Three for the Price of One

Last week I published a blog post that included information about the General Electric 44-Ton Locomotive. I also presented some information about the railroad that was running the locomotive, the Southeaster Railway Museum. This week I am going to focus on the railroad, assuming that you have memorized the information about the locomotive. This first post card is

a picture of a GE 44-Tonner at Evanson roundhouse in Wyoming. The back of the post card says that it is Wyoming Car Co. #8568, one of a small group of special military versions of the switcher. The picture was taken in August of 1976.

The second post card is another GE 44-Tonner. This one worked for one of the shortest railroads in history. This website gives you the history of the Hoboken Shore Railroad. http://hbs.railfan.net/ The Hoboken Shore Railroad started off as the Hoboken Manufacturers Railroad in 1902, a shortline that served a large industrial clientele running the length of Hoboken's (New Jersey) waterfront. The line had tight curves, street trackage, a float bridge - all elements that endeared the railroad to its fans. The railroad was renamed the "Hoboken Shore Railroad" in 1954, solely for the reason that "it sounded better!" Traffic started dropping off as industry on the Hoboken waterfront began closing down and moving out. The railroad operated in a limited fashion until at least 1977 and filed for abandonment in 1978. Today, very little of the railroad remains: Its main yard is long gone, enginehouse is now a parking lot, and most of the main is ripped up. A short section of street trackage remains in place from the vicinity of Maxwell House (today a brewery), running to the new park at 5th Street. The picture on the front of this post card was taken in 1975, just before Hoboken started its revival.

And, finally, we have the 44-Tonner, Unit #10 at the Stewartstown Railroad. This website tells you about the history of this railroad. https://stewartstownrailroadco.com/ The Stewartstown Railroad, chartered in 1884, is one of the oldest, continuously running common-carrier railroad companies (STRT) in existence. It has provided freight and passenger service to southern York County, Pennsylvania, since 1885. It operates over 7.4 miles of track which runs from Stewartstown, PA to an interchange in New Freedom, PA with the former Northern-Central Railway (NCR). The Stewartstown Railroad served mostly farmers and a handful of small manufacturing firms in its early years. Unlike many railroads of the past, the Stewartstown Railroad was able to survive the Great Depression and the shift of shipping from rail to truck that occurred in the late 1950’s as a result of improved roads and highways. This was made possible by switching from Steam Engines to Gas-powered locomotives. Despite a decline in business through the 1960’s, a small group of loyal supporters (many of whom held stock in the company) utilized the Stewartstown Railroad until 1972 when Hurricane Agnes struck. While the Stewartstown Railroad remained largely unscathed, the connecting Northern Central Railway sustained major damage. The soon-to-be bankrupt Penn Central owned the NCR at the time and refused to repair the line. The USRA planners for the newly formed CONRAIL (which assumed Penn Central’s rail lines) also refused to include the NCR as a branch line. This left the Stewartstown Railroad without a connection to the outside world. Although it appeared that the Stewartstown Railroad was no longer going to be able to provide freight service, the company continued to maintain its Right-of-Way and locomotives in preparation for future service. The Company’s efforts were rewarded when the PA Department of Transportation reopened the NCR once again giving the Stewartstown an outside connection. The Stewartstown Railroad assumed trackage rights in 1985 and ran trains on the NCRy until 1992. Passenger excursion trains continued on the Stewartstown’s trackage until 2004. Today, with the tireless efforts and dedicated help from numerous volunteers, railroad enthusiasts, and the local community, the Stewartstown Railroad is back in passenger excursion service. Home to the venerable “Mighty-Mo”, a vintage 1943 Plymouth switcher locomotive, we offer various forms of train rides in some of the most pastoral scenery in the northeastern United States. Along the meandering hills and wistful forests of the Deer Creek valley. The post card was published in 1993

Lightweight and Popular

The locomotive you see on this post card is pulling a consist of a caboose from the Southern Railways, Central of Georgia Railroad and the Clinchfield Railroad. It is at the Southeastern Railway Museum in Duluth, Georgia. It is being pulled by a General Electric 44 Ton Center Cab Unit. My favourite railroad-rlated website, https://www.american-rails.com/laurinburg.html tells us this about the GE 44-Tonner: General Electric's 44-tonner was the builder's most well-known in its early line of industrial switchers with more than 400 produced between 1940-1957. This model was first powered by two Caterpillar D17000 V8 diesel engines, providing a top speed of 35 mph. A total of 373 units were produced in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. In addition, another 60 were built for the military and 43 more exported to other countries making it a successful model for General Electric. The switcher featured a symmetrical and aesthetically pleasing carbody while also providing ruggedness and reliability. The centercab carbody sported a raised cab with a tapered hood at each end. Their B-B trucks were an all-welded design, somewhat unique as most were produced from castings. They were 33 feet, 5 inches long. Ten 44-tonners were equipped with a pair of Buda 6DH1742 engines capable of producing 205 horsepower each. The Phase IV and Phase V switchers boasted 400 horsepower.

The Photo is courtesy of Howard L. Robins. I found a book on line that features photos “by noted photographer Howard Robins. Enjoy ACL, SAL, SOU, A&WP, GA, CofG, SCL, L&N, and the other smaller roads that made Atlanta, Georgia such an eclectic mix of railroading in the 1960s.” The book’s title is “Trackside around Atlanta 1956-1975 with Howard Robins” The post card was published by Mary Jayne’s Railroad Specialties, Inc. in 1994. It is 1 of 243 post cards in my collection that were published by Mary Jayne’s.

Gone, But Not Forgotten

The locomotive pictured on the front of this post card is an Alco S2 Switcher

– a sister to last week’s featured locomotive. This one is leaving the Engine House at West Point, Georgia to do some local switching. The locomotive was owned by the Chattahoochee Valley Railway. This short (9 ½ miles) railroad connected with the Atlanta & West Point and with the Western Railway of Alabama right there at West Point. The line was abandoned in 1992 after being in existence for 97 years. The information about this railroad, presented below was found at our good friends from Wikipedia. Originally the line was constructed by the Chattahoochee Valley Railroad on July 2,1895 from Langdale to Lanett, it was extended to Riverview by 1897. In 1900, the railroad was reorganized to become the Chattahoochee Valley Railway (CHV). Further expansion included new tracks south to Jester in 1899 and north to Standing Rock, Alabama by 1908. By extending tracks further to Bleecker in 1916 the railroad totaled 45 miles and connected to three other railroads. The railroad started retracting in 1932 when part of the railroad was abandoned from Standing Rock to West Point and passenger service ended. In the 1960s, a dam was constructed north of West Point, and the CHV built a short spur line to reach the construction site for delivery of materials. When construction of the dam was completed in 1973 the spur was abandoned. Around the same time, the railroad abandoned the line from Riverview to Bleecker. The railroad shut down completely on September 23, 1992, with tracks removed the following year. By the time of the abandonment the railroad numbered less than 10 miles. CHV 2-8-0 steam locomotive No. 21, built in 1924 by the Baldwin Locomotive Works, is now on display at the Southeastern Railway Museum in Duluth, Georgia.

The post card was published by the same person who took the photograph: Mary Jayne Rowe. I have 243 post cards published by this lovely, now deceased lady. It was published on December 4, 1985 from Covington, Virginia.

That is a lot of Horsepower at Work

The picture on the front of this post card is another set of Fairbanks-Morse

4,800 horsepower “Train Master” locomotives. They are hauling iron ore from the open-pit mines near Ely-Biwabik to the loading docks at Two Harbors, Minnesota. This website https://www.american-rails.com/nylb.html offers us a fascinating history of how the Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range Railroad came to be. Here is a very short excerpt from his article. I recommend that you go there and read it. Because of its unique nature the Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range carries one of the most interesting histories of any railroad. The company's existence was tied directly, and almost exclusively, to iron ore. In many ways, it differed entirely from its counterparts. Its heritage, ironically, begins with gold. A gold rush hit Minnesota's Lake Vermilion region in 1865 when prospectors claimed they had stumbled upon the precious metal. This hope turned out to be unfounded, and the flurry of activity had ended by 1868. However, a few individuals stuck around after noticing the red soil appeared to contain rich sources of iron. The most notable was George Stuntz who set into motion efforts that later became the Duluth & Iron Range, DM&IR's earliest component. After studying samples, the ore was proven to be roughly 65% pure iron, an extremely exciting prospect. The Duluth & Iron Mountain Railroad (D&IM) was incorporated on January 29, 1881 by Charlemagne Tower of Philadelphia for the purpose of hauling the iron ore to market. After a route was surveyed for the Duluth & Iron Range Railroad, construction commenced northward from Agate Bay with a short segment initially opened at that location on August 28, 1883. After nearly a year of construction the entire 68-mile line was completed on July 31, 1884, serving two early docks at Two Harbors. A group of industrialists, which included oil mogul John D. Rockefeller, carried a nearly limitless stream of capital. Threatening to build a competing line of their own, Tower capitulated and sold his stakes in April of 1887 for a total of $6.4 million. The D&IR reached the western Mesabi Range in 1892 when it opened an 18-mile extension to McKinley via Wyman. This put it direct competition with a nearby road with which it would later merge, the Duluth, Missabe & Northern. On February 11, 1891 the Duluth, Missabe & Northern Railway was formed and by October of 1892 it was ready for service. The two railroads remained separate corporate entities until a series of transactions in the late 1930s; first, the DM&N and Spirit Lake Transfer Railway (formed in 1907, this DM&N subsidiary eventually constructed 11 miles in the West Duluth area to serve a steel mill owned by the Minnesota Steel Company) were merged on July 1, 1937 to form the Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range Railway.

This post card is another of the post cards in my collection from Audio Visual Designs. The photo is by Lewis A. Harlow.

Living up to its Mission even Today

The locomotive on the front of this post card is a Fairbanks-Morse “Train Master”. I wrote about the “Train Master” in last week’s post. This week, rather than writing about the locomotive, I will write about the railroad on which it is operating: the New York & Long Branch. This picture was taken at Bay Head Junction in New Jersey in October of 1956. https://www.american-rails.com/nylb.html tells us this information about the history and continued importance of the New York & Long Branch Railroad: The New York & Long Branch (NY&LB) was never an independent corporate entity and never operated any of its own equipment. This system started at Bay Head Junction and ran up to Perth Amboy, where it linked with the Central Railroad of New Jersey's Perth Amboy and Elizabethport line. Jointly owned and run by the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Central Railroad of New Jersey to largely handle commuter service throughout east-central New Jersey, it transitioned to Conrail ownership in 1976. Incorporated on April 8, 1868, the NY&LB was conceived with a clear mission: to connect the major cities of New Jersey's Monmouth County with the economic heart of New York City. • By 1875, the rail line extending from Perth Amboy to Long Branch was completed. On December 20, 1881, several railroads were merged into the NY&LB which included: The New Egypt & Farmingdale Railroad was incorporated on March 17, 1869. Its tracks reached from Long Branch to Belmar in 1876, though the rest of the line to New Egypt was never completed. • The Long Branch & Sea Girt Railroad, incorporated on June 18, 1875, constructed its line from Belmar to Sea Girt in 1876. • The New York & Long Branch Extension Railroad was founded on March 10, 1880, and built its line from Sea Girt to Point Pleasant that same year. • The Long Branch & Barnegat Bay Railroad, established on September 23, 1880, laid tracks from Point Pleasant to Bay Head Junction by 1881. The NY&LB marked a significant shift in the socio-economic landscape of the New Jersey coast. It transformed previously isolated beach towns into thriving seaside resorts frequented by wealthy New York residents. The easy access afforded by the railroad spurred real estate development, giving rise to an array of Victorian-style homes and seaside settlements. Beyond tourism, the NY&LB was instrumental in boosting local industries. Agricultural producers and manufacturers benefited from new markets opened by fast and reliable rail connections. Through its various incarnations—from a passenger lifeline for vacationers and locals, to an integral part of New Jersey Transit's commuter network—the NY&LB continues to epitomize the adaptability and enduring relevance of railways in American history.

This post card is another of the post cards in my collection from Audio Visual Designs. The photo is by Don Wood.

Exit, Stage Left!!

The locomotive on the front of this post card is a Fairbanks-Morse “Train Master”. It was built for the Reading Railroad Company in 1953.

Here it is switching at the railroad’s Rutherford Yard near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania on May 2, 1964. The H-24-66, or “Train Master”, is a diesel-electric railroad locomotive produced by Fairbanks-Morse and its licensee, Canadian Locomotive Company. These six-axle hood unit road switchers were used in the United States and Canada during the 1950s. Advertised by Fairbanks-Morse as "the most useful locomotive ever built", the 2,400-horsepower “Train Master” was the most powerful single-engine diesel locomotive at its introduction in 1953. No competitor offered a locomotive with an equal horsepower rating until the ALCO RSD-7 entered production in January 1954. EMD followed suit in July 1958 with the SD24, and GE introduced their U25C in September 1963. While some railroads saw advantages in the “Train Master's” greater power, others thought the unit had too much horsepower. Other drawbacks were the difficulties inherent in maintaining the opposed-piston engine, inadequacies in the electrical system, and a higher-than-normal consumption of cooling water. All these contributed to poor market acceptance of the “Train Masters”—and ultimately the departure of Fairbanks-Morse from the locomotive business. Thus, the title of this blog post is "Exit, Stage Left!!"

This post card is another of the post cards in my collection from Audio Visual Designs. It looks like the post card was commissioned by the Frisco line for distribution by them. The photo is by Carl H. Sturner

Another Set of Twins

In my April 8th and April 22nd posts, I introduced you to a couple of twin locomotives working for the Minneapolis, Northfield & Southern Railway. They were Baldwin-built locomotives. The twin locomotives pictured on the front of this post card are Fairbanks-Morse model H-12-44 switchers.

(the “H” tells us that is it a Hood unit, the “10” indicates that it produces 1,000 horsepower, and the 4 shows us that it has four axles and four traction motors) They are working on the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway (the Frisco line). Here they are pulling a freight in February of 1970, in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The Fairbanks-Morse H-12-44 was a switcher locomotive produced from May 1950 until March 1961. The units had a six-cylinder opposed piston engine prime mover, and were configured in a B-B wheel arrangement mounted atop a pair of two-axle AAR Type-A switcher trucks, with all axles powered and geared for a top speed of 60 miles per hour. Of the 336 H-12-44 locomotives produced, 303 were for American railroads, 30 were made between August 1951 to June 1956 by the Canadian Locomotive Company for use in Canada, and one was exported to Mexico. This website tells us some of the history of the Railroad to which the locomotives on the front of this post card belonged: https://frisco.org/mainline/about-the-frisco-railroad/ The St. Louis–San Francisco Railway (affectionately known as the “Frisco”) was a St. Louis-based railroad that operated in nine Midwest and southern states from 1876 to 1980. The railroad stretched from Kansas City to Pensacola and St. Louis to Oklahoma City and Dallas, having some of the most iconic motive power, logos and slogans in the history of railroading. The Frisco was also renowned for excellent passenger service led by some of the best-looking steam locomotives ever built, and celebrated for fast freight hauling behind steam locomotives of its own design as well as diesels in the later era. Born as a branch of the great Pacific Railroad project of the mid-19th Century, the Frisco became a separate entity that helped to feed the population of a growing nation, helped build its factories and ship those factories’ products, helped win two World Wars, and helped to carry Americans East and West, North and South in style and comfort. In the 104 years of its separate existence, it became a major corporation that provided the best service possible to its customers while treating its employees like a big family, never losing the homey touch. The Frisco merged with, and was assimilated into, the Burlington Northern on November 21, 1980, but most of its lines are still in service today with the BNSF or various short lines.

This post card is another of the post cards in my collection from Audio Visual Designs. It looks like the post card was commissioned by the Frisco line for distribution by them. The photo is by Mac Owen.