Bill Caloroso – Cal’s Classics
Talky Tuesday #108
To my mind, nothing quite epitomizes the romance of old-time shortline railroading like an ancient wooden combine at the end of a mixed train. The S&NY had it’s example, embodied in combination car #204, seen in “WW #150” of 2 weeks ago. The car was on the roster as early as 1905. I am not sure if the car was acquired new, or was bought used from a different railroad. For another view of #204 bringing up the markers, see here.
Serendipity
One of the joys of historical research is the happenstance uncovering of some tidbit of new and/or unusual information, often unlooked-for. An instance of this occurred this week when I received an out-of-the-blue email from an interested reader of this blog, who generously shared a digital copy of a document he obtained from eBay:
Digital file courtesy of Art Audley
Digital file courtesy of Art Audley
This is an interesting find because it gives us a glimpse of the business environment in which the S&NY operated ca. the mid 1920’s. We can see the various connections and routings with other railroads, all of whom probably had a loose alliance with each other (especially the Reading and the SNY) in order to share the larger freight revenue pie. Notice, there is NO mention of connections with the PRR. The Pennsy would have been the “big dog” in the region, and the smaller railroads undoubtedly did their best to steer traffic away from the PRR onto their own lines.
From a modeling perspective, I can set up many different kinds of car routings with this information, which may help make op sessions a little more interesting, as well as giving hints as to what “foreign road” cars may have plied SNY rails.
Thanks for sharing, Art!
Wordless Wednesday #150
Bill Caloroso – Cal’s Classics
Talky Tuesday #107
A 3/4 view of caboose #15 is the subject of last week’s “WW #149”. Note the small sign on the back wall of the caboose that admonishes crews to “Switch and Couple Carefully”. Also of interest is a glimpse of a PRR H21a hopper with the original “clamshell” bottom hopper doors. Location is Towanda, given the background structures.
Wordless Wednesday #149
Bill Caloroso – Cal’s Classics
3-rail Flanger Model
Reader and fellow S&NY fan Benny P. sends along a few pics of S&NY flanger #11, as rendered for Lionel 3-rail:
Wordless Wednesday #148
Bill Caloroso – Cal’s Classics
Talky Tuesday #105
Continuing on with the caboose theme, last week’s “WW #147” shows us caboose #14. At first glance, #14 seems similar to #17, but on closer inspection #17 has slightly larger double-hung windows, among other small differences. Either would be an interesting modeling project.
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