Wordless Wednesday #333 - The Airline Local

 

Wordless Wednesday #325

Airline Local, eastbound at Portland, CT

Wordless Wednesday #324 - Goin' by the Beach

A Few Words about Wordless Wednesday #230 - East Wallingford

I have to be careful I don't start wanting to model East Wallingford, CT on the New Haven's Air Line. Yes, yesterday's Wordless Wednesday was yet another shot of this evolving-into-iconic location. This time, the photo is taken from the other side of the tracks, looking southeast rather than southwest, and was lensed by the inimitable Kent Cochrane.

Click here for the previous blog post on this location, including a present-day modelable industry.

As always, you can click on the image for a larger view. In addition to the Star of the photo - J-1 #3022 & 17-18 cars (love the "skyline" on these early-postwar freight trains), you can easily make out the outline of the feed mill, a shed (freight house?) that was hidden in last month's post, as well as a nondescript building and then the raised passenger station in the far background. But perhaps best of all, especially for us model railroaders, is how clear the track layout is. Nothing too complicated, and easily modelable - but a great amount of detail from this height and angle.

Super-observant folks will even notice that the saplings in the foreground have been recently cut. Could it be that ol' Kent had a handsaw with him to remove any impediment to such a great shot?

Whether you model the steam or diesel eras, you can see that this little Layout Design Element has a lot to offer - might even be ideal for an 18" by 8-10' shelf. Despite the strong temptation to model this scene though, I, for one, plan to resist - at least for now....

Wordless Wednesday #230

ProtoModeling Fun: Photo Forensics

If you're reading this blog, you're probably a model railroader. But what about being a "railroad modeler?" What's so attractive about modeling a prototype railroad and becoming a prototype modeler? I suspect, for most, the chance to build a time-machine of sorts is the strongest attraction. For others, it's the challenge of recreating a real-world scene in miniature, including all the research and detective work required.

As you may have guessed, for me it's a combination of all those things. I could sit and stare at some old railroad photographs for hours, noticing all the details and thinking of ways I can recreate the world captured in that photo. One of my favorite photos - and the one that provided the strongest inspiration to model the Valley Line - was a shot of the southbound Valley Local taken by Kent Cochrane from the Arrigoni Bridge in Middletown, May 1947.

This shot was actually the subject of my very first "Wordless Wednesday", and I talked about it some more in a subsequent post (and here, and here). I'm not alone in my admiration either. None other than Tony Koester "unpacked" this photo in the May, 1980 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman. His power of observation and his ability to convey the essence of the scene through his writing really puts you right there as the local pulls into town. I highly recommend you read his essay - it's the sort of thing that could inspire many a modeler. The fact that he (unwittingly, preceding my interest by about 30 years) wrote about a scene from my chosen prototype is a huge bonus.

It's all very right-brained and evocative. What he didn't do is provide much in the way of prototype information. As an admitted left-brainer (just look at my layout - the wiring and track is great. The scenery is mostly done by others...) and prototype modeler, I see a hopper. And wonder how to model it.

Thus the journey begins . . .

The NYC hopper right behind the engine is a 908000-909499 series 39' 3 bay steel self clearing hopper, #908255 to be exact.  These cars were built in 1923 with shallow type middle hoppers but later rebuilt with sawtooth hoppers when shopped for repairs (increasing capacity by 10 cu. ft.).  Originally numbered 425000-426499, they were renumbered into the 908000 series when rebuilt.  The original configuration lasted until 1948.  The rebuilds started in 1936 and lasted until 1961.

And according to my buddy Randy, these were USRA triple hoppers, lot 466-H. The rebuilding replaced the center clamshell hopper with a sawtooth hopper. There were originally about 20,000 of these cars owned by the NYC and the P&LE.

Here's a photo showing the hopper as-built:

And a plan showing the differences:

Some additional research revealed that Westerfield makes both the as-built and rebuilt versions.  The rebuilt version is the one I need - kit #2153.

Ok, admittedly, all that information isn't quite as enjoyable to read as Tony's piece. But if you want to model the Valley Local - at least as it appeared in the spring of 1947 - you're gonna want to include a NYC hopper. And if you want it to be prototypically correct, well, now you know what you need.

All I need now are "a half-dozen or so freight cars" to model the rest of the train, but at least I can be pretty certain they're "more than likely bedecked in nothing more spectacular than standard boxcar red paint accented with weathered white lettering." Maybe not enough information to model from, but most definitely enough brain-candy to want to try.

And maybe that's part of what makes this hobby so fascinating and satisfying. To do it well, you really need both the right and left sides of your brain fully engaged. The technical side of modeling isn't as much fun without the evocative side to inspire your efforts.

Thanks to Kent Cochrane for taking that beautiful photo so long ago, thanks to Tony Koester for helping me see all the fine detail that's there to recreate, and thanks to Westerfield models for producing a kit for the first freight car in my own recreation of the Valley Local in HO scale.

Wordless Wednesday #114

Worded Wednesday #113

A rare find from the Archive - westbound at Old Saybrook. Signal bridge and station in the far distance, Donnelly Printing siding in the foreground. "Rare" because it shows a J-1 on what appears to be westbound manifest - note the TOFC at the back, so unlikely to be the New London Shoreline Local. Anybody know - what's the story?

A few words about Wordless Wednesday #105

A very good friend, whose judgement I trust implicitly, mentioned that it'd be nice to add "at least" a few words to my Wordless Wednesday posts - "A pic is only worth 992 words" after all. I admit, when I see such posts on other blogs, I hope for at least some basic caption info - and I'll try and do that a bit more in the future (except, of course, for "Name That Location" photos where I need your help). And I'll let you in on a little tip - the labels at the bottom of the post usually contain some important information as well.

But this photo definitely merits some additional attention. Perhaps not as many words as this post, but a few more words nevertheless. . .

This Kent Cochrane photo shows DEY-5 (S-2) #0604 northbound at East Haddam, CT probably c. 1949. It's one of the two Shoreline locals: In those days, there was one from New London and one from New Haven and they typically swapped cars in Old Saybrook. Depending on the year, one or the other would head up the Valley Line to exchange cars with the Valley Local which operated south from Hartford to this point. That's what the 0604 is doing here - coming in on the siding to drop cars. In this case, two PRR boxcars.  Could be that it's just sitting there waiting for the Valley Local - there's no crew in the cab keeping watch.

The old passenger station used to be located on the right (west) side of the tracks, but it's gone now. But the house in the background remains - the railroad used it as the first station here before they got theirs built. The house is still there today, owned by an employee of today's Valley Railroad.

The sheds on the left, as well as the freight house (mostly hidden by the engine) are still there too. In fact, all that's really changed since this photo was taken about 67 years ago is the freight train itself. There's no longer freight services on this portion of the line and the DEY-5 - and I daresay the cars and caboose - are long gone.

But the track is in better condition now than ever - and sees more passenger trains than ever too. Route 82 in the background is busier, but you can stand in this spot today and it won't take much effort at all to imagine the 0604 burbling through here once again.

Wordless Wednesday #105

Northward to East Haddam!

Wordless Wednesday #91

(Special kudos to whoever can identify the location & orientation of this photo)

Wordless Wednesday #90

Air Line Local with R-1b #3339 on the Valley Line backing into Middletown Yard.

Wordless Wednesday #82

Wordless Wednesday #81

Wordless Wednesday #62

Wordless Wednesday #48

Wordless Wednesday #47

A Few Words About Wordless Wednesday #35

It's April, 1948 and the Air Line Local is heading back to Cedar Hill Yard in New Haven having made its run up to Colchester, meeting the Valley Local in Middletown. The fireman's doing a fine job keeping a clear stack, but it was still pretty chilly out, as evidenced by the condensing steam coming from J-1 class Mikado #3022. It must've been a pretty hard winter, with lots of snow - note the collapsed barn over on the right. And if you look really closely, you can see a '30s era car and a cool tractor. That tractor is going to be doing some heavy work plowing up those fields, but none of that is on the mind of our photographer, Kent Cochrane. He hiked up to the top of a small rise here in Middlefield, CT and composed an archetypal scene of late steam era branchline railroading in southern New England. Could he have ever imagined we'd be appreciating his work, over a computer "internet," over 66 years later?

Wordless Wednesday #35

Wordless Wednesday #25

Photo by Kent Cochrane