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when it's winter it's summer...

ARRIVALS & DEPARTURES

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LA GRANGE'S LATEST: Electro-Motive has a new hood "combination high-speed and heavy-drag freight locomotive": the 2250 h.p. B-B-type GP30. Key feature is a central air filtering system which eliminates filter maintenance and electric traction-motor blowers, keeps engine room pressurized. Characterized externally by a cab- and roof-top duct, GP30 is apparently EMD's answer to GE's U25B 2500 h.p. B-B, which has similar air filtration design. GREATEST DEVELOPMENT OR RUBE GOLDBERG?: Brotherhoods are asking I.C.C. to outlaw Pullman-Standard's new Hydroframe-60 box cars because of their extended center sills--which permit a cushion travel of 20 to 40 inches upon impact. Unions claim running boards are 7 to 8 feet apart; uncoupling lever is a "Rube Goldberg" design; hand brake is mislocated; and cars won't couple automatically on curves. PS calls cars "probably the greatest single development" in freight car building in 50 years, says they can eliminate annual 90-million-dollar lading damage bill of railroads as well as 150 million dollars spent on car repairs because of longitudinal impacts. Some 250 Hydroframe-60's are in service; 350 more are coming. STEAM NOTES: Baldwin 4-4-0 of Virginia & Truckee ancestry has been taken to Rapid City, S. Dak., where she'll steam on 3000 feet of track in MGM's forthcoming Cinerama production "How the West Was Won." C&O has donated Kanawha 2736 (Alco 1944) to National Railroad Museum of Green Bay, Wis. . UP is beginning to scrap its 4000-series Big Boy 4-8-8-4's at Cheyenne. First to go: 4015.

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Great Western has its two famous 2-8-0's and notable 90, a 2-10-0, in steam again for the fall-winter sugar beet harvest. TITAN: John Dow Farrington, 70, the man who brought Rock Island back from bankruptcy and spent 70 million dollars on its 1936-1943 overhaul, died October 13. HIGHEST DECK CLEARANCE ON THE LAKES: Grand Trunk Western has spent $118,000 on the carferry Madison (which plies the 84-mile Milwaukee-Muskegon run), raising deck 3% feet to accommodate piggyback loads including trilevel auto cars. I.C.C. LOOKS AT NH: Two Interstate Commerce Commission men (Commissioner Webb and Examiner Ries) have urged tax relief, 20 to 30 per cent fare boosts, stronger management, reduction in branch-line mileage among measures to save New Haven--which is now 35 million dollars a year short of breaking even. Note to catenary buffs: I.C.C. men urged continuation and expansion of Cos Cob power plant, which feeds road's electrification.

which cannot be coupled to the screw coupling.

3. An automatic shock and traction coupling which can be coupled to the screw coupling.

4. An automatic shock and traction coupling which cannot be coupled to the screw coupling.

All these variants include, among other conditions, automatic coupling of air-brake pipes, the low-tension electric circuits, and if possible, steam heat pipes.

In east Europe the Organization for the Collaboration of Railways (OSJD) is also dealing with the same problem and working along very similar lines to the UIC's. One condition, however, is that the design must be capable of coupling to the Russian Railways SA3 coupler without any intermediate link.

MORE D.C.: Electrification -at 1500 v. D.C.- of the important French Railroads artery between Paris and Marseilles continues apace. The latest section to be switched to electric traction is between Tarascon and Miramas - the latter is only 31 miles from Marseilles and just over 500 miles from Paris. The initial test with electric traction was made with a B-B 9400-series electric locomotive hauling a 500-ton train.

In Britain, electric trains started operating on two more lines in southeast England early in October. The two routes are Maidstone-Ashford and Ashford-Canterbury-Ramsgate. These form part of the Southern Region's 750 v. D.C. third-rail electrified network. Accelerations as a result of the switchover will have to wait until June 1962 since engineering and signaling work has yet to be completed. In Scotland, the Scottish Region announced the resumption of Glasgow suburban electric services on 25 kv. 50-cycles A.C. These services had to be withdrawn only a short time after their introduction last year, following trouble with electrical equipment on the trains.

WILLIAM K. VIEKMAN

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1961: A timetable change on the Japanese National Railways on October 1 had earth-shaking implications. New equipment and broadened schedules were the order of the day. Sweeping changes in service resulted, for example, in six daily expresses one way on Honshu's cross-island Chuo (Central) Line in place of the previous two. Most important was the addition of trains on the Tokaido Line, Japan's most vital trunk

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On "THIS IS RAILROADING" you will hear a remarkable sequence of a 3-cylinder Mexican locomotive at speed, its waltz-time exhaust pounding the still night air accompanied by a fantastic, unrehearsed "whistle serenade" that you just won't believe! Church bells herald the passing of an early morning train in another scene. The Canadian side of the discs brings forth the melodic bells of CPR engines with a clarity unmatched in any other record. High speed passenger trains whistle through the night on the outskirts of Toronto. A terrific four-minute sequence paints a vivid sound picture of flailing side-rods and fast turning drivers as we pace alongside a CPR 4-6-0 and 4-6-2 doubleheading a freight east of Regina.

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Guaranteed to please or your money back!

Both records are 12-inch, 33 RPM (long-playing) Monophonic discs, custom pressed by Capitol Records in Hollywood.

Mail orders are shipped in double corrugated BOXES for maximum protection. Guaranteed to arrive safely or record replaced. Foreign orders require First Class Postage. Total of $5.70 for one record or $10.60 for two records, postpaid outside U.SA.

$4.98 each, two for $9.50

Sent postpaid in U.S.A.

OR AT YOUR LOCAL HOBBY SHOP

STAN KISTLER, P. O. Box 4068, Pasadena, Calif.

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THUNDER ON BLUE RIDGE Sounds of Steam Railroading Vol 3 & 3S Stereo or Mono LP 333 HI-FI 45 min. "Another Link steam railroad recordneed more be said! This one is in stereo, ★ too, which adds a certain something to the Link technique, imparting a fine spatial sense to the whistle duets ★ between distant trains echoing through the mountains, dramatizing the long approach (to the left) of a laboring ★ titan and its passage nearby (and off to the right), then on into the distance. There's a reasonable minimum, too, of what I call the U-turn effect - sound coming straight at you from speaker A, and then straight away in speaker B after a quick 180 degree turn."

"The big thing about Link, aside from super-fi and beautiful photo-* graphs of the very sound you hear, is his excellent and original sense of imaginative drama. His aren't just any old engines and trains; they are particular trains, on particular days, at particular places, and the whole sequence is described in enthusiastic prose on the album cover, so that you can follow exactly what happens. Moreover, Link knows one unique trick - keep the sound running. His trains run consecutively for minutes and minutes, building marvelously dramatic tension as some huge, puffing monster approaches from the far, far distance until it passes, then moves on, on, on, back to silence." "There's always a trick effect in a Link record, natural and unrehearsed; * in the last, it was "Silent Night" played on a peaceful small-town church carillon, drowned out by the roar of the * Christmas Eve express going through - in this new record the stunt is a distant cow, bellowing sadly in answer to the long wail of a steam whistle. Poignant touch, and pure Link-ese!"

"The wonderfully silent plastic surfaces on these records have much to do with the appealing effect of very distant trains, whistles, sounds of nature such as crickets, the low murmur of casual voices off in the background. Link builds in huge dynamic range, thanks to the capability for extreme low-level sound and the complete absence of recorded hum and rumble." Edward Tatnall Canby in Audio

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route. That move resulted in the complete saturation of the line and made it impossible to add a single train to the Tokaido timecard after October 1! The situation will remain thus until completion of the new standard-gauge Tokyo-Kobe link in 1964. Now under construction, the "Bullet Railway" will slash running time and offer new concepts in train travel. Meanwhile, the timetable of late 1961 is bringing to the Japanese public a fresh abundance of newly designed diesel rail cars [see page 14, August TRAINS]. The Kamome (Gull) Limited is a prime example: previously a train of standard equipment hauled by a C62-class 4-6-4, the Gull now consists of six diesel rail cars offering second-class service, first-class reclining seats, and a well-appointed dining car. The streamliner operates between Kyoto (leaving 8 a.m.), Hakata on Kyushu (5:30 p.m.), and Nagasaki (arriving 8:05 p.m.)-500 miles.

COMBINATION DINER: The 3'6"-gauge Manila Railroad in the Philippines has taken delivery of five combination firstand third-class dining cars worthy of note. Painted MRR's cheerful yellow and red, the car has a tare weight of 38.5 tons and a total seating capacity of 44, with 24 in first class and 20 in third. However, the first-class dining room occupies twothirds of the car and is air conditioned. Interior design of the premier-class portion strongly resembles that of the dining cars of Japan's crack limiteds. This should come as no surprise, however, for the cars were built by Hitachi in the land of the Kodama, Sakura, and Kamome.

MORE DIESELS FOR IRAN: Having been granted a 3.5-million-dollar loan by the Export-Import Bank of Washington, the Iranian State Railways will purchase 16 diesel-electric locomotives from General Motors. This was the fourth such loan (Iran has acquired 150 locomotives through previous loans totaling 33 million dollars). Other signs of progress in Iran: delivery and installation of short wave dipolantennas with reflectors.

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trict of Pennsylvania to Lehigh & New England Railway [see page 15, September TRAINS], proposed nonoperating subsidiary of Jersey Central. Central has the Commission's approval for a 15-million-dollar guaranteed loan which will go for the trackage, 1359 L&NE box and covered hopper cars, materials and supplies, and working capital.

Businessmen in agricultural Sussex County, N. J., expect to rescue a 9.5-mile stretch of L&NE track from Augusta to Sussex and have Erie-Lackawanna operate it for them. The added business over E-L's Sussex Branch via Augusta would put down talk of abandoning most of that charmingly rural line (which still has passenger service).

L&NE was known as Pennsylvania, Poughkeepsie & Boston when it was pushed through from the Lehigh district to a New England gateway at Campbell Hall, N. Y., in 1890. Failing in plans to build westward to Harrisburg, the road staked its future on a heavy originating and New England-bound traffic in Lehigh anthracite, slate, and cement. Short-haul L&NE remained inherently drag era; worked up from small 2-8-0's to big ones, including Camelbacks; and bought 200ton 2-10-0's and ex-Pennsy 2-8-2's before finally going diesel after World War II just months too soon to avoid being committed to cab units.

Once a contending little giant, L&NE was fatally weakened by the collapse of the anthracite and slate industries and the loss of cement business to trucks and to other than its own rail routings. Where extra after extra used to pound the high iron between Pen Argyl, Pa., and Campbell Hall, late this summer there was just one lonesome train making the trip only twice a week.

WEAK SISTERS?: Ten years ago few of us would have predicted not only the great mergers now under discussion but the death of such smaller class 1 roads as New York, Ontario & Western and Lehigh & New England. NYO&W was perennially improvident and L&NE was vulnerably dependent on a few commodities; nevertheless they ought to be remembered as victims of a period of depression for Eastern railroads in which the strong became less strong and the weak - died. While there now are signs of generally better times ahead, the over-all damage is likely to get worse before it is stopped, and at least one more major-minor road is in serious trouble. Rutland Railway, after staging a good recovery, went back into the red last year and within 13 months has twice been strikebound over service and pay cuts. Unfortunately for the Rut, its local services are duplicated at every important point

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SHORT LINES by other railroads.

WILLIAM S. YOUNG

LOW & NEAR ENDING: Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company's Lehigh & New England Railroad is about to pass into history. The I.C.C. has authorized abandonment of the 177-mile system and sale of 40 miles of key trackage in the Lehigh dis

MERGER PROPOSAL: The Milwaukee is making sheep's eyes at Washington, Idaho & Montana Railway, lumber-hauling short-line subsidiary of Potlatch Forests, Incorporated. The 46-mile Idaho carrier is famed as the road that goes to all them college towns: it runs from Lairds and Palouse to Wellesley, Princeton, Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Vassar, Cornell, and Purdue. Engineering students working on the line during construction days are thought to have provided the names. I

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