An after-dark CANADIAN STEAM A rich pictorial of steam power above NIGHT TRAIN adventure along the iron trail. Most extensive collection of night time rail photos of all types of motive power, equipment and the men at work. More than 140 illustrations, 811⁄2" x 11". Regular edition $5.75; Deluxe $7.00 CL WAR RAILROADS NIGHT TRAIN CIVIL WAR RAILROADS A pictorial, true story of the AIL Steam Power of the New York Central Trolley Car Treasury. Another re- TROLLEY CAR Electric Interurban Railways in Amer- Maine Two-Footers. The st.. FIDDLE Fiddle Hill. A railroad novel by The Last of Steam. Here is steam SIERRA STE THE LAST OF Sierra Railway. The sight, sound, Rails West. Another in the trilogy RAILS EZI Pacific Slope Railroads. He last journey over the 134-mile Mullens (W. Va.)-Roanoke (Va.) electrified district which N&W inherited from Virginian in the 1959 merger. Now, during the annual two weeks miners' vacation, the catenary began coming down. Virginian had erected the overhead in 1925-1926 at a cost of more than 15 million dollars to defeat once and for all Clarks Gap, an eastbound ruling grade against loaded coal trains of 2.11 per cent which throttled to 7 mph the 2-8-8-2 and two 2-10-10-2 helpers of 6000-ton drags. A pair of the dozen Westinghouse 642-ton three-unit 1-D-1 electrics which replaced steam showed themselves capable of doubling that speed- and easing down the other side on regenerative braking as well. After the war VGN rebuilt its coalburning power plant at Narrows, Va., and added four 6800 h.p. streamlined 2 (B-B+B-B) motors in 1948, then 12 3300 h.p. C-C rectifier hoods in 19561957 all from GE. Barring the unexpected, VGN's electrification was then good for another 20 years. But the unexpected - merger - took place, and suddenly N&W was possessed of "134 miles of electrification in the middle of nowhere." Headaches then developed. First, N&W began directing its cars onto VGN rails at Kellysville, W. Va., east of the Clarks Gap grade which had originally prompted catenary. Second, N&W began running eastbound loads over the easier profiles of VGN, returning the empties over its own rails - which meant that the motors had nothing much with which to return west. The locomotives are up for sale (Pennsy tested one of the 3300 h.p. C-C's before buying its look-alike E-44 4400 h.p. C-C's) but there have been no takers as yet. Once again, the safest In the realm of passenger safety last year, the railroads were 22 times as safe as automobiles, nearly 4 times as safe as domestic airlines, and half again as safe as buses. In 1961 there were 20 rail passenger fatalities, most of which resulted from carelessness in boarding or alighting from moving trains; private cars and taxis claimed 24,700 lives; 124 died in domestic plane accidents; and 80 were killed in buses. Statistically, the railroad fatality rate was .10 per 100 million passenger-miles vs. 2.2 for cars, .38 for domestic airlines, and .15 for buses. BEYOND THE ATLANTIC ROBERT SPARK WARMER FOR THE WEST: Although the political climate between east and west remains cool, as far as railway equipment is concerned the forecast is favorable. Krupp & Siemens working together have recently completed a Russian order for 25 6700 h.p. electric locomotives, while Mak has shipped a 3000 h.p. C-C diesel-hydraulic to the U.S.S.R. [page 8]. More recently, Henschel has completed at its Kassel plant the DH4000-a 4000 h.p. diesel-hydraulic for the Russians. In Britain, the Vulcan Foundry is busy on an order for 20 3000 h.p. 3000 v. D.C B-B electrics for the Polish State Railways -a joint English Electric-AEI contract. The first batch of six of these locomotives was completed in May, and after the entire 20 have been built, more are likely to be manufactured under license in Poland. Sweden -as reported on page 13 of July TRAINS has obtained an order for 20 Nohab-GM 1950 h.p. C-C diesel-electric locomotives for the Hungarian State Rail ways. The Henschel 4000 h.p. diesel-hydraulic, referred to earlier, is powered by two Maybach MD870 engines and has two sets of Maybach-Mekydro transmissions. It has a top speed of 100 mph, weighs 131 tons, and like all locomotives supplied to Russia it can operate in widely varying climatic conditions from Arctic cold to desert heat. ALCOS FOR GREECE: The Greek State Railways are dieselizing. Last year the Greeks took delivery of 10 Alco DL-532 1050/950 h.p. diesel-electrics and they are now receiving 10 further Alco locomotives this time 1950/1800 h.p. World units. The order is worth about 2.5 million dollars. These latest Alcos will be used mainly for the haulage of express passenger trains between Athens and Salonika. They will be geared for a maximum speed of 75 mph and will be equipped for multipleunit operation. |