Mostly Wordless Wednesday Erie 19

"Bronx Terminal, 1956" Anscochrome slide.

Continue reading →

Photo of No 19 at New Harlem Freight Station

I recently found a copy of Erie Railfan (vol 1, no. 3, pp 8-9, Summer 1973) that has the second part of an excellent Larry DeYoung article on first generation diesels. Included is this photo (Ed Kelsey) of no.19 at the Harlem Station (149th Street). The building behind it is the office and freight house located on the Exterior Street side of the yard looking E-SE. No.19 was actually the fourth boxcab Erie acquired in 1928 (no.20 was the first in 1926 and nos. 21-22 in 1927).

The photo and article provide some interesting and relevant data for my layout. I now know that no.19 was at Harlem on June 12th, 1949, and that it had its end tiger striping. Cross referencing another photo from the Railroads of New York Harbor 2010 Calendar by George J. Abere, Jr. in April of 1955 shows that the striping is still there, and since it is a color photo, I know the striping is yellow as is the lettering and herald on the sides.

I also have a good reference for the building windows, awning and configuration in '49. I haven't researched this fully, yet, but the building changed over the years, so this adds a piece for nailing down what it looked like if I want to choose a specific year to model it (or perhaps multiple models for different years?)

1954

Also of note is that it looks like the ground is paved with concrete, which is previously unknown information to me. So, I go to historicaerials.com and search for "Exterior St and 149th, New York", and I find aerials from 1954 (above) showing the concrete paving. The tracks are also uncovered at this point, and I know from a 1957 photo that the two tracks, along with others) are enclosed by a building. There is also a neat feature that allows you to compare photos side by side with a slider to reveal one or the other photo. I choose 1966 and 1954 to compare (the oldest available), and notice not only the new building, but also maybe some new tracks by the centrally located crane and an elevated I-87 over Exterior St. (below)

1966

So a really good find leads me through a slew of resources to have a better idea of the evolution of the yard. I think I prefer the smaller building without the covered tracks, which means pre-'57 at some point. I may go to 1959 and simply construct the walls of the building with a removable roof for operation, or, better yet, just say it is '59 and not have the building. (Don't tell anyone if I end up doing that.)

Continue reading →

Wordless Wednesday 19

Continue reading →

Throwback Thursday 19 CN at Rymal Part II

Tonight's Throwback Thursday features the second half of my Dad Keith's write-up of the namesake location for this blog. Thanks again Dad!

- Peter.

As mentioned in the previous Rymal anecdote, the former Hamilton and Northwestern Railway line would cling to life into the early 1990’s, finally succumbing to abandonment in 1993. However, the line did not vanish without a final blaze of glory!

Towards the end, the lightly-traversed branchline was a bastion of venerable CNR road power, including the long serving mainstay GMD SW1200’s, GMD GP9’s as well as the occasional MLW RS-18. However, as shown above, the most noteworthy and beloved units by far were the handful of CN’s infamous remaining snow service GMD F7’s. With no on-route switching demands, the F7 A/B consists were ideally suited to the inter-plant traffic pattern requirements of ‘The Steel Company of Canada’, aka ‘Stelco’, transporting continuously-cast slabs from their newer flagship facility in Nanticoke to the rolling mills located at Hilton Works, situated on the Hamilton waterfront. For an all-too-brief period, pure A-B-A sets as shown, and on occasion F7’s mixed with GP9’s ferried 60 ft flatcars, equipped with specialized slab cradles, from lakefront (actually Hamilton Harbour/Lake Ontario) to lakefront (Lake Erie). While more than a delight for the local railfan community (See ‘F Units on the Nanticoke/CN 9100’s produced by Green Frog Productions, www.greenfrog.comshot by area enthusiast Rob McCormack), some operational concerns were voiced.  Lower city dwellers became increasingly concerned about the potential for a loaded runaway slab train descending the escarpment without brakes, careening through their community. This, despite the fact that the line had crested the geographical outcrop in the mid 1870’s and had been disaster free for well over a century! As the unlikely catastrophe dialogue was heating up, the matter was resolved by an unforeseen event when the bridge over Stone Church Road (located approximately under the trailing caboose) was displaced by an over-height transport truck – see photo below. Owing to the compromised structural integrity of the span, rail traffic was suspended south from CN’s Stuart St. yard (the alternative, much more circuitous routing, involved movement from Stuart St. yard to Brantford along the Dundas sub, then back to Caledonia to rejoin the former H&NW line). As if to add an exclamation point, the span was displaced in the opposite direction, shortly thereafter, by another unfortunate truck encounter. This time the injured bridge span was lifted and placed perpendicular on the right of way! As previously mentioned, much of the H&NW chartered line remains as the ‘STONE CHURCH ROAD RAIL TRAIL’. North of Stone Church Road the former right of way is known as the ‘ESCARPMENT RAIL TRAIL’. One can walk or ride their bike past them, but no longer does the sound of normally-aspirated 567's echo off the concrete silo walls...

- Keith.

Above: Atop the escarpment, as shown, the H&NW chartered line descended to the first station stop at Rymal. No doubt longer freight trains would have been a challenge for the hogger with part of his consist ascending and part descending at the same time! For additional information on the ‘Hamilton and Northwestern Railway’ refer to Charles Cooper’s superb manuscript entitled ‘RAILS TO THE LAKES’. Reportedly, creating the path to climb from the lower city was accomplished by Irish labourers ("navvies", displaced canal builders) over a three year period at a cost of approximately one million 1870’s dollars! A modern day remnant of their efforts is the downtown ‘Cork Town’ community, so named on account of their off duty shenanigans! Apparently construction of Hamilton’s first jails more or less accompanied the building of the H&NW!

Above: Late local area business development did generate a limited amount of additional activity on the line. Shown on the below are CN 603042 and DWC 605628, Canadian-built 52’-8” bulkhead flatcars (see the October 1990 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman Magazine for drawings and additional background) on the Rymal siding. The duo is loaded with drywall for ‘Ferrell Builders Supply’ an area materials provider. The concrete grain silo structure in the foreground is believed to have been constructed just prior to World War II, several years ahead of the adjacent CO-OP installation. The silo complex was built by the owner of the neighbouring Binbrook Feed Mill operation. Storage space was also leased to other enterprises, including the nearby Hannon Feed Mill. Operation of the silo complex would have most likely continued into the mid 1960’s, just prior to the widespread use of large volume covered hopper cars for grain transport. The low volume operation was set up for boxcar grain delivery. Undoubtedly, the improved highway system and truck transport rendered the facility redundant to local area needs. Incredibly, the concrete structure is still sound with the interior mostly preserved - the vertical wooden bucket elevator and much of the original woodwork are still solidly in place. It’s like the owner just walked away one day!

Continue reading →