June 2019 in this issue... 3 Curator’s Corner: Only Vol. 37, No. 2, June 2019 Mad Dogs and Mailmen Go Out In The Midnight Pennsylvania Historical Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania Gloom & Museum Commission Advisory Council by Daniel Sohn 8 News & Views Governor ...........................The Honorable President ...........................Mr. Douglas Watts Tom Wolf Secretary ...........................Ms. Deborah Reddig 13 MARC Madness Chairman ..........................Ms. Nancy Moses Members ...........................Mr. Ronald T. Bailey by Stephen B. Ferrell Executive Director............Ms. Andrea Lowery Mr. Rudy Husband Ms. Marilyn Jamison 16 American Steam Museum Director .............Mr. Patrick C. Morrison Mr. Kevin Jurgelewicz Mr. Bennett Levin Locomotives: Design and Members ...........................Ms. Ophelia M. Chambliss Mr. Jeffrey J. Majersky Mr. Linn Moedinger Development, 1880-1960, Sen. Andrew E. Dinniman Mr. William V. Lewis Dr. Jeremy F. Plant Mr. Alfred Sauer Mr. Eric Winslow by William L. Withuhn Mr. Andrew E. Masich Rep. Robert F. Matzie Mr. Fredrick C. Powell Mr. Robert M. Savakinus Book Review by Ronald T. Bailey Honorary Sen. Joseph B. Scarnati III Dr. David Schuyler Mrs. Donna L. Kreiser Mr. Charles W. Moorman IV 20 Bridging The Railroad: Mr. Kenneth C. Turner Rep. Parke Wentling Mr. Paul Quinn Mr. Bill Schafer The Wheatsheaf Lane Mr. Phillip D. Zimmerman Pedestrian Bridge And Ex Offi cio ..........................Dr. Pedro Rivera Supporting Mr. James Alexander Jr Dr. John H. Bowman The Grade Crossing The Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania is administered Mr. Patrick C. Morrison Separation Movement by the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission by Lynn M. Alpert with the active support of the Friends of the Railroad Milepost Museum of Pennsylvania. Managing Editor . .Ms. Deborah Reddig Cover Photo: The popularity of commuter trains Friends of the Contributing Editor. .Mr. Patrick C. Morrison brought about the development of the G5s locomotives, the Design/Layout. .Mrs. Heather Shaubach, largest and weightiest ten-wheelers ever built. Exhibited Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania Cooper Printing, Inc. on Track 2 East in Rolling Stock Hall, the Railroad Board of Directors Ms. Deborah Reddig Museum of Pennsylvania’s 95-year-old G5s locomotive President ...........................Mr. James R. Rose No. 5741 was built in the Pennsylvania Railroad’s Juniata Printed by Cooper Printing, Inc., Lancaster, PA Vice President ...................Mr. William Cluley Shops. It is one of the pieces from the famed Pennsylvania Milepost (ISSN 10587861) is published by and for Secretary ...........................Mr. Douglas G. O’Brien Railroad Historical Collection and is listed on the the Friends of the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania Treasurer ...........................Mr. Stephen B. Ferrell National Register of Historic Places. (D. Reddig Photo, in April, June, August, October and December at Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, PHMC) Members ........................... Mr. Marino J. “Joe” Acri Strasburg, PA 17579. Subscription to the Milepost is Mr. Albert J. Giannantonio Jr Inside Front Cover Photo: included as part of annual membership in the FRM. Cleanliness is next Mr. John Gummo Mr. Douglas Henry to conservation. Security offi cer Dennis Keperling waxes Mr. G. Wayne Laepple Mr. Tom Ohlhaber Periodicals postage paid Lancaster, PA. the Museum’s Pennsylvania Railroad E7s locomotive No. Mr. Joseph E. Savoca POSTMASTER: 7002, not only to keep it gleaming for visitors but also Please send change of address to: Ex Offi cio ..........................Mr. Patrick C. Morrison to help keep the historic artifact well preserved. (Craig Friends of the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania Benner Photo, Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, PHMC) The Friends of the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania P. O. Box 125, Strasburg, PA 17579 (FRM) is a non-profi t volunteer museum support Phone: (717) 687-8628 • Fax: (717) 687-0876 Back Cover Photo: The 85-year-old B1 locomotive organization chartered by the Pennsylvania Historical Email: [email protected] No. 5690 was built in Altoona, Pennsylvania by the & Museum Commission. www.rrmuseumpa.org Pennsylvania Railroad, in association with Westinghouse Electric and Allis Chalmers. Dubbed a rat by train crews, Smithsonian Aliate as they watched the way B1 switchers scurried around railroad yards, No. 5690 spent most of its 37-year service life in New York’s Sunnyside Yard, and is the last survivor of its class of locomotive. No. 5690 is exhibited on Track 4 East in Rolling Stock Hall. (D. Reddig Photo, Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania) 2 June 2019 Bridging The Railroad: The Wheatsheaf Lane Pedestrian Bridge And The Grade Crossing Separation Movement by Lynn M. Alpert Several men gathered on the Wheatsheaf Lane Pedestrian Bridge just after its completion in September of 1899. (Courtesy of PhillyHistory.org, a project of the Philadelphia Department of Records) Introduction The Problem Of The At-Grade Crossing Railroads have to manage the comfort and safety of In the second quarter of the 19th century, when the fi rst passengers and the public along with the responsibility of railroads were being envisioned and constructed in the United caring for and upgrading aging infrastructure. An added States, there was not much vehicular traffi c, horse-drawn or complication is the often historically signifi cant nature of the otherwise, especially when compared to conditions in the early railroad. The removal of a portion of the Wheatsheaf Lane 20th century. While there was an established network of roads Pedestrian Bridge in Philadelphia, to be undertaken by Amtrak, by that time, travel was somewhat cumbersome. Therefore, the is a prime example of the decisions that must be made by the railroads to balance needs that can be at odds with one another. The bridge, which crosses over the Northeast Corridor (NEC), is a contributing resource within the National Register-eligible Pennsylvania Railroad Main Line (Philadelphia to New York) Historic District, and its partial removal diminishes the integrity of the historic district. The bridge removal is part of Amtrak’s larger program of proactive passenger rail security. Although offi cially closed to pedestrian traffi c, it is possible for people to access the bridge which, without regular bridge traffi c or other monitoring, poses a threat to the security of Amtrak trains, passengers and employees. The city of Philadelphia constructed the Wheatsheaf Lane Pedestrian Bridge in 1899 as part of an elaborate agreement with the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) to eliminate a complicated and dangerous at-grade crossing over multiple tracks. Located at the intersection of the Philadelphia & Trenton Railroad (P&T) and the PRR’s Connecting Railway, the bridge crossed the rail yard at Frankford Junction, which had expanded rapidly in the last decades of the 19th century. The yard served the needs of A 1928 photograph of children playing marbles on railroad tracks, both railroads and supported rail through traffi c that extended in published in the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin. The Reading multiple directions out of New Jersey and through Philadelphia. Railroad’s Philadelphia, Germantown and Norristown Line was located in the Manayunk neighborhood of Philadelphia, about seven After the closing of Wheatsheaf Lane, where it crossed the yard miles northwest of Frankford Junction in the northwest section for public safety reasons, the bridge served the local community of the city. According to a 1931 article published in the magazine by keeping the right-of-way open to pedestrian traffi c, retaining Railway Age, the Reading Railroad began working to eliminate a connection for neighbors on either side of the yard. As of grade crossings along this entire line as early as 1907. These 2017, the bridge was one of only a handful of early 20th century grade crossings in Manayunk were eliminated just a few years after this photograph was taken by elevating the tracks through the pedestrian bridges remaining over Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor neighborhood. (Courtesy of the Special Collections Research Center, in Philadelphia. Temple University Libraries, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) 20 June 2019 LOOK AND LISTEN,” the warning did not seem to inspire caution or deter people from crossing the tracks when a train was visibly approaching. The public often did not understand that, even though a train looked to be very far away, it would advance extremely quickly. Furthermore, cars were controlled by individual drivers, many of whom were new to driving and whose actions and decisions were not easily regulated. New drivers were excited to see how fast their cars could go and were even encouraged by advertisers who dared them to race the trains. Often people would race the trains right up to a crossing and get into a collision. Even the more responsible drivers, who would wait for a train to pass in one direction, might cross the tracks without thinking to check for a second train coming in the opposite direction. All of these issues, coupled with the frequency of new vehicles stalling, often in the middle of the grade crossing, made for an extremely dangerous situation.3 In urban areas, all of these issues were compounded. 1936 photograph of a complex grade crossing in Philadelphia, Any given grade crossing could include large groups of cars published in the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin. (Courtesy of the and pedestrians along with additional tracks serving local Special Collections Research Center, Temple