Page 14 - January February 1997

A FEW NEW YORK
CENTRAL ITEMS
Tom Ingram
On 15th June 1938 the New York Central started operating its new streamlined “20th Century Limited”. The brand new train sets and locos cost $6,162,000, a big investment in the Thirties. In 1939 NYC grossed $140,000,000 from the 20th Century operation. The Central train sets and locos were new, but interestingly rival neighbour Pennsy decided to use new and rebuilt passenger stock to form its new ’38 “Broadway Limited”, and did not invest in brand new motive power until the T1 4444’s and E7 diesels.
Neither train was first into the stream- liner era. From 1945 NYC went diesel, the post war 1948 20th Century was generally E7 hauled. Central placed the biggest post war passenger stock order of any American railroad, such that manufactur- ers could not complete the ’48 order until 1950. From the late Fifties NYC, was par- ticularly affected by the loss of postal and passenger traffic to “sexy new” air and road services. The 20th Century went on 3rd December 1967, scrapped by NYC to avoid further downgrading of the service, the Pennsy's Broadway remained.
The ’68 merger with Pennsy was disas- trous for both railroads, the “Merger from Hell”. In 1971 Penn Central became part of monolith Conrail. Central could match early diesel power with modern steam, returning lower train operating costs with 4-8-4s than with E7 diesels. During 1946/7 S1b 4-8-4 #6024 ran 227,000 miles in eleven months. But whereas steam stopped for servicing, crew and loco transfers, diesels just stopped for service top ups and crew changes. Diesels could operate coast to coast. Image sold the early main line diesels which in retrospect were not quite up to steam’s superior performance. Central policy with power was to use one steam loco at the head end, and keep the loco out on the road where it was earning bucks. Within reason a small loco would be drafted to a big train and vice versa, if this kept the operating department and accoun- tants happy. First loco in the servicing yard was first out again. Loco failure on the road was catered for by locos in steam at strategic points. NYC policy with early diesels on important trains was to use two engines at the head end, if one went down the other could keep the train rolling. No longer spare power at the roadside. Usually diesels “packed their bags” for control or ancillary problems, the prime mover might keep on turning, but the “sparks” for the traction motors would not happen. Or the turbo would blow in spectacular fashion. Roving, on board diesel service engineers helped NYC – British Rail used the same policy with its HSTs, perhaps this policy is still in operation.
Better maintenance and second gener- ation diesel designs really began to pay off. With diesels taking over, steam usually got scrapped pretty quickly, NYC steam lasted until 1957. Early diesels were unloved,
some traded for newer units. Central did not preserve one modern steam loco. On the diesel front all the Alco diesel PA’s were scrapped in the USA (Mexico has a set) and only one EMD E7 preserved and that from the Pennsylvania. The PRR museum at Strasburg, Pa, is worth seeing, but where is the Central’s collection? Perhaps God is a Central fan.
Central started the “20th Century” operation on April 15th 1902, running as many as five sections. 36 years later to the day the train went streamlined, with enough stock for a two section train, all Pullman. In 1948 the train received some new stock and ran to a 17 car formation. It was downgraded in 1958 by combining with the “Commodore Vanderbilt”, improved again but then scrapped December 3rd 1967 as a result of a policy change. Some believe that train should have made it to Amtrak’s formation. Had NYC survived I doubt that they would have allowed Amtrak to use the name, any more than Santa Fe did with its “Super Chief”. In fact I cannot see a position where Central could still have survived beyond 1971 had it opted to sign up with Amtrak. There are a few Central locos still about #999, a 4-4-0 reputed to have done 112.5 mph but more like 90! An 0-6-0 or two.
A L2d 4-8-2 (#2998?) preserved in Chicago A L3a 4-8-2 #3001 preserved at Elkhart, originally preserved by the Texas and Pacific, of all lines Ex Union Pacific E9 diesel dressed up as a NYC E8a Possibly quite a bit of ex Central stream- lined coaching stock still knocking about, courtesy of other lines and preservation groups Baldwin “Shark Nose” diesel, ex NYC preserved? Central never made much effort in preserving steam. It ear- marked a JIe 4-6-4 (#5344) for preservation then scrapped it. With the largest fleet of 4-8-2s in the USA not one was worthy of Central's attention when it came to preser- vation, both the L2d and L3a were pre- served by other bodies. NYC appeared to anti railfan at the end of steam. Contrast all this with the Espee and Union Pacific’s attitude to steam preservation. Some fans felt that the ultimate design of Central 4-8- 2, the L4bs, were the best “Mountain” class in the States, a situation perhaps repeated with the NYC J3a 4-6-4s and S1b 4-8-4s. As far as I am aware the NYC J3a was the only six coupled steam power to meet the AAR’s test stipulation of 100 mph with a 1000 ton passenger train, but not under AAR test conditions. Similarly the #6000 S1a 4-8-4 with 6'6" drivers returned outputs capable of matching or beating any other 4-8-4, including the N&W J and Santa Fe 3776 series.
The NYC S2a version 4-8-4 with Franklin poppet gear and redesigned to S1a configuration would have gone one better. It is of interest that some Central engineers felt that the L4 4-8-2s were a bet- ter engine than the S1b 4-8-4, more flexi- ble, less drawbar-power but able to operate over more trackage. The centipede tenders didn’t take kindly to some yards and sta- tion roads, a view also recently expressed about Union Pacific’s #844. ●
Sixty years ago, virtually all American modellers were working in O-scale. Then came the War, and afterwards, with money tight and room-space becoming more and more restricted, the emphasis turned to smaller scales.
A minority chose TT or OO (the latter being 4mm scale on 19mm track, not the "narrow-gauge" British version), but HO soon became a clear favourite; with improved technology the even smaller scales of N and Z came later, but HO has remained pre-eminent, with around 70% market share.
U.S. manufacturers naturally fol- lowed the trend, and new O-scale products virtually disappeared from the scene, apart from the output of firms such as Lionel, which generally com- bined exquisite die-work with a total disregard for proportion! Apart from a few die-hards, O-scale was written off and forgotten.
There were isolated attempts at a revival. In 1973 for example, Lionel bought the tooling for a range of O- scale freight cars from Pola of Germany; reefers, boxcars, gondolas and flatcars were marketed, but failed to sell - their correctly-scaled bodies looked odd alongside the ill-propor- tioned Lionel cars.
Later, Atlas tried the same thing, this time buying models of a couple of diesels and half-a-dozen freight cars from Roco in Austria. Again the initia- tive failed, the finer wheels and 2-rail locomotives being incompatible with Lionel. There were insufficient scale modellers working in 'O' to support the sales volume which Atlas had predict- ed, and ordered against.
In the end it was a small family concern, Quality-Craft, which saw the light, recognising that in order to mar- ket O-scale items at an affordable price it was necessary to start by making equipment for 'hi-railers' (3-rail toy train collectors/operators). The secret was to produce large runs for 3-rail and hang on 10%-20% extra fitted for 2-rail scale operation.
The strategy was a runaway suc- cess, and Quality-Craft, now better known as Weaver Models, have become the market leader in affordable O-scale. Encouraged by their success, other manufacturers, including, MTH, Crown, Williams and Intermountain, have introduced similar ranges.
14 ROUNDHOUSE
Why not...
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