Research - Railway Mechanical Engineer

I'm well into writing an extensive article on New Haven heavyweight equipment. Fortunately, there are a lot of historical records and resources online, particularly periodicals and professional journals. Even better, most are searchable (although skimming through them manually often still yields further insight). 

Railway Age is probably the most commonly known such journal.

Many of these periodicals changed names over the years, and/or were combined with other journals. They often maintained their volume numbering system, from predecessors, which can be confusing because you may be looking for editions of, say, Railway Age Gazette, Mechanical Edition and not find many

One such periodical is Railway Mechanical and Electrical Engineer, which was absorbed into Railway Age in 1953. But it only used that title for a short period. Here's a list of links to the issues of that periodical, along with its predecessors all linked to online sources. It retained its volume numbering system from American Railroad Journal starting in 1832.

Many of these are hosted in multiple places on the internet, but the ones I have linked have copies that are available to download without restrictions.

Happy reading and researching!

American Railroad Journal

• Volumes 1 (1832) to 60 (1886)
• This merged with

Van Nostrand's Engineering Magazine

• Volumes 1 (1869) to 35 (1886)
• to become

Railroad and Engineering Journal

• Volume 61 (1887) to 66 (1892)
• and then

American Engineer and Railroad Journal

• Volumes 67 (1893) to 85 (1911)
• Volumes 87 (1912) and 87 (1913) were retitled American Engineer
• Another journal:

National Car Builder

• Volumes 1 (1870) to 16 (1885)
• Only 11-16 are currently available online.
• became

National Car and Locomotive Builder

• Volumes 17 (1886) to 26 (1895)
• then was absorbed into American Engineer and Railroad Journal

• Partway through 1913 it was acquired by the Railway Age Gazette:

Railway Age Gazette, Mechanical Edition

• Volumes 87 (1913) to 89 (1915)
• It 1916 it was retitled to:

Railway Mechanical Engineer

• Volumes 90 (1916) to 123 (1949)
• After 1949 it became

Railway Mechanical and Electrical Engineer

• Volumes 124 (1950) to 126 (1952)
• It was then absorbed into Railway Age

NHRHTA Shoreliner Index

John Kasey has compiled an excellent index for Shoreliner magazine and has graciously allowed me to host it here so anyone can access it.

John Kasey's Shoreliner Index

Of course, I highly encourage you to subscribe over at NHRHTA, and you can also order many back issues there too.

Shoreliner 30.4 has an excellent article on the New Haven DERS-1b (Alco RS-1) locomotives written by John. 

Deluxe Heavyweight Car Side Test Prints

Here are some initial test shots of the sides for the Deluxe Coaches, Smokers, and Baggage & Smokers. I'm quite happy with how they've come out. 

There is some slight ghosting next to some of the rivets. I'm not sure they will show when primed/painted, but they should be easy enough to clean up if needed. We've (well, Chris has) also made some adjustments to the CAD that we hope will prevent it in the final prints. 

I think we're still on track for having them on-hand at the NHRHTA Reunion on September 10 in Essex, CT. 

I've also been finishing up the Heavyweight clinic for the Reunion. I'm only covering coaches (including combines) in this clinic. It's already over 130 slides and I only have about an hour. I need to compile the handout still - there will be lots of data.

The remaining slides have been split out into three other clinics now - Part II is Head End Cars, Part III is Parlors, and Part IV will be the Sleepers and Food Service cars. I could easily make each of these clinics 90 minutes, so I'm not entirely sure where I'll be presenting them just yet. I'm thinking Cocoa Beach may be my next opportunity.

New Haven Heavyweights - New Models Coming

This is one of the projects that has been taking up much of my modeling time...

For those who didn't make it to the New England/Northeast Prototype Modelers Meet, Chris Zygmunt and I were substituting for John Greene of Bethlehem Car Works who couldn't be there. Part of the reason we're involved is that we are working on several new kits with John, that we hope to have in stock by the NHRHTA Reunion on September 10.

The first group of cars are the Deluxe Coaches, Smokers, and Combine.

These are based around the Branchline Pullman core, so assembling the kits will be very similar to building a Branchline (now Atlas) car. 

Yep, many of these heavyweights received McGinnis colors.

This is 8113, one of the Deluxe (or De Luxe) coaches.

Some of them ran into the mid-'60s.

Smoker 6824 was converted from one of the Deluxe Coaches and utilizes the same plan.

Smoker 6813 is one of a second class of Deluxe smokers.

This is a different plan, with only a men's lavatory and saloon.

In addition, there is a Deluxe Baggage and Smoker based on the same design.

These have never been available in HO scale at all, plastic or brass, to the best of my knowledge, and the available kits will cover the life of the cars.

This includes new trucks that will be an upgrade over the Labelle white metal castings (formerly Bethlehem Car Works, formerly Cape Line). In addition, we are producing the trucks after they were modified starting c1948 with the removal of the top equalizers and the addition of drop equalizers. These have also never been available in any form.

The trucks will be available separately.

We also hope to have another run of the excellent 15' Apartment Baggage & Mail cars at Essex to supplement these cars.

Where has the year gone?

Well, after a very consistent 2021, I've been very inconsistent posting in 2022.

Even the NE Proto Meet didn't kick off a flurry of modeling activity this year. It's not that I haven't been working on anything at all though, but I think it's time to take stock of where I am and what I need to work on this year.

First off, I've been able to put in a lot of hours at CNZR since last fall, which has severely cut into my normal modeling time. We're also nearly 23 years in this house (new when we moved in), so household projects have been taking up a lot of the time that has been left each week. This is all in addition to my usual "day job" activities that pay the bills. We usually only take one vacation each year, but for whatever reason we've already gone away once this year and have three more trips over the next several months. It has been an unusually busy year on non-modeling activities.

On the model railroad "business" side, rebuilding the website is still behind schedule, but fortunately Google extended the deadline another 6-months before the old site is shut down. I'm also involved in several model kit (passenger and freight car) projects that will start to be released over the next 6-months or so. In addition to the research and work related to the production of the kits themselves, I'm also working on getting clinics prepared related to them. 

I have also found that with so much going on, when I have had time to get down and work on things, I've lacked motivation or even the energy to do so. Things are progressing, just not at a record pace.

The point is, like most of us, model railroading fits within the spaces of the rest of our lives.

Starting the second half of the year, what are the goals? After watching Bill's layout growing so quickly, operating on Chris' layout and, in particular, visiting a number of new layouts this year, there are two obvious goals that I continue to avoid, despite my declarations in the past.

1. Operating
1. Test and glue down remaining track.
2. Install feeders, including modifying the mainline wiring for signaling.
3. Install switch machines for the mainline switches.
2. Base Scenery
1. Ballast
2. Ground Cover
3. Fences/Gates

Operating is key, because I really like getting together to run trains. I've been working on things like passenger cars, some locomotives, etc., because in the long run they are key elements that need to be completed for full operating sessions. But as I've noted before, for a 1953 session all I need are RDCs, two 44-tonners, and another switcher of some sort for Stanley Works. That could easily be the third 44-tonner, so that means getting those three locomotives finished. Not all of the passenger cars, etc.

While not all of the layouts I've seen were completed in terms of scenery, I definitely felt that those that were further along were far more inspiring than the current state of my layout. Even those layouts that aren't "complete" yet, like Bill's and Chris', they have a significant amount of scenery done.

Since most of the time I'm visiting a layout specifically to operate, my focus hasn't been on the scenery as much. I've appreciated the work they've done, but it wasn't as much of a priority for me. However, when visiting several layouts for open houses after the NE Proto Meet, my focus was entirely on the scenery and the layout presentation. 

For all practical purposes, the amount of scenery Bill and Chris have completed on each of their layouts is no more than the space my entire layout occupies. And those are completed scenes, with structures, etc. I should be able to complete at least the basics relatively quickly. I know I can, since I did it on Harvey's layout.

It's not to say I've done nothing this year.

In addition to the passenger cars that I've been working on, I have built several Campbell horizontal oil tanks (2 sizes), a Rix vertical oil tank (not pictured), and a pair of Walthers LP tanks that I shortened. The three tanks on the right will go elsewhere, but the LP tanks, pump houses, and single horizontal tank are mocked up where I think they will reside for Fafnir Bearing. 

The next few weeks look to be just as busy, but I can at least start prepping for some of the jobs that need to get done so I can work through them more quickly.