Along the Line - December, 1940 - Jointless Rail

This is an interesting article from the December, 1940 Along the Line.

8 ½ Miles Jointless Rail Now In Track

''What makes The Bankers so late this morning?"

The query was addressed to the information clerk at Hartford station by a man who had just come from the subway passage under the tracks.

"It wasn't late," was the reply. "It left here five minutes ago."

"Good gosh!" the man exclaimed, "I've been standing there in the subway for over ten minutes and I never even heard it!" And thereby hangs a tale.

He was one of our regular commuters, and had formed the habit of waiting in the subway, reading his paper, until he heard the vibration when his train headed in on the station viaduct. But this particular morning there was no noticeable vibration. Nor has there been since. And welded rail is the answer.

The Hartford station viaduct is equipped with jointless welded rails, each 840 feet in length. This was the New Haven Railroad's first experiment with this new development in track construction and it has proved eminently successful. It has been followed by additional installations elsewhere and in all likelihood the future will see much additional track butt welded to form continuous rails of a thousand or more feet in length.

We now have altogether a total of 45,106 feet, or about 8-1/2 miles of welded rail in place, on bridges, through stations and grade crossings, and tunnels. Bridges were chosen for first installation because of the elimination of vibration through elimination of the impact at joints, with consequent lessened wear and tear on the bridge structure. Grade crossings and stations were next chosen because the expense of maintaining joints is greater in those places; at crossings it involves tearing out and replacing- part of the roadway material: and at railroad stations it often involves tearing out and replacing portions of polatforms.

The longest stretch of welded track which has yet been laid on the New Haven is 3,600 feet through the Terryville tunnel. This was welded at Bridgeport yards into 1,200-foot sections and these field-welded in the tunnel to make continuous rails from one end of the tunnel to the other without a break.

The longest single stretch which has been welded and moved in one section to date was 1,421 feet for each of the two rails for Track 2 through the Fair Haven tunnel, while two 1,407-foot rails were placed in Track 1 at the same location. These were welded at the Bridgeport yard and moved on flat cars to the tunnel.

A close-up inspection of a railroad rail would make a layman very doubtful of the feasibility of transporting rails of such lengths on flat-cars except on a perfectly straight stretch of track. It appears to be so rigid that it would seem impossible to bend it but actually there is sufficient flexibility so that the rail will bend with the curvature of the track.

The ordinary rail length is 39 feet, so that in ordinary track there are two rail joints for every 39 feet of track. These joints represent the point of greatest wear in rail because each wheel which passes from the end of one rail across the small gap to the beginning of the next, strikes that next rail the equivalent of a heavy hammer blow. When tracks are welded together it makes one continuous smooth surface and thus eliminates entirely track joint maintenance and at the same time makes for very much smoother riding track.

There are two methods of doing the welding job - by an electric annealer or by the oxy-acetylene method, the latter being the latest development and the method used bv the New Haven. The abutting rail ends are heated to a temperature of about 2,280 degrees Farenheit, using a mechanically-oscillated welding head that applies heat evenly to the rail sections from all directions. Simultaneously with the application of heat, the rail ends are forced together under a pressure which attains a maximum 2,500 pounds per square inch

Next, in order to achieve a refinement of the grain of the metal in the vicinity of the joint and to relieve internal stresses set up during the welding procedure, the ioint is uniformly re-heated to the critical temperature (about 1,380 degrees Farenheit) and allowed to cool in the atmosphere. In a test of the strength of such welded rail, a load of 50,000 pounds was rolled back and forth across the joint of a welded rail, supported as a cantilever, two million times without any failure developing.

Other locations where welded rail of varying lengths is now in service are Sackett's Point Road, Toelles crossing, Ward Street, Wallingford station, Parker Street, Hosford Street, Lee's Crossing, Mooney's, Cooper Street, Cherry Street, South Colony Street, Meriden station, Cross Street, Brittania Street, North Colony Street, and Warehouse Point bridge, all on the Hartford Division. 

1. A typical rail joint showing wear from constant impact of wheels.

2. A finished weld.

3. Oxy-acetylene welding apparatus at work welding two rails.

4. A close-up of the flames showing how they are brought to bear on the rails from all directions at once.

5. The complete weld, before finishing and polishing.

6. Removing upset metal with Oxy-acetelyne cutting machine.

7. Grinding and polishing.

8. Finished rail loaded on flat cars.

9 and 10. Unloading the rail where it is to be placed in track, by means of pulling the flat cars out from underneath.

11. The other end is anchored so that engine can pull cars out.

12. The finished job of continuous train at the Hartford station.

I was surprised to see that the New Haven was installing welded rail prior to WWII. I wonder how much more was finished by the end of the '40s, even with the war.

Along the Line Nov-Dec 1946: Thompsonville

Mail Service New Haven Style

A two-page article on moving mail by train. There is some interesting information on how mail is moved on trains, and it notes that there are 27 60-foot RPOs, 25 30' Compartment RPO/Baggage, and 5 15' Compartment RPO/Baggage cars. It notes that 263 trains are authorized for mail service, with 85 with RPOs, 46 with full-length storage cars, and the rest with lesser amounts of storage mail. Three trains, 179 and 181 Boston to Penn Station, and 180 in the reverse direction, have multiple RPOs. It is believed that Train 180 carries more mail than any other train in the world.

There was a 15' RPO on train 131/136 through New Britain, and Bethlehem Car works has a model (which I'll be building soon). The 60' RPO was available as a NHRHTA kit made by F&C and can be found on eBay from time-to-time. I have one partially built that will be going to Chris when I complete it since I won't need the 60' cars.

Nearly every passenger train through New Britain when hauled by locomotives carried storage mail in the baggage cars. In addition, a car was spotted at New Britain Station which went to Hartford each evening on Train 472. Steel baggage cars of two different sizes, with both clerestory roofs and turtle roofs, were also previously available from NHRHTA kits made by F&C. I have a couple that I started myself and a couple started by Ted Culotta to finish, plus two from Lee Ritchie's estate. In addition, Bethlehem Car Works makes kits for the wooden baggage cars. I have two of the kits, but the first release had incorrectly spaced doors. I started modifying mine, but will probably scratchbuild them instead, since I'd like to try scratchbuilding a few cars and they seem to be a relatively easy option.

Rug Cutting de luxe

As many of you know (and it's mentioned in my clinic on Prototype Modeling), I was originally building a layout featuring Windsor Locks and Thompsonville. Both towns featured a number of industries, but the largest was Bigelow-Sanford Carpet Co. This brief article provides some details about the business. Of particular interest is the indication that they are increasing capacity to 30,000 pounds of raw wool annually. Between Thompsonville (their headquarters) and Amsterdam, NY they are believed to have the greatest carpet-producing capacity in the world. In addition to handling freight, two passenger specials handle the annual employee outing to Rye, NY.

All carpet wools are shipped from Scotland, Ireland, India, China, Tibet, Iceland, New Zealand, Africa, Persia, Syria, and South America, and transferred to rail. Which means shipments from the California coast are just as possible as from New York, Boston, or the south.

Thompsonville itself is a very compact town to model, although the bulk of the traffic is Springfield - Hartford and/or New Haven passenger trains, usually a round trip hourly, if not more. Many of these are full length, 10-12 heavyweights, Pullman-Bradley lightweights, or the stainless steel cars depending on the era, with I-4 and I-5 steam locomotives, or a pair of DL-109s. So not short trains.

Main St. runs along the factory, and crosses under the railroad just south of the passenger station, and then crosses over the CT River. The passenger and freight stations are separated from the Bigelow-Sanford factory by Commerce St., but it really seems like little more than a driveway

Across the tracks is the International Casket Hardware Co., plus the Bigelow coal trestle and power house. 

I was recently looking through these after I was contacted by Jim, who is modeling the Springfield line in N-Scale. One map in particular that I found very useful is of the station area with a diagram for a new oil unloading facility:

This is the next section of this map showing the rest of the Bigelow factory and power house:

The oil unloading facility was installed on the side track for the International Casket Co, but is for Conn. Light & Power which was located behind the driveway for the Casket Co (about where the tank car diagram is). It's nothing but a simple pipe with a second line for steam heat.

I know that the track next to New Britain Station received tank cars for Stanley Tools, but I've never been able to identify how they were unloaded there. Until I find something indicating a different approach, I'll model a simple standpipe like this.

The map highlights how compact this scene is though, starting with a bridge over Main St., then the passenger and freight stations on one side, and International Casket Hardware Co on the other side, with the Bigelow-Sanford power house behind that. 

George Ford Photos

Back when I was planning on modeling Thompsonville, George Ford was generous enough to loan me a series of photos and slides that he took 1968-1970. With his permission, I'll share some with here.

Here's the station, looking toward Springfield:

You can see Bigelow Sanford behind the station, and a little further down the tracks is the freight house. The picture is taken from the bridge over Main St, you can see the girders between the tracks.

Here's the freight house:

This is a great view from just past the Main St. bridge. You can see the Westfield Plate Co, which was the location of the International Casket Hardware Co. earlier (I don't know when it changed) on the left. The coal silo is part of the Bigelow-Sanford Power Plant, I think.

From past the freight house:

And a little farther down the track, looking back toward Hartford:

Here's the station looking toward Hartford:

And the bridge over Main St. from track level:

Main St. itself crossed the CT River just past the station:

Bigelow-Sanford had a 25-ton locomotive to work the coal trestle and plant. The old Grandt Line model is the same prototype.

Here are a some views of along the Bigelow plant. The first shows the back of the freight house.

There was also an industry track that went into the plant itself, this is taken looking down that track toward the main line:

FL-9 2049 in front of Westfield Plate Co.

The back of the station:

Along the Line - July 1947 and we're in New Britain!

My favorite issues of Along the Line have a short article focusing on an industry somewhere on the line. 

In this issue, the featured industry is Landers, Frary & Clark in New Britain. Unfortunately, this article is a little light on the details I'm looking for, such as inbound materials ("The New Britain company uses an amazing variety of raw materials to manufacture its products, and ships out a diversified assortment of finished goods."

It does go into a bit more detail about many products they have made, "...faucets for molasses kegs and doorbells - some still in use - that were operated by a crank or butterfly-headed bolt turned on the outside of the door. Other items included mechanical apple peelers, cast iron baskets to hold string for store or home use, tobacco cutters, metal balls placed on the tops of ox horns to prevent oxen from goring people, rings for bulls' noses, calf weaners, and mouse traps."

They invented the first food chopper (Perry's Excelsior Meat Cutter and Sausage Stuffer), which also was the first product in their Universal line of household goods. They were among the first to produce electric appliances such as percolators and toasters, but by my era it includes vacuum cleaners, washing machines, irons and electric ranges. Postwar additions included a pressure cooker, electric blanket, and new ranges.

It does note that they ship carloads whenever possible, to eight district warehouses throughout the country. Unfortunately it doesn't state where these are so I'm doing a little digging to see if I can figure that out for waybills.

On the layout, of course, Landers, Frary & Clark is a dominating industry. The main factory on Commercial Street is adjacent to New Britain Yard and across from the station. It will be 4 to 4 1/2 feet long, which is how long the mock up is thanks to Dick. Although there were several tracks inside the factory complex, I had to settle for one hidden track. I am not aware of how they moved cars once dropped, if they did at all.

A second complex runs along the entire length of Whiting St Yard as well. In fact, it extends beyond the yard, with a pedestrian bridge across Ellis St. The southern part won't be on the layout, since the Ellis St bridge is the view block ending the scene. New Britain native Ed O'Keefe told me that they received materials and manufactured parts at the Commercial St campus, then trucked the materials across town to be assembled and shipped from the Whiting St factory.

Although the Commercial St buildings were leveled prior to the construction of Rt. 72, the Whiting St complex is still there. I haven't looked into its current use.

Freight Highlights

This column discusses shipping explosives, noting that this includes things like gasoline, alcohol, fireworks, matches, wet storage batteries, paints and varnishes, cleaning fluids, insecticides, and other commodities. It also mentions other hazardous chemicals, such as sulfuric acid and potassium cyanide, plus explosives such as black powder, blasting caps and dynamite. 

How much of this would affect operations in New Britain? Quite a bit actually. Ensign-Bickford had factories in Avon and Simsbury, both on the Canal Line north of Plainville. They manufactured fuses (for explosives, not the electrical circuit type) and were the inventors of Primacord. Both raw materials and finished products would move under the explosive rules. I covered these rules in this post. These would be on HDX-5 or the YN/NY freights, which wouldn't be switched out at New Britain. But proper placement and handling of the cars must be followed when switching out other cars, and will also require different waybills.

Excursion to Maybrook

There's also an article about a Sunday, May 4, 1947 Maybrook excursion which attracted 681 people. It was hauled by I-5 1407 and required 12 passenger cars. 

They Do the Darndest Things

A one-page article about a new Koehring caterpillar crane. The reason for the article is because it uses a small platform car, that it can power by a small motor. When it reaches its work destination, it can crawl off the platform, then lift it off the tracks to move it out of the way. The other crawler cranes rode on flat cars, and the car had to be moved to a location that was out of the way.

The article states that they believe they are the only railroad in the company that has them. The NH has 5 that have flanged wheels that can be raised and lowered, and five with the platform cars, with five more on the way.

I find this quite interesting since I've never seen a reference to these 16 cranes elsewhere, nor have I seen photos.

That's it this week...

Along the Line - July-August 1948

More from Along the Line. I intended to cover several issues, but the July-August 1948 issue has a lot of articles that I find interesting and have tidbits of information that could be useful for modelers. Whenever possible, I look for primary sources published in the era like this. It's still listed as monthly, but we're in a period where that regularity is in flux again...

So what's in this issue?

It starts with a letter from Howard S Palmer announcing his retirement on August 12 as the President of the New Haven Railroad.

The New Haven Story - Survival by Adaptation

A long and interesting article about how the NH operates and lots of statistics such as the average number of cars per freight train: Class I roads - 53; NH - 54. Or that LCL on the NH accounts for 20% of freight revenue, compared with a 9% average for all Class I roads. They also cite a 2:1 ratio for loads in vs. out. 

It's a Circus!

Twin-unit Diesels hauling the first section of Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus from Harlem River to the Boston Garden. This photo was taken in Woonsocket by a staff photographer of the Woonsocket Call.

A report on the circus trains that have traversed the New Haven during 1948.

Note that circuses were usually one-day events, occasionally two. They could pack up after a show, travel by train overnight, and be ready for an afternoon show the next day.

Carnivals typically ran for a week, with Sunday as a travel/setup day, but some were shorter.

• Ringling Bros, Barnum & Bailey at Boston Garden via Harlem River and the Providence and Worcester branch to Boston (May 11-16). Two 50 car sections. All via car floats. Then returned to Washington over the same route.
• Ringling Bros returns, with four sections of 90 double-length cars, in Poughkeepsie (June 14), Bridgeport (15-16), Waterbury (17), New Britain (see notes below), Plainville (18), New London (19), Providence (21-22), Fall River (23), New Bedford (24), Lowell (25), Fitchburg (26), Worcester (July 1), and Springfield (2-3).
• James E. Strates Shows, Maybrook to Norwich (May 10-15), New London (17-22), Pawtucket (24-29), New Bedford (31-June 5), Fall River (June 7-12). The train was 40 cars; 9 sleepers and 31 flats.
• Endy Bros carnival in June over the Norwich branch to Boston (week ending June 19), Chicopee (w/e 26), Fitchburg (w/e July 10). A 35 car show with 8 sleepers and 27 flats.
• The World of Mirth, to Pittsfield (the route shows Poughkeepsie week ending June 26) and North Adams (week ending July 4th). It returns for the Brockton Fair (September 13-18) before heading down the Shoreline to points south.

In addition, I know that Coleman Brothers was in New Britain May 3-8, the Hunt Brothers Circus on June 11, 1948, John H Marks Shows June 14-19. They all had other shows in NH territory that season, although they may not have traveled by rail.

Apparently Hunt Brothers didn't have a great show in New Britain or Bristol. From The Billboard 6/26/48:

Weather, Opposition Hurt Hunt Bros.' Org in Conn. NEW BRITAIN, Conn., June 19.- Too much opposition, in the form of threatening weather and the prox- imity of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, hurt biz for the Hunt Bros.' org here and in Bristol. Hunt played to half houses at both performances here Friday (11), large- ly, it is believed, because the Big One was due to show in nearby Plainville one week later. Rains for several days before org appeared in Bristol (10) cut attendance at the matinee, but a strong house was on hand for the evening show. 

James E Strates Shows was in New Britain in 1949 (June 6-11), along with Ross Manning Shows (July 11-16), and Coleman Brothers (July 17-23).

The Ringling Bros dates are taken from the Circus History site.

You'll note that Ringling Bros, B&B is not playing in Hartford. After the 1944 fire, they didn't return to Hartford until long after the New Haven days, and 1948 was the first year they booked any shows in CT.

The New Britain stand for Ringling Brothers is listed in the article, but isn't on the Ringling Brothers route. I found this in the 5/22/48 issue of The Billboard Magazine:

R -B New Britain Lot Nixed NEW BRITAIN, Conn., May 15.- There is a possibility that the Ring - ling- Barnum circus may have to cancel its scheduled June 17 appearance here. Frank A. Starkel, State police fire marshal, has declared the lot on South Main Street selected by the circus "unsuitable and rejected."

It appears it was moved to Waterbury instead for the 1948 season, as that's what's listed in their route.  

The Plainville 1948 show was a success. From the 7/3/48 issue of The Billboard:

Prime Territory The route the Big Show is now making is the same fought for annually by every big rail org in the country in the heyday of the circus with the best biz naturally going to the first in. Friday (18) at Plainville, Conn., a town of 10,000 several miles distant from New Britain and Hartford, the circus played to two turn away crowds. Indications were that it would easily have been worth a two day stand. The entire community was disrupted, but not unhappily so, by the influx of sightseers, necessitating an all-night tour of the regular police force plus many special officers. The show set up on a near-perfect grounds, Tinty's Flying Ranch. The shortage of working help continues acute. The circus management reportedly is offering extra help $3 to $4, three meals, and free tickets to both the big top and the Side Show in return for helping to get it up and down.  

The dates for Endy Bros, Strates, and World of Mirth shows are taken from The Billboard Magazine  5/15/48, 5/22/48, 5/29/48. 6/5/48,  6/12/48, 6/19/48, 6/26/48, 7/3/48, 7/10/48, and 9/11/48.

Second section of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus moving over the Providence-Worcester branch. This section contains the many circus "props" and 14 sleeping cars. The circus train is en route to Worcester

Circus Trains seem to have lost favor in the modeling community as gimmicky. But the reality is, there were a lot of circus/carnival trains in this era, and even more pre-Depression if you're modeling that early. Although from a scenic standpoint my layout will be the first Monday in November, I may eventually build a circus or carnival train (or two) for the occasional summer session. They also make beautiful shelf displays when not running on the layout. 

Man > Power > Motive (July-Aug)

The Engine Dispatcher makes sure they are on hand to operate our trains...

An interesting article about a job I hadn't really considered existing. They call the engineers, firemen and hostlers, including from the spare board if needed. They also assign the motive power.

The May-June issue had an article on the Crew Dispatcher, although I wouldn't have gathered that they are responsible for all of the train crews except engineers, firemen or hostlers. Otherwise the article primarily covers the complexity of managing a huge pool of employees, and the process of calling them to duty.

At Boston, Providence, Cedar Hill, Harlem River, Grand Central, Maybrook, Danbury, Waterbury, Hartford and New London, where locomotives return to the enginehouse for inspection and maintenance, the Enginehouse Foreman keeps the Engine Dispatcher informed as to when each locomotive is ready for the next run. They also have to ensure enough units are assigned for the load. 

Crews on the spare board are first in, first out, but the Engine Dispatcher must know who is qualified for specific type of locomotive and the line. In addition, there are three levels of qualification for engineers and two for firemen. Freight and yard, local passenger (after 1 year), then all type of trains for an engineer (after 18-24 months). Firemen receive their First Class certificate after 15 years of experience.

It would be rare for a layout to require somebody to handle just this job (and probably a bit boring too), but it could be something that a Dispatcher/Agent could handle. I like this idea better than the Yardmaster assigning or choosing locomotives because it feels more prototypical. We obviously need to combine jobs on the model, but I think some combinations are better than others.

But I'm more interested in the information about different levels of qualification, and am considering some sort of system on my layout. It won't be as rigid as the prototype, obviously, and will also depend on who is there. But by having fully qualified conductors on a given job, I know that they'll be able to help the less experienced crew assigned as engineers. 

But consider a different scenario. Chris, Dale and I like to have the momentum very high on our locomotives. But not all operators are familiar with that approach, and some just don't like it. The Dispatcher could have a notation of these preferences (qualifications) and when it's time to assign power to a train, they can take this preference into account.

This could be much like the prototype in the transition era, too. Not everybody was qualified on steam, and that may be the case on your layout as well.

There are other aspects that you could incorporate as well. To start with, it's not uncommon for trains to run late on a model railroad. Inspections and maintenance take time, and you could take that into account when assigning locomotives. On the NH, most trains have assigned locomotives, and the inspection/maintenance is factored into those assignments. But trains running late, or mechanical problems, affect that. There are a number of ways that could be simulated on your layout without greatly complicating things.

Beautiful New Parlor Cars...TOPS in Passenger Comfort

An article detailing the new stainless steel parlor cars, the first delivered on June 4, and the rest by the end of August.

The Stanley Idea!

An article on Stanley Home Products. No, not Stanley Works in New Britain, but a company in Easthampton, MA. A company that sells via home parties, they provide entertainment (a magic show, singing, a bit of vaudeville, etc.) and the host sells the products. Headquartered in Westfield, but their plant is in Easthampton.

• They receive a monthly average of 4,244,879 pounds of handles, bottles, cans, chemicals (some by tank car), bristles, Carnauba wax, and wire.
• They ship a monthly average of 3,372,680 lbs of finished products, brushes, mops, waxes, polishes, and other household brushes and chemicals, to nine distribution centers: Atlanta, Trenton, Zanesville, Dubuque, Kalamazoo, Tulsa, Seattle, and Oakland.

This is great information for me when setting up waybills for the NY/YN freights. I just wish they had published a lot more of these types of articles. Some of these would probably route B&A at Westfield, or B&M at Northampton. But cars would route over the New Haven and through New Britain.

Traffic Highlights

• Received the last of 103 new coaches on May 4, 1948 and in operation on most Shoreline trains, some Springfield trains, plus the Naugatuck and Cape Cod operations.
• Delivery of 50 parlor cars started in June, and should be completed by end of August. Ten diners, fifteen grill cars, and two observation-lounge cars by end of year, and twenty-seven sleeping cars in early 1949. (I didn't check to see if this delivery schedule was kept).
• Berkshire passenger trains north of Danbury and the Naugatuck line are all dieselized with DERS-2b locomotives, and passenger service on the Highland line between Boston and Hartford-Waterbury will be dieselized in the near future.
• Summer seasonal trains include the East Wind, Down Easter, Bar Harbor Express, Valley Express, North Wind, White Mountains Express, the Day Cape Codder, the Neptune, the Night Cape Codder, and the Housatonic Express.
• Operating revenues for May are up by 9% year over year, with passenger revenues down by 3% and freight up by 17%. and the figures are expected to be the same for July.

Train Travel Made Easy

An article about marketing passenger service. There is also a list of all of the trains that are assigned the 8600-series stainless steel coaches at that time.

And that's it for this issue.

Research - The State of the Railroad

Poking around through more copies of Along the Line, and I came across this article from August, 1949. Like so many "known" facts, I find that with a little research that things aren't quite what has been passed along through the years. This is the second "relaunch" of the magazine, this time in a smaller format, after missing five months.

Five Thousand New Jobs

More than five thousand new jobs were created during the years 1947 and 1948 through the location of new industries along the line of The New Haven Railroad, it was revealed recently by figures compiled by our Industrial Development Department.

During those two years twenty-nine new industries came into our territory from previous locations elsewhere, and a total of 134 new industries started in business here, including new branches of existing industries. Only eight industries moved to other locations during the same period, and only fourteen went out of business.

The consequent benefits to the railroad and the communities were manifold. For our part, we had a net gain in freight tonnage from these industries of 251,220 tons annually. The communities had a net gain of 141 industries, employing 5,045 persons.

Translating this added number of employees into terms of purchasing power, it is readily seen how great were the benefits to the communities. Figuring a conservative average of $40. a week earnings for these new employees, this meant a total additional payroll of $10,493,600 annually. It meant more trade for the butcher, the grocer, the clothier, the electric light and gas companies, the telephone company, and everybody else in business in the territory. It meant more tax collections for the support of government.

Their food bill alone would be over $3,000,000. Housing and fuel expenditures would be more than a million and a half dollars. They would spend well over a million dollars for clothing, better than $600,000 for household furnishings, and another $400,000 for household operations. Automobiles, entertainment, medical care and other items would run over two millions.

Interesting, too, is the diversity of products turned out by these new industries. The greater the diversity of manufacture in a given territory, the less is the likelihood of disastrous results from untoward conditions affecting a particular type of industry. Diversity is good "insurance."

Here are some of the products represented by the new industries: advertising displays, furniture, groceries, air filters, plastic wire connectors, electrical appliances, printed forms, lithography, Fritos, rulers, toiletries, phonograph record blanks, wallboard, steel products, flooring, paper cartons, lumber, paper, trailer frames, yarn, cranberry sauce, castings, cotton yarn, glassware, construction equipment, plywood boat forms, plastic products, phonograph cabinets, pallets, builders' supplies, concrete blocks, paint brushes, photo equipment, metal tube and hose, dog food, aluminum foil, wire cord, rubber gloves, textiles, jams and jellies, clothes cabinets, wrenches, plasticized fabrics, synthetic felt, paper tubes, Propane gas, bananas, brass and aluminum castings, beverages, cinder blocks, frozen foods, aluminum door frames, steel chain, facial tissue, aluminum skis, woolen yarn, rayon fabrics, nails, fencing, beer, castings and shoes.

Industrial development work began on the New Haven away back in 1911, when, in cooperation with the Boston & Maine, the first railroad industrial development activities were organized. This pioneering produced such excellent results that soon power companies followed the railroads' example, and this was fallowed in turn by greater activity by local chambers of commerce and similar organizations.

--

This is also the issue announcing the launch of the Cranberry, plus faster service for a lot of trains, many from 5-10 minutes, but the Colonial's running time has been shaved by 45 minutes. The Merchants also gains coaches during the summer months for the first time.

It seems that things aren't quite in the decline that most attribute to the post-war era. To be sure, we do see a decline in the next few years, with a brief boost from the Korean war, but in this period where the railroad has just come out of bankruptcy looks like things are going well. 

--

Lastly, there's a letter from News Syndicate, Inc. referring to damage to newsprint paper rolls, and the reminder that there is a growing option of having the newsprint shipped via water routes. The author says he was a railroad man who worked the spare board for a decade and would like to see the business stay with the railroad.

As interesting as the letter is, it's the statistics that he quotes that interests me: they receive 600 carloads/month of newsprint.

This is New York City, so they may receive it from several railroads. I don't have the 1% waybill statistics for New York (much less the city), but that's 7,200 carloads a year, and more than double the average delivered to CT 1950-1954.

Operations - A Day on A Way Freight

 As you may know, Chris' layout grew out of a Shoreliner article by our friend John Wallace and his experience as a teenager when he was able to ride (and fire) the Valley Local. The article details the work of the day quite extensively, and John has continued to provide insight and information to Chris as he builds his layout.

Chris gave me a copy of this article a while ago, and I thought it would be worth posting here. This is from the October 1946 issue of Along the Line, a (usually monthly) employee magazine. 

The article doesn't list an author, and it appears to be a railroad employee writing it. It covers a day on the Canal Local - not the YN/NY freight through New Britain, but the local freight that handles the traffic on the south end of the Canal Line. At the time of this article it was NHDX #4 (later NX-18).

After leaving New Haven it serviced:

• Highwood
• Plasticrete
• Mt Carmel
• Cheshire
• Milldale
• Plantsville
• Southington
• Plainville and back

Picks up and sets off over-dimension cars at Highwood. Connects at Plainville to & from HDX #5.

This train is very similar to the Valley Local. The Canal Line by this era is freight only, and in Manual Block territory, but there's only a single local freight. The freight houses in Mt. Carmel, Cheshire, Milldale, Plantsville, and Southington are all served by truck, not rail. It originates in New Haven, and turns at a junction and small yard at Plainville, and exchanges cars with another local freight. It would be very easy to model with New Haven as staging, and the east/west Highland Line, along with the north branch of the Canal Line also going to staging (or stub-ended). The cars from HDX-5 could simply be waiting in Plainville Yard.

Day Train Order stations are at Mt. Carmel and Milldale (Bob Belletzkie has helped get the train order signal operational at Milldale again).

I don't have assignments before the April 20, 1948 Engine Utilization report, but on that day it was DERS-2b (RS-2) 0503 and it reports that it was a 55 mile run that day. Since it was assigned an RS-2, it may have been assigned a J-1 or R-1 when it was still running steam.

In April, 1949 it is assigned DERS-1b (RS-1) 0670. That locomotive lives on (sort of) on the roster of CNZR. It's not operable right now, but Dale and I continue to hope...

By fall of that year it's DEY-5 (S-2) 0620. No. 0606 is assigned in October, 1950.

By April 1952 it had been upgraded to DERS-2c (RS-3) 533, then 550 in fall of that year, 594 in fall 1954,  560 a year later.

In September of 1956 it's now a  DEY-7 (SW-1200) 651, and in April, 1957 it's 652. 

A Day on a Way Freight

There are few railroaders who have more of a finger on the pulse of business than the crew of a way freight. And few get closer to our customers. The way freight crew know which plants are busy and which are in the doldrums. They know what new plants are being built, and where expansion is planned. They know these things because they live with the industries in their territory. They know and talk with our customers. They are friends.

The five men who run the Canal Local are just such a crew. This train leaves New Haven each morning around 9:45 a.m. to serve the industries on the "Canal", or Northampton Branch, as far as Plainville. Not only do the men know all their customers, but even know most of our neighbors who live adjacent to the tracks. And they perform little extra services for many of them, .in addition to giving them bang-up railroad service.

For the shipping clerk at Clark Bros. plant at Milldale, they have a Boston newspaper. A dozen or more of their customers look for delivery of copies of ALONG THE LINE each month, as do also some of their friends in houses along the right of way. At Southington they invariably drop off a piece of ice for Rose Verderame, clerk at the freight office. And returning the compliment, in wintertime Rose always has a cup of hot "Java" for the boys when the way freight arrives.

There's no doubt about it—this way freight job is a friendly job! The crew of the Canal Local enjoy their run and you would have a hard time weaning them away from it. The three train crew members alone have a total of one hundred and fourteen years' service between them right there on the "Canal" line. Leading off is Conductor Abram D. W. Holmes, Jr." Ducky" to you and to all his customers and railroad buddies from New Haven to Plainville. "Ducky", who lives in Springfield and deadheads back and forth to New Haven every day, has operated on the "Canal" line for forty-two years. He knows every tie and rail joint on the line, and the family history of the occupants of most of the houses within sight as the Canal Local shuttles back and forth delivering and collecting freight at the plants and stations en route. And he recalls that his wife's grandmother rode down from Northampton to New Haven on the old canal in pre-railroading days. It took her a night and a day to make the trip.

Frederick Henry Miller is the "flag"-his buddies know him as "Highball" ("Because I'm so fast," Fred modestly admits)-and he's been working the "Canal Local" for thirty-six years, as has his partner, William A. Cumm, brakeman, known to all and sundry as "Biddy". "Biddy" lives in Haydenville, Mass., and gets home only at weekends, going home Saturday evenings and coming back to New Haven Monday mornings. During the week he makes his home at the Railroad "Y". "Highball" lives in New Haven. He is one of three Miller brothers, all of whom were working on the "Canal" at one time, and they were affectionately nicknamed "Highball," "Fishball" and "Cannonball". Another brother, Benny, still works on the New York division.

Brakeman "Biddy" Cumm and Conductor "Ducky" Holmes

Flagman "Highball" Miller

The day we rode the caboose of the Canal Local as guest of "Ducky" Holmes, it was pouring rain most of the time-but the boys take that right in their stride. Togged out in oilskin hats, rubber raincoats, and boots, a bit of rain doesn't bother them at all.

On the head-end was Engineer Matthew O'Dea and Fireman James Cavanaugh. Pulling out of Water Street Yard at New Haven, our train, with five freight cars, rolled through the east cut and across the main line tracks and then "across lots" through the "Canal" cut, right through the city of New Haven, past the Arena, past the old Grove Street Cemetery where rest the remains of Noah Webster, Lyman Beecher, Eli Whitney, Samuel F. B.-Morse and other distinguished New Englanders; and then, parallel to Winchester and Dixwell Avenues, out to Hamden.

Matthew O'Dea was at the throttle

Passing through Hamden, "Ducky" called attention to an "A" pole at the entrance to Winchester's powder house reservation. It's a pole similar to a whistle post, except that it has the letter "A" instead of a "W". As our train service readers will know, but others probably not, this means that before entering the gate with a cut of cars the air must be coupled up.

Passing Winchester's, in Hamden

Coming· to a plant on the west side of the tracks, Conductor Holmes explained that this was the Plasticrete plant, where building blocks are manufactured out of cinders. "There's an industry I've seen grow in just a couple of years, from a single tiny building to that big plant-and they're constantly expanding. We handle a lot of freight for them. Just shows the power of a new ideal"

Monument to an idea: The Plasticrete plant

At Highwood siding we picked up one load and two empties—high cars which would not clear the bridges through the cut in New Haven and so had to be taken around via Plainville. Then we passed from the New Haven Division into Hartford Division jurisdiction.

At the W. I. Clark siding, a car was set off loaded with cork for a new freezing plant they were installing.

At Mt. Carmel, on this particular day, there was nothing but company mail. But on the siding, placed there the day previous, was a huge bridge girder, loaded on three flat-cars and destined to be used in the building of the bridge over Whitney Avenue which is a part of the extension of the Wilbur Cross Highway.

The Canal Local carries mostly heavy freight-steel, lumber, feed. "Down by this next bend," remarked our host, "is Munson's house--he's the superintendent of the cemetery - and they always ring a bell and wave to us as the train goes by, or if it's after dark, signal with a flashlight." Just friendly stuff!"

And over here on the other side -the woman in that house always waves to us. Oh, that's her daughter, Mary, out there today. She had infantile paralysis."

At Cheshire we picked up one car at the Cheshire Ball & Socket plant, and while "Highball" was flagging his job, the manager of the Cheshire Coal & Lumber Co. came over to pass the time of day.

Cheshire Ball & Socket plant

Beyond Cheshire, the. old canal became very much in evidence, running alongside the tracks for miles at a stretch. The water apparently is stagnant.

In places the old canal is much in evidence

At Milldale one car was picked up, and the Plainville cars were swung behind the Atwater Manufacturing "drops" since it is difficult to go in there with too many cars. The Atwater plant manufactures clutches and other items for Ford cars. At the Atwater plant two cars were dropped and three picked up.

At Atwater's the caboose was cut off while cars were switched.

There were no drops or pick-ups that particular day at the Blakeslee Drop Forge at Plantsville, but Conductor Holmes stopped there to telephone and get the "dope" on how much Atwater freight would be ready for pick-up on the return trip.

Blakeslee's, Plantsville

At Southington Harry Blanchette and Rose Verderame greeted the Canal Local. Rose got her ice and Harry, who is the son of Agent Harry Blanchette at Willimantic compared notes with the crew. '

Plainville was reached about 2:15. There all hands took fifteen minutes to fortify the inner man at a local lunchroom and then proceeded to do the local work at the several plants there—Peck, Stow & Wilcox's hardware factory, Southington Hardware, Tubular Products Co. (during the war they turned out miles of tubes for airplanes), Southington Lumber (a Diamond Match affiliate), and Pratt & Whitney's. The last-named plant covers an area a quarter-mile square and the Canal Local handled for its construction over 200 carloads of piles, 68 carloads of wooden blocks, and a great deal of other material, as well as hundreds of cars of highly important materials when the plant started operations.

Peck, Stow & Wilcox

At Plainville the train was turned on the "Y" and cars left by the Hartford Local were picked up and then, southbound, there was repetition of the northbound trip—stops to drop or pick up cars all along the line.

Turning on the "Y" at Plainville

Back at Water Street at 6:40 p.m., "Ducky" was fortunate enough to be able that day to make No. 80 home, after checking in at the Yard Office. Another day's work accomplished, customers satisfied, and then-home!

Just a day on a way freight.

--

The first thing that comes to mind when I read this (again) is that for the most part, railroading is the same thing every day. The crew knows their territory very well, and they know where there are challenges (don't bring too many cars at Atwater, for example).

I want to work this into my sessions where I can by having a seasoned "qualified" operator as conductor to teach new operators (as engineers) the line. I will also detail how the crews work New Britain. In my case, since they are switching crews, it will vary a bit more than a local freight. 

Chris has detailed his solo sessions on two of his freights on his blog, and they are also a great tutorial for crews who will work the jobs:

• PDX-1 Session
• PDX-2 Session

The stop to call and find out how much work there will be on the way back is also quite interesting. Even where the freight houses are served by truck, there will still be an Agent and a phone. We saw in the Along the Line article following BO-5 that the crew received orders at New Britain for work in Plainville. Now we can see that even in this era before radios that the crew could also check with Agents down the line for additional work. 

Industries continue loading/unloading cars through the day. So the crew won't know what all of their work is when they leave in the morning. Adding work through the session is not only prototypical, but makes the operations more interesting. I'm also always looking for confirmation on how to do it more prototypically than just stopping and checking the bill box at every industry.

This is a small freight, with only 5 cars to start, a great model railroad local:

• Picked up 3 at Highwood siding.
• Set out one at W. I. Clark
• Pick up one at Ball & Socket
• Picked up a car at Milldale and blocked the train for Atwater.
• Dropped two and picked up three at Atwater.

They arrived at Plainville with 10 cars. Two of those were cars from their original consist leaving New Haven. These must have been for the industries in Plainville, although the article doesn't specify the work that was done. This local worked Plainville, so any cars on HDX-5 for Plainville would have been left for them to deliver. The 3 over-dimension cars would be for HDX-5, and they would also leave any outbound cars that had originally come via HDX-5. We don't know how many cars they returned with, nor how much work there was on the way back.

Note that they didn't leave any cars along the line to pick up on the way back, as we frequently do (and John recalls the crew doing) on the Valley Line. They picked up 5 on the way.

As small as this job seems, it's still a full ops session job, and would take (me anyway) 3-4 hours to complete, which is a full day with a 3:1 or 4:1 fast clock.