Working on locomotives

It's been a while since I've posted an update. I've actually been working a lot on the layout, although I thought I would be getting a lot more done, but my hours have increased by 40+ hours/week, and we don't have nurses for Emily during the day, since she's normally at school.

But I find that I often get more done when I'm really busy, simply because I have to make the time available to get to it at all. And lately it's been a question of either working on the layout or blogging about, so working on the layout has taken the priority.

I did have a chance to participate in the NMRA virtual meet on Facebook, and presented a clinic. Chris posted links to them on his blog. He did one as well. I think I'll be presenting another at the May 30th one.

Anyway, here are a few pictures of work I've been doing on some RS-2s (New Haven class DERS-2b). I'll need #0502 and #0503. Again, Chris has extensive posts about how he did #0510 on his blog, no need to repeat that. I will provide more information as to any differences in a later post.

In the meantime, some pictures. I'm using the Proto 1000 model, as Chris did.

Experiment modifying a Kato part.

A different approach, using less of the Kato part with the Proto 1000 railing.

 I ordered some KV Models fan grate and fan.

While waiting for them to arrive, I'm using the shell from #0510 as a test. 

A minor distortion on part of the fan housing.

It's all in the details

So this is an interesting little detail that I can easily add to the layout and I didn't know existed.

In the September 1945 issue of Along the Line, the New Haven Railroad employee magazine, there's a one page quiz ("What Do You Know?") with about a half-dozen pictures of railroad items to see what you know. All were pretty easy for somebody with some knowledge of a railroad.

But this one was interesting and useful:

I already knew what New Haven mile markers looked like (although it is possible that there are other options, since the NH was made up of so many predecessor roads and there are differences on each line). The same applies to speed limit signs. But I wasn't entirely sure about the other two options.

I guessed correctly, and now I have another prototype detail that I can add that will also assist my operators - it's indicating how many cars the siding will hold to that point. It's such a simple detail to add but will be extremely helpful to the crews when working Track #5 which is where I'll use these signs.

While I don't have any more details as to how these were used, I'll use it on Track #5 between streets. For example, the number of cars from the start of Track #5 to East Main St, and then the number from East Main St.to Elm St. It will be particularly helpful at the start of Track #5, because I can also use it to mark the start of where a car can be safely left without risking it rolling down the grade into the helix.

Unfortunately, this appears to be the only issue that had this sort of quiz.

New Haven Ballast

This is the ballast chart for the NH Railroad, the NHRHTA forum requires me to pay for a VIP account to post the high resolution version...

The ballast is different over different parts of the system. On the Highland it appears a fairly dark gray as I documented in this post.

In this post, I covered my latest approach in ballasting the layout, using real stone ballast from the same ridge in Plainville that the New Haven used. I think it's a very good match. There is a little brown. It's magnetic, so there's some iron in in, and I think that's what gives it the brownish tinge over time. I might experiment with a brownish wash for that effect.

In photos of the Shoreline, there is more brown in the color of the ballast. So when we do Chris' layout I'd like to go sift ballast from the Saybrook Tilcon quarry instead.

Here's the New Haven Railroad Ballast Chart from 1917, updated through 1921:

And this one is updated through 1959:

They are too large for my scanner, so I just had to take photos, so sorry for the quality of the photos.

Trucks, wheels and couplers

More experimenting...

Online Industries and Through Consists

I have most of the issues of Along the Line from 1945 through 1948. A number of these issues have articles on industries on the New Haven Railroad. This is a great source of information about industries, and can eventually help me flesh out waybills for through freights.

Some examples:
The December 1945 issue is largely focused on discussing industry on the railroad, and attracting more, including an article for the newly formed Department of Industrial Development. A particularly useful article shows several new ads highlighting some of the companies on the New Haven Railroad:

Eastern Massachusetts

American Tread Company
Baker's
Bendix
Bethlehem Steel
Bird
Curity
Dennison's
Douglas
Firestone
Fisk
Glenwood
Good Year
Hercules
Ivory Soap
Pepperell Fabrics
Plymouth
Reed & Barton
Revere
Rexall
Rinso
Ruberoid
Walk-Over
Wamsutta

Eastern CT

Aralac
Armstrong Tires
Arrow Shirts
Babock
Bigelow Weavers
Cheney
Colt
Ebco
Erector
Fuller
International Sterling
P&W
Packer's Tar Soap
Pond's
Royal
Russwin
Sargent
Silent Glow Oil Burners
Silex
Stanley
Thermos
Underwood
Uinversal
Williams
Winchester
Rhode Island
American Wringers
Ashaway
Anaconda
Beaded Tip Shoe Laces
CB Cottrell
Corning
Crown Zippers
Davol
Esmond Blankets
Fiberglas
General Cable
Good Year
Gorham Sterling
Grinnell & Co
Hope
J&P Coats Threads
Kennescot Wire & Cable Co
Lonsdale
Nicholson USA
Seidner
Taft-Pierce
Washburn Wire

Western MA

American Optical
American Woolen Co
Arrow Shirts
Cluett
Columbia Bicycles
Eagle A Papers
GE
Gilbarco
HB Smith Cast Iron Boilers
Johnson Wire
McCallum
Peabody
Pro-phy-lac-tic Brushes
Pullman
Simonds Saws
Whittall's
Whitney Carraiges
Worthington
Wyman-Gordon

Western CT

Acco
Anaconda
Benrus
Bigelow Boilers
Bridgeport Brand
Bryant
Bullard
CBS
Chase Brass & Copper
Corbin
Dictaphone
Dobbs
Knox
Lee
Malloby Hats
New Departure
Pitney Bowes
Reybestos
Sessions Clocks
Seth Thomas Clocks
Sikorski
Singer Sewing Machines
Stanley
Yale

There are a lot of industries I don't recognize. The ads were for a full-color booklet, Southern New England for Tomorrow's Industry." I'll have to see if I can find a copy, although it looks like there is one at UCONN in the Dave Peter's collection.

In addition to that, there are also occasional articles on a specific online industry. One of particular interest to me is in the July 1947 issue: and we do mean "Universal" - the oldest and the newest which is about the Landers, Frary and Clark industry in New Britain. It's a brief overview of the company and it's products, with one particularly useful bit of information: "To expedite shipments, Herbert Wyatt, Traffic Manager, ships complete carloads from the New Britain plant whenever possible. These cargoes are then broken down into spammer shipments at eight district warehouses throughout the country. Time to see if I can find out where these were located...

The June-July 1946 issue has an article on the Pond's plant in Clinton, CT. This is even better, indicating, "Only the finest and purest ingredients go into the products at Clinton, but they arrive in carload lots - tank cars of white oil from Pennsylvania, carloads of talcum powder, beeswax, stearic acid, glass jars from Washington Pa., bottles from Zanesville, Ohio, chalk from the "white cliffs of Dover." The finished products are shipped out in carload lots to warehouses in various parts of the country..."

There's also a photo with a caption that states, "The New England Transportation Company handles all Pond's l.c.l. business."

This type of information isn't always easy to come by, and while there are only a handful covered here, it's a start.