[PRCo] Re: Steam, Strasburg

[mtoytrain at bellsouth.net]

Fred

You must write a book on all your "rail" adventures,  I enjoy history and most of all, I enjoy reading
history of the "rails" that made this country go.    Went to York TCA Meet in April, flew into JFK and met a friend from Conn and drover over to Pa, noticed coming out of Harrisburg going south that the
RR Lines still had the overhead wiring for electrical service, is there still electrical service in Pa?
I understood that most had been done away with?

Thanks and keep up the Rail History!

Jerry M
> 
> From: Fred Schneider <fwschneider at comcast.net>
> Date: 2007/05/30 Wed AM 07:49:53 EST
> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
> Subject: [PRCo] Re: Steam, Strasburg
> 
> 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.
> >
> >
> 
>