Frank writes...
I was out at IRM on Sunday, but let's start with some exciting photos taken on Saturday by our expansive and indefatigable network of underpaid freelance photographers!
Thanks to Bill Wulfert for sending along this great image of the 460 emerging from track 42 under power for the first time since it went into the roof booth 11 months ago. There are a few minor rooftop chores that still need to be wrapped up, but it's nearly complete and ran itself out of the barn without incident.
Bill also sent along this photo of the 1808, which impressively enough also ran itself out of the barn despite being temporarily converted into an open car. But that attractive front end is a sign of the great things to come.
Thanks, too, to Zach Ehlers for sending this striking photo of the 460 pulling back into Barn 4, this time on track 43. The reason for this switch move was that the track contractors have started work on replacing the track inside the east half of Barn 4 on tracks 41 and 42, so the 460 needed to be moved out of their way. It ended up at the west end of track 43, with the 757 just east of it. The 1808 got put back in its normal spot at the west end of 42, while Cleveland 4223 and Fox River Electric 306 are still on the west end of 41.Here's the aforementioned track work in the east end of Barn 4 as seen from the "roof booth" scaffolding: the ground has been scooped out from the midpoint of the barn to the pit (on track 41) and to the east end of the barn (on track 42). Neat!
When I arrived on Sunday, the shop guys had pulled the batteries out of the 460's battery box for needed work. A new battery tray is going to be fabricated and one of the batteries, which had split open, will be replaced.
The 460 is needed for revenue service this year, so now that the roof is done, the critical path goes through me - or, more precisely, completion of the smoker that I helpfully tore apart last year. Oops. Anyway, I spent the day (nearly) finishing all of the remaining wire wheeling in the smoker, including the remaining window posts (the left and right posts visible here are before and after paint removal, respectively), remaining panels over the windows, and most of the remaining work on the end. A little wire wheeling remains to be done, after which I'll sand down the wood trim and the Masonite (I think) panels underneath the windows and the compartment will be ready for a good cleaning and then paint.
He's painted all of the pieces of rail and lettered the marks to make them more obvious: red for manufacturer, white for date, blue for weight, yellow for other information. Most of the rail dates between about 1880 and 1906, but at the bottom of this photo you can see a piece of Bethlehem Iron Co. pear-head rail from 1868.
And this is the oldest piece of rail currently on hand: Trenton Iron Co. pear-head rail from 1861. You'll note the notch in the foot; I didn't know this, but early rail was notched like this because the ends weren't drilled for joint bars. Instead, a fish plate was put over the joint and spikes were driven through the fish plate and these notches to keep the rail from moving laterally. This obviously left something to be desired, and a piece of 1871 rail in Richard's collection dispenses with the notches in favor of bolting the ends together.And now for something completely different: Zach brought this gorgeous O scale model he built of GWR 5041 Tiverton Castle with him to dinner for show-and-tell, and Lee Evans sent along this photo he snapped of it. Those of you who believe in silly eccentricities like 4-6-2s and streamlining can just avert your eyes.
5 comments:
Hey Frank- A slight typo, the 1868 pear-head rail is from the Bethlehem Iron Co., predecessor to the huge Bethlehem Steel Corp.
R. W. Schauer
Correction made, thank you!
On the matter of eccentricities like 4-6-2s and streamlining, God's Wonderful Railway dabbled in both. Look up G. J. Churchward's Great Bear, later rebuilt as a Castle, and the streamlining applied to one each Castle and King. That railway decided against trailing axles, with several 4-4-2 steamers with not much swing in the trailing axle rebuilt as 4-6-0 Saints.
The 4-4-2 Saints were an interesting chapter in Great Western Locomotive Development. They mainly came about because CME George Jackson Churchward wished to compare the 2-Cylinder Saints with the de Glehn Compounds that he had purchased from France around that time period. Since the de Glehn's were Atlantics, scientific methodology compels a selection of Saints to also be Atlantics to remove variables in Adhesion, etc. The prototype No. 171 was converted in 1904 as a direct comparison, and thirteen in the Scott series were subsequently constructed as Atlantics in 1905. By 1913 all were rebuilt as 4-6-0's. The compounds did not catch on on the GWR as thought, but certain aspects of the de Glehn's stuck around. The de Glehn bogie design became widespread on the GWR, and the inner/outer cylinders were split between the first and second axles on the simple 4-cylidner Stars, Castles, and Kings. There were eventually 3 de Glehn Atlantics on the roster (102-104), and they lasted in service up to the 1920's.
Zach, it makes sense that Churchward would compare like with like. The deGlehns got around, The Pennsylvania Railroad even bought one for evaluation, although they stuck with a simple design that could be scaled up to the E6 eventually. I have a brass kit of a DeGlehn that I'm toying with building up as the Pennsylvania version, paired with an old Locomotive Workshop low side tender. That is, time permitting.
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