Page 15 - March April 1999

September 1950 cont... Indiana...
It is against the law to attack a train.
Texas...
Cocoa mats must not be used in waiting rooms.
Maryland...
It is illegal to knock a train off the tracks.
Nebraska...
Trainmen are permitted to go muskrat hunting.
Louisiana...
Every depot shall be equipped with a cuspidor.
Texas...
One cuspidor for every three seats in parlor cars, and one for every two seats in the smoker.
Connecticut...
It is forbidden to lend your handcar to a friend, or leave it on a highway.
Rhode Island...
It is a crime to run a passenger coach between the locomotive and a carload of dirt.
Pennsylvania...
It is illegal for any railroad to haul any vehicle except a railway car.
December 1950
Membership 8699
January 1951
The 1950 British Region Convention, under the Presidency of Mr. J. Whitworth, has come and gone. Over 90 members, wives and friends attended at the Royal Station Hotel, York, arriving from all parts of the country. A special coach attached to the 10.05 a.m. from Kings Cross brought the conventioneers from the South, and they returned in a similar manner on the 3.44 p.m. on the Sunday.
March 1951
Editorial
It has been suggested that NMRA might be greatly strengthened through the regional organization with smaller affiliated groups which might be known as chapters. One of the primary objectives of the Association as defined by the constitution is to “promote the greater fellowship of model railroading between model railroaders”. The regional setup does a fine job, but it falls short of reaching a great number of model rails whose interest is possibly not sufficiently avid that they would be attracted by regional activities usually limited to two meetings a year, and which often requires travel to some distant point.
July 1951
The Parlor Car
325 years ago Dutchman Peter Minuit purchased Manhattan from the Indians for beads and trinkets worth about $24. This was on May 6 1626, and is generally agreed upon by historians as the founding date of New York, then New Amsterdam. This part of the story is familiar to most Americans but few of us realize that the Indians from whom the purchase was made had no right to sell the island as it actually belonged to the Canarsie Indians on the other side of the East River. Seems as though the tradition behind the sale of the Brooklyn Bridge began centuries before it was erected. Today New York’s assessed valuation of taxable real estate is over $15 billion.
February 1952
The Back Shop
Q. What is the most highly recommended HO-gage coupler from a purely operational standpoint? This question could be dynamite!
A. This depends on who you ask. I like one type, someone else likes another. If I answered this question, I would have too much mail to suit me, all of it nasty! Seriously, this can only be determined by the individual. For myself, I like any coupler that looks like a coupler.
The P87 Layout - Federal Street Yard
mhb
PRR in Pittsburgh in the early 1950’s
John H Wright
The layout is planned to depict an imaginary freight yard set on an actual part of the PRR in Pittsburgh. The Whitehall branch connected the PRR’s Monongahela Div. to the P&LE on the south bank of the Monongahela River in the Steel City.
There was some street running and the branch didn’t close till the 1980’s, so I’m told. Being a steam enthusiast, I would have liked the period modelled to have been in the 1940’s but the use of the Athearn Baldwin S-12 has meant going for the early 50’s. Hopefully I should still be able to squeeze in B6sb and B28 0-6-0 switchers without stretching the historical aspects too much!
So far I have only just started to research the branch but it looks like it could be a very interesting project provided I can get my hands on enough information. There were numerous industrial sites, including two meat packing plants and, so I’m informed, one of my favourite industries - a brewery. I also intend to have a small coal dock, oil storage facility and a team track area, as well as warehouses and small manufacturing operations.
Before and after, what a difference a change of wheelsets makes!
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