and he notes - A mid-point of 1959 would mean a variety of very old, old, new and very new equipment. Take New England roads as an example.
Steam power had disappeared, but only a few years earlier and coal docks were still around. The B&M still operated open end passenger cars in commuter service and wooden cars in freights were common sights. The New Haven still ran DL109s on commuter trains and through passenger service had a variety of heavyweights, "American Flyer" smooth and corrugated sided cars. The Bangor and Aroostook even had wooden RPOs mixed with streamlined equipment and the Central Vermont had wooden baggage/club cars operating on the White River Jct/Montral connections. By the early 60s the B&M retired all but a handful of it's passenger cars and replaced them with RDCs (most of the steel sided commuter cars went to Korea and except for the few open end cars bought by tourist lines, the rest were unceremoniously burned for their metal parts at their Billerica shops). Wooden cabooses lasted into the 70s as did a lot of wooden freight cars. The Maine Central converted a number of them to pulp wood cars by removing the roofs and adding cross-braces for rotary unloading. But the ICC ruling outlawing wooden cars in the mid 70s spelled an end to that era except for work trains. Further ICC rulings on freight car ages cleaned out much of the old stuff and with it a lot of the variety that made train watching interesting. Speaking of wooden freight cars, I remember a job I had in the 70s at a factory adjacent to the B&M's Concord, NH main line. It was near a tannery and a cut of ten or so cars arrived once a week (thankfully on a Friday). It wasn't too bad in the winter but on a hot summer's day the smell was unbearable. No doubt when those cars went to the bone yard the whole county knew it! Depending on which locale one would care to model, the 50s would provide the most variety - steam and early diesels mix with Geeps and later SD models and a variety of cab units. Passenger cars ranged from the 19th century as well as heavyweights, streamliners and Budd Cars. Once the flags started falling and consolidation meant getting rid of redundant or outmoded equipment the good old stuff went for toasters and flat-irons - but such is progress. One interesting item of note is Amtrak's "DownEaster" service between Boston and Portland, Maine. Since it operates into North Station, the southbound locomotive isn't a locomotive anymore - it's an F-40 converted to a 'Cabbage' control car with power equipment removed and a baggage door built into the sides. It faces south so it won't stink up the Boston Garden (nee Fleet Center renamed to the Garden) which occupies the air space over the terminal. A GE P-40 provides push-pull power and faces north so it's exhaust will stink up the harbor as the train extends beyond the 'tunnel' created by the arena. The operation has been successful and ridership is increasing, especially with rising gas prices. So... in an era of homogenized railroading, a little variety still exists... Here's an interesting site showing the 'cabbage' and power units: http://www.trainridersne.org/Home/ Raleigh in Maine where it's balmy! (I may be too!) At 11:33 AM 5/7/2007, Edward Loizeaux wrote: >9a. S scale poll >Posted by: "George" > From results in so far it, excluding all years votes, then the mid- >point is about 1959. Counted total votes, divided by 2, counted up to >half way. Odd # of votes at the time I counted so I wound up in an odd >year. This probably isn't what the mfr. is looking for, just wanted to >check it out from my own curiousity. >George Courtney > >George....I am not sure that the mid-point is exactly what he is looking >for. Just a guess on my part, but I might think he is looking for the >year in which a prototype car was first produced that would have the >greatest number of potential customers. But then again, who knows what >lurks in the minds of men. Heh-heh-heh.............the Shadow knows. >Cheers...Ed L. Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
