My grandfather, Harlem Div. 1924-1968 trainman , related anecdotes of the Rutland Milk wreck at Patterson. Although not involved he of course new those that were. Seems the engines were at full throttle. Even a wide-open trainline flow can be overcome by two units with good air compressors. The wreck was part of the reason that the Power Control Switch (PCS) became required equipment on diesel-electric & electric locos. Saratoga is quiet right now. I am currently furloughed. D&H biz to NY City is slated to increase soon, I hope. [ 02 February 2002, 01:00: Message edited by: Big Al ]
Al, I have never heard of the "Power Control Switch". What is its function? P.S. Sorry to hear that you are on "Furlough" Hope you are back on the Board soon.
Jim Good to see some action on the board. I am interested in hearing more on NYC milk trains...anyone?
Up through the 50's, a "Milk Train" (or "Milk Run") was generally the last passenger run of the day over a rural line. It stopped at every station to pick up 40 gallon milk cans from farms along the line. The empty cans were dropped off the next morning on the first run of the day back up the line. These trains had a lot of insulated milk cars, but only one coach or combine. The passenger load consisted of a sleepy Conductor nearing retirement, a few drunks, and one college student trying to finish his homework project. I don't know what happened to the cans and their contents when the milk train reached its terminal, but I assume they were emptied into bulk tank milk cars for later delivery to Boston, New York, or (fill in the blank). Milk transportation was controlled by different companies for the different regions. For instance the Hood company controlled the milk from New England for Boston, and Borden's controlled the milk from New York State and western Vermont for New York City. By the way, the January issue of Model Railroader has good article on creating a "Dairy Products Car" written by John Nehrich of the RPI Model Railroad Club, of which "Harron" is Student President (I believe)
The PCS is a device connected pnuematically to the air brakes and electrically to the control circuits. In simple terms the air system (train brake line) must have pressure in it to close the contacts and allow power to be developed. An emergency brake application results in 0 pressure in the trainline causing the switch to open and power to be cut. Can be a real pain when trying to keep slack stretched in an emergency braking situation in order to avoid further damage/derailing. Some PCS equipment has a delayed activation for this purpose. PCS will also affect dynamic braking, if equipped.
Hank I saw that artcle and I may do one in O scale. I have a question tho; the trucks on the prototype look like regular freight trucks with leaf springs added. I thought that they would have a high speed truck of some kind. Are they an early version of the Barber High speed truck? Thanks for your reply.
Ron, I noticed those trucks on milk cars in some of the NYC photos I have. What were they called? They don't seem to resemble either freight or passenger trucks of the time.
Jim First off ,what's with the time/date on the board? By my calendar it is is still the 4th...and your last post says the 5th.....by my watch it is 5:44PM on the 4th. Most milk/express cars that I have seen have a 4 wheel passenger style truck. I'm not familiar with the Maine Central so I can't coment on their operations. The article goes on to say that the trucks are an "AAR cast-steel type with leaf springs" and leaves it at that. Perhaps they weren't run at "high Speed" on the milk run it was used on . At any rate it may end up on my layout.
OK Now to the NYC trucks you brought up. I don't know if they had a special name but they most often are refered to as an "express reefer" truck. They are very close to the Commonwealth passenger car truck in looks but just enough different so the Commonwealth truck won't look right under the reefer! The express reefer truck had a lighter look to it,as it was, and the reefers were a lot lighter then the baggage/mail cars and other cars that used the 4 wheel truck. That may not be a technical description but I think you may get the point (?) In O scale Chooch made a beautiful express reefer truck in brass a number of years ago. Anyone else have any better ideas on that? AS in anything regarding the railroads,never say never about nuthin'.....
HudsonNut1 ... The time posted with each topic is Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) or "ZULU", which is the Official Time for the World as measured at the Royal Naval Observatory in Greenwich, England. Since you are on the West Coast of the U.S.A., just subtract 8 hours (7 hours during Daylight Saving Time) to determine the posting time for La Mesa, CA. So much for my B.S.! [ 05 February 2002, 02:46: Message edited by: Hank Coolidge ]
Ron, for all of us on the west coast, the date changes at 4PM, which sometimes causes me to miss everything that was posted for the day, unless I go through a tedious search of each forum. Alan is the only one who is real time.
