Research is Applied at Cleveland Lab ...page 4 r Headlight NEWS BRIEFS MARCH, 1964 THE NEW YORK CENTRAL. •. Now citizen groups are merely asking that ships Vol. 25 No. 2 and the Pennsylvania Railroad—plus the B&M and using the project pay tolls to meet its costs, rather trustees of the New Haven and the Norfolk & Western— than dumping the losses in taxpayers' laps. Printed in U.S.A. have requested additional time from the ICC to scrutinize current studies of a possible realignment of • • the New England railroads into a single system. THE PROGRESS RECORD ... IN THIS ISSUE Postponement until June 1 is being sought by the of railroad piggyback operations continues io prove four roads. Previous deadline for submitting briefs to NEWS BRIEFS 3 that this method of transportation is the spearhead ICC examiners hearing the merger proposals of transport progress. was April 1. APPLIED RESEARCH —ANOTHER TOOL Railroads have carried an average of 15,419 FOR NYC 4 Central and the Pennsy have opposed B&M carloads of highway trailers or containers each week Railroader—scientists combine rail and New Haven bids for inclusion in any merger knowledge and research techniqm . in 1963—14 per cent above 1982, 36 per cent above of the big roads. Both contend that a better at NYC's Cleveland lab 1961 and about five times the volume for 1955. solution would be to create a New England system The year 1955 was the first full year in which the HELP YOURSELF TO EYE PROTECTION . 8 which would include the B&M, New Haven and Association of American Railroads developed Our Nation's Capitol... Approved eye protection equipment Central's B&A Div. helps you protect a most valuable piggyback records. and office buildings will receive heat from these boilers shown loaded on de• possession . your sight In their joint postponement request, each road pressed flat cars for movement by the New York Central. The Central moved the said studies of such a system are underway and that shipment from Erie City Iron Works, at Erie, Pa., to the Capitol Power Plant A FAMOUS TRAIN GETS A NEW LOOK' 10 results could materially affect their positions in • • • at Washington, D.C. The traffic was secured via NYC-P&LE-Connellsville-WMD- Work on refurbishing the Twentieth Century Limited done at Beech Grove the NYC-Pennsy merger proceedings. RAILROADS ENTERED 1964 ... Baltimore-B&O for Eckington team track delivery. The oil fired boiler units are Shops, Root Street and Mott Haven rated at 50,000 pounds of steam per hour. They will extend present facilities If results of the feasibility studies are favorable, Yards of New York Control with two new major service streamlining operations: for heating and air conditioning from a central system of the Capitol power plant. they told the Commission, issues in the NYC-Pennsy 1. A standard transportation commodity code; The units were selected by J. George Stewart, architect of the Nation's Capitol. NYC's NEW 'CLAM SHELL' CAR ... 13 merger could be materially reduced and considerable 2. A multi-level "per diem" rental system for freight time saved in its handling. cars interchanged between lines. NYC ORDERS 30 NEW DIESELS ... 14 These innovations, the Association of American The 2,500 h.p. U25B is the most • • • powerful equipment on the Central Railroads announced, represent a technological System ICC EXAMINERS PRAISE PIGGYBACK • •. "break-through" made possible by recent advances as "one of the most dynamic formulas for in the application of electronic data processing. HEADLIGHT HIGHLIGHTS 15 transportation of freight this country has ever seen" • PERFECT SHIPPING MONTH . Back Cover Two Interstate Commerce Commission examiners gave this report after an investigation. U.S. RAILROADS ... They recommended that ICC erect no roadblocks will spend in 1964 upwards of 20 per cent more that would slow growth of hauling truck trailers NORMAN M. STONE than last year's $1,000,000,000 outlay for purchase of Manager, Publications & Advertising on railroad flat cars. They maintained that greatest new equipment, according to the Association of amount of flexibility must remain available to American Railroads. The Association reported that GEORGE BOHOT management of carriers in order to make piggyback Editor 1964 "could prove to be a turning point for the service operate at peak efficiency. nation's freight car supply outlook." EDITORIAL ASSOCIATES: • • • Orders for new freight cars in 1964, the Association John E. Salter, Syracuse; predicted, may double those of last year (when Harry B. Spurrier, Chicago; NATIONWIDE PRESSURE MOUNTING... 50,000 units were ordered). Donald A. Newman, Cleve• for an increase in tolls on ships using St. Lawrence Bound for Brazil... land; Farwell C. Rhodes, Jr., Indianapolis; Robert W. Schu- Seaway to reduce deficit suffered on the waterway. is this six-crate shipment of heat treating equipment valued at approximately etle, Boston; Fred A. Huber, Tolls are under review. The seaway has $100,000. The New York Central System carried the shipment from Holcroft Jr., Detroit PRESIDENT JOHNSON'S ... & Co., at Detroit to New York City where it was loaded aboard the S.S. Lloyd consistently fallen far short of anticipated tonnage Mexico. Consignee was Brasquip, at Salavador, Bahia, Brazil. Shipment repre• on which tolls were originally set to pay for the recent call for a reforming of "our tangled trans• sented one of the largest in the manufacturer's 47-year history. Furnaces and THE HEADLIGHT is published by the New portation and transit policies" underscores anew York Central System for its active and project in 50 years. components are for use in the production of oil-drilling equipment parts in Brazil. retired employes and their families. All The difference between anticipated and actual the need for Congressional action "to help create communications should be addressed to the a more responsive, efficient common carrier system." HEADLIGHT editorial office: Room 1446, 466 tonnage is now reported as more than 11,000,000 tons. ON THE COVER: New York Central leads the nation's railroads in Lexington Avenue, New York 17, N. Y. The deficit is placed at more than $5,000,000. So said I. Sewell Morris, an official of the transportation of assembled automobiles. Each 70-ton tri-level car can Reliable experts, of course, warned that the Association of American Railroads. He noted that transport 12 standard or 15 compact automobiles. The dramatic low- Member: American Railway Magazine Editors Association; House Magazine Insti• government is going to spend some $15,000,000,000 angle photograph of Central's all-automobile train, ML-12, was taken waterway was unsound and would not produce tute; and International Council of Indus• this year on "lavish" road, air and water projects. near Cleveland by Jan Czyrba, professional photographer. trial Editors. tonnage predicted. 3 2 New York Central Headlight March, 1964 JET ENGINE SNOW REMOVER This fully-patented device, which burns low cost diesel fuel, utilizes the tremendous power expelled from the rear of a jet engine in the form of exhaust to disperse snow from yard tracks and switches, as well as main• line interlocking plants, by means of air velocity and pressure. A stationary blower, similar to the jet engine, has also been designed and constructed for removing snow and ice from bi- and tri-level cars prior to loading automobiles. In conjunction with this, the Technical Center has developed a liquid material which can be sprayed on metal surfaces to pre• vent ice and snow from freezing to the metal, thus making removal by blower or manual methods easier than ever JET ENGINE SNOW REMOVER (DESCRIBED ON OPPOSITE PAGE) WAS DESIGNED AT NYC'S CLEVELAND TECHNICAL CENTER, INC. before. The jet snow blower is now avail• able for railroads, airports, highways and mining operations through licens• ing arrangements with the Cleveland Technical Center, Inc. Five of these Applied Research—Another Tool for NYC units are now in service on the New York Central System. (The unique challenges of two worlds—industry and Man, Mind and Material, prepared by the Public GAMMA DENSOMETER OR science—are being met by NYC's railroader-scientists Relations Department. The information presented TIE CHECKER at the Cleveland Technical Center. The work of the HEADLIGHT readers here is from the brochure. More Prior to 1959, no definite means had Center is described and illustrated in a new brochure, segments of the brochure will appear in the next issue.) been available to determine the in• terior condition of railroad wooden ties. During that year, the Center de• veloped the first technical means of doing so. It involves the use of radio• active sources to penetrate through Standing in the shadow of the loco• The Center's railroader-scientists, isotopes and the Technical Center has the tie and detect any irregularities. FIRST TECHNICAL means to determine interior condition of railroad wooden ties is the motive maintenance back shop, the armed with rail knowledge and re• its own electronic neutron generator This patented device, which can be Gamma Densometer (or tie checker) developed at the Center. At top left is a fully- Cleveland Technical Center is a for• search techniques, have developed a to activate and create radioactive ma• used for other timer inspection, has transistorized model; at right, one of the devices is calibrated by one of Center's nuclear midable powerhouse in its own right. trainload of inventions and made sci• terials and parts. been licensed to Densitronics, Inc., physicists. The sketch shows a four-headed gamma densometer which automatically selects Although only seven years old, it is entific discoveries which are opening The Center's development of a high Columbus, Ohio, for manufacture and ties for later removal by spraying defective ties with paint for quick identification.