Apparently all questions and answers about the Central have been given... I'll see if I can dig up a photo or two,,,
What's that? Someone's in the NY Central forum? Roger, you woke me up. I have a new shot of J-1e 5315, which is the one destroyed in a wreck at my home town in 1940. It's by Bob Schel, purchased from the Robert Spaugh collection. Date unknown, Elkhart, IN.
Aw, gee, that's pretty. This is a little different. I don't think I've shown this here before. Hoop Up at Gridley looking east from Gridley Tower at the South Anderson Cut Off. Track Orders were given at Gridley. Manual Hoop Up ended about 1949-50. George Witt Photo (deceased) - Ron Stuckey Collection This photo is available from John Fuller, jcfuller2000@yahoo.com
I typed a reply a couple of hours ago. In my senility, guess I forgot to hit "Add Reply." That's a great picture, Roger. So long ago. Man, we are forgetting our history, aren't we, with all the NIMBY's crying about noise pollution. They wouldn't live where they are if it weren't for the railroads. Edit. Well, it wasn't my senility, it's the geek syndrome. I am using Mozilla Firefox, and had selected "work offline." When I got back to this site it failed to inform me I was offline until I typed this one up. One of the real irritating things about Firefox. Most things are good.
An aside on this note. A few years back, a group built a 'retirement' community immediately to the north of South Anderson Yard. Now, they scream about the noise from the yard as they work there almost all night. The railroad has been there for 135 years. Photo: Kicking cars on the west ladder track in 1965. Switchman Scoop Schyieler. The building is the yard office. Maurice Lewman collection.
Ok, one more for our heritage... This was sent to me in an effort to identify the year and place. There is no date, nor name of the paper it appeared in. Based on a guess about the Underwood and Underwood numbering sequence, this would seem to be about 1923. Any information or educated guesses are welcome. It is a remarkable story briefly told!! The caption reads... "His Prayers Rewarded, 53 years an engineer, no accidents. Boarding the locomotive for his last run, George Bemis of Indianapolis, a railroad engineer for 53 years, has just retired from the service of the Big Four road, at the age of 70. Bemis has never made a run without first kneeling in the cab of his engine and praying that the Lord might help him to bring his passengers safely to their journey's end and he NEVER had an accident. "
The D&H had a monthly newsletter that they did this kind of articals on employees so this might be the same thing for the NYC.
Here is Maurice Lewman (age 31) DSL1 - The engine was an Alco 1000-1100 series. You can tell this because of the ball above MEL's leg It is the top of the window handle to raise of lower the window.
Had some time to try to do some research on this and had to laugh when I just found your posting on the "Railroads of Madison County" site. If I find anything worth deeper research I will let you know.
Here is another photo of Maurice Lewman, I believe at age 25. This was an H-5 Mikado, at Greensburg, IN in 1955. What is interesting besides Maurice, is the injector controls, located outside the cab below the window. Maurice says that identifies this as a New York Central H-5 as opposed to a C.C.C.&St.L, Big Four engine. Maurice will probably have something to add to this.
I decided to fool around with NYC's logos. I always liked this one, but thought it needed more detail, like a photo. So I did this. Hmm, looking at it, it looks just like the old one, but no kidding, that is a real photo. Back to the drawing board.
AlCO The photo of me brings memories. We never had much use for ALCO's on the branch.They were dirty inside and out cold in the winter,slippery and the RS=3 was hard to get in and out of the seat and for a heavy man almost an impossibilty. Some of this was the fault of the engine house but the ALCO was not crew frendly. You walked in oil in the engineroom although it had been cleaned it soon was floating in oil. Without a full pipe of sand you could not keep them from spinning on a hard pull. The engine would be so cold in the winter the men would build a fire in a large can on the cab floor trying to keep warm.The prolem was that the front traction motor blower was so big that it pulled the warm air from the heaters down into the traction motor blower. To correct this problem you had to cover 3/4 of the intake on the traction motor blower and then the heaters would do their job. We came through Wabash south bound and the Road Foreman was riding with us. About half way up the hill the engine started slipping and still running 35 mph the engine started spinning and I could not get it stopped and within 10 car lengths we were standing still.The Road Foreman said he was glad to be on the train because he would not have believed it . You could be going down the railroad and a unit would die,no reason. You would start it and maybe another unit would die,no reason. As you can see we were not ALCO fans. LEW
LEW, Not even for ALCO steam? Speaking of which, I always wondered, did any of you ever see any ALCO or Baldwin engines "in transit" to the railroads further west who bought them? I wonder how the UP Big Boys were routed and where UP took delivery of them? Many had to be routed along the NY Central.
Much difference between steam and diesel Fitz.I don't remember any of the oldtimers talking about this movement of engines,but again this does not mean they did not move thru Elkhart.I do know that many of the UP big diesels did go thru Elkhart. To the picture of the 1453. Some time ago when the water injectors outside control handles were discused I saidthey were NYC and not B4. With more research as near as I can tell most of these engines came from the IHB. The IHB must have been going to diesel in 1949 and about 40 2-8-2 Mikes were sent to the B4 and NYC at this time.The 1453 was IHB 408 acq. 12/ 49 and retired 8/56.This info came from Edson & Vail and from what little I know.E&V show a photo of a yard engine in 1939 with the outside controls. From the 250-264 was the standard H-5 others were H-5u - H-5v. The H-5u and H-5v Had all of the looks of an H-10 and when acq. by the B4 and NYC the Feed water bundle was done away with and also the boosters.The water pumps and boosters may have been done away with before del. to the B4,NYC.As this seems to be a trade mark the injector controls were all on the outside on these engines .On page 439 E&V the 1497 still has the front end throttle but the feed water bundle has been remaved and notice the controls on the outside of the cab.Hope this answers some of the puzzule. LEW
LEW, I think I asked before but have forgotten. If the feedwater heaters were removed, was this injector on the engineer's side added as a second injector? If so, that late in steam, it probably made sense to put the controls where they caused the least problems to install, outside. I guess for you engineers, in the winter it was a problem for you.
