Mainline/class I steam was essentially gone by 1960; a very few marginal operations continued for a few years longer, attracting railfans like a magnet. Probably the last steam in New England was the CV (mostly 2-8-0's, in fact) and the Grand Trunk across northern Maine. I'd need to check my memory, but I think Canadian lines used a few into the early 1960's. All of which is to say that you are correct, that anyone much over sixty would likely never have seen major steam power in revenue service, at least at an age where he would have appreciated what he was seeing. I can just barely remember Erie steam between Buffalo and Hornell, a sense of large black things and the whistles in the night; by the time I got seriously interested in railroading in high school, I was able to see a very little bit of the PRR (I recall watching the Enola yard from the parallel highway and seeing a Hippo moving around there) and a weekend trip to Bluefield WV just after the first N&W diesels had arrived with plenty of steam still operating and our first trip to California--and driving along Rt #66 paralleling the ATSF mainline, with enormous steam (probably 4-8-4's) pulling alongside and passing us. Everything else has been tourist and railfan--and I shall be seventy at the end of the month. Once dieselization started it progressed very, very rapidly, especially in the northeast where I grew up. By the time most railfans realized what was happening it was almost too late to catch the survivors; perhaps that is why good pictorials sell so well.
The SHS 2-8-0 lettered for Maine Central is fairly convincing, and two of the prototypes still exist--I think both at North Conway. A good dozen years ago Dwight Smith was talking about restoring one to operation; I think the other one, at Steamtown, had been donated with the provision that it would never leave New England, so it stayed when the collection went to Scranton. Jace Kahn General Manager Ceres & Canisteo RR Co./Champlain County Traction Co. > To: [email protected] > From: [email protected] > Date: Wed, 1 Jun 2011 23:34:47 -0700 > Subject: Re: {S-Scale List} PRR 2-8-0, was SHS B&O E-27 > > Don, > The SHS 2-8-0 was a major factor in my switch to S. I'm quite impressed with > the amount of knowledge on the list with regard to prototype RR equipment, > but it doesn't mean a whole lot to me. Being a northern New Englander and > not at all well travelled, I've never seen a steam locomotive in service > except for tourist trains, even at 62 years old. I'm after the feel and > function of railroading, not the anatomically correct representation of a > particular item. The SHS 2-8-0 is sufficiently complex (without Belpaire > firebox) to give me the sense of awe I feel while standing next to the real > thing. Oddly, the time period I've chosen to model (1957) post-dates any and > all Maine steam. Still, there she sits in all her glory, a fugitive of > another time on an obscure branch. How could the piping not be correct? > > I'd love to come to the open house tomorrow, but sadly, you're on the wrong > side of NYC to be heading North on a Friday afternoon during rush hour. > > Ed Kozlowsky > Sanford, Maine > > > --- On Wed, 6/1/11, Don Thompson <[email protected]> wrote: > > > From: Don Thompson <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: {S-Scale List} PRR 2-8-0, was SHS B&O E-27 > To: [email protected] > Date: Wednesday, June 1, 2011, 3:00 PM > > > > > > > Dear Peter, > I know our ex-LIRR engineer Howie would have loved that as he fired > several different classes of H's. But we thought the B&O would look a > bit more generic and if you squint, you can see those other roads (you > do not have to squint so much as to miss that center rail in "O"). We > considered the B&O E-24 (which the PRR also had), but I thought the > domes did not look as modern as the E-27. The funny thing was picking > out numbers for our models. Although the B&O had almost 500 E-27s, by > the time WWII ended, they had been retrofitted so many times that it > was hard to find 2 that looked exactly the same. The B&O converted > about 100 of these into L-2 0-8-0s. Then there was the head end > brakeman. Road engines after the war had to had a third seat added to > the cab for the head end brakeman. This made the fireman's cab side > different. Originally, these had a single air pump on the fireman's > side. At some point, either a 2nd air pump was added or a compound > pump. And the piping...each engine was piped a little different. So > we tried to find as many photos as possible of both sides of the > engine to pick the 3 numbers out that we needed for our B&Os. > Don > > On Jun 1, 2011, at 12:28 PM, Peter Vanvliet wrote: > > > So, Don, why did you not proceed with a PRR version of the 2-8-0? Are > > there more B&O modelers in S than PRR modelers? > > > > - Peter. > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] > > > > > > > > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] > > > > ------------------------------------ > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ 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: [email protected] [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/
