More Trains of the 1950s

124 Pages·2015·111.3 MB·English

by  Robert S. McGonigal

More
Classic Trains
SPECIAL EDITION NO. 17
TRAINS
of the 1950s
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Southern Pacific • Chesapeake & Ohio
New York Central • Santa Fe • Pennsylvania
Union Pacific • Baltimore & Ohio • Gainesville Midland
Western Maryland • New Haven • AND MORE!
In a 1954 photo east of St. Paul (Minn.)
Union Depot, a Northern Pacific 0-6-0
backs toward us as a Great Northern NW2
shoves cars into the station and NP F units
rest between runs. Charles B. McCreary
2 More TRAINS of the 1950s • 2015
More
TRAINS
of the 1950s
Railroading’s
colorful
transition
years
Edited by Robert S. McGonigal
3
Contents
8 “Three and a Flock 30 A Day on a 50 New Terminal for
of Singles . . .” Wire Train New Orleans
Union Pacific’s new hump yard The men who maintain the Where travelers once had to
at North Platte, Nebr., works New Haven’s catenary face an contend with five separate,
wonders with more than 2,000 array of unlikely hazards outmoded depots, a single new
cars every day BY BRUCE OWEN NETT station welcomes them now
BY WALLACE W. ABBEY BY JAMES G. LA VAKE
14 The Diesel’s 36 It’s Your 60 Kodachrome
Big Year Railroad! Decade
In 1950, steam was on the way Take a seat at the dispatcher’s An all-color photo gallery pre-
out, and more diesels were sold desk on a busy piece of the sents steam, diesel, and electric
than ever before Baltimore & Ohio on 15 railroads from coast to
BY DAVID P. MORGAN BY WALLACE W. ABBEY coast, in 8 states and Canada
24 Off the Beaten Path 44 Walk Right In . . . 70 Miss 2,000,000 Miles
A Western Maryland branch Meet the boss of the Saint Paul After more than 800 trips, a
line is a wild world of 3.8-per- Union Depot Co. and the Min- Seaboard stewardess-nurse still
cent grades, 22-degree curves, nesota Transfer Railway finds trains an adventure
and 10-engine trains BY FRANK P. DONOVAN BY JANE CARR
BY A. C. KALMBACH
On the cover: Southern Pacific 4-8-2
No. 4337 departs San Francisco with
afternoon commute train 120 to San
Jose in 1954. Alden Armstrong
4 More TRAINS of the 1950s • 2015
76 Two Cars to 87 The Ankle-View 104 The Rare and
Tidewater Train Wonderful Gaines-
Follow two C&O coal hoppers Pennsy’s new Keystone from ville Midland
on their 512-mile, 96-hour Budd is low and light, but it A Georgia short line keeps
journey from mine to dock rides like a train should going in 1957 with Decapods
BY DAVID P. MORGAN BY E. JOHN LONG and determination
BY DAVID P. MORGAN
86 Two-Story 96 “I’m a Railroad 112 How to Hoist 5,000
Streamliners Fan” Tons 6,273 Feet
Santa Fe’s new “Hi-Level” cars Meet Al Perlman, the maverick Hop aboard the caboose of a
may seem extravagant, but they from the West who aims to Southern Pacific freight as it
have plenty of earning power save the troubled New York does battle with Donner Pass
BY DAVID P. MORGAN Central from itself BY DAVID P. MORGAN
BY DAVID P. MORGAN
On February 5, 1953, at Hermitage,
Va., on Richmond’s north side, N&W
4-8-2 No. 121 brings ACL train 26
from Petersburg, Va., past RF&P and
Seaboard E units, which are trading
places on a southbound. R. R. Malinoski
www.classictrainsmag.com • More TRAINS of the 1950s 5
More
TRAINS
of the 1950s
By popular demand,
CLASSIC TRAINS SPECIAL EDITION NO. 17 • 2015
Editor Robert S. McGonigal
more of the ’50s! Art Director Thomas Danneman
Senior Editor J. David Ingles
Senior Graphic Designer Scott Krall
Graphic Designer Drew Halverson
Editorial Assistant Diane Laska-Swanke
Contributing Illustrator Bill Metzger
W
hen we published the original Trains of the 1950s in May Librarian Thomas E. Hoffmann
Production Coordinator Sue Hollinger-Yustus
2013, its popularity took us by surprise, and the issue quickly
More Trains of the 1950s (ISBN 978-1-62700-322-3)
is published by Kalmbach Publishing Co., 21027 Cross-
sold out. In a trio of subsequent publications, we covered three other
roads Circle, P.O. Box 1612, Waukesha, WI 53187-1612.
decades from the classic era: the 1940s, ’60s, and ’70s. We had planned Editorial
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to end our “decade” series after those four issues. But reader requests Fax: [phone]
Display advertising sales
for a 1950s sequel, not to mention the deep, rich pool of articles from
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persuaded us to revisit that fascinating time. Outside U.S. and Canada: [phone], ext. 421
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Selling Classic Trains magazines or products in
all-color “Kodachrome Decade” photo gallery on pages 60–69, all the your store
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articles first appeared in Trains during the 1950s. The layouts are
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completely new, in most cases featuring additional photos, with rare
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color images often replacing the original black-and-whites.
Single copy prices (U.S. funds): $12.99 in U.S.; $13.99
in Canada and other foreign counties, payable in U.S.
The 1950s was a time of transition for America’s railroads. Steam
funds drawn on a U.S. bank. Canadian price includes
GST. BN12271 3209RT Printed in the U.S.A.
locomotives gave way to diesel-electrics. The optimism that led many
©2015 Kalmbach Publishing Co. All rights reserved.
Any publication, reproduction, or use without express
railroads to buy fleets of new passenger trains after World War II permission in writing of any text, illustration, or pho-
tographic content in any manner is prohibited except
began to dim. New technologies expedited the handling of freight. for inclusion of brief quotations when credit is given.
Kalmbach Publishing Co.
Motor trucks, automobiles, and airliners siphoned increasing amounts President Charles R. Croft
Vice President, Editorial Kevin P. Keefe
of traffic from the rails. Vice President, Sales & Marketing Daniel R. Lance
Vice President, Consumer Marketing Nicole McGuire
It was a decade of almost infinite variety and, as the passage of time Corporate Art Director Maureen M. Schimmel
Art & Production Manager Michael Soliday
has proved, enduring fascination for those of us who love trains. Corporate Advertising Director Scott W. Bong
Advertising Sales Representative Mike Yuhas
Advertising Representative Todd Schwartz
Ad Services Representative Christa Burbank
Group Circulation Manager Kathy Steele
Single Copy Specialist Kim Redmond
6 More TRAINS of the 1950s • 2015
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CLASSIC TRAINS half page horizontal - color 7.8 x 4.937
A tank car begins its descent from the crest of the hump at UP’s new North Platte yard. The mast atop the hump control tower is for
radio communication with switch engines. A hump conductor directs the pin-puller from a position on the ground floor. Wallace W. Abbey
“THREE AND
A FLOCK
OF SINGLES . . .”
8 More TRAINS of the 1950s • 2015
At Union Pacific’s North Platte hump yard, you
put freight cars into one end, throw a few levers,
SEPTEMBER
and out roll trains that are ready for the road
1950
BY WALLACE W. ABBEY
I
n the Union Pacific’s general telegraph
office at North Platte, Nebr., a Teletype
printer pecks out the opening of an
incoming message:
CHIAN 20 801A
NO 15N ALL CONCD NOP
EX 3935 ROOT O G 15
It’s the consist of an eastbound train that
already is eating into the 225 miles between
Cheyenne (CHIAN), Wyo., and North Platte
(NOP). The Teletype hammers out the ini-
tials and number, lading, and destination of
the train’s 73 cars. The last line sums up:
69 LDS 4 EMPTIES 4386 TONS.
“All concerned” at North Platte are there-
by informed that within two or three hours
— the dispatcher upstairs over the passenger
station knows when — Extra 3935 East will
arrive and head in on one of the receiving
tracks in the $3½ million hump yard born
here in 1948.
Speed in reclassification, here as in any
such installation, is the keynote. Extra 3935
East’s 73 cars are humped in 18 minutes,
rolling into the 42-track classification yard in
61 cuts. That never could have been done in
the old 20-track flat yard, which was some-
thing of a wasp waist in the middle of a busy
piece of railroad.
The North Platte hump yard operates
much like any modern gravity yard, with
intercommunication systems, radio-equipped
switchers, and elaborate car inspection facili- UP NW2 No. 1091, with extra ballast and low-speed gearing, shoves the last cars of an
ties. Yet it has its singular characteristics: the inbound train up the hump. Behind the diesel is the car inspection station. Wallace W. Abbey
big Challenger articulateds and long-barreled
4-12-2s, the red-and-yellow Road of the
Streamliners slogan on the car inspection linked with brothers of like destination. retarders at the rate of about 100 an hour. All
station, the little red truck that picks up the On the average day, 2,400 cars roll into the eastbound cars are classified by gravity, along
Extra’s rear-end crew at the west end of the receiving yards. When the fruit rush from with 70 percent of the westbound traffic in
receiving yard. These features tab this yard as California is in full swing in August, Septem- other than rush periods. Eastbound reefers
strictly North Platte and Union Pacific. ber, and October, the count climbs to 3,700 a are blocked for connections at Council Bluffs
North Platte sits right in the middle of the day. About a third of this movement is to and or Kansas City and sent on their way in 2 to
pond as far as freight traffic over the eastern from Kansas City through Hastings, Nebr., 2½ hours. The “rip” tracks normally repair
lines of the Union Pacific is concerned. Out Marysville, Kans., and Topeka. Since the cars containing perishables in 2 to 4 hours,
of the west comes a parade of trains from greater percentage of the overall movement is manifest in 6 to 12.
beyond the Continental Divide and from west to east, the yard was laid out to facilitate Yard operations are worked by 1,000 h.p.
Colorado. From the east there’s the combined reclassification of eastbound trains. Con- EMD NW2 switchers. As many as 23 tricks
flow from Council Bluffs, Iowa, and Kansas struction of the yard was speedy. Work be- may be marked on the board in a 24-hour
City and eastern connections. The North gan April 1, 1948, and the first train was period when traffic is heavy. Two engines
Platte hump yard is the sausage-grinder that humped five months later, on August 28. work the hump, alternating at shoving trains
takes cars in any order and turns ’em out The humpmasters direct cars through the and picking up and setting out cars on the
www.classictrainsmag.com • More TRAINS of the 1950s 9
Locker and Westbound main track
UNION PACIFIC heating plant General yardmaster’s office Roundhouse
Tower B
HUMP YARD
Hump
North Platte, Nebr. control Office
tower
Westbound departure yard
Westbound receiving yard N
Classification yard
Pacific Fruit Car inspector
Eastbound receiving yard Express office
Eastbound departure yard
To Cheyenne, Wyo., Retarders Tower A
and Ogden, Utah Signal shop Shop PFE superintendent office To Council
Locker
Tower C © 2015, Kalmbach Publishing Co., CLASSIC TRAINS, Rick Johnson Bluffs, Iowa
Eastbound main track Store Not to scale Passenger station
rip tracks. Hump engines are geared down
and weighted with several hundred pounds
of lead for added traction.
In a view from partway up a light tower, two cars have passed the hump tower and are Steam locomotives, however, are the dom-
entering the master retarder. All cars are humped in an eastward direction. Union Pacific inant road power on the Nebraska and Kan-
sas divisions. Diesels pull the streamliners,
but 2-10-2s and 4-12-2s are the standard
freight haulers. A half-dozen or so Challeng-
ers work between North Platte and Cheyenne.
The combination of human ingenuity and
mechanical efficiency that shepherds thou-
sands of cars through the North Platte yard
is something to marvel at. People even drive
out from town on sunny Sunday afternoons
to watch the cars roll down the incline. To
them it’s novel. They may understand; they
may not. But they want to watch, to learn.
At his desk on the first floor of the hump-
master’s tower, the hump conductor consults
his yellow Teletype consist, marked to show
where each of the cars passing over the
hump is to be pigeonholed. He instructs the
man outside who uncouples the cars, the
pin-puller, over a loudspeaker.
“That’s your last single, Otis. Then you’ll
Having rolled free of the NW2 in the background, a refrigerator car headed for the bowl have two, two, and another single.” Otis yanks
of the yard approaches a box containing a radar speed-monitoring device. Union Pacific up on an uncoupling lever. With the reins
off, the car gallops down the 4 percent grade.
“Now you’ve got three and a flock of sin-
gles.” Otis nods assent in the general direc-
tion of the tower, walks back to meet the next
coupling, and trims three cars off the slowly
advancing string.
For a few minutes, cars spill over the
hump in quick succession. Six or seven are
“in the air” at once. Up in Tower B the opera-
tor juggles his switch and retarder controls
with the air of calm alertness that character-
izes towermen everywhere. He moves quick-
ly. The hump crest dumps two cuts of cars his
way. He lines the first into its designated
track. When the track circuit light goes out,
indicating that the cars are on the switch, he
reverses the switch lever. The cars clear the
turnout, the circuit picks up, and compressed
air slaps the points over. The next cut of cars
slides by into an adjacent track.
The speed meter, shown with housing cover open, transmits car speed to an “electron- Then it’s over. The hump engine is bring-
ic brain” in the tower beyond. This information, along with car weight and other data, ing the caboose down the hill to track 1.
determines the force applied by retarders farther into the yard. Union Pacific Retarders and switch machines are silent.
10 More TRAINS of the 1950s • 2015