A Grand Observation Car You Can Ride, I Did

The Rio Grande Scenic Railroad of Alamosa, CO has a wonderful observation-lounge car from the Illinois Central Railroad.  The diamond drumhead on the rear reads City of New Orleans, the streamliner immortalized in the Steve Goodman folk song.  The train was inaugurated by the Illinois Central (IC) on April 27, 1947 as a day train running each way between Chicago and New Orleans with the Panama Limited running on an overnight schedule.  Amtrak now runs the City of New Orleans as an overnight train.

The car is the Mardi Gras.  Lets walk through her from the blunt end to the round end via the next three pictures.

Mardi Gras is one of two observation lounge cars rebuilt by the IC from older coaches in 1947 for use on their new City of New Orleans. The cars ran on the City until late 1968, before being retired and sold.  It passed through many hands, all of them caring, before arriving at her current home.

I rode in her round trip on May 27, 2012 from Alamosa in the San Luis Valley to the village of La Veta in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains -- a wonderful day trip.

Across from her bar/cafe mid-car is this stinning etched glass mirror.

And she still contains her built-ins.

As a Chicago boy I really appreciated this poster.

Some shots out her back windows.

And, as promised, a sing-along on the return trip.  When I rode I didn't know who the guy to the right in the light blue shirt leading the sing along was.  He's Ed Ellis and I was sitting in one of his many passenger cars on one of many of his railroads.  Ellis is the CEO of Iowa Pacific Holdings -- a modern-day railroad magnate of the good sorts.

And to top that, the train was pulled by a steam engine seen here turning around at La Veta.

A most pleasant day, lunch included.
The end.

See: https://flic.kr/p/R9TZG1 for more technical detail.

P.S.:  Here is a photo of the car shot by Roger Puta in 1988 when it was owned by the Roanoke NRHS's.

A Model T With a Built-in Turntable

The two-foot gauge Wiscasset, Waterville and Farmington Railway Museum in Alna, Maine has one of the most unique rail cars anyplace.  The front end, including the engine, is Model T Ford.  The remainder is homemade to resemble other railcars.

So here you are riding down the 2-foot wide tracks on a beautiful summer day in the Maine woods about 50 miles northeast of Portland.

What do you do when you get to the end of the line?  From the middle of the car you crank down the turntable as this young lady is doing.

When you have the wheels off the tracks ...

... you rotate the car.  Note the turntable.

And you head back to the station.

And when you get back, you turn it on its turntable for the next trip.

Here are a couple more pictures.  In the first the Museum's steam engine is passing.  In the second you can see the raised turntable.

File this under fun with big boy toys.

For more on the steam engine please see my blog posting on my favorite Maine 2-foot steam engines.

The Silver Star Pictured, December 27, 1971

For some reason I decided on December 27, 1971 to photograph each of the passenger cars on Amtrak's Train 81, The Silver Star, at Broad Street Station, Richmond, VA.  Amtrak was just seven months old and had only old, hand-me-down rolling stock and diesels to work with.

Broad Street is Richmond's main east west arterial and the Station is west of the business district.  During my train watching at Broad Steeet Station (1968 - 1972) all trains ran west to east through the Station and it served only the Seaboard Coastline (SCL) and the Richmond, Fredricksburg, and Potomac (RF&P) passenger trains running through town between Washington, DC and the south.  The SCL (ex-ACL and ex-SAL) and the RF&P tracks met west of the station and from that junction all trains, northbound and southbound, headed east to the station, entered the station's loop tracks, made their station stop pointing east, then looped back west to the RF&P/SCL junction.

The lead diesel that day was SCL E8A 589 assisted by a SCL B-unit and an RF&P A-unit followed by two baggage cars and nine passenger cars.  The first three pictures are of the train arriving via the station's loop. 

In this first picture the rear cars of the train (behind the leafless trees) are moving east but the diesels have entered the loop and are momentarily heading south. 

In the third picture the lead diesel is heading east again into the station proper.  Essentially the train made a sharp "S" curve.

Here the train has made its station stop and has looped back heading west toward the RF&P/SCL junction.

And here are the passenger cars.

RF&P 855 Coach, SCL West Palm Beach Sleeper, and SCL Cumberland County Sleeper

 SCL 5415 Coach, SCL 5912 Dinner, and SP 2363 Coach

UP 5475 Coach, PC 1533 Coach, and PC 1510 Coach


Yes I'm glad I took the time to photograph each passenger car.  Hope you enjoyed looking.

 

Marty Bernard

Seashore's Exhibit Educates, A Review

Introduction

Seashore Trolley Museum's Visitor Center building serves as its offices, board meeting room, book store/gift shop, ticket office, and exhibit hall/gallery.  Off the exhibit hall is a kitchen allowing the hall to host various functions.  Oh, the Center also serves as the depot for the trolley rides.

I'm reviewing the exhibit in the exhibit hall because:

1. It is very well done
2. On a modest budget
3. Focuses appropriately on the history of local trolley car systems
4. Is featured and augmented on the Maine Historical Society's online museum, The Maine Memory Network, and thus it teaches more than those who visit the exhibit

The Exibit

From the museum's web page, "Our Visitor Center houses a 1600 square foot gallery that currently exhibits History in Motion: Public Transportation Connecting Maine Communities. This exhibit invites you to journey into the history of how trolleys changed the lives of people in Maine and to learn what past forms of transportation can teach us about contemporary issues and possible futures that we face today."

The exhibit consists of panels on the walls of the nearly square room plus a controlled number of supporting artifacts.  Below are two of the panels.

Next are two of the pictures with captions.

The exhibit's web page on The Maine Memory Network is:
http://www.mainememory.net/sitebuilder/site/1199/page/1757/display?

The exhibit is an excellent augmentation to the museum.  I learned from it.  It reflects well the efforts of many people.  I welcome their comment and corrections.

Marty Bernard

My Two Favorite Maine 2-foot Steam Engines

Introductions

Let me introduce you to two little girls.

Number 10 is loved at the Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington (WW&F) Railway Museum located in Alna, Maine.  She runs Saturdays and many Sundays April through December pulling a few passengers cars on a few miles of long abandoned and now rebuilt 2-foot track.  Here she is seen running around her train at Alna Center.  The current-day WW&F runs from Sheepscot Station in the Sheepscot River Valley to past Alna Center Station as shown in red on this map:

The next lady is Maine Narrow Gauge Railway (MNGR) Co. Museum's #4.  She runs on a couple of miles of 2-foot track laid on abandoned standard gauge right-of-way along Portland, Maine's waterfront.  She gives a ride with beautiful views out over the water, but as you will see, I picked a day with little visibility.

Both girls have an 0-4-4 wheel arrangement meaning neither has leading wheels, both have four small drivers, and both have a 4-wheel trailing truck under their coal bin and water tank.  Yep, they are coal burners.

The Perfect 10

Her portraits were taken on the perfect Maine summer day of July 14, 2012.  First she is checked out, oiled around, and watered at the Sheepscot station and shop area.

 

In the picture above she has run around her train at Alna Center and is pushing it to the end of the line.  Both the conductor at the far end and the engineer mostly out the window are keeping close watch for mainly moose and deer.

Here she is at the Alna Center Station heading back to Sheepscot Station.  The railcar to the right in the siding is the subject of my blog post titled "A Model T With a Built-in Turntable".

Now she is back at the Sheepscot Station.  The buckets are full of cinders from the simple cinder pit below #10's cinder bin visible below her cab.  The cinders will be dumped in the parking lot to "pave" it and buckets will be returned to her side full of coal about the size of large gravel as are amazingly the cinders!

#4 Singing in the Rain

Have you ever gone out to be in the rain?  On an August Sunday morning I did.  If you want to photograph steam engines and you want the maximum amount of steam and smoke to show up in your pictures, when should you do it?  Right, in 100% humidity, i.e., in the rain.  And #4 put on a show for a few hardly train lovers.

Watering in the rain.

I don't think she minded the rain.

 Here she is getting her train moving.

And here she is running along the Portland Shoreline and parallel trail.

And two final attempts to take advantage of the lighting and the humidity.

----

My two favorite Maine 2-foot steam engines, not that I have met many!

Marty Bernard