THE TRANSFER TABLE
The Wilmington Chapter NRHS Official Newsletter
Internet Edition
| VOLUME 19 NO. 4 | APRIL 1997 |
Back To Wilmington Chapter Web Site
MEETING NOTES
The Wilmington Chapter's March meeting was called to order by
President Phil Snyder. After Treasure Ralph Stevens' report, Secretary Walt Robbins read
the minutes from the last meeting and gave the National Director's report via notes from
Ed Thornton. There were 24 members and guests present. Phil gave an update on Doug
Weaver's condition saying that our event photographer has to sit up 24 hours a day
following his surgery. All our wishes for a speedy recovery go out to Doug.
Bruce Barry provided information on a newly arranged Chapter Trip to the Atlantic Energy Plant in Deepwater, NJ. See trip notices in the schedule and Chapter Event sections for details Roy Meinzer reported on his recent trip to Florida and Viewliner cars on the new Silver Palm. It was also reported at the meeting that the Winchester & Western recently ran military trains with 11 loads and 5 empties.
After refreshments, your Editor, Greg Ajamian, presented slides of his trip to Nebraska (Kansas, Missouri, & Iowa) in June 1996. The first 90 slides demonstrated the variety which you can find even in unit coal trains: paint schemes, lettering, logos, reporting marks from ACCX to WPSX, and even car number 001! The rest of the four trays included views of old and new (June '97 build date!) motive power and rolling stock. Some of the unusual items included UP's experimental fuel tenders, Mobile Lab, the Big Boy, and Centennial; business cars for the UP, BNSF, and KCS; Chicago Central snow plows, concrete coal towers, hog cars, unusual loads, a new tie train, and an operating mainline wig-wag crossing signal. Locations included North Platte, Grand Island, and Omaha, NE; Council Bluffs, Iowa; Henrietta and Hardon, MO; and Kansas City.
IMPORTANT NOTICE: This could be the last Transfer Table which you ever receive! If there is a RED mark on your address label then we have not (as of the March meeting) received a check for your membership dues for 1997.
FROM THE EDITOR
Special thanks to Hal Barker who sent to me a slide of the transfer table at the Wilmington Shops which he took during our Chapter trip in May 1988. And thanks to Tom Smith for all of the updates and photos to my wheel arrangement list.
It seems like I did it all this past month. In addition to the monthly newsletter, I did the slide presentation for the monthly meeting. So I decided to get totally carried away, to run some of my own photos plus adding a little background from my library to the articles supplied by fellow members.
I am happy to say I now have a small stockpile of articles from the usual suspects: Dick Hall, Tom Smith, Bruce Barry, and Roy Meinzer. I hope to find time between business trips to get these ready for press in the near future. But, if you would like to see some new by-lines and/or your own name in print, don't hesitate to send me an article or photo for the newsletter!
ANNUAL PHOTO CONTEST
The Wilmington Chapter's Annual Photo Contest will be held at the regular Chapter meeting on Thursday, May 15th.
Here are the guidelines for entering pictures in this year's contest:
CATEGORIES
A LOOK BACK by Historian Ron Cleaves
April 1988: Highlight of the April meeting was
an enjoyable and historic one, as one of the 'founding fathers' of the Chapter, Henry
Dickinson, received his 50 year gold pin. A buffet reception was held in the Claymont High
library for this occasion. Henry gave a brief speech and spoke of his many fond memories
of the Wilmington Chapter. Among the guests present for this event were Eastern Region
Vice President Larry Eastwood and NRHS Chairman Emeritus Lewis Pardee.
In local railnews, the ex B&O, ex Chessie System, now CSX Philly line presents a plethora of colors and road names on many CSX locomotives. Examples are: Seaboard Coast Line, Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac, Louisville & Nashville, Clinchfield, Conrail, Chessie System, and original B&O painted units. Also seen, Family Lines and Seaboard System.
B&O RAILROAD MUSEUM OUTING
All members, their families and friends are welcome to join a "behinds the scenes" tour at the B&O Museum, 901 West Pratt Street, Baltimore, Maryland. The tour is scheduled for 11:00a.m. on April l9, 1997. We plan to travel by car pool to the Timonium Park and Ride arriving at approximately l0:00 a.m. We will ride the trolley, aah, I mean LRV, to the end of line at Glen Burnie, Maryland. Then we win return to the Camden Station stop. There will be time to eat and walk or ride to the Museum. If you want to skip the LRV ride, you can meet us at the Museum in time for the tour. Details will be finalized at the March Chapter meeting.
Costs will be by individual settlement. Museum admission is $5.00, seniors = $4.00. LRV fare is $1.35 one way, seniors can pay a lesser fare with proper ID. Bring money for food, souvenirs and donation to the car pool driver. Hope you can join us!
SPECIAL NOTE ON B&O RAILROAD MUSEUM OUTING by Richard Hall
On the trip to the B&O Museum, Chapter members should pay extra special attention to one particular locomotive: an 0-8-0 type #57 named "MEMNON". This is the lone survivor of the locomotives that were built by the New Castle Manufacturing Company of New Castle, Delaware. It is one of only two 0-8-0 type locomotives built for the B&O by the New Castle Manufacturing Company under sub-contract from Matthias Baldwin.
The locomotive was built in 1848 and had been rebuilt and reconditioned several times at the B&O's Mount Claire Shops while it was still in active service on the B&O. Named "MEMNON" when it was built, this locomotive was numbered 57 in 1851 and renumbered to 13 in 1884. It was removed from service in 1893, reconditioned at Mount Clare, and preserved as number 57. This old locomotive last ran in 1927 during the pageant of the "Centenary Exhibition of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad", which is better known as the "Fair Of The Iron Horse".
The drivers are shown as being 43" on some lists and as 41" on others. This may be a result of being changed during one of the rebuildings. Other B&O 0-8-0 type locomotives from this era are shown as having 43 inch drivers. It has 17 x 22 inch inclined cylinders, boiler pressure was only 65 pounds, and the weight on drivers is unknown, but the tractive effort is given as 8,580 pounds. Some additional information on this locomotive will be in an article that has been written for a future issue of The Transfer Table.
MORE ON THE "MEMNON"... AND THEN SOME by Greg Ajamian
In years past, as you have read in Ron's "Look Back" entries, our Chapter held auctions where Chapter members could redistribute various railroadianna items from one person's attic to another's. It was at just such an event that I picked up a copy of "The Catalog of the Centenary Exhibition of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad - 1827-1927". So, when I got the above item from Dick, l was off to my bookshelf to locate that puppyl As you can see on the next page, there was indeed a reference to the 'Memnon'. In fact, l ended up reading about the entire 'parade' at the exhibition. Evidently the bridge models, and many other items at the museum today, were displayed at the Centenary Exhibition.
As I read through the book, l also discovered that one of its previous owners had inserted a clipping from a Philadelphia newspaper [see the illustrations and captions] indicating just how big an event the Fair of the Iron Horse really was, and to what lengths they had gone to stage the festivities. I had a little room left on that page, and since I was already working on railroad history research, I attached the request we received regarding the American Freedom Train. I will let the reader wrestle with the implications of the juxtaposition of the railroad Centennial, the "Freedom Train" referring to the United States Bi-centennial, and the meaning of "freedom" relative to the American Indians in the photos...
Also, in last month's newsletter, Ron Cleaves' "Look Back" mentioned the out-of-service GG-1's that sat in Edgemoor for quite a while awaiting either a "museum call" or the breaker's torch. So I decided to dig up some of the photos which I took opposite what is now Fox Point State Park. Ron's article brought back fond memories of when a good friend of mine, Rich Jalbert (now deceased), and I checked out every locomotive in a one very long line one bright afternoon.
AMERICAN FREEDOM TRAIN
YOU CAN HELP! This individual is
filming a documentary on the American Freedom Train from the inception of the idea through
the last display day on New Year's Eve 1976. Please contact him directly if you have
movies, photos, slides, sovenirs or any questions; especially for:
Todd Schannuth
299 S. Barrington Ave. #2
Los Angeles, CA 90049
310-472-7417 (collect)
E-mail: Hinoj@aol.com
NEWS BITS
New diesel multiple units (DMUs) which consist of
self-propelled passenger cars might appear as preview units as early as spring 1998 with
sets of two to four cars entering operation in late summer 1999. Pennsylvania Governor Tom
Ridge signed a bill on January 27th authorizing PA to spend $18.7 million in federal funds
plus $4.6 million in state funds. [from Amtrak's On Track Northeast Corridor
Newsletter]
Former B&O GP-9 diesel passenger locomotive #6607 returns to service with this year's operating season. It was originally used for Baltimore to Washington, D.C. traffic. After nine months of restoration, it will be in its original livery of blue, gray, and black with gold striping and lettering. The original style skirting has also been replaced. Retired in July 1986, the museum acquired it 1994. Built in October 1956, the 1750 horsepower unit was originally numbered 3414. It was renumbered to 6607 in 1958. [from B&O Railroad Museum news release]
Railroad Development Corp. of Pittsburgh is negotiating with Conrail to acquire 185 miles of southern New Jersey. The deal involves eight segments including the Trenton-to-Camden line through Bordentown and lines from Camden to Woodbury, Swedesboro, Vineland, and Millville. It does not include the Woodbury-toDeepwater route. This is all part of Conrail's announced plan to get rid of 1,800 miles of track in 12 states. [from news clippings provided by Tim Moriarty]
New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, in his State of the City address in January, said that when the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey was established in 1921, its single mission was to build a freight rail tunnel from New Jersey to New York. [from Journal of Commerce article 1/15/97 provided by Tim Moriarty]
According to the Association of American Railroads, the five freight railroads in Delaware employ 296 rail-freight workers who are among the best paid in the nation averaging $46,257 in 1995 and 2,300 pensioners averaging $10,435. In 1995, the largest commodity moved was 820,000 tons of chemicals. And railroads are environmentally friendly since railroads can move a ton of freight 3 times farther than a truck on the same amount of fuel. [from The News Journal, Feb. 24, 1997, D2]
The probable breakup of Conrail has caused fear on the part of Newark, Delaware residents. Newspaper reports seem to fuel or reflect fears about the 20 million tons of freight crossing streets and bisecting the University. Reports indicate that a CSX-Conrail merger might result in up to eight more than the 22-24 trains per day. Despite these grave concerns, the same article noted that state officials are actively pursuing steady rail service to the Port of Wilmington and expressing concerns about competition for rail shippers and the health of short lines if the merger goes through. [from The News Journal]
(Editor's note: Compare that to 120 trains per day rolling through grade crossings at 50+ miles per hour in Nebraska along the UP mainline. And, remember, some of the fatalities in Newark were people lying or sitting on the tracks. And, perhaps the University could add something to their entrance exam about how to cross railroad tracks?).
The Transfer Table
The Transfer Table is published six to ten times per year as the newsletter of the Wilmington Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society. Items in this publication do not represent the official position of either Officers or Members of the Wilmington Chapter or the Editor of this publication.
Permission to reprint articles and news items appearing herein is granted to NRHS Chapters and other newsletters provided appropriate credit is given.
Contributions are always welcome and should be sent to the editor at P.O. Box 1136, Hockessin, DE 19707-5136.
Deadline for entries is the 25th of the month.
Chapter Officers
President - Phil Snyder
Vice President & Historian - Ron Cleaves
Treasurer - Ralph Stevens, Jr.
Secretary - Walt Robbins
National Director - Ed Thornton
Editor - Greg Ajamian
Public Relations - Ken Berg
Event Photographer - Doug Weaver
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Mail: Wilmington Chapter - NRHS, P.O. Box 1261, Wilmington, DE 19899-1261, USA
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