New Haven Videos

In a recent discussion on the NHRHTA Forum, I remembered a video I had seen a while ago that was relevant to the discussion. Of course, I couldn't remember the name of the video. I realized I hadn't collected those links here, which would have made it easier to find...

So here's some fun things to watch.

Capture of a video by Paul Wales, since released by A&R Productions

(Preview linked below)

Others (including better quality versions of a couple of these) are available from NHRHTA here.

New Haven Railroad: A Great Railroad at Work - A classic and comprehensive promotional film made in the early '40s about the railroad.

Southern New England - a fantastic promotional film focused on the new Alco FA-1/FB-1 locomotives. In color. Available in better quality from NHRHTA as Riding the Maybrook Line.

Memories of Steam in New England - as you might expect, it covers other New England roads as well.

New Haven 1950s Preview - Greg Scholl video, including scenes on the Highland Line.

New Haven Mainlines Preview - Greg Scholl video.

NH1 Clip - Preview of A&R Productions video New Haven Railroad Volume 1.

NH2 Clip - Preview of A&R Productions New Haven Railroad Volume 2 video featuring color films taken by Paul Wales, including some taken in New Britain in the 1940s and '50s. We had a preview of these films at my house before A&R received them to produce their DVD.

8mm Silent Films of Noel Weaver, Jr. An ex-NH railroader who always had interesting info.

16mm Silent Films - Later than my era for the most part, but still interesting.

NHRR and LIRR - Also later than my era.

NHRR Around Providence and Boston - also McGinnis era and later.

The Railroad in Franklin, MA - Joe Landry presentation with excellent footage.

1950s New Haven Action - more color films, these from William Sternitzke's collection.

1950s New Haven 8mm - Films by Alan Thomas, also from William's collection.

When Steam was King - Another color film, only the first train is New Haven. It's a baggage/mail train, and was relevant to the discussion. But since it was also the only New Haven train in the film, I hadn't remembered what it was called.

I'm sure there are some I missed, and there might be a duplicate or two in the list above. A Great Railroad at Work shows up frequently on YouTube under different titles.

The Greg Scholl and A&R Productions videos are available from many online (and train show) resources, so I didn't link any specific ones. I highly recommend New Haven Railroad Volume 2 by A&R of course, since it has a whole bunch of Highland/New Britain shots.

NHRHTA used to have a video containing Kent Cochrane videos. I have an extended cut of that, and hopefully NHRHTA will be releasing that in the future since it also features the Highland line and a little of New Britain.

Getting Ready for More (or Less) Operations

In past operating sessions, the layout has operated well. It's more than exceeding expectations in regards to creating a prototypical operation, complete with a freight agent/yard master. But the reality is, while I know exactly what I want in terms of paperwork, waybills and such, I'm not there yet. In addition, it was also clear that the amount of work can be overwhelming for folks not used to as much switching work. Combine that with the fact that there will soon be a new section of the layout to start testing and working into the ops sessions, it's a good time to create a scaled-back operating session.

So that means reducing the number of trains, and the number of cars to work. While we could just choose some, why not model the traffic in a different year?

In the busiest years, such as early 1947, the amount of work is substantial:

• OA-4, OA-6, NY-2, and EA-2 leave cuts of cars overnight.
• NY-4 and HDX-5 bring additional cars in the first two hours (30 minutes on the fast clock).
• Outbound cars have to be blocked for 6 trains: YN-3, HDX-5, ANE-1, AO-5, OA-4 and YN-1. 

Along with the freights, there are 8 passenger trains through the day.

It still boggles my mind that there was this much traffic through the region. But it is a lot of work to manage. In addition, right now we need to be testing the mechanical aspects of the equipment and layout so I can keep moving with the scenery base. It's also been a while since we've had extensive testing of the layout. A couple of years ago, it was getting regular use, either with ops sessions, or testing and preparation. That hasn't happened in a while.

Tangent: Modeling Multiple Years

To me, I'm not just modeling the prototype equipment, track arrangement, structures, and so on. It's been said, "if you're modeling the 1950s, you're modeling 1959 poorly." I understand the sentiment, because if you choose to run equipment that left the roster in 1950 with equipment that didn't exist until 1957, then you aren't modeling 1950 , 1959 or any year in between accurately. And I agree with that assessment.

But it's also quite possible to model the history of the railroad. The infrastructure in New Britain, that is the trackwork, didn't change (much) between 1946 and 1954 when the mainline was single-tracked:

• At some point in that period, Farm Yard, a small yard across Myrtle Street was reduced in size, but I didn't have the space to model the yard as it was before that time.
• Yard tracks #15 and #17 were removed c1953 and turned into a parking lot, although I don't have an exact date as yet.
• Lockshop pond was also filled and turned into a parking lot. 
• Several shops and industries changed, particularly in the Railroad Arcade.
• City Coal and Wood was torn down, possibly between 1953 and 1954, it was definitely there in 1951.

I'm planning on seeing if I can build an insert to cover Lockshop pond. If it works, I'll probably build two - one when the parking lot was being built, and one as a parking lot. It might be a bit more difficult to do the same for the two tracks that became a parking lot in the yard, although the leads remained east of Elm St.

Since the Railroad Arcade will be a facade to be connected to the layout for the purposes of photos, it's easy enough to construct it as modules so I can add the correct storefronts for a given year.

City Coal & Wood behind L-1 #3229 c1946 from a Paul Wales video. 

City Coal and Wood will be made removable for the same reason, because it will be very noticeable when it's gone.

Cars and billboards can be switched, and the roster of locomotives and freight cars can be adjusted for the year. The variety of locomotives is one of the particularly interesting thing about the range of years I've selected. The only equipment-related issue that's not easily addressed are the reweigh dates on freight cars. These aren't typically something easily noticed while operating, but I can be selective when taking photos. Although you only see one side of the car during an ops session, so I could put a different reweigh date on each side.

Anyway, the point is, by modeling multiple years, and paying attention to the details that changed in that period, you have the opportunity to model the history of the railroad over that period. That also includes modeling the history of operations over that period too, and in New Britain that changed quite a bit.

For example, instead of modeling late summer/early fall of 1947, we can jump to late summer/early fall 1949. What impact does that have on operations?

• OA-6 and NY-2 leave cuts of cars overnight.
• NY-4 drops off a second cut of cars at Whiting Street Yard at the start of the session.
• There is no local freight (HDX-5)
• Crews need to block cuts for 3 outbound trains (YN-3, AO-5, and YN-1)
• There's the same 8 passenger trains.

It's also much easier to model in terms of motive power.

1947 Motive Power
Two 44-tonners + Stanley switcher (3)
Two FA-1 A/B/A sets (6)
Two S-2s (2)
K-1-d
R-1-b
I-2s and DL-109 or I-4 for passenger trains (3)
That's a total of 16 locomotives, with at least 3 steam (not including the Stanley switcher)

1949 Motive Power
2 44-tonners + Stanley switcher (3)
FA-1 A/B/A set (3)
2 RS-2s (2)
2 RS-1s and a DL-109 for passenger trains (3)
That requires only 11 locomotives, and all diesel.

Of course, I love the mix of the '47 session, with big and small steam, along with road and yard diesels in a variety of paint schemes.

If the session ends at 7:00 pm, we could eliminate an A/B/A set and the R-1-b, bringing the total to 11. But in the 1949 session it eliminates the FAs altogether, leaving a total of 8 locomotives.

1949 Schedule (for shakedown sessions and open houses)

7:00 am to 7:00 pm
Even-numbered trains are eastbound, odd-numbered trains are westbound.

• 7.00 am: 12-15 cars on Track #5 at N.B. Yard, and 12-15 cars on Track #6 at Whiting St. Yard. 
• 7.05: NY-4 drops 5-6 cars at Whiting St. Yard.
• 7.32: 444
• 8.35: 446

• 12.43 pm: 131
• 2.00: YN-3 drops off cars to be weighed and cars for OA-6; picks up cars blocked for Berlin, Cremo Brewery, North Haven, Cedar Hill, New London (CV) and Worcester.
• 4.05: 157
• 4.41: 463
• 4.45: Freight house closes, cars can be pulled at 5.00 pm.
• 5.43: 136
• 7.00: Session over, cut on Track #5 at N.B. Yard blocked for Waterbury, Maybrook loads, Maybrook empties. Cut on Track #6 at Whiting St. Yard blocked for Speed Witch, Philadelphia Transfer, Enola, New London (CV), and Cedar Hill.

If we want to, we can run AO-5 at 7.25 pm and YN-1 at 7.30 pm. They pick up the cuts of cars on Track #5 and #6 respectively, and what will make that interesting is working the individual blocks into the existing train.

One final train, passenger #472, is schedules for 9.20 pm, and that one is unique in that it picks up a baggage car that has been sitting in front of New Britain station all day and is full of storage mail.

Overall it's a very easy session to be prepared for in terms of equipment. But even better, it will allow us to focus on testing the switching jobs, which is the primary work on the layout. We've made changes to Stanley Works (more track, and we think we have a better idea of how they operated and interchanged with the New Haven), and Whiting Street makes a big difference in terms of work for the two New Haven switchers.

All of this hides the fact that there's a lot of work during the session, switching out 50-60 cars. The switch crews are classifying, setting out, picking up, weighing some cars, and blocking the outbound trains.

Crew

I've been considering splitting the Agent's job into an Agent and Yardmaster job. The Agent would continue to handle the waybills and write out the list of cars and destinations, along with the list of cars to pick up. The Yardmaster would organize that work into switch lists for both NH switching crews. I think that it's more prototypical and will help take some pressure off of the Agent and the switching crews. In other words, in terms of understanding the layout and how to operate it will really require one fully-qualified yardmaster.

• Freight/Station Agent
• Yardmaster
• Engineer and Brakeman for each switching crew (Two NH and Stanley Works)
• Through train Engineer/Conductor.

The through trains probably don't need two crew members most of the time, but if there is somebody free a brakeman would help when they are dropping off and/or picking up cars. The layout could be operated with as few as 5, and as many as 9.

So that's the current plan. A reduced operating session, probably with simplified paperwork, to get things going sooner rather than later, and hopefully frequently too, for testing purposes. Because once Whiting Street is in, I want to be working on all of the ground cover, ballast, roads and vegetation as soon as possible.

All You Have To Do Is...

Subtitled: Blind Spots

There's a running joke among our group of friends that somebody (it's usually blamed on me) will find something that could/should be changed. Most of the time this is something that has been not been noticed by the modeler in question.

Chris, of course, has been a frequent victim. Not because he misses a lot of things, but because he has a bunch of us helping on the layout, frequent visitors with their own experiences and expertise, and his (and our) constant research on the railroad and the Valley Line.

One thing I've heard many prototype modelers lament in one way or another is that it's often better to have less information. Because once you know something, you also know when it's wrong. For example, take a closer look at the builder's photo for a NH RS-1 (DERS-1b):

If you've read Chris's blog or mine, you might know where I'm going here, but notice anything unusual? Something different from RS-1s on, say, every other railroad?

Right, the number boards on the short hood are larger and mounted higher. This is on the first 10 (of 12) RS-1s owned by the New Haven. I haven't seen it on any other locomotives, and of course there isn't a model manufacturer who is likely to do the same. It's a blind spot if you don't know it's there. We often don't see such things because it's a small enough detail that it doesn't jump out at you, and our brain looks right past it because we don't expect it to be there.

Is it a big deal? No, probably not. But it's something small like that that is obvious to you once you know about it. Now you do too.

"All you need to do is, extend the number board up with a new frame, and fill in the bottom of the older one." Simple right?

--

To show that I don't exempt myself from discovering my own blind spots (and making changes as a result), today I was looking at making slight modifications to some trackwork so I could start to figure out the dimensions for the lumber sheds at Swift & Upson/New Britain Lumber (I've seen it listed with both, I think ownership changed during my era, but haven't researched extensively yet).
Essentially, I wanted more room to model the sheds, and it occurred to me that I could swing the tracks for both City Supply and the lumber company closer to the mainline. There's a lot of compromise in this corner because not only did I have to swing it around a corner, on the prototype it's a curve in the opposite direction.

I've moved the City Supply track closer to the mainline, and was experimenting with pulling the lumber track in that direction. You can see the cork roadbed from where the lumber track is currently.

Detail from Thomas Airviews aerial photo from 1955.

I want to leave room for modeling the City Coal & Wood building that will be removeable since it was torn down in the middle of my era. But I'm not quite sure how to do it, or exactly where it should be located.

The City Coal & Wood coal bin is the large gray building behind the L-1 #3229 in this capture from a Paul Wales video c1946. So I went to look at the Sanborn map (which is hanging on my wall) to get a closer look, and there it was:

Sure enough, the coal bin is right there on the map. And it reminded me that there were oil tanks there as well. This is later replaced by a gas station. It was a blind spot to me because I didn't expect that "coal bins" meant "huge building? But since I had never seen a picture of the coal bins until I had this video, I had never realized how large a structure it was. Looking at the aerial photo above, you can see the footprint from the building.

Is it a blind spot? Should I have known it was there? Sure, it's clear as day in this Kent Cochrane photo of an L-1, c1946:

I've picked out all sorts of detail from this photo, looking at the trackwork, ballast, speed limit sign, water pipe, the switchman's shanty, Union Manufacturing coal bins behind the shanty, the line poles, and of course the freight cars. But I never really noticed the City Coal & Wood coal bins because I just attributed it as a background building that won't be on the layout. I didn't see it in any other photos, and if I noticed it at all, I had no idea what it was.

Doh!

So that building is on the City Supplies track, and City Supplies used to be City Coal & Wood. So the lumber track has to remain closer to where it is to allow room for that building. Ah, but there's another option. "All I have to do is push the backdrop further back into the corner." By reducing, or even eliminating the curve in the masonite, I have a lot more room for the scenery. It opens up the scene, but won't affect operation, since I don't really need to put any track farther back than it is. I could extend the lumber track a small amount, but it's probably not needed.

But it doesn't end there...

Modeling from a Photo: Rare or Not?

I've talked a bit about the trackwork and ballast in earlier posts, and focused a bit on a set of photos taken in 1949. The first photo was published in an early NHRHTA calendar, which I don't have, but the photographer was credited there. I still need to dig that up. The second photo is a slide that was obviously taken moments before. This time I'll take a closer look at the equipment in the photos.

You may recall an earlier post asking about that gondola in this picture by Jim Karl:

Jerry Stewart identified it as a Litchfield and Madison gondola, to which he said any midwest railfan/modeler would be able to identify. Apparently he's the only one that reads my blog! I found a couple of photos which don't appear to be available online anymore, but I do have a plan that looks pretty darn close.

A kitbash using an Intermountain USRA composite gondola seems the obvious starting point. I've considered the Detail Associates end, but the horizontal ribs are in the wrong location, so I'll either modify them or find a different solution. Decals are also an issue, in part because I haven't found any, and also because I haven't located a better photo in this paint scheme.

On the far yard track is Mather reefer leased to Morrell, once available as a Sunshine kit (which I have). The Red Caboose model could be a stand in, but has wood instead of steel ends. The kit has the large, red, rectangular "Morrell" lettering instead of the simpler lettering seen here, so I'm still working on that detail as it's not as simple as just leaving it off.

Note that there are two baggage cars on the station stub track for the storage mail to the left and Ted Culotta noticed the clerestory roof behind the gondola, which was revealed in the slide we found later to be another baggage car.

The car in the yard, and the one farther away on the station track are both wood baggage cars, released by Bethlehem Car Works. The model used an early set of plans, so the doors are in the wrong location, and there are a few other missing details, such as the way the bolsters wrap around the side, but it's easy enough to fix. The steel baggage car is a long out-of-production F&C/NHRHTA kit that Steve keeps threatening to redo as a one-piece body. I have several of those in progress as well.

Perhaps 5 baggage cars were dropped at the yard on Monday, and moved into position through the week. If so, then this picture is a Wednesday, or a Thursday if they started with 6 cars to include Saturday. As I've noted, these were for storage mail, to be forwarded to Hartford on passenger train #463. An interesting operating opportunity, and one that might also give a visual hint as to which day of the week it is on the layout at a given point in time. But I don't have any other pictures with this many baggage cars in the yard. In most cases there is only one at the station.

The N&W #52136 is a B-3 auto car. These were essentially exact copies of the PRR X32A box cars. Well, the final 50 X32A cars with a 14' 6" door opening, meaning the side sheathing pattern is three panels to the left of the door, and five to the right. Naturally, all of the released models are of the earlier X32A cars, with a 12' 1-1/2" door opening and four panels to the left and five to the right. I have an old NKP brass model that I'm modifying. The Bowser underframe fits perfectly, so it's a matter of figuring out how to shave off the rivets. I'll need to find the right doors and use Archer rivets for the new panels. Not sure if there are appropriate decals yet.

The Milwaukee rib-side car is #20945, the series represented by the Exactrail model. Sunshine and Rib-Side cars also released models of this series. Of course none of these are still in production, but I have one of the Exactrail models. I gave an Exactrail kit to Chris years ago because we see lots of the rib-side cars in photos of the Valley Line.

If you look closely at the steel box car in the consist, it has the Pullman-Standard proprietary end used on the so-called "PS-0" cars.  The only cars I know of that used that type of end with a Youngstown door rather than Superior is the B&O M-55A class. They were a 1937 AAR standard boxcar with the Pullman-Standard end and Duryea underframe along with a flat riveted roof. An Intermountain kit with new ends and roof would work, but the F&C end is too short to use as is and is lacking the rivet line separating the upper and lower panels. Scratchbuilding may be the best option. The Speedwitch Duryea underframe for the M-26D/E conversion would work well here, although I don't know if the layout was identical to those classes. Sylvan makes a flat panel roof that might be appropriate, part DP-0046.

The remaining cars are as-yet-unidentified: a single-sheathed box car (the bracing pattern along with the door will help narrow the field); a tank car (looks like a fairly fat tank, an the ladder and frame may give some more clues); and a covered hopper. The scheme on the covered hopper is a light color, so it very well could be one of the 15 cars that the NH rostered in 1949. It was almost certainly for cement. The Intermountain kit is the go-to kit for these cars with Speedwitch decals for the earlier NH scheme.

The 44-tonner is a phase Ic, I'm using a W&R brass body on a Bachmann chassis.

All in all, an interesting collection of freight cars in a small yard on a branch line in CT in 1949, and a signature scene to be recreated on the layout.

A common comment I've heard is that you have to be careful when selecting freight cars from photos, because people tend to take pictures of the unusual and rare cars. While I think that there are times that this is the case, looking at the "whole picture" is important. Looking at this series of photos, while there are a number of what would be considered "rare" cars, none of them are featured. The L&M gondola is certainly a rarity (in 1950 they rostered 559 cars with two classes of composite gondolas with 98 and 144 cars in each), but it's not the focus of the photographs. The other rare cars would only be identified as such by somebody familiar with freight car construction and rosters overall. These photos are clearly of the train working on a given day, with whatever cars are there.

That's not to say that an L&M gondola appeared in New Britain daily. Statistically, there's a high likelihood this is the only day it ever appeared here. Another example is a photograph that's published in Trackside Alongside the New Haven 1950-1956 with Arthur E. Mitchell. Arthur worked for the New Haven as a brakeman and a conductor during this period, and took photos regularly. On pg. 47 is a photo of a car that they knocked off the track and cost him 3 days off with no pay. The photo is one that documents a particular point in time. The fact that it happens to be a CN&L single sheathed box car in the mid-'50s is just a bonus for us. The entire roster for the Columbia, Newberry & Laurens in 1950 was 49 box cars, 25 with steel underframes, and 24 single-sheathed with steel underframes and steel ends like the one in the picture. The photo is undated, but he didn't start working for the New Haven until 1952.

I'm lucky in that prolific New Haven photographers Kent Cochrane and Tom McNamara happened to live in New Britain. Their criteria was based on the weather and time of day. They were looking for good shooting conditions, and then would work a series of locations, or often follow a train taking a roll of pictures along the way. Again, these are random days and the subject is whatever happened to be on the rails that day. They had an opportunity to take photos, and they didn't go to see whether there was anything interesting and go home if it was the same old thing.

Just for fun here's another rarity sitting on Track #5 in New Britain. The date is unknown but it's a screen grab from a color video taken by Paul Wales from his office in the Stanley Tools building.   The L-1s were replaced by FA-1/FB-1/FA-1 sets in 1947, so I'm guessing c1946. But anytime in the '40s would make the Southern SU box car with the older "T"-braced end rare.

There are more captures from this Paul Wales video in this post for those who care to start the process of narrowing the era based on the freight cars in the video for me!

Ballast

So, partially in response to a post on the NHRHTA Forum and in part because I've been working on it for a while anyway, here's some info on how I'm ballasting the track.

To begin with, I started with pictures. There are a number of color pictures of New Britain in a number of books, and here are a number of other ones from slides and video captures. As always, you can click on a photo to enlarge it. There are a lot this time...

Note the many variations in color and texture - all of these photos were taken within about 5 miles of each other.

These are on the Highland Line.

(Tom McNamara)

 Highland Line (near Plainville), note the amount of dirt.

 Plainville

 Wooster St. New Britain

These next three are westbound into New Britain Yard c1946

(Paul Wales video)

 

 

These three are from the same location, c1953.

(Kent Cochrane video)

Black and white photos can also be helpful. Although you don't get the color (obviously), there is obviously a lot of dirt mixed in with the ballast in these photos:

1956 (photographer unknown)

Kent Cochrane 1946-1947

So that gives me a starting point for color and texture. In New Britain itself (particularly the yard) there's a lot of dirt, some cinders, and some stone ballast, along with weeds. In addition to the historical photos, I've also visited locations, particularly New Britain, that look similar to what's in the pictures. Obviously there aren't any areas using cinders anymore, but I think the appearance of cinders and dirt is pretty similar to the small pieces of asphalt and dirt you see along the side of the road.

So I've been using a mix of Scenic Express cinders, light limestone (#40), dark limestone (#40), charcoal sanded grout, and genuine New Britain dirt. I'm using Pledge Floor Care Finish (aka Future) as a glue. The track is painted with Rustoleum Camouflage paint, then weathered with Pan Pastels.

The two mainline tracks are at the top with more of the stone ballast.

The turnout is the Berlin Line and is cinders and dirt.

 Again, the two tracks to the left are the main, the platform track is also the Berlin Line.

Compare to the photo of the L-1 and the man walking across the track above.