Wil's Slide Box

LegomanBill May 8, 2017

  1. Hardcoaler

    Hardcoaler TrainBoard Member

    10,673
    44,835
    142
    Wow, those PRR electric shots are great. Only one DD-2 was built in the late '30s as a tester for a new universal series of passenger and freight locomotive that would be needed if the PRR had extended wire over the mountain from Harrisburg to Pittsburgh. Its design embodied the best features of various PRR electrics. Alvin Stauffer's Pennsy Power (c. 1962) reads that the design "never fulfilled expectations sufficiently for duplication". My book also reads that "at this writing she is assigned to the Philadelphia Region and is hauling a short turn-around job between Wilmington (Edgemoor) and South Philly". Hey, let's go check it out! :D She was scrapped the same year the book was published.
     
    LegomanBill, acptulsa and Mike VE2TRV like this.
  2. Mr. Trainiac

    Mr. Trainiac TrainBoard Member

    1,540
    2,131
    46
    Both of those are great shots. Like Hardcoaler said, there was only one DD2, but there was also only one P5b. I was just reading an article about this one yesterday, so it's a funny coincidence that you posted it now. The vents below the belt rail and the outboard brake cylinders on the trucks are the definitive spotting features for that locomotive. The brake cylinders went outside on 4702 because they actually put traction motors on the leading and trailing trucks. How they got that to work, I have no idea.

    BLI has their HO P5, but I wonder how hard it would be to kitbash a DD1 from a GG1. The different side vents would need to be dealt with, but it seems like the nose dimensions are pretty much the same. Just by looking at it, it seems like the DD1 just has the center section shortened.
     
  3. minesweeper

    minesweeper TrainBoard Member

    636
    1,286
    37
    Being Italian I have a bias for electrics... thanks for sharing.
     
  4. LegomanBill

    LegomanBill TrainBoard Member

    2,467
    13,699
    64
    Pennsylvania L6a 5944, Altoona, PA, May 1, 1940 (Ralph H. Payne)
    [​IMG]

    Pennsylvania 2-6-0 9684, Canton, OH, circa 1946 (F. R. Kern)
    [​IMG]
     
  5. Hardcoaler

    Hardcoaler TrainBoard Member

    10,673
    44,835
    142
    The 9684 looked small to me, so I looked around on the Internet and found that it's 3 Foot gauge, built in 1916 for the Waynesburg & Washington which was later acquired by the PRR. It still exists at the Green County Historical Society museum near Waynesburg, PA. I never knew the PRR owned a narrow gauge locomotive.
     
    badlandnp, Kurt Moose and Mike VE2TRV like this.
  6. Mike VE2TRV

    Mike VE2TRV TrainBoard Member

    4,867
    12,439
    92
    Nice little museum tucked down in the southwest corner of Pennsylvania. There's a lot of history down there. The W&W was a fascinating short line.

    I found a description of that history here https://greenecountyhistory.org/ww-railroad-history/
     
    Hardcoaler likes this.
  7. LegomanBill

    LegomanBill TrainBoard Member

    2,467
    13,699
    64
    Phoenix Street Railway 106, Phoenix, AZ, late 1930s (Photographer unknown)
    [​IMG]

    Red River Lumber 2-8-0 101, Westwood, CA, May 21, 1939 (Photographer unknown)
    [​IMG]
     
  8. Hardcoaler

    Hardcoaler TrainBoard Member

    10,673
    44,835
    142
    I'm reading Dawn Of The Diesel Age by John Kirkland (c.1983) and just found something very interesting about why the MILW, NYNH&H and IC all chose five-digit or special designations for electrics and it had to do with operating safety.

    The standard book of rules defines a train as "an engine or more than one engine, with or without cars, displaying markers". When train orders were written to set up meets or passes, it was of concern that a train might come upon an electric locomotive at night, quiet and with it's headlight off (as per rules at the time), where it could be mistaken for a boxcar by a passing train. With this error, an opposing or passing train wouldn't think it saw a train, but rather setouts, and it wouldn't heed the train order. This was less a worry with steam locomotives with their unmistakable shape, sounds and smoke, even at rest in the darkness of night.
     
    Mike VE2TRV and BoxcabE50 like this.
  9. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

    67,558
    22,733
    653
    This might be true of the MILW, although I have never heard or read this about them. I am surprised that a known expert such as Noel Holley has never noted this information. Knowing their huge fleet of steamers, back then they had little choice but to number in that area. There was simply no place else to insert their large numbers of new motors.
     
    Mike VE2TRV and Hardcoaler like this.
  10. Hardcoaler

    Hardcoaler TrainBoard Member

    10,673
    44,835
    142
    I was thinking about your post and then thought about electrified lines in the east. Supporting your post, the vast PRR didn't establish anything special when numbering its electric locomotives, nor did the NYC (as far as I know).
     
    Mike VE2TRV likes this.
  11. LegomanBill

    LegomanBill TrainBoard Member

    2,467
    13,699
    64
    Red River Lumber Steeplecab 204, Westwood, CA, circa 1939 (Photographer unknown)
    [​IMG]

    Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac Motorcar M-2, 1940s (Photographer unknown)
    [​IMG]
     
  12. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

    67,558
    22,733
    653
    The Red River Lumber electrification was a first and a rarity. Sadly, few people seem to know it even happened.
     
  13. bremner

    bremner Staff Member

    6,266
    6,246
    106
    I did, they were sold to the Pacific Electric in 1947, then went to Argentina in 1952. They still exist today.
     
    Mike VE2TRV, BoxcabE50 and Kurt Moose like this.
  14. minesweeper

    minesweeper TrainBoard Member

    636
    1,286
    37
    Very glad to see that unit,
    I was surprised by the similarity of a contemporary italian electric (E428 series) with the GG1, but this one also has the very same wheel arrangement.
    FS Class E.428 - Wikipedia

    Not the same elegant Art Deco design, but something more to the at that time trendy "futurist" style for the latest series.
    The type was luckier than the DD2, more than 200 were made and used, but was anyway retired before some earlier classes in the 80s.

    Here a better picture of one of the preserved units. (By PetrS. - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12034771)
    E428-209pietrarsa1999-04-08.jpg

    One of each series is still active for vintage touristic trains run by the Italian Railways (Fondazione FS), also all have been equipped with the Italian version of PTC (taken from units destined to scrap) allowing them unrestricted access on the mainlines.

    PS, this particular unit in the FS museum was also the location a few years ago, when the place was more or less left to itself, to my older kid and another kid climbing on the locomotive and getting inside the electric cabinets (the doors were obviously not locked).
    Me and the other dude were wondering where the kids did go until we heard the ominous "daddy come take us out" cry.
    I took the occasion to climb inside myself and my kid got briefed "on how these locomotives worked from the inside".
    Of course we was also severely reprimanded not to climb on locomotives, or other trains in the museum. :whistle::whistle::whistle:
     
  15. Mike VE2TRV

    Mike VE2TRV TrainBoard Member

    4,867
    12,439
    92
    Wow. Nice, clean lines, and a style that looks a lot like some of the more recent electrics used in the US.

    It also looks like it had a long service life, like the GG1 (which outlived some of those that were supposed to replace it!).

    Thanks for sharing this! :)
     
    Hardcoaler likes this.
  16. minesweeper

    minesweeper TrainBoard Member

    636
    1,286
    37
    Mike,
    these entered service in the late 30s, and kept going for 50 years; the E626 class form the mid 20s were in service until the early 90s, but the longest service record is the first articulated E636 whose service span started in the late 30s all the way up to 2006.
    If you go to wikipedia you see the first series was actually quite ugly, the second better, then the Mussolini regime thought to bring the "future" to the railways and the easiest way to do that was design. Glad it was so because we got some very nice work of art for trainsets that time, and the trend lasted until the 60s.
    The problem with the E428 was that the wheel arrangement was hard on the tracks and that these were prone to slipping due to their electric equipment being not designed for high traction, but speed. Nevertheless these had their speed clipped from 130kph down to 110 in the 60s and later to 90, and their last 15 years on freight duty or short passenger locals. Even if as a child did not really like these, now it is one of my favorite models (need to work on a double head consist with the tuscan GG-1 I have).
    Happy to share
     
  17. LegomanBill

    LegomanBill TrainBoard Member

    2,467
    13,699
    64
    Rock Island 4-8-2 4019, Chicago, IL, July 17, 1948 (Ralph H. Payne)
    [​IMG]

    Rock Island Motorcar 9006, Beatrice, NE, September 13, 1955 (Photographer unknown)
    [​IMG]
     
    badlandnp, drbnc, BoxcabE50 and 7 others like this.
  18. Mike VE2TRV

    Mike VE2TRV TrainBoard Member

    4,867
    12,439
    92
    Isn't that one that was made from an old baggage car? That photo tickled some neurons and I remember reading a magazine article about those or a similar unit.
     
    Kurt Moose and Hardcoaler like this.
  19. LegomanBill

    LegomanBill TrainBoard Member

    2,467
    13,699
    64
    Saginaw & Manistee Lumber 2-6-6-2 4, Flagstaff, AZ, June 29, 1948 (Photographer unknown)
    [​IMG]

    Santa Fe Motorcar M-190, Topeka, KS, August 12, 1950 (F. O. Kelley)
    [​IMG]
     
    fordy744, bremner, badlandnp and 8 others like this.
  20. LegomanBill

    LegomanBill TrainBoard Member

    2,467
    13,699
    64
    Santa Fe 4-6-2 1376, 1940s (Guy L. Dunscomb)
    [​IMG]

    Santa Fe 2-8-2 1798, 1940s (Guy L. Dunscomb)
    [​IMG]
     
    fordy744, bremner, BoxcabE50 and 7 others like this.

Share This Page