NYC WESTERN DIVISION
GENERAL CORRECTIONS AND ADDITIONS
Page Created May 28, 2003
Revised June 7, 2003, March 13, 2004, in red
[NEW 6-7-03]Additional acknowledgements:
The striking book design is by Catherine Nemetz
A glaring omission was failing to mention among my sources McLellan and Warrick's The Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway even though Dave McLellan was acknowledged individually. Especially valuable here were the series of 1906 valuation photos of the Western Division, and the supporting captions, and the history of the E&W branch.
I should also have mentioned Taylor, An American Colussus, a story of the railroad in Niles, where the author's experiences working a Notre Dame football special from Niles helped confirm and add confidence to operational descriptions of the handling of those trains, and which also documented the crew district change on the MC that coincided with the opening of the hump yard at Niles. This locally published (1995) history would have gone unnoticed except for Kevin Keefe (Niles native) reviewing it in Trains Magazine, at which time I ordered a copy and subsequently turned to it during the preparation of this book.
The history of the MC branch that crossed over the Western Division main at Lydick is from a winter, 1991 edition of "First & Fastest", newsletter of the Shore Line Interurban Historical Society, copied for me by Sandy Goodrick.
CORRECTIONS AND ADDITIONS
The corrections and remarks on this page as created on May 28, 2003 result in large part from the very superior scanning and reproduction used in producing today's Morning Sun books. Even though I scanned each slide in a good quality home slide scanner (Nikon LS-1000) and viewed them on a 17 inch monitor, I missed things which show up in the printed pictures.
Page 23, captions are reversed.
Page 36, see the remarks concerning pages 38-39 and page 50 to modify the understanding of the use of Lydick after Terre Coupee was extended.
Pages 38-39, It is obvious that the east end of the siding is not wired even for a short way past the fouling point and it appears the rail east of the switch is little used (note weed growth). I now believe that all the portion of Terre Coupee used for interchange must have been west of the switch shown in this picture, under wire, and I wonder if they weren't using Terre Coupee for CSS to NYC and Lydick for NYC to CSS. The extension from 125 to 142 cars may have been to provide room for interchange and still leave a portion for exclusive NYC use.
Page 47, the interchange description should be considered in the light of the remarks concerning pp.38-39 and 50.
Page 50 (top), 5430's train is eastbound, not westbound, and that is the wired Lydick interchange track at right, not the stub (I made the mistake of working with my scanned, cropped image when writing this caption). Note the cars in the interchange track, adding to my speculation that Lydick was still in use for NYC to CSS.
Page 52, I no longer believe this is a detouring GTW 20 because that is not a CN car first out but an NYC horse-baggage car (the window arrangement looked differant in my scanned version). Milwaukee cars were also coming through in M&E 14 (see page 67 top). GTW 20 never had this much head end, anyway, and the passenger cars I thought I saw toward the rear of the train I now think are an illusion.
Page 57, the map should show continuation of GTW green between Ford Street and the junction with the Western Division main at Arnold Street.
Page 64, the U2 is not on its way anywhere but has hold of a long cut for lead switching (note the position of the engineer, leaning out and facing backward to receive hand signals).
Page 69, bottom, this picture would not have been reproduced so small if we had known what the scanner was going to do with it. The original slide is so dark it appears to be almost a night shot, and this led me to believe that the picture was taken near sunset. Actually, as the sun flare at the top of the picture makes evident, this is mid-afternoon, the right time of day for the New England States, and could be earlier in 1949 than December.
Page 73, there is an internal conflict in the caption. The correct engine number is GTW 6313 .
Page 79, note the Taft button on the man seated at the observation window, and refer to the caption on page 41 (top). The convention is just three days away but this man has left Chicago and is travelling on the holiday. My guess is that this is somebody from the Taft campaign who attended the meeting in Chicago on the weekend and is slipping home for a couple of days before returning for the opening gavel. That weekend meeting did not go well for the Taft people and I expect the man is uneasy about what is to come.
[new item added 6-7-03] Page 86, top, I got carried away on Niagara specifications. They had the standard NYC passenger driving wheel dimension, 79 inches, not 80 inches, and the maximum drawbar horsepower measured on test was 5,070 at 62.5mph (indicated cylinder horsepower was 6,680 at 85mph) This July, 1946 test with 6023 was with 275 lbs. BP (initial BP of the class was 290) and 79 inch drivers (initial driver diamater of prototype S-1a 6000 was 75 inches). The PRR T-1, taking advantage of its divided drive to permit higher total driving-pin forces, did top 6,000 drawbar horsepower over a range from about 63 to about 85mph.
Page 104, see the separate link on the Avery track pans.
