THE SUPERS REPORT JUNE- 2013 Vol. 20 Issue 06 This Super’s Report is one that will be short and maybe sweet. Short being that it won't be MAP for 9 JUNE MEET IN RENOVO AREA long and sweet being that you won't have too much to read from me. The weather is warming up and most of us are now outside doing work in the yard? Good weather for G scale outside layouts. The rest of us are probably working on our layouts off and on. Our Jamboree I think went well. We had a number of members there to put the layout up and ready to run on Friday evening. Things just on Saturday, the day of the show. It moved along well. I believe the members also did a great job. The next meeting is at Paul's and we’ll run his lay- out of the Pennsylvania Railroad during the 1950's. Come and run on the layout and have some good fel- lowship. See you there, ROLLY FUN TIMES ON AMTRAK By Bob Ginter In 1982 I was riding the Texas Eagle to San Antonio. Bob Ginter's mom died; "Roland Miller" We stopped in Fort Worth for fuel and a crew change. I was not as lucky as a few of you guys that you got to (Trains magazine reported the Eagle switched to KCS for know one really special lady. The lady I talk about is Bob a few miles then to SP for the rest. The KCS job was Ginter's mother, Frances. I learned that she was what us the shortest trip in America, a full day pay for a few guys might say a lucky girl, because her Dad worked for miles.) We stopped near Tower 55 and there outside the PRR and got to see a lot of places that PRR went. So was a GP7R and a slug. Spotless. No way a picture. she must have had to drag young Bob kicking and scream- Here comes the Conductor. “Can I get off and get a pic- ing (LOL) to the train and railroad hobby. All I can say is ture of them?” “Sure, here is my radio, I’ll call you.” Thank you Frances for dragging poor Bobby into this hobby. There are probably many stories that many of our How about that!?!? Off I go, a few prints, a few slides members can tell? Thanks for dragging him into the and run back on. The other passengers just stared. hobby so we get to pick on each other. Bob, all I can say In the mid 90’s AAA offered a free Amtrak ticket is THANK YOU for letting us be a part of your mom’s with purchase of one using your card. BINGO life. Little Rodney and I are going to Pittsburgh. We ride Rolly and the Div 11 members- down on the Pennsylvanian, and take the Broadway Lim- ited back (or Vice Versa). On the return Rodney is hungry. I give him a few dollars and send him back to the diner. After I relate this to his mother, My sister, she Redbank Railroad is appalled. “You let him go alone???. “Yea, it’s going Rolly Miller Owner/Operator 70 MPH. How’s he going to get off ?? Offices at: 110 Hamilton St. New Bethlehem, PA 16242 Email: [email protected] I bet your MOM was proud of you that time. ED Transportation for: Oil, Fuel, Coal, and Lumber through the forests of Elk, Forest, Jefferson, McKean, and Warren Counties. Northwest PA. WWW.div11-mcr-nmra.info Since 1947 DCC The Chicago New York Electric Air Line Railroad By Bob Netzlof (Sweet Old Bob) It piques my interest because, as nearly as I can deter- mine, the proposed route would have passed through The closing years of the 19th Century were a heady time. southern Elk or northern Jefferson county (The data are “We can make it bigger, better, faster, more powerful. We have fuzzy, and every time I run the numbers I get a different the technology!” As the old century closed and the new one answer.) Calculating based on two points on the grade out began, dreamers and schemers alike looked eagerly to the fu- in Indiana, the line would have passed just south of the ture. What marvels where yet to be achieved? In the next few Ridgway reservoir and continued on through downtown years, many were achieved. The Wright boys from Dayton got a Ridgway. Doing the same based on the eastern end of the heavier than air contraption to actually fly. That Ford fellow grade and a point in downtown Weehawken says the line was setting up a factory where they made automobiles one after would have crossed US 119 about half-way between Eri- another, like peas in a pod. ton and Sykesville. Others were hatching grand schemes in transportation. Iron- No doubt about it, the Chicago New York Electric Air hulled, steam-powered ocean-going ships were getting bigger Line qualifies as a ghost railroad, particularly ghostly in and faster. The continuing success of the Suez Canal had people this case. It never had a chance. Imagine what it would looking again at that failed Isthmian Canal project down in take in terms of cuts, fills, tunnels, viaducts to maintain Central America, and a party of Army Engineers was in Nicara- “uniform grade” and “straight line” across the Allegheny gua surveying route for a canal there, in case the Isthmian route Plateau Division. But it's nice to dream. Think of the rail- didn't pan out. Folks in Europe were drumming up interest in a fanning possibilities. Arise bright and early, drive a few tunnel under the English Channel, some blue-sky thinkers were miles, spend a morning watching and photographing the pushing for a tunnel under the Bering Strait to connect Alaska 75+ mph trains as they whiz by, then an easy trip back with Siberia, and another party of Army Engineers was survey- home for lunch. ing a route for a railroad to connect North and South America. The modeling possibilities are more exciting. No need Some never worked out, of course. The Bering Strait Tunnel worry to about whether one's minimum radius is too tight, tripped over the fact that once you get to Siberia, there is an there are no curves. No need to fuss with adjusting trucks awful lot of Siberia between you and the eastern end of the to swivel freely, they don't need to swivel. No need for a Trans-Siberian Railway. For that matter, getting to Alaska is no helix. No need for a room, even. You can build a proto- treat. Some railroads were built in Mexico and Central America typically correct layout on a 6 inch wide shelf in a hall- on the route proposed for the Panamericano, but nothing close way. With the prototype's continuous 75+ mph speed no to a continuous line. The Channel Tunnel did eventually get need for DCC, OnBoard, nor a rheostat, just a ON/OFF done, but some 80 years later. switch. With constant speed on dead straight track on a barely perceptible grade, both Proto Operation Purists and While this was going on, some folks organized a company to KODTRAK enthusiasts could be satisfied all at the same build and operate the Chicago New York Electric Air Line Rail- time. All you would need would be an electric locomotive, road. (In those days “air line” meant what we today mean by half a dozen coaches, and probably a diner. “bee line” or “as the crow flies”.) They envisioned a railroad which started in downtown Chicago, more or less followed the shore of Lake Michigan until it was south of the lake, then a straight shot from there to New York (actually, to Weehawken or Hoboken or some such). Rather than dirty, smelly, smoke belching steam locomotives, trains would be drawn by electric locomotives of unprecedented power, traveling the entire distance at an average rate of 75 miles in each hour! Ten hours or less for a trip which the steam Solution to last month's puzzle: railroads, following their old-fashioned, curvy, hilly, round- EAST BROAD TOP COAL AND RAILROAD COMPANY about routes strained to do in 18 hours. Truly a Marvel of Mod- ern Technology! This month's puzzle started in life as a narrow gauge railroad, became the property of a well-known coal company which It is not clear whether the promoters of this grand plan were lengthened and widened it. Then it was absorbed into charlatans, or merely naïve. The company did actually construct The Standard Railroad of The World. a line from Gary to Portage, then blew their construction funds on massive embankments across valleys east of Portage 6 words (remember, “uniform grade”). The company floundered on, operating conventional street cars between Gary and Portage, AAAAAA C DD EEE H II LL M NNNNNNN OOO then finally gave up the ghost. PP RRRR SS TT V W YY The McKays stormed into Strasburg The convention attendance was over 500, a new re- Thursday morning and discovered cord, and there were at least twice as many models they were to be on a shop tour that displayed, now that this organization has done away very hour. With some negotiating, with model contests. The lectures were, as always, we spent the first several hours of truly befitting of the Standard Railroad of the World. our vacation at the PRRT&HS The banquet was at the museum, on one of the large convention learning about Belpaire platforms.