Railfair 2009 and the Clubhouse by Roger Crigger What Is the Whyte

Upcoming Events

December 25, 2009 Open House 2:00p.m. – 4:00p.m. A Publication of the Railroad Model and Historical Society of Southeastern Ohio, Inc. At the Clubhouse December 2009 5259 Washington Road in Visit us on the Web at www.ironheadsofseo.org Albany, Ohio

January 12, 2010 Work Session 7:00p.m. At the Clubhouse 5259 Washington Road in Our Clubhouse in Albany, Ohio Albany, Ohio

January 26, 2010 Club Annual Meeting 7:00p.m. At the Clubhouse 5259 Washington Road in Railfair 2009 and The Clubhouse by Roger Crigger Albany, Ohio Thanksgiving is gone and Christmas is last day of Railfair and a Thomas the Upcoming Birthdays coming, so that must mean it is time for Engine layout using the Trackmaster th Railfair. This is our 17 year at the Motorized Rail System and some Market on State formally known as The Lego’s. Also look for a HO Scale James December 25 – Roger Crigger University Mall. Railfair has become the the Engine with moving eyes, The January 7 – Kirk DePeel event that The Railroad Model and Flying Scotsman, and Godzilla. Historical Society of Southeastern Ohio Need Your Help has become known for. Each year we try This year has also been a special year to get better and this year is no for the club. In July of this year we We needed your help with exception. Layouts that are schedule to signed a two-year lease to rent a railroad stories, tips, how return included Sam Ellis Christmas storefront at 5259 Washington Road in to, jokes, or anything else you can come up with for Tree layout, which at 25 years is the Albany, Ohio for a clubhouse. This has your newsletter. oldest layout at Railfair. Then theres my been a dream for this club for many always changing but will never done years and gives us the chance to do E-mail to: layout called Point Nowhere. Kirk and things besides Railfair. Besides having a [email protected] Jason DePeel’s layout that includes place for meeting and work sessions. Spartan Yard and Eric’s Canyon and We are planning to have open houses Mail to: P.O. Box 863 Tony Magill ’s layout that has some of and classes about model and real Athens, Ohio 45701 railroading. the best wooden trestles you will ever see will also return. Other layouts that Membership are returning included Don Schultz’s We are always looking for new Lionel layout, and club’s large HO Scale members young and old that are If you are interested in module layout. New layouts that will interested in any and all aspects of our Club and would like appear included David and Matthew railroading. Anyone is welcome to our to join the Railroad Jackson’s N Scale layout, a new HO clubhouse anytime the doors are open Model and Historical scale layout that will be raffled off the and we are always interested in new and Society of Southeastern different perspectives on railroading. Ohio, Inc. membership is $25.00 per year. What is The Whyte Notation? By Roger Crigger When I was just starting in model wheels, the number of driving wheels, Location History of railroading, I would always hear and and finally the number of trailing Railfair read about steam locomotives like the wheels; each group of numbers is Big Boy bring called a 4-8-8-4 separated by dashes. Other classification 1981-82 : Irvine Hall on Ohio locomotive and wonder what it meant. schemes, like UIC classification and the University's West Green So I finely looked it up and here is what French, Turkish and Swiss systems for 1983 : Athens Mall I found. steam locomotives, count axles rather 1984 : Athens Recreation Center 1985 : The Dairy Barn than wheels. Thus, a locomotive with 1986-91 : Athens Recreation The numbers are how steam two leading axles (and thus four wheels) Center locomotives are classified by the way in front, then three driving axles (six 1992-2004 : University Mall the wheels are arranged. It is called the wheels) and followed by one trailing 2005 : The Rocky Shoes and Whyte notation and was devised by axle (two wheels) is classified as a 4-6- Boot Outlet 2006 : The Rocky Shoes and Frederick Methvan Whyte and came 2. Steam Locomotives like the Big Boy Boot Outlet and The University into use in the early twentieth century. It are called articulated locomotives. There Mall was encouraged by an editorial in are seven major types of Steam 2007-09 The Market on State American Engineer and Railroad articulated locomotives. formally The University Mall Journal in December 1900. Whyte's system counts the number of leading Continues on Back

Ironhead Gazette Page 2 Looking Back -- The Coldest Day of the Year By Kirk DePeel

Here is Kirk DePeel’s The Coldest Day of the met their death here. It’s hard to believe people any relief. One guy sharing the fire with us Year Story that started in the September could die at these crossings when visibility in actually did just that. Well, he did have 2009 newsletter. This includes parts 1-3 and both directions can be measured in miles. gloves on, but there was still something the final part 4. surreal about seeing flames dancing around As the day went on, it got warmer, sort of. The his fingers and smoke coming off his gloves The cold winter wind bit at our faces as Jason temperature rose up to balmy 10 degrees but the like he were Lucifer. Apparently he had and I stepped out of our warm van. Less than a wind didn’t let up. That meant every trip out of some kind of nerve damage that caused his mile away the triangle lights of the engine the van, and every second you stood there fingers to hurt only when they were cold, approached as the crossing gates started going waiting for the train, was pure misery. By the but not burning. My son and I gave this gu y down. I was surprised they hadn’t frozen in time early afternoon came around we were a wide berth. place. This was railfanning at its extreme in the happy to head back to Crossroads Park in northern Ohio winter. Almost immediately my Deshler. Finally, we threw in the towel even with a fingers went cold despite my thick gloves. It nice burning fire producing tons of heat but had to be worse for my son, who was wearing Crossroads Park is paradise for railroad fans. only if you were willing to sit on it. We got no gloves so he could take his shot. Thankfully, It’s a triangular piece of land with a busy double pizza for dinner and turned on the electric it was easier to operate my video camera than track East/West line on one side and a heaters for what we hoped was to be a more his Nikon. somewhat busy North/South on another. The comfortable night than the day had been. third side is occupied by a North to West – East But as the night went on the temperature The two NS engines roar by at nearly 70 miles to South interchange track that connects the two dropped past 10, then 20, and finally to a an hour followed by a mile long string of double main lines. This interchange track only sees bone chilling minus 27 degrees without the stacks. As soon as it passed the wind from the about 2 trains a day, but the interchange track wind chill. Despite three good heaters train hit us, dropping the temperature another 10 that goes North/East – West/South gives you a running the van was barely able to keep a degrees. The thermometer we brought said it show of 15 trains or more. Usually these trains steady temperature of 50 degrees. Not bad was 1 degree above zero. Add in the wind chill come in bunches, so you will see several trains sleeping weather if you can cover yourself factor and it felt more like 20 below zero before from the east heading south (or vise-versa) A in blankets and don’t have trains running by the train passed. I quickly ducked back into the third interchange track running East/North – every 15 minutes, pounding the diamond van, shaking my head at my son who stood South/West sees maybe 5 trains a day, but and shaking your bed. My son didn’t have there taking pictures with no gloves, a baseball dispatchers like to keep things flowing. It’s not any problems once he fell asleep. You need cap, and a sweatshirt covered by a windbreaker. uncommon to see one train heading north and a stick of dynamite or two to wake him up. By the time he got in his face and hands were another heading south on the interchange tracks But me, I heard/felt every train that went by bright red from the cold, the first signs of while an East or Westbound train will use until traffic slowed down around two in the frostbite. He told me to turn on the heater crossovers to run past both trains at 6 0 mph. At morning. Only a couple of trains went by because he was cold. I almost laughed. What a times Deshler can be a very busy place, more so until 5 a.m., when the show started again. knucklehead for coming on this trip in the in the morning and evening hours. Finally, I gave up trying to sleep anymore middle of January without a proper winter and stepped out side to see the trains and feel jacket or hat. And now he was complaining The park also has a shelter house with electrical the cold. It turned out not to be so bad with he’s cold. WELL DUH – it’s winter. outlets, a fire pit, wireless Internet, and a portal- no wind, although breathing in air that cold potty. The Internet comes in real handy if you does make your nose hairs freeze up. It’s We drove off to find another spot on the old have a monitoring program that allows you to almost as if the air itself is freezing inside NYC line (now NS) that cuts across the see which directions the trains are coming and you. northwestern side of Ohio. This line runs from how long before they get there. In return for Toledo and crosses into Indiana before heading these services the people running this park ask Around ten that morning we headed for toward Chicago. In this area the double track for a small donation of $5 to keep the bills paid. home. By then the temperature was up to cuts through farmland, which is barren and Not a bad price to pay if y ou’re willing to sleep almost 6 above with a high temperature covered with snow. About every two-railroad in your car or a tent. expected around 25 that day. In Deshler mile's there is a highway crossing protected by you never know what kind of weather you’ll gates, despite the lack of auto traffic on these When we got to Camp Deshler, Jason and I get, but that day happened to be the coldest roads. NS runs about 80 trains a day on these were looking forward to standing by a nice fire. for the year. It was definitely the most tracks usually at 70mph or faster. One of the That turned out to be a pipe dream. We built frigid weather I’ve ever raifanned in. Can’t compromises for faster speeds was they had to the fire, but the wind continued blowing strong wait to do it again! protect each crossing. Yet, despite their efforts, well into the night making it one of the chilliest we still see plenty of crosses, and in one case a I can remember. Our legs stayed warm, but you big billboard sign, indicating that someone had had to almost put your hands on the fire to get

What is The Whyte Notation? Continued from front

The Big Boy is a Mallet type; where In Europe, the suffix R could mean rack 8w are generally used. Thus 4wPE there are no unpowered axles between (0-6-0RT) or it could mean reversible (0- indicates a four-wheel petrol Bi- powered axles. This gives this group 6-0TR). The latter case being the locomotive with electric tr ansmission. cabine extra numbers in the middle. Thus a Big locomotives used in France. The For large diesel locomotives the UIC Boy is a 4-8-8-4; there are two leading suffix F indicates a fireless locomotive classification is used. axles, one group of four driving axles, (0-4-0F). Note that this locomotive has another group of four driving axles, and no tender. The limitations of the Whyte system then two trailing axles. Articulated Other suffixes have been used at times, in classifying locomotives that did locomotives such as Garratts, which are including ng for narrow-gauge not fit the standard steam locomotive effectively two locomotives joined by a locomotives (i.e., less than 56.5 in / 1435 pattern led to the design of other common boiler, have a + between the mm) and CA or ca for compressed air forms of classification. Most arrangements of each engine. Thus, a (i.e., running on compressed air from a commonly used in Europe is the UIC 'double Pacific' type Garratt is a 4-6-2+2- tank instead of steam). classification scheme, based on 6-4. German practice. In Britain, small diesel and petrol Suffixes are also used in the Whyte locomotives are usually classified in the In American (and to a lesser extent Notation. The suffix T indicates a tank same way as steam locomotives, e.g. 0-4- British) practice, most wheel locomotive; otherwise, a tender 0, 0-6-0, 0-8-0. This may be followed by arrangements in common use were locomotive is assumed. In British D for diesel, P petrol, and another letter given names, often from the name of practice, this is sometimes extended to describing the transmission: E for the first such locomotive built. (For indicate the type of tank locomotive: T electric, H hydraulic, M mechanical. example, the 2-2-0 is named Planet .) means side tank, PT pannier tank, ST Thus 0-6-0DE denotes a six-wheel d iesel (This naming convention is saddle tank, and WT well tank. T+T locomotive with electric transmission. reminiscent of the naming of warship means a tank locomotive that has a Where the axles are coupled by chains or classes.) tender for additional coal or water shafts (rather than side-rods), or are capacity. individually driven, the terms 4w, 6w or