[PRCo] Re: The Tornado is back.....

[Dwight Long]

Fred

Is Don Hallock any relation to Ralph Hallock?

Dwight

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Fred Schneider" <fwschneider at comcast.net>
To: "Pittsburgh Railways" <pittsburgh-railways at dementix.org>; "Bill Vigrass" 
<billvigrass at verizon.net>; "Daniel Joseph" <holymooses at sbcglobal.net>
Sent: Tuesday, September 20, 2011 7:19 PM
Subject: [PRCo] The Tornado is back.....


>A cloud of dust and a hearty Hi Yo Silver and the [Tornado] Rides Again!
>
> Sorry, Herb, but it hurt to watch that Nickel Plate Berkshire plodding 
> along at 30 miles per hour.   Then Dwight Long inadvertently alerted me to 
> the fact that 60163 had returned from having its firebox / boiler rebuilt.
>
> So here, on August 6 we are standing on the platforms at Cheddington at 
> dusk.   A light appears in the distance.   We hear the relentless exhaust. 
> I ask you, when's the last time you saw a passenger train doing a mile a 
> minute behind steam?   By God it's worth taking a trip to England to ride 
> behind that critter.
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofhhkPZVnKU&feature=related
>
> And if you are impressed, then how about a few in daylight
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=sURKU8UYIT8
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5z-8BPblI_A&feature=related
>
> The British also know how to run some of the older critters at speed on 
> mainline metals....
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=75zCi-0OM9U
>
> http://www.youtube.com/user/BritishTrainVideos?blend=23&ob=5#p/u/3/qRDiM5im66I
> ______________________________________________________________________________________________________
>
>
> The next one was titled Sarah Siddons visits Rickmansworth 11.09.11 (11 
> September 2011).   Until 1961, the London Underground's Metropolitan line 
> used compartmented coaching stock from Baker Street to Rickmansworth 
> pulled by these charming direct current electric locomotives.   In keeping 
> with the British tradition of naming locomotives, this one commemorated a 
> stage actress.
>
> Beyond Rickmansworth the line was not electrified until 1961.   It had two 
> charming rural branches to Chesham and Amersham with trains pulled by 
> steam tank engines dating back to 1896.
>
> My first visit was in 1959 when I bought a tour of London in order to 
> escape from the Military Sea Transport Service vessel docked at 
> Southampton and then vanished into the woodwork when the boat train 
> arrived at Waterloo Station in London.  I spent the day riding those 
> quaint coaches on the Metropolitan behind steam.   No, I didn't miss the 
> normal tourist attractions ... been in London a total of 18 times ... I've 
> seen them all.
>
> Then in 1960 I was on the platform at Baker Street when the guard on a 
> train to Rickmansworth engaged me in a conversation.   It came time to go 
> and he said, "You want to ride with us?" and pushed me up in the cab of 
> one of those locomotives like Sarah Siddons.   I made the trip standing 
> behind the driver.   And then spent the evening trying to make like I 
> enjoyed warm beer with my
> host.   That guard wrote me a few months later that they were beginning 
> the conversion process to run normal underground stock all the way out. 
> But isn't nice that London Transport has a soul?
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3sAOzxDSKc
>
> ________________________________________________________________________________________________________
>
> As an aside to your comments about how nice it is when you have to make up 
> time with that Berkshire, Herb, I can reminisce about a day in the middle 
> 1960s when our boss at Strasburg came out and announced that the 
> Venezuelan ambassador to Washington was on the train and he would like a 
> little more than the normal speed.  Well, you didn't have to tell Johnny 
> Bowman twice.  He got the message.   The fact that the ICC had cleared it 
> for 25 mph meant nothing to him.  The boss had told him to ignore it.
>
> We were running that former Pennsy D16sb 1223.   He pulled out of the 
> picnic grove and started up the hill.   I think he had that throttle back 
> about as far as it would go and he just the reverse bar.   It would only 
> unlimber so much on a 1.6% grade ... that's the same as the the ascent out 
> of Altoona.   I think we had 12 coaches behind us.   But once he got to 
> the top the hill and started working that reverse bar up ...  My God, 
> Herb, that was the first time I ever had to fire after I got to the top of 
> the hill.   I still bailing lumps through the fire door and I was have 
> increasing difficult finding the firedoor because I was sliding around the 
> deck like it was greased.
> I think he had that sucker up to between 45 and 50 when he shut off and 
> made a brake reduction going through Fairview Crossing.
>
> There is probably no one left who remembers but me.  The boss is dead. 
> Johnny's dead.  If any of the train crew are still alive, they would be in 
> their high 70s or 80s.    But it was a nice memory.
>
> And I guess the verbiage that Don Hallock wrote into the speech for the 
> conductors still applied.  "You want to know how fast we are going? 
> Something less than 60 miles an hour."   But it would not gotten the same 
> laugh then.
>