Pennsylvania Railroad X-28 Automobile Car Built in 1926

Pennsylvania Railroad Innovation in 1926

There was an increasing amount of a mass-produced product in the 1920s that warranted its own type of car for transportation. It was the automobile. Cars were being produced by the hundreds - even thousands. They needed to be shipped from the factories to their destinations. A new distribution system popularized the "dealership" that would take delivery of multiple cars in the hope of selling their brand of autos. 

Efficiency in Manufacturing and Distribution

Henry Ford found ways to streamline the manufacturing and shipping process. He would crate his automobiles in sub-assemblies and rely on the dealers to set-up and prep the cars. His basic sub-assemblies were the motor, wheels, frame and body. Parts would also be included for final assembly. Henry Ford designed the system so efficiently that even the wood of the crates was used in the automobiles he shipped.

Dealerships Helped Build the Cars

Dick Kilday tells the story of how his father worked as a messenger for one of the dealerships. When a boxcar came in to be unloaded on a team track, it was his job to notify the dealership. In order to do that, he would go down to the railroad yard and wait for the regularly scheduled freight local to drop the consigned shipment at the team track.

He would run to the dealership and several men would go with tool boxes to the team track and begin to unload the sub-assemblies.

Right there - on the ground - the men would put the cars together. The lot next to the team track became the assembly area for the dealership. The first test drive of the cars consisted of driving the cars over to the dealership.

Working Against the Per Diem Clock

The men had to work fast to ensure that the car was ready for the next pull. That is when the car had to be empty and ready for the next freight to pick up. Otherwise the railroad would be charged the per diem rate for keeping the car another day. That cost would be rolled down to the dealership with a little bit added to make a profit for the railroad.

So, the men had to work fast to get the box car emptied and the automobiles back to the dealership.

The Pennsylvania X-28

In 1926, the Pennsylvania Railroad developed the X-28 box car specifically for this service. As a late entry into the cities that manufactured automobiles in Michigan, the Pennsy had to offer services that were above that of their competitors. Their engineering department came up with a car that was two feet longer than the standard forty foot car. This design improvement may seem minor, unless you need just a bit extra capacity to fit in crates and frames. Two feet made a lot of difference in what could be packed in.

A Door and a Half

A bigger opening helped, too. Getting auto frames and crates out of the side of a box car involves twisting the product around until it can go through a door. A bigger door means less twisting. But, it comes at a price. A door does not have the structural integrity of the side panels of the box car. So, achieving a balance meant adding a half door to a single door. The doors would be big enough to pull out the loads, but would not sacrifice the side strength of the car and its ability to brace a load.

The Oriental Limited X-28 Model in HO Scale

The Oriental Limited Pennsylvania Railroad X-28 was made by Sung Jin in Korea with catalog number 0388. Their 42 foot Automobile Box Car is a good model with a lot of weight. It rolls like the real thing. Tommy Gilbert of Gilbert's Hobby Shop will be painting mine. He will letter it in the original 1926 paint scheme - as in the black and white builders photo above.

Pennsylvania Railroad Cars Show Up a Lot

When you look at photographs of trains in the 1920s, PRR freight cars show up a lot. They had a huge number of cars going all over these United States. The Denver and Rio Grande Western is no exception. They received and passed on Pennsy equipment a lot. So, it is appropriate for some of those cars to show up in Colorado, even though the Pennsylvania system was pretty far away.

I will be back dating the paint scheme on T-29 number 784, but ten-wheelers were real workhorses in the 1920s. You could find them in front of freight and passenger trains. Shuffling around an X-28 is right on the mark.

Narrow Gauge in Cambodia

When I was in Saipan there were remnants of a system like this, including a steam locomotive hulk.  It looked like it was the prototype of the old Ken Kidder 0-4-0 "Mudhen". I've got both of the HOn3 versions - with and without tenders. I know I've got black and white photos. I'll find them and post them in a later blog.

This is delightful video from Cambodia that shows that there is a prototype for everything

 - even 0-5-0  operation.

Hang on for an exciting ride - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilJAczgfmHk

Denver and Rio Grande Mixed Train 17MAR14

Mixed Train on the Three Rail

Combining narrow gauge and standard gauge on one line is fun. It offers some operating opportunities and some wiring challenges. It is really not that hard.

The Dual Gauge Trackage Rules

• There are still only two polarities
• The two rails that are closest together share the same polarity for standard and narrow gauge.
• The isolated rail is the shared rail for the opposite polarity for narrow and standard gauge.
• The dual gauge turnouts work fine as long as you remember to wire from the point side of the turnout and isolate the diverging routes on the frog side.

Using these simple rules, even complicated switch combinations work well. Shinohara turnouts work well out-of-the-box. Trout Creek Engineering's dual-gauge BK Enterprises turnouts require hand-laying and manual wiring, but they work fine once installed.

Mixed Train Proof Of Concept

It is one thing to know the theory. The real enjoyment comes from testing how the theories play out in practice. So for my proof of concept test train, I included a Denver and Rio Grande refrigerator car that I converted, painted and lettered.

Even though it is hard to find ready-to-run HOn3 Denver and Rio Grande freight equipment, it makes for an interesting project to re-letter other makers' car bodies. With the case of the Micro-Trains HOn3 Refrigerator Cars, the underbody must be modified to back date it to the pre-1921 Denver and Rio Grande narrow gauge era. Later on, I'll be doing a couple of postings on this fairly simple conversion.

The body's roof is what makes this conversion appealing. It is close to what I have seen in my research. A good source of information on  Denver and Rio Grande (and Western) freight equipment and cabooses is Robert E. Sloan, A Century + Ten of D&RGW Narrow Gauge Freight Cars, 1871 to 1981, or the website, http://drgw.free.fr/DRGW/Freight/Wagon_en.htm.  You can also talk to Tommy Gilbert at Gilbert's Hobbies in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

Forced Perspective 23FEB14

Hanging Out with Model Railroaders

One of the great things about model railroading is sharing your enthusiasm with other modelers. Rail fans tend to have a certain personality that lends itself to comraderie. In order to get a model railroad into operation, a person has to have imagination and creativity. Model railroaders can set goals and do the work required to see their dreams come to reality. Almost all model railroaders also have a playfulness about them and a sense of humor. These things, combined with an interest in history, industrial activities and trains in general tend to make railroad people fun to be with.

Big Trees

Dick Kilday is one of those delightful model railroaders who are thought-provoking and interesting. You've probably seen Dick giving his tree clinics at the Narrow Gauge Conventions or at other model railroad meets. I'd like to talk Dick into doing a shared blog on his incredibly realistic trees. After you've made a tree following his methods, you will end up wondering if you have to water it once it is installed on a layout. In this view above, he is holding an NCE Power Cab during some experimental operation on my layout.

Forced Perspective

One of the things that we got to talk about in our visit was the concept of creating the illusion of depth. How can you create the illusion of miles on a board that is only a couple of feet deep?

Put the Big Buildings in Front

No matter what the scale, when the big buildings are closer to the viewer and the buildings get smaller toward the rear of the scene, the distance to the background will seem greater. I conducted this imagineering experiment to prove this point with the layout of buildings on my HO model of the Denver and Rio Grande dual-gauge in Salida, Colorado.

The white building, closest to the camera, is a tall building with a false front. It is the Wickenburg, Arizona Telegraph Office by Bollinger Edgarly Scale Trains. From this view the Telegraph Office seems to tower over the other buildings.

In the middle distance is a Kibri log cabin that I modified with HO True Wood Rustic Shake Shingles by Builders in Scale. European plastic kits tend to be smaller than HO scale size. In fact, I put Musket Miniatures children that I had painted on the porch and for the Kibri kit, the children are perfectly sized for adults. So, this less-than-HO building is a good far-away building.

Put the Tiny Buildings in the Back

Just or fun, on top of the mountain, I placed an N scale false front building. It's only a couple of feet back, but it seems very far away because it is a smaller scale.

Converging Lines

To further add depth to the scene I have used converging lines to draw your eye to the rear of the scene. Particularly the roof lines tend to point to the mountain in the back. This gives a feeling of being pulled into the scene. In fact, when you first looked at this photograph, your eye probably went to the mountain before it saw the Denver and Rio Grande narrow gauge Class 70 Consolidation by Blackstone.

Setting the Course for the Stream and Background Scenery 20FEB14

Creative Use of Roadbed

Just because it says "roadbed" doesn't mean the Woodland Scenics product has to be used just as roadbed. Anytime a level wall or foundation is required, the flexible foam roadbed is ideal for creating shapes on a model railroad.

In these views, I am providing the walls to form the South Branch of the Arkansas River as it goes through the territory served by the Monarch Branch of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad. The foam roadbed provides the support structure for the edge of the deep cutting stream and it also will provide support for the towns of Monarch and Garfield.

Foundation for the Foundation

Since I would like to use switch machines to control the HOn3 turnouts around Monarch and Garfield, I will place a sheet of plywood over the top of the oval-ish area, supported by the foam roadbed.

Just the Right Weight

Books are a good way to weigh down the foam roadbed to ensure that the glue sets with the foam as level as possible. I put wax paper between the foam roadbed and the books to prevent any contact between the Elmer's White Glue and the books.

I prefer using Elmer's White Glue because there is at least a half-hour or so that things can be adjusted. In the overhead shot, you can see the long path of the South Branch of the Arkansas River, which is a critical feature of the Monarch Branch.

Adding Rock Castings to the South Branch of the Arkansas River Model 9FEB14

Cutting Mountains in Minutes Castings

Mountains in Minutes castings are still available in some places, like Gilbert's Hobbies in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. They are getting a little hard to come by, but an internet search turned up the Flexi-Rock castings that used to be made by I.S.L.E. Laboratories are now offered by Scenic Express. I like these castings. They are good generic rocks that can be cut apart or used in big pieces to create mountain details. The "Royal Gorge" casting is excellent for use on Colorado model railroads.

Coping with Cutting

I usually use a coping saw to cut out the sections that I would like to use. A coping saw allows me to do an accurate cut without too much effort. It is a flexible and inexpensive tool.

With a long cutting surface the blade can be turned in different directions to cut out the pieces. There is very little waste and the Mountains in Minutes castings are roughed out. The castings still need to be trimmed for an exact fit.

Making Room for the Castings

An X-Acto #5 knife is a good tool for cutting and shaping the styrofoam, especially with a chisel blade. The large handle of the #5 knife allows the pressure necessary to affect the cuts.

When fitting the Mountains in Minutes castings, some sanding will probably need to be done, especially if you are lining the edges of a mountain stream. I use 3-M sanding blocks for a lot of this kind of work. They come in different grits and it is good to have several on hand for model railroad projects. I hold the sanding block with one on the table and rub the bottom of the casting across the block. This will give a level bottom. It does not have to be perfect. The bank will be filled in with Arizona Rock and Mineral sand and gravel material, so the edges just need to be somewhat level. 

Checking How the Castings Go Together

I check the size as I go to ensure that the castings will fit well and not obstruct the train movement.

I interlocked the pieces and test fit them. I played with placing some of the extra castings on the outside of the curved roadbed to see what the river course would look like. Notice that - as on real streams- the watercourse broadens as it leaves the confines of the canyon. In this case, this add to the apparent length of the stream with the converging lines of forced perspective.

The Renaissance Tool of Perspective

Imagine a vanishing point about a foot past where stream turns to come out of the canyon. This is where the converging lines of the river bank would meet. This is a tool of the artist who paints on canvas to give the appearance of depth to a scene. Since a modeler can work with three dimensions in space, using forced perspective creates an additional illusion of a deeper scene. 

This overhead shot shows the process of putting together the elements of the canyon and the railroad so that they will work together to draw the viewer into the illusion. Next steps including adding a grade to the stream up the canyon and working with various materials to smooth the bottom and edges of the stream.

Painting a Model Railroad Stream Bed Part 2 8FEB14

Paint Washes Over a Model Stream Bed for Realism

If you have been following previous blog posts, the next step in creating a realistic stream bed is to put a wash over the stream bottom that matches the source soils and rocks of the sediment. Think of what is about a quarter mile or several miles upstream. What is eroding and falling into the stream? On a very gentle stream in farm country, it might be top soil or cow manure. In an industrialized area it might be colorful oils and chemicals. In steeply falling mountain streams, rocks and gravel are tumbling in or grinding down to sand in a quartz area.

The South Branch of the Arkansas River has a lot of grays. I covered the gray part of the coloring process in the blog posting, Painting a Model Railroad Stream Bed Part 1 7FEB14.

Now, I would like to add some colors that you see in Chaffee County, Colorado. I wanted to mix a custom color that simulates the sunlight hitting some of those rocks.

The Color of Light

Here is where light enters into the model picture. Why is it when you see something in real life that it seems different than the color photographs taken of the area? The human eye perceives things differently than film - or digital. The reflected light coming off an object is subject to interpretation by the biology of the eye. There are filters in the human eye that make the world seem different to us. Even our brains are trained to perceive the world in a predetermined manner. This is what gave birth to Impressionist Painting.

The time of day can make a huge difference, too. You might have heard of the "Black Canyon of the Gunnison" on the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad. The rocks were not black. The sun beamed down into the canyon only from certain angles or during particular times of the day. So things seemed like a dark gray. 

Check Your References

When you look at the pictures in a publication by Morning Sun Books, like Rio Grande Narrow Gauge in Color, 1947-1959 Empire Contraction and Railfan Discovery, the original slides - usually Ektachrome or Kodakchrome - are over 50 years old and have a color bias. Bob Yanosey and his staff do a great job of color correction, but the variances of color - particularly in the scenery - are noticeable. The time of day, season and even the storage conditions of the slide collections can affect the final color on the printed page.

Videos can offer a view of scenery, even if you catch this scenery in passing. I have watched the Colorado Narrow Gauge in the 1950s by Pentrex a gazillion times. This color video story of railroading on the Marshall and Monarch Passes has some wonderful detail shots of the scenery I am modeling. There is even a fleeting stream bed shot from the steam locomotive when it goes over a trestle.

 Mixing the Color

After really studying Chaffee County, Colorado, I realized I needed to layer on a color that I mixed by eye using Yellow Ochre and Raw Sienna. For this I used Windsor Newton Acrylics. You can get these colors in the Art Department of Gilbert's Hobbies in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

After mixing the colors, I picked up a glob on my paint brush and stirred it into some distilled water that I put into a recycled tuna fish can. We keep distilled water for a lot of things around the house, but tap water will do, too. The distilled water ensure consistency. You never know what is flowing out of a public water supply.

I squeezed out just a tiny bit of Mars Black tube acrylic onto the table immediately behind the stream bed I had painted so far. Then, I tested the wash over the edge and it seemed to be about right.

Washing the Wash

I painted a layer of wash over the entire stream bed, in the direction of the stream current. Before it dried, I quickly brushed it down stream with a paper towel.

Tinting the Top

I repeated the process several times, adding smidges of Polly Scale Engine Black shadows, and Polly Scale Undercoat LT Gray and Reefer White highlights. I freely mix tube acrylics with Polly Scale paints for scenery purposes. After a while, the painted stream bed started to look like it had a channel and dropped off in layers. 

Really, the stream is not as deep as it looks here. That is an optical illusion. I spread some wash tinted with Mars Black in the center channel.

Paint Out the Brush

I had some extra color left over, so I spread it around and colored the HOn3 Tru-Scale Roadbed from Trout Creek Engineering. Having been in the U.S. Navy, I was trained in the "if it doesn't move - paint it" philosophy. I even brushed the paint out of the brush before cleaning it. Having Irish heritage, I can't waste anything.

Painting a Model Railroad Stream Bed Part 1 7FEB14

CREATIVE VISUALIZATION

One of the most important steps in the process of creation is visualization. The Disney Studios used the term "imagineering" to design the wonderful world of Disney. In Anaheim, on the screen and around the world, people can enter a fantasy land that existed in the minds of creative geniuses.  This is because they create an image in their minds and translate that image into reality. 

As a project evolves, I like to continually compare scale size to whatever I am working on. On the Monarch Branch of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad, I am working in HO scale with narrow gauge. That's HOn3. It is 1/87 scale size. So, one foot of model equals eight-seven feet in real life.

It can be hard to wrap the brain around this proportion. To overcome that mind boggler, I bring in something of a known size. In this case it is a Blackstone Models passenger car. I've ridden the prototypes of these cars. I know what they look like from the inside and the outside. In my mind I have established a sense of proportion - of what the size of the real passenger car is like.

Putting a 1/87th size model of a Jackson and Sharp narrow gauge passenger car on a tabletop tells me what size everything else should be. For me, this sometimes works out better than a scale ruler for figuring out how big a stream should be.

HOW BIG IS A STREAM?

As a "head-check" think of how many feet wide a stream is. Whatever measurement you came up with, you are probably correct. I've seen tiny and big streams. So, without going out to a stream and pulling a tape measure across it, you should be able to establish how big a stream should be by placing a known object near it.

To establish the stream, I sanded off the base paint I had put on the benchwork a while ago. The course of the stream became pretty clear. The next thing I did was mix up a color that was just a little lighter than black, but without looking gray. This would give the stream bed depth. Even though the first batch of this color was mixed by hand, I have since gotten a quart of a close match at Lowe's.  It is Olympic One Flat, D43-6, Black Elegance.

WORK UP FROM BLACK

I first learned the trick of starting with a black base coat on models while painting miniature figures for Le Petite Soldier shop in the French Quarter of New Orleans. It was my high-school job that the owner's son, Mike Weil had gotten me into. Mike - and his Dad, Don - taught me a lot about professional model building. I made a lot of mistakes back then and they both had the patience to help me fix them.

From the black base coat they taught me that it was easy to add colors that had shadows and depth. These are both necessary qualities for a stream bed that is often missing in the model format.

In order to get a fast start on the next layer, I used a hair dryer to speed up the process. After a couple of minutes of sweeping the hair dryer back and forth over the painted surface, I was ready to begin adding highlights.

In a typical Colorado stream, the water crosses submerged rock. Between the rock, sediment in the form of soils and gravel gathers. This is what creates the rippling water and white water of a typical mountain stream. The painting of this underlying rock is a critical step before adding rock material or water.

VISUALIZE THE STREAM BED

So imagine a base layer of big rock that has yet to be worn away by the action of the current. Then think of the rocks that tumble down and perhaps even stick up above the water level.  Small rocks, sand, soil and other detritus gather wherever there is an obstruction. If you have ever gone white water rafting, you know these details and how they influence navigation on the waters.

To represent the rock underneath the stream, I started with Polly Scale Undercoat LT Gray.  I thought of the direction of the current - which way does the water flow? As a stream makes a curve, what happens to the water? How would the rocks wear away through erosion? What is the center channel and what are the details of the edges? You can see some of my ideas, below.

Anxious to get on with the painting, I pulled out the hair dryer and sped up the drying process with the sweeping motion of the heat.  This dried the Undercoat LT Gray layer.

Then, I used some Polly Scale Gray Violet to give contrast to the rocks I had painted before. I painted the edges of the other rocks, almost like adding shadows. I went through this process fairly quickly.

THE SECRET OF LAYERS

Then, I did something shocking. While the gray violet paint was still wet, I got out a paper towel and brushed down the entire area of the stream - longitudinally - matching the downstream current of the water. This gives the bottom of the stream a feeling of flowing. There is implied movement when you look at the results. This also blends the gray violet over the Undercoat LT Gray rocks.

I went back and touched up some of the areas that had smudged too much. Not much touch up was required. The blending effect works well.

I should mention that I had sanded the center channel a little more than the banks. You can see the deepening in the center in this bottom photo. But, that depression is not as deep as it looks. I drew on the layers of the edge so that it would look like the shelves of water that would be cascading down. This is not quite a waterfall, but will look good in this location.

I will post my next step soon. I have another trick to show you that implies movement in the next blog. We're not done, yet. There are a lot of steps to go.

Cutting into Woodland Scenics Foam for a Stream

It is fun to experiment with what a model railroad is going to look like by laying out the pieces as parts of the layout come together. I use Tru-Scale roadbed from Trout Creek Engineering on top of the Woodland Scenics foam risers and inclines to create my mountain narrow gauge layout. That is a good combination for hand laid track or flex track.

While constructing the switchbacks for the HOn3 Monarch Branch of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad, I noticed that the switchbacks were parallel and close together. I set up an early-version K-27 to see what things looked like. The lines wouldn't be as exciting as they looked when I drew out the plan on paper. Something needed to be added, but I had already glued down the Woodland Scenics foam for support for the trackage.

The South Branch of the Arkansas River is a significant feature of the Monarch Branch. It could be added, but would require some surgery. I took a marker pen and roughed out where I thought the watercourse should go. I also used a marker to outline the Tru-Scale roadbed around the 20" radius curve. That would make for continuity over the stream after I built the bridge.

Cutting out the Woodland Scenics foam was fast and easy with a Zona Saw. A flat-bladed wall board tool acted as a thin chisel to separate the previously glued-down foam from the plywood table. 

On the two inch foam risers, a little assist was needed from a hammer with gentle taps to separate the foam from the plywood.

After a some clean-up with a sanding block, most traces of the glue were removed and you could hardly tell that the roadbed had been there.

The course of the South Branch of the Arkansas river was starting to appear. Next, there should be some shaping to the stream bottom.

N Scale Layout at Gilbert's Hobbies in Gettysburg, PA

Hanging out at Tommy Gilbert's Hobby Shop, 346 East Water Street, in Gettysburg, PA is a lot of fun - and it can be an education, too.  Some of the most knowledgeable modelers in south central Pennsylvania come to share their ideas and talk about their love of railroads.

Their passion often evolves into very interesting debates about the history of railroads and the technical details of modeling.  For example, "What color was Pennsylvania Railroad boxcar red on new cars in the 1920s".  That's important if you model that era.  The consensus was that a new boxcar would have been darker than the boxcar red colors offered by most model paint manufacturers.  It seems that a few drops of tuscan red are needed to create the darker color used by the PRR.  Of course, that color blending isn't necessary if you model a ten year old car in the 1930s that has been significantly sun-faded.

These discussion forums at Tommy Gilbert's are a lot more fun when they are live - and not just on a bulletin board on the web.  You get to meet the real people behind the modeling - including some of those authors whose bylines are found in model magazines and books.

Tommy has a couple of layouts in the shop.  One of them that came in about a month ago is for sale.  It is an N-Scale layout that has a good running start and could be finished into a nice layout.  So, there's lots of room for modeling fun when someone buys the layout.  But, in the meantime, the layout is set up for operation at Tommy's and people can run N-Scale trains through the mountains and around a town and yards.  Here are some photos.

There is a good start on the town with lots of opportunity for adding more.

This sure looks a lot like Colorado.

A Rio Grand waits for the Wabash freight to pass.

There are some industries - and even a Burger King.

Twin tunnels go through a huge mountain.

This shows the depth of the flatland area with the town in the distance.

A Wabash freight pulls out of the yards in the early morning light.

Remember - this layout is for sale.  Hurry on in to see it - and go ahead and ask if you can run it.

Irish Train with Kent Courtney - March 15, 2014

On March 15, 2014, come celebrate our Irish Heritage with Kent Courtney. Kent will sing and perform Irish Music on the Steam into History Excursions embarking in New Freedom, Pennsylvania.

Kent will tell the stories of the Irish immigration into these United States and how they helped build the Northern Central Railway, starting in 1828 with the Baltimore and Susquehanna Railroad.

Kent's music will put you swinging hammers on the track gang and unwinding after a hard day's work in the tent cities that accompanied the construction of the keystone railroad that became the Northern Central and later the Pennsylvania Railroad.  This railroad connected Baltimore, York, Harrisburg and points North.

During the time of the American Civil War, the Northern Central carried troops and supplies to the battle fronts.  Many wounded and sick soldiers road to hospitals.  The dead were carried, too - including Abraham Lincoln's Funeral Train on its sad trip back to Springfield, Illinois.

For more information go to the Mobile-Ready website:
http://www.steamintohistory.org

Or the Main website where you can purchase tickets to the excursions on line:
http://www.steamintohistory.com

Painting a Denver and Rio Grande Narrow Gauge Caboose - Part 1

This video is the first one in a series on how to prep, prime, paint and letter a Colorado narrow gauge brass caboose. This is a Pacific Fast Mail caboose manufactured in Japan, probably in the early 1960's. United started making these in 1959 and continued the manufacturing runs for about ten years. We will be adding the Denver and Rio Grande light box on top of the caboose and aiming for a date in the early years of the twentieth century.

Tommy Gilbert is a world-renowned model painter and runs Gilbert's Hobbies in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania - http://www.gettysburghobbies.com

St. Charles Streetcar in New Orleans.

This morning, my long-time friend and author, Earl Hampton, photographed this view of New Orleans Regional Transit Authority streetcar number 954 on the St. Charles route. The early morning light enabled Earl to record the current color scheme that the New Orleans RTA uses on their 900 class cars.

Earl Hampton is well-qualified to photograph streetcars in New Orleans. We took streetcar pictures together in high school, railfanning the St. Charles line in its glory years in the 1960s and 1970s.  In fact, Earl included a picture of me in his book, "The Streetcars of New Orleans 1964 - Present"

Earl also wrote "The Streetcar Guide to New Orleans", doing a major re-write of the guide of Louis Costa, Andre Neff and Peter Raarup - all members of our "Krewe" when growing up in New Orleans. Both books are a must read - before your visit to New Orleans. The Streetcar Guide is a very practical book that outlines the sites that usually take a tourist several visits to The Crescent City to find.

Thanks for emailing the photo, Earl. Please send more. We'd love to see them.

Working on the Railroad in New Freedom, PA 7SEP13

Ever wonder what it is like to run a full-sized steam railroad - especially one with a breath-taking locomotive like the Northern Central's "York"?  Imagine you are in the 1860s and this grand example of the art of locomotion builds up steam to take you away on your journey.  Saturday was a beautiful morning in New Freedom, Pennsylvania, as everything gets ready for the 10 AM excursion on the Northern Central Railway.

As the engine crew prepares the engine for operation, the morning run is discussed in the Brass Hat's Office.  Roger Cutter is the Conductor on today's excursion.  He is the on-the-train boss.  But, before he can assume that role, he has to take care of the paperwork and receive orders for the day. You could imagine Model Railroader's Andy Sperandeo writing an article on this part of the operating procedure. Note, too, the copy of Trains Magazine on the desk under Roger's pointing finger.

A steam locomotive is like a large, fine watch. It seems like it always requires some kind of adjustment. Just like in the 1860's, there is some tweaking to be done on some of the connections behind that big driving wheel. The engineer and our boiler expert are on the ground reaching through the spokes and counterweight to make adjustments.   

Another time-honored tradition of preparing a steam locomotive for a run is the oiling. The moving parts need constant lubrication. Here the fireman ensures that the lube cups for the crosshead and  piston rod are full for the run to Hanover Junction. 

The most important part of the excursion is the people who will ride the train. Our beloved passengers fill up the lines getting ready to board their coaches as the Trainmen and Car Hosts start to greet our friends that are riding today. When you ride the Steam Into History excursions, you feel like you are with family and you soon get to know the crew and the other passengers. Reliving that close sense of community is one of the surprising treats of riding the train - and it keeps people coming back for more - "Let's Do It Again". 

The fireman wipes his goggles and with a big smile from Steve, our Engineer, we get ready to pull out for another run on the Northern Central Railway.

The next run that I will be singing on is on Saturday, September 28. It's going to be a fun day and you can book your tickets by clicking here. These two excursions will sell out, so book your tickets online early!!!