Bill Caloroso – Cal’s Classics
Talky Tuesday #61
S&NY wooden open-platform passenger car #205 is caught in repose on last week’s “WW #89”. I believe the location is Newberry with the enginehouse in the background. Unsure of the date, but 205 still looks to be in pretty good shape, with a nice glossy coat of varnish. #205 is listed in my ORER’s as a PO-class car, which is a coach-observation type . Maybe 205 was kept in good shape for use by company officers? Unfortunately, per Kaseman, the car was burned in the yard at West Williamsport, presumably to make easier recovery of the scrap metal for the war effort.
Wordless Wednesday #89
Author’s Collection
Talky Tuesday #53
“WW #81” from last week is a wide shot of the S&NY facilities at Newberry, I believe looking south, probably near the time of abandonment in 1942. Everything exudes an atmosphere of decrepitude: MoW bunk car #210 is looking the worse for wear, and a Model-T rail car is junked in the foreground. Still, we can get an overall sense of the layout of the place, with the engine house to the left and the car shop to the right.
Wordless Wednesday #81
Bradley-Hahn Collection – RRMPA
Talky Tuesday #52
Last week’s “WW #80” comes courtesy of the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania. This view shows flat cars nos. 1239 and 1235, probably at Newberry, PA sometime in the mid-late 1920’s.
In 1905, the S&NY rostered 80 36-foot flatcars numbered 401 to 500. I cannot account for the difference, unless some were lost in earlier wrecks. 21 “racked flats” listed as being 33 feet in length and numbered 601-699 are also present on the 1905 ORER. These were presumably used to haul hemlock tan-bark and lumber out of the large tracts of forest surrounding the S&NY.
By 1926, all but 6 were gone, and were renumbered between 705 and 726, with an outlier numbered 838.
Interestingly, by 1938 there were 7 flatcars on the roster, numbered 1230-1239. These measured 38 ft. 10 in. long, and therefore the cars in the photo are not renumbered survivors of the cars on the ORER from 30 years earlier, but must have been acquired in the interim between 1926 and 1938.
Likely these 7 were used as tie cars in MoW service, as evidenced by the old and new railroad ties in the foreground of the photo.
Wordless Wednesday #80
Bradley-Hahn Collection, RRMPA
Talky Tuesday #46
A 3/4 view of snow flanger #11 is the subject of last week’s “WW #74” . The cobbled-together appearance of this fascinating piece of equipment suggests just that; that it was home-built by the S&NY shop forces. The flanger is present on my 1926 ORER, but is not listed in 1905, so it was built in the 11 years between those dates. #11 has a wealth of interesting details: note the piping and airtanks on the deck for raising and lowering the flanger device integrated into the rear truck, which itself may have been a scavenged locomotive pilot truck; the bolted-on deckside reinforcement; the side grab-irons giving access to the roof and a probable surplus locomotive headlight; the smkoejack; and the fabricated sheet-iron plow.
Certainly a scratchbuilding project for “someday”…
Wordless Wednesday #74
Bill Caloroso – Cal’s Classics
Talky Tuesday #35
S&NY #119 is again the subject in last week’s “WW #62”. In this view, the 119 leads a very short mixed train at North Towanda, with combine 204 bringing up the markers.
Recent Comments