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

[Fred Schneider]

Have no idea.   Don was one of the original stock holders of the Strasburg; came here from New England; liked antique cars too; went back to New England to found and fail at the Wolfsboro Railroad.   He died a few years ago and his wife's obit was in the newspaper last week.   He had two boys, I think one still lives in this area and one is in Noith Joisey.


On Sep 20, 2011, at 8:35 PM, Dwight Long wrote:

> 
> 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.
>> 
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