be recalled by seniority.” He said trains will continue to travel through the area and local trains that serve area industries will continue to do so. “Traffic stays the same, it’s just they wouldn’t be humped in Sheffield.”
by Chapter President, Rich Hane
Those of you who were at the last meeting were treated to an excellent slide program by Fred Ripley on Pennsylvania RR operations. It was interesting to see and hear his discussion on how the several yards operated and how they tied in to the overall scope of the railroad and its customers.
In April of this year, Charles Bertram “Bert” Pennypacker passed away at the age of 85 of an aneurysm. He was a very well known photographer and author who covered many aspects of mid-century railroading in this country. He was the author of over 200 articles and 8 books, primarily on Northeastern railroad subjects. His easy style of writing and the way he would draw you into his subject were liked by all. He had a real knack for explaining complex subjects in a way that was easy to understand. Pennypacker’s large body of carefully researched and substantial work stands as a lasting contribution to our understanding of railroad history. His wife of 56 years, Theresa, survives him.
I hope to see all of your smiling faces at the next meeting at the Center in beautiful downtown Madisonville at 7pm on Monday, September 28th, 2009.
On Monday, August 24, 2009, Wallace Henderson and I caught Hopkinsville Elevator’s GP16 (1817) and NREX GP10 (8219) at Atkinson Yard in Madisonville. Piecing together some bits of information it appears that 1817 is in need of repairs and as 8219 is consigned to Hopkinsville it is likely that the GP10 is a loaner to Hopkinsville Elevator until 1817 can be repaired. Photos of the two locomotives are attached. Photos by Chuck Hinrichs
Main line-eastern: Conrail and Norfolk Southern on the east end of the Pennsylvania Railroad’s Pittsburgh, Ft. Wayne, & Chicago, 1988-2009
Program Preview:
The Pennsylvania Railroad’s four-track main line east from Pittsburgh is justifiably one of, if not the, most famous and photographed pieces of railroad in North America. Less well known, but just as fascinating, are the “Lines West” main lines from Pittsburgh to Chicago and St. Louis. In this program I’ll focus on the eastern end of the former, which was built as the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne, and Chicago and became the PRR’s Eastern Division between Pittsburgh and Crestline, OH. We’ll examine this piece of the railroad beginning around giant Conway Yard northwest of Pittsburgh and extending to Alliance, OH, where (in NS’s routing of traffic) nearly all trains turn north towards Cleveland and the former NYC mainline.
The Pennsylvania Railroad’s four-track main line east from Pittsburgh is justifiably one of, if not the, most famous and photographed pieces of railroad in North America. Less well known, but just as fascinating, are the “Lines West” main lines from Pittsburgh to Chicago and St. Louis. In this program I’ll focus on the eastern end of the former, which was built as the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne, and Chicago and became the PRR’s Eastern Division between Pittsburgh and Crestline, OH. We’ll examine this piece of the railroad beginning around giant Conway Yard northwest of Pittsburgh and extending to Alliance, OH, where (in NS’s routing of traffic) nearly all trains turn north towards Cleveland and the former NYC mainline.
These 60 miles of railroad, even in the modern era, give a wonderful sampling of the PRR west of Pittsburgh: physical plant ranging from heavy-duty four-track to the classic Lines West double-track; topography both hilly and flat; and more freight traffic on this segment than even in PRR days. The appeal of this stretch of the PRR has long been heightened for me by the fact that nearly all the remainder of the railroad west of Pittsburgh has been chopped to pieces, much of it reduced to semi-local operations or simply gone.
With an eye towards the history of the railroad, we’ll see lots of action from the last ten years of Conrail and NS of recent years- big trains in great scenic main line settings, with lots of PRR position light signals, in all seasons and weather. Anyone with an interest in the PRR and its successors, or who just enjoys contemporary big-time railroading, won’t be disappointed.
I headed out early Friday morning for Cincinnati and the 13th SUMMERAIL. I left my car at Jim Pearson’s in Richland (near Madisonville) and loaded my gear in his SUV. We followed the railroad north to Evansville Indiana and checked out the action at CSX’s yard and got some good shots to start the day. We continued on north to Princeton Indiana and caught both some CSX and NS action.
State highway 64 took us east and in proximity to the NS line. We managed to miss three trains on the way to Louisville and missed a couple more on the way through northern Kentucky to Covington just across the river from Cincinnati. We checked into the Courtyard Marriot right by the river and got a room with a balcony overlooking the elevated rail approach to the bridge over the Ohio River. We railfans are not too hard to please as long as we are close to the rail action.
As soon as we got our stuff unloaded we headed across the river for the traditional Friday night dinner at Camp Washington, a Cincinnati chili institution. The specialty of the house is Chili 5 way (chili, beans, onions, spaghetti and cheese), a salad and iced tea. Got to meet lots of old friends – I have been to 13 of the 14 SUMMERAL events. After dinner we headed for CUT (Cincinnati Union Terminal) for the traditional Friday night slide show (just slides and comments) and a visit to Tower A (the home of the Cincinnati Rail Club) and the former control tower when passenger trains were still in vogue. The slide show attendance has outgrown the Tower A space and the show is now in the CUT auditorium – much more comfortable. After the slide show Jim and I headed back across the river to get some night shots of downtown Cincinnati and then back to the hotel for a well deserved night’s rest.
Saturday and we were up early, sampled the hotels buffet breakfast and then headed south for a little train watching before the SUMMERAIL program get under way. We caught a couple of trains but missed several others. If we were watching CSX a NS train would thunder by and if we were trackside at NS the action was on CSX. We spent nearly an hour at the CSX/NS crossover and no action.
We got to CUT about noon with time to check out the railroadiana show before the main event got under way at 1:00 PM. The digital multimedia shows were superb, as usual with a lot of winter scenes and winter action featured. My favorite of the afternoon session was Mel Patrick’s show of the Rio Grande ‘California Zephyr’ as it headed west from Denver to Logan, Utah. The scenery was spectacular and the music a perfect compliment to the spectacular photography.
The dinner break found us back across the river in Covington and after checking other possibilities we settled for our favorite, Wertheims, for an excellent German dinner and a couple of glasses of Warsteiners. The evening shows were good but not quite as good as my morning favorites. We drove around downtown Cincinnati but didn’t find any photo ops so headed back across the river and the sack.
Sunday found us sleeping in a bit and then on the road for a railfanning trip back to western Kentucky. We found several good photo spots on the CSX Short Line just south of Covington and at both locations we were able to catch meets of southbound and northbound trains. We stayed ahead of a southbound train through Verona, Glencoe, Sparta and LaGrange and finally let him catch up with us at Anchorage just east of Louisville.
We followed the P&L south out of Louisville but no action. We did stop to see the old and decaying IC depot at Kosmodale. We then headed east to the CSX mainline but, again, no action. We did hear a train at Elizabethtown but never did find it. We followed US 62 west from Elizabethtown hoping against hope for some P&L action. We stopped in Central City for a bite to eat and, wouldn’t you know it, as we left Wendy’s we just saw the tail end of an eastbound P&L coal train. CSX was quiet from Nortonville to Earlington and we got to Jim’s place at a bit after 8:00 PM. Another trainless hour and I was back home after a great SUMMERAIL weekend.
FOR THE GOVERNMENT OF RAILFANS ONLY
- Southern Illinois Train Club Model Railroad and Railroadiana Show – Saturday August 29, 10am-9pm. Sunday August 30, 12 noon to 5:30pm. Free Admission – Illinois Centre Mall, Interstate I-57 and Ill Rt. 13, Marion, IL.
- Madisonville Headquarted and Energized Railroad Buffs (MH&E RRB) – Thursday, September 3, Madisonville Airport – Ricky Bivins, host, 7 pm. All are welcome!
- Great Midwest Train Show – September 13, 2009, DuPage County Fairgrounds, 2015 W. Manchester Road, Wheaton, IL 60187
- Crofton Picnic and Train Watching – West Kentucky Chapter of the NRHS – Saturday, October 3.
- 42nd Annual Model Train Show – Presented by Cincinnati Division 7-N.M.R.A., Saturday October 24th, 2009 12:00 P.M.-7:00 P.M., Sunday October 25th, 2009 11:00 A.M.-5:00 P.M. Lakota West High School at 8940 Union Centre Blvd. in West Chester, OH. 45069 – Free Parking! – Model trains in all scales – Operation Layouts and displays – Retail sales – Hourly Door Prizes! – FREE-Engine checkup and How To” classes-Admission – Adults $6.00 – Children under 12 FREE – Scouts in Uniform FREE – Table rentals and layout space-Roy Hord at 513-777-5337 or rhord@fuse.net.