[PRCo] Re: Steam, Strasburg

[Fred Schneider]

What Jerry:

About the engines I loved and hated at Strasburg?

If I learned one thing in two years of engine service it was that  
railfans are railfans and the people who work on the critters are  
miles away from the railfans.

I grew up loving Pennsylvania Railroad steam because it was the  
hometown article.   Then I had to work on the D-16 at Strasburg and I  
observed how the "Standard Railroad of the World" continued idiotic  
practices from 1905 right up to the J-1s and T1s and Q2s in 1945 and  
1946 when Baldwin and Lima would now have dreamed of it.   I  
concluded that there had to be a lot of inbreeding in the engineering  
department in Altoona.   Im thinking of things like hand hole plates  
on PRR engines instead of screw washout plugs which were the industry  
standard.   The Strasburg eventually replaced the PRR plates and  
bridges after a few too many incidents where the plates blew out when  
an engine was being fired up after a boiler wash.   Fortunately, no  
one was ever killed or injured by scalding steam and water.   Oh,  
yes, there was also the dump grate in the middle of the firebox on  
the D16 instead of the front or rear ... a great place to cause plate  
clinkers the full width of the firebox because of uneven air flow.    
It would have been a lot nicer in the rear where other builders put  
it.   But the PRR never looked beyond their own engineering desks.

The two years of engine service was full time summer while I was in  
college and teaching ... and weekends in the winter.   The summer  
work was every other day from dawn to dusk.   We had two fireman then  
and Dave Herr and I split up the work between us.   Management wanted  
us to work seven days a week, short days to avoid the overtime.   We  
wanted every other day so we could have some breathing room.   They  
yielded because the summer season had already started.   We would  
come in, hostle and engine at 7 AM, go on the 10 AM train and work  
through the 7 PM train and be out of there at 8:30 PM.   If one of us  
wanted a day off, then the other had to work three straight days and  
that did happen.   But we were young then and we could do it.

After that I put in almost eight more years as a part-time brakeman  
in the coaches.

I had about 9.8 years of time in railroad retirement, just several  
months shy of a supplemental pension.   It all got lumped into social  
insecurity.

I think I liked the engine cab best.   The tourists could sometimes  
be a chore, particularly those from New York City..

Dave Herr, who also had time in the coaches, had a really great story  
about one of this days in the coaches.   He had a man who was  
deliberately trying to get away without paying.   The man got on  
right in front of the station and had the audacity to tell Dave he  
could not figure out where to buy a ticket.   We all had ticket  
punches and perhaps a small change fund ... usually our own money.   
But not a large fund.   This guy handed Dave a $100 bill and expect  
change.    Dave pushed the note in his pocket and told the gentlemen  
very politely that he would meet him at the station with his change  
after the train got back.   You guessed it.   The man was from New York.

fws

On May 29, 2007, at 7:35 PM, <mtoytrain at bellsouth.net> wrote:

> Fred
> No deleting here, thanks for the update, I missed going to  
> Strasburg RR in April and regret it, I find
> the place to be super, well I say that about most RR or Trolley  
> places, but please write some more
> I enjoy it ALL.
>
>