Spring 2002

Volume 22 Number 2

A Quarterly Publication of the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society, Inc.

Newsletter Notes

When members write to me about something in the Bulletin, I don’t know if that refers to Railroad History or the Newsletter. The new banner should help.

Here’s some more challenges for the expert authors: Operation of the Triple Valve, Superheaters, Automatic Oilers, and Cutoff as it relates to cylinder valve systems during start and efficient running. There’s more: Feedwater heaters, Valve Gear types, Mechanical stokers, Exhaust nozzle, and Thermic syphons.

COVER PHOTO: The colorful Eureka has operated almost every year since 1994 on the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge in Colorado. The route is famous for the high line above the Animas River, but the tracks also run through a valley between the mountains as the train nears Durango. The Eureka is older than the narrow gauge line which opened in July 1882. Three photos by John Gruber PAGE 4: The Eureka pauses with its train on a bridge in the Animas River canyon. Its owner, Dan Markoff, carefully wipes

June Post-Meeting Colorado Trip

The previously proposed “Plan A,” the “Grand Tour,” did not have sufficient response to justify the bus charter. Some members will be traveling by rental car to Antonito on Sunday, June 9, to ride the Cumbres & Toltec the following day. Please contact Henry Deutch or Adrian Ettlinger, 7 Lefurgy Ave., Hastings-on-Hudson, NY 10706-2503. attlinger@worldnet.att.net) for carpooling arrangements, and guidance for motel reservations as soon as possible. The R&LHS is not responsible for this function.

the boiler and polishes the brass beforeleaving the roundhouse in the morning. When running, the Eureka stops every 20 miles or so for fuel. BACK COVER: At Silverton, the Eureka is on the siding as ex-D&RGW locomotive 473 approaches the station. No. 473, built in 1923, is newer and much larger than the woodburner. The 473 is right at home on the line, also operating there in D&RGW days.

In Defense Of ALCO Diesels
by J. W. Swanberg

I’d like to speak a few words in defense of ALCO diesels, after the beating they took in Elsie Voigt’s “Diesel Engineers Remember” article in the Autumn 2001 Newsletter. I was a locomotive fireman on the New Haven Railroad in the 1960s, and I worked on a wide variety of ALCO diesels, from ancient S-1 switchers to the latest Century 425s. ALCOs were well thought of on the NHRR, and in fact the 244-engined RS-3 and FA-1 models were real workhorses of the fleet, despite less-than-stellar maintenance by the bankrupt NH. One reason for this may have been that ALCOs were not a minority

 unit on the NH, so everyone knew how to work on them. The four-wheel truck used on the RS and FA models was not a problem, being similar to that later used on GE U25Bs, and the six-wheel truck used on the PA rode like a Pullman. One ALCO model we had which was not liked was the RS-1 1 (which had a 251 engine, not a 244 as stated in the article); the 251 prime mover was OK, but the locomotives evidently suffered from poor quality control during construction. And the Century 425s were known as rough riders, despite having the same truck as an FA or RS.

And in an EMD comment, the LTVs were not the “only set of F-units still around in regular service”; Metro-North runs two-unit FL-9 sets every day on Danbury, CT commuter trains, and they are usually in matched McGinnis NH colors.

The ashes drift back gently over the train as the colorful 127-year-old woodburning locomotive picks up speed leaving the station.

Dan Markoff has his hand on the throttle, watching the rails ahead and the crowds at trackside. He is pleased at how many smiles the Eureka brings to people’s faces when they see it in operation. “Time and time again when we are running down the road or pulling into or out of town, I get the thumbs up and the victory sign, or the clenched fist in pride.

“The locomotive brings a lot of happiness to a lot of folks, and that makes me feel good. It’s a living history that you wouldn’t otherwise see,” says Markoff, a Las Vegas attorney whose business card reads “general practice including aviation law.”

The crowds marvel at the Eureka’s elegant appearance. The base color is lake, a deep reddish brown hue used by Baldwin between 1875, when the engine was built, and 1878. After that, Baldwin painted most engines black or olive green to resist coal smoke.

The walnut cab is varnished inside and out and trimmed with gold leaf lettering and striping. (Green paint was not used for cab interiors until the mid-1880s). Ornamentation is called Eastlake, which takes its name from the flat two-dimensional patterns of textile design. While complex, it can be applied more quickly than the florid scrolls of the 1860s. This was the way Baldwin made a commercially attractive engine for the 1870s efficiently.

“Eureka tells us what it’s like to run a wood burning locomotive,” says Jim Wilke, a scholar specializing in 19th century locomotive ornamentation who serves with about a dozen others on the crew. “From a 21st century perspective, it’s a time machine, and turns archival research into a living, breathing experience. You can read all the books you want, but nothing compares to the real thing — a working locomotive.”

The Eureka’s most frequent appearances have been on the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge in Colorado. The 22-ton 4-4-0 made the trek by truck to Durango in 1994,

1995, 1998, 1999, 2000, and 2001, and will be back for Railfest 2002 in August. Its first appearance after Markoff’s restoration came in 1991 at Railfair in Sacramento, California. It also has been at Railfair, 1999; Nevada State Railroad Museum, Carson City, 1996, 2000; Eureka, Nevada, 1992; Railroad & Transportation Days, Las Vegas, 1992; U.S. Gypsum Railroad, Plaster City, Calif., 1993; and Cumbres & Toltec, Chama, N.M., 1997. The National Park Service recognized its transportation and engineering significance in American history, and placed the Eureka on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Eureka, the oldest of the three remaining Baldwin 8-18C class locomotives in the U.S., is the only one retaining its original boiler and tender. The others, built in 1876, are at the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento (the Sonoma) and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. (the Jupiter).

“I would like to see the locomotive continue to operate. I don’t want it in regular service, since it probably has more original parts on it than any other locomotive in the United States built before 1880. I don’t want to consume the artifact to the point where you are replacing major components. You can maintain it well for many many years, as already has been shown. If we take it easy with it, it will last for generations to come,” Markoff said as he relaxed in the roundhouse lunchroom at Durango between runs.

Grades are steeper on the D&SNG than on the 84-mile Nevada silver line where the locomotive first operated. The tonnage is probably higher, also. For instance, the D&SNG coach weighs 17 tons, the caboose, the 0500, about 11 tons. The Eureka & Palisade coaches, built by Billmeyer and Small, weights only 8.5 tons. So hauling the two cars at Durango with a boiler operating a 120 lbs of pressure is like hauling about a 3-car passenger train on the E&P. Markoff is nearly finished building a replica of an E&P combine.

Baldwin Locomotive Works constructed the Eureka, or E&P No. 4, in 1875 during the initial mining boom in Eureka, the most productive mineral district

outside the Comstock. Sierra Nevada Wood & Lumber Company purchased it in 1901 for a logging line at Hobart near Truckee, California. Sierra Nevada, later the Hobart Estate Company, converted it from wood to oil for fuel.

The Eureka was about to be scrapped when Warner Brothers acquired it in 1939 for motion pictures. Its final appearance came in 1976 as a Virginia & Truckee locomotive in The Shootist with John Wayne. The studio sold it in 1979 to Old Vegas at Henderson, Nevada. The locomotive was damaged when a burning building collapsed on it in 1985. The next year, Markoff and his family purchased it with the burnt timbers still resting across the locomotive.

Markoff and his family and friends had their work cut out when restoration started in the open behind his house in a residential neighborhood in Las Vegas. The locomotive was a “mess but mechanically it was all there and the boiler had been protected.”

They proceeded methodically, first building an engine shop, and then carefully reviewing original Baldwin blue prints and the patterns for the decorative work. They used the finish schedules/folios at the Stanford University Library special collections and paint samples and tracings made by the California State Railroad Museum when Warner Brothers owned the locomotive. CSRM “took tracing of everything and used it on the Sonoma, so they sent me all the patterns. I knew what the design was because of Baldwin’s books of folios. So I had the blue prints, plus the original dimensions of all the artwork its and the colors.”

In a little less than six years, the Eureka was converted back to burn wood, gauges were rebuilt and certified. The walnut cab and wooden running boards were rebuilt. Boiler tubes and the front tube sheet were replaced. It was ready to run.

Markoff, who is an instrument rated single- and multi-engine private pilot, says: “Flying is my passion and Eureka is my obsession. It’s like trying to choose between your kids. Pretty hard to do sometimes. They are very different.”

So, too, is the Eureka. Crowds today find it hard to believe that the locomotive is the standard, factory built Baldwin locomotive of the 1870s—a colorful reminder of what their counterparts would have seen trackside every day.

Corrections on Heislers

The Darius Kinsey image is indeed of West Fork Logging [not Lumber] Co. #91 (c/n 1557, 3/1928), a West Coast Special Heisler. The logging line connected near Mineral, Washington, to the Tacoma & Eastern Branch of the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific. The logging line was converted to a truck road in 1955 and #91 was scrapped. The locomotive on display at Elbe, Washington (on the ex-MILW, now Tacoma Rail, line), is ex-Pickering Lbr. Co. #10 (c/n 1252, 1912), nee Blue Jay Lbr. Co., Blue Jay, WV, #10, purchased from Gus Peterson of Klamath, California. It is in very poor condition. The Mt. Rainier Scenic Railroad has a West Coast Special Heisler, now #91, owned by the Western Forest Industries Museum, that it uses in tourist service out of Elbe. It is ex-Kinzua Pine Mills #102, Kinzua, Oregon (c/n 1595, 1929 [or 1930]), probably Heisler’s last 90 ton engine. The Elbe locomotives were purchased by L. T. Murray, Jr., and donated to the Western Forest Industries Museum.
— John Boykin.

St. Regis Paper Co. purchased this operation in December 1949 and contracted until 1996 with West Fork Timber Co., now Murray Pacific Corp. The person identified as Herman Lockhart is someone else. John and Cliff Steel (as the name was spelled then) were engineers. The 75-ton Baldwin saddle tank engine is #75, purchased from the Deer Park Lumber Company.
— L. T. Murray, Jr.

They also had #3, a Porter, which was sold about that time.
— Robert R. Lowry

Indiana Rail Road Seeks R&LHS Members Input For Historical Project

In conjunction with Indiana University Press, the Indiana Rail Road Company is producing a history of its rail line between Effingham, Illinois and Indianapolis, including the era of the route’s previous ownership by the Illinois Central Railroad.
Indiana Rail Road is seeking photo collections, written and oral histories and anecdotes from the 19th Century through 1980 that relate to the railroad and its impact on life in local communities. All photos and materials will be returned to owners at the completion of the project, or as soon as they can be duplicated.
Please contact Mary Romerowicz, Indiana Rail Road Company, at 317-616-3428, or in writing at 101 West Ohio Street Suite 1600, Indianapolis IN 46204.

Back in our Spring 2001 issue, in our Newsletter Notes column, we presented a question by Prof. Bill Wallace asking if roundhouses were an American institution. Mr. Wallace noted that they appear in other countries where there was significant American influence, otherwise a shed was used to house locomotives. We have now been inundated with letters from many members saying the answer is No!

Most replies confirmed the use of roundhouses by the British. Mr. Ron Smith of Braintree, Essex, noted that “roundhouses were common throughout Europe, particularly in Austria, Germany and France.”

However, these were probably influenced by Britain, who may have built the first roundhouse. Certainly one of their first was the London & Birmingham Railway’s roundhouse built at Camden, just outside Euston Station in London. Britain’s Mr. Peter Houghton of Telfors, Shropshire, states that this roundhouse was “in use in 1837/1838 when the line towards Birmingham was being opened…”. Surprisingly, he notes that the building “is still there, recognized as being of architectural importance, and was in use as an arts centre fairly recently”.

Although many Britain engine houses were round, the use of squarehouses became more common. Mr. Smith notes that some of “these ‘roundhouses’ contained two, three, or four turntables within a single structure under one roof”. Mr. Roger Hennessey of Cheltenham, Glos., sent us a diagram of the engine facilities in Longhedge that showed a roundhouse in 1869 that was converted to a rectangular engine shed by 1905. Mr. Steve Pettitt of Aylesbury, Bucks., sited numerous examples of round and square houses built in England, and noted that “the last roundhouse built was at Thornaby, Teesside, completed in

1958. The largest roundhouse building was at Hull Daireycoates with six covered turntables!” Mr. Peter Miche of Altrincham, Cheshire, noted that the National Railway Museum at York is a square format.

Our members also pointed out that true “roundhouses” were used by many countries. J. W. Swanberg of Branford, Connecticut, brings us back to the question of influence. Certainly Indian Railways use of roundhouses were British influenced, as were those previously noted in Europe and New Zealand. American influence is seen in roundhouses in Mexico and Chile.

So, who influenced who? Member John W. White noted that roundhouses are mentioned or pictured in just about every book on American railroading… ”while squarehouses were very common in England.” Mr. Greville Machell of Campobello, South Carolina, noted that “there was a perverse lack of interest in American railroad practice in the United Kingdom” and he therefore “doubts that the basic idea traveled eastwards.” However, it is known that the builders of the Baltimore & Ohio regularly copied British practices. Certainly the B&O’s use of roundhouses influenced American building practices.

So it appears that the Americans may have been influenced by the British, but, Mr. White also enclosed an article from the Fall, 1987 issue of Invention & Technology that states: “Just who invented the roundhouse is uncertain. David Matthew of the Utica & Schenectady Railroad claimed he produced the first one in 1836. The Midland Railway erected one in 1839 that is still standing in Derby, England. Credit is also given to James Murray, master of machinery for the B&O, who built a roundhouse in Baltimore in about 1842.” So, who influenced who?

TRADING POST

Submissions should be made to the Newsletter editor to arrive by April 1,2002, for inclusion in the next issue. All items subject to available space and editorial decisions as to content. Logos and photographs are limited to 7/8 inches high if space permits. New Trading Post items are posted every week on our WebSite.
 <http://www.RLHS.ORG>

WANTED - Will purchase, swap or borrow good pictures for a book on the world's articulated steam engines, especially of the American Mallet, Shay, Heisler and Climax. Marcel Vleugels, P.O. Box 233, NL-6400 AE HEERLEN, Netherlands, <marhan@compuserve.com>

Railroad Historical Resources
Thomas T. Taber, Administrator
504 S. Main Street
Muncy, Pennsylvania 17756
Providing answers and assistance to finding answers on railroad subjects of any kind prior to 1970. No charge.

SELLING - Russian Rail Transport, 1836-1917, colorful history of Russian railways beginning in 1836 until the Bolsheviks took power during WW1. $32.00 USA, $36.00 foreign. Also available is the 118-page biography, Franz Anton von Gerstner, Pioneer Railway Builder, by Mikhail and Margarita Voronin. $28.00 USA, $32.50 foreign. Checks payable to Languages of Montour. John C. Decker, 112 Ardmoor Avenue, Danville PA 17821. <JDecker@Uplink.net>

FOR SALE - Old time RR lot from 1830 to 1870 - About 75 paper items - original items including 1847 bill-of-sale for locomotive Connecticut, H&NRR; Rogers, Ketchum & Grosvenor builder. Lot value is $300. Selling for $175. Send 95¢ postage for details. Serious enquires only, please. John Maye, 1320 W. Lincoln Highway G12, Schererville IN 46375. (219) 865-8967 (9:30-8 CT).

WANTED - Photo/slides of GE 70 ton diesels. Jeff Schumaker, 401 S. Patterson St., Gibsonburg OH 43431-1234
 <jschumaker@cros.net >

SEEKING - Any information, literature, ephemera and/or pictures of the Cincinnati Northern, a part of the Big Four and later the NYC. We are undertaking to write a history of this railroad which ran North from Cincinnati to Jackson, Michigan, with a division point at Van Wert, Ohio. Dr. Jim Brown, The Little Falls Railroad & Doll Museum, PO Box 177, Cataract WI 54620-0177
 <raildoll@centurytel.net>

WANTED - Old tickets, passes and timetables from railroad, trolley, city railway, ferry, bridges, toll-roads, etc. Mostly pre-1930. One item or an entire collection. Dan Benice, PO BOX 5708, Cary NC 27512, (919) 468-5510.

WANTED - Photos and other information on New York Central’s Southwestern Limited passenger train which operated on the St. Louis-New York route. Especially needed is information on operations and servicing at Grand Central Terminal. Larry Thomas, PO BOX 1688, St. Louis MO 63188-1688. (314) 535-3101.

HELP, HELP - Need Sears Part No. 9386 bulb for Sears 3.9382 8mm Viewer/Editor (also sold as BAIA) to edit 30 hours of train and trolley film. Any information welcome on obtaining bulb. Jim McAuliff, PO Box 6081, South Bend IN 46660-6081.

WANTED - Original Howard Fogg paintings, both oil and watercolor. John J. Atherton, 16 Coachlight Dr., Poughkeepsie NY 12603-4241, (845) 471-8152. <JJAAMAPOU@aol.com>

SALE - Personal collection of Poor’s Manuals of Railroads. 17 editions 1882-1930 and 1929 Moody’s Railroads. Asking $6500 for the lot. Derail Books, PO Box 10087, Eugene OR 97440-2087, (541) 344-5078. <dave@derailbooks.com>

WANTED - Will pay the following prices for books, in decent condition: Signal Dictionary, $200; Bogen - Anthracite Railroads, $50; Pennsylvania Railroad - Corporate and Financial History - 4 Vol

Set - 1945, $800; Diebert - Rails Up The Raritan, $25; Taltaval - Telegraphers of Today, $150; Turner - Memories of a Retired Pullman Porter, $50; Union Switch and Signal Co. - Signaling - 1894, $100; Ward - J. Edgar Thompson, $40. Dan Allen, PO Box 917, Medford NJ 08053-0917, (609) 953-1387 after 6 PM. njsouthrr@aol.com

SEEKING -- Information/Timetables/ Maps/Photos relating to history and operations of the Kankakee & Seneca (part of Big Four/Rock Island) between namesake cities. Also desire details/photos of ROCK/EJ&E/CSX operations on former K&S out of Seneca, IL. William M. Shapotkin, 510 Fifth St - Garden, Wilmette IL 60091, (847) 251-2262.

New RR Books

Press releases for new railroad oriented books appear here. They are not paid advertisements and carry no endorsement by the R&LHS. All items subject to available space and editorial decisions as to content. Photographs are limited to 7/8 inches high.

True story of the Allegheny Portage RR and the lives of a father and his four sons are intertwined with the first railroad to cross the Allegheny Mountains of Pennsylvania. Chris J. Lewie’s Two Generations on the Allegheny Portage Railroad tells the tale. 6x9, 178 pages, 5 maps, 35 photos, end notes, biblio., index, $19.95, softcover. Burd Street Press, PO Box 708, Shippensburg PA 17257.
 <www.twogenerations.com>

The construction of the Lucin Cutoff involved a fleet of boats including this one featured in the Tale of the Lucin, A Boat, a Railroad, and the Great Salt Lake by David Peterson. For anyone interested in the railroads in Utah, this book is a must read. 160 pages, 8x10, 143 illustrations, $16.95, softcover. Old Waterfront Publishing, 1081 S. Westhaven Dr., Trinidad CA 95570. (707) 677-0620
 <home.att.net/"oldwaterfront.pbl/wsb>