The ERA BULLETIN - NOVEMBER, 2013 Bulletin Electric Railroaders’ Association, Incorporated Vol. 56, No. 11 November, 2013 The Bulletin THIRD AVENUE’S CAR BUILDING PROGRAM Published by the Electric In the early 1930s, the company was oper- to order 24 alloy steel cars, 602-625, which Railroaders’ Association, ating approximately 900 obsolete, slow, included about 1,000 pounds of aluminum Incorporated, PO Box 3323, New York, New wooden double-truck cars built in 1908, parts. ALCOA’s engineers submitted revised York 10163-3323. 1909, and 1911. Also operated were more plans, which reduced weight and cost to the than 100 newer single-truck cars. But the minimum consistent with weight and safety. company could not afford new cars because Company officials approved the plans and For general inquiries, contact us at bulletin@ the city insisted on maintaining a five-cent ordered 49 aluminum cars, 552-600. These erausa.org or by phone fare. Because PCCs were too expensive, the bodies were lighter than the alloy steel or the at (212) 986-4482 (voice company found an economical way of mod- original aluminum car, but were stiffer than mail available). ERA’s ernizing its fleet. In 1934, Third Avenue be- 551. website is gan the rebuilding of 100 single-truck con- Third Avenue’s officials were economical; www.erausa.org. vertibles by lengthening them, installing bol- its new cars contained many second-hand Editorial Staff: sters, and converting them to double-truck parts. Its engineers chose a lighter 25 HP Editor-in-Chief: cars. The company must have been pleased motor, which could be bought on the used Bernard Linder with the cars’ performance and it decided to market. By rewinding the armature with two- News Editor: build new cars 101, 301-400, and Huffliners turn instead of the original three-turn coils, Randy Glucksman th Contributing Editor: in its 65 Street (Manhattan) shops. reducing the turns in the field coils, and con- Jeffrey Erlitz THE HUFFLINERS verting the motors to 300 volts, speed was Most of the Huffliners were built 75 years increased from 25 to 40 miles per hour. The Production Manager: ago. Cars 551-625, the only center-exit cars rewound motors developed 38 HP. David Ross ever operated by the company, were named Instead of expensive automatic accelera- “Huffliners” in honor of Slaughter W. Huff, tion, the company specified a 22-point who had been President of the company and straight parallel controller, which gave who was in favor of trolley cars. smooth acceleration up to 4 miles per hour per second, almost as fast as a PCC. ©2013 Electric The engineers who were designing the Railroaders’ Huffliners tried to produce a car that was CAR ASSIGNMENT Association, lighter than the 300-series cars. In late 1936, Most of the Huffliners were built and placed the company built 601, which was made of in service on the busy Broadway Line in high tensile steel. Meanwhile, the Aluminum 1938. The 300s that were transferred from In This Issue: Company of America’s engineers helped Manhattan to the Bronx or Yonkers were sent The Long Island Third Avenue design aluminum car 551, to the shop, where trolley poles were in- Rail Road Eyes which weighed only 34,000 pounds. This car stalled for overhead trolley operation. Manhattan was 1,200 pounds lighter than the steel car. The following cars were transferred in After comparing the car bodies on a cost- 1938: (Continued) weight basis, Third Avenue’s officials decided (Continued on page 4) ...Page 2 REMINDER: JAPAN1 TRIP—MAY, 2014 NEW YORKERA BULLETINDIVISION BULLETIN - NOVEMBER, OCTOBER, 2013 2000 THE GENESIS OF “DASHING DAN” Part Two—The Long Island Rail Road Eyes Manhattan by George Chiasson (Continued from October, 2013 issue) CAR CRAZY: THE VANDERBILT CUP RACES escalating) costs, inconveniences, or impacts. AND THE LONG ISLAND MOTOR PARKWAY As postulated above, one of Long Island’s distin- (AMERICA’S FIRST EXPRESSWAY) guished men of influence with a strong passion for what As we all know in contemporary history, the motor were then relatively-newfangled motor cars was William parkway system of Long Island represents its largest K. Vanderbilt II (1878-1944), the great-grandson of Cor- and most widely used transportation asset. This park- nelius Vanderbilt. His massive estate, coined way system’s early roots had an irrefutable and quite “Deepdale,” was laid out just after the Central Railroad interesting interplay with the Long Island Rail Road in of Long Island was closed from Flushing to Creedmoor its day (particularly with the now-gone Central Railroad in 1879. After Nassau County was separated from of Long Island) and through time has continued to be Queens in 1899, its perimeter transcended both and measured in part against the railroad with which it has was of sufficient size to form a municipality of its own. been an ongoing competitor for some 85 years. Your On its Nassau County side, the Deepdale estate was author feels that a complete railroad history of the terri- tucked between Great Neck and New Hyde Park, being tory contained within this chapter would be remiss if it centered about 1¼ miles northeast of the former Frank- did not include an examination of this facet and its ulti- iston station of the Central Railroad of Long Island. In mate outcome, in both its own context and that of mod- time part of its grounds became the basis for the pre- ern times. sent-day village of Lake Success, whose itinerant resi- Among many, one well-known quality about Long Is- dents now tend to gravitate by car to Great Neck station landers is this: they love their cars! Judging from the on MTA-LIRR’s Port Washington Branch, about 1¼ early start the area had as a favorite subject of the map miles up Lakeville Road. Incongruously, the Vanderbilts’ publishing business (volumes from the long-defunct E. former mansion and the lake it overlooked both survive Belcher-Hyde Company that go back to the 1890s), nicely in 2013, but are hemmed in by the Northern State since their earliest availability cars as such, from the Parkway and the Long Island Expressway. A century or horseless carriages of yore to the newest SRT Viper in so ago, Deepdale’s massive and historic accumulation 2013 have had a long, if not affectionate, place in the of acreage was a private domain that catered to the history of Nassau and Suffolk Counties (and in Queens, wealthy society man’s every need, though “Willie K.,” as too, for that matter…). This is understandable given the he was known, moved about frequently between sever- area’s tradition of wealthier, sometimes much wealthier, al residences including quarters in Manhattan, a sum- than average demographics. Then and now, rich, self- mer home in Newport, Rhode Island, and (especially indulgent “playboys” (and some distinguished older men during the depths of winter) another estate in Florida. as well) have been captivated by the avant-garde gran- There was also a smaller, attached plot of land adjoin- diosity of fast and/or fancy automobiles and had the ing the elder Vanderbilt’s abode for his son (and pre- money, time, desire, and influence to use and promote sumably his family when he would wed), there to lead a them both in competition (ostensibly to advance auto- life of semi-independence as he gradually moved up the motive science) and for personal gratification. As time, pre-ordained family ladder of succession. Regrettably, finances, and land use patterns evolved on Long Island these best laid plans never came to pass, for irony through the decades, the private automobile came to be reigned when William K. Vanderbilt III was killed in a a seminal form of practical, personal transportation, if 1933 South Carolina auto accident at age 26 while driv- not of self-expression, among the majority of its citi- ing home from the family retreat in Florida. zens. Much like a western desert, the area’s open coun- After being drawn to the allure of motor sports over- try roads, (formerly) sparse development, and flat ter- seas as a teenager and gaining a reputation for unto- rain, particularly in Central Long Island, have been high- ward motoring activity as a young man while ly conducive to propagation (and perpetuation) of the “summering” in Newport, W.K. Vanderbilt II sponsored a freedom of movement that the motor vehicle has repre- local competition for the “Vanderbilt International Cup” sented rather well. With a car of choice in hand that re- that was to be held on local roads (or in some cases at flects one’s lifestyle, personality, or economic status, the that time, dirt-caked trails) in the flat, open area of the ability to “cruise” has continued to be a core tenet of Hempstead Plains. Though among the first of such con- Long Island culture as it developed through time, endur- tests of their kind to be held on U.S. soil, and vaulted to ing to the present regardless of its intrinsic (and ever- (Continued on page 3) 2 ERA BULLETIN - NOVEMBER, 2013 The Genesis of “Dashing Dan” did, and rejoin Jericho Turnpike back at the launching point. This is the portion of the 1905 route that is hard- (Continued from page 2) est to retrace on a modern-day Nassau County map, as an immediate level of prestige given its pre-eminent and the Willetts Road alignment of old was long ago overrid- well-known (if not flamboyant) patron, the expressed den by the current Northern State Parkway and disap- safety concerns of area residents made for an unenthu- peared around 1931.