Monthly calendar report:

December 2007 is not the banner month for calendar entries last month was, when some of the greatest motorized vehicles of all time were displayed.

Roger Durfee.

Norfolk Southern freight in Kent, Ohio.

But it is a pretty good month, and surprise-surprise, December’s best calendar-entry is the Norfolk Southern calendar picture above.
Roger Durfee of Cleveland, took his Canon Digital Rebel trackside to Kent, Ohio in a blizzard to capture a Norfolk Southern freight-train heading toward Bellvue.
Durfee is a conductor, a Norfolk Southern employee. All entries in the Norfolk Southern calendar are by Norfolk Southern employees. It’s a contest.
The Canon Digital Rebel is the premier digital camera, perhaps even better than my Nikon D100 (the D200 is now Nikon’s premier digital offering).
In my case, the D100 is somewhat overkill, since I’m shooting simple jpegs — it will do all kinds of professional formats.
Plus you can alterate white-balance and color-balance (things I can do with Photoshop), but the main thing is I can shoot aperture-priority and control f-stop to increase depth-of-field.
It also will shoot shutter-priority, which I sometimes have to do (at a fast speed) to get a sharp shot. I need fast shutter-speed with strong telephoto, which is often focused at infinity, so depth-of-field doesn’t matter that much.
So here’s Durfee out there set up on a wind-blown highway overpass, camera probably on a tripod (or maybe not; it’s a normal lens); wife (or significant-other; whatever) shielding the whole kaboodle with an umbrella.
Linda and I used to do that, although I never got anything in a snowburst.
We have an ancient picture of me at trackside looking through my 300mm “cannon” east of Newark on the Water-Level. I was in my 20s.

Philip Makanna.

“Sentimental Journey.”

My Ghosts WWII warbird calendar has a B17.
I’ve seen B17s fly; bog-slow, a sitting duck.
No wonder so many got shot down.
Loaded with armament, but still a turkey.
And often the things limped back all shot up; sometimes on only two engines.
Years ago, when we lived on Winton Road in Rochester, I heard the distinctive sound of a radial airplane engine.
I ran outside on our back deck, and there was old “Fuddy-Duddy,” the B17 owned at that time by the Geneseo warbird group.
Bog-slow, it lumbered overhead; and the motors on B17s aren’t very impressive (only four 750 horsepower Pratt & Whitney R-1690 radial engines) — it’s a ‘30s airplane.
I went through Fuddy-Duddy once. My impression was that it was much smaller than it appeared, and made of Swiss-Cheese.
The fuselage-rings appeared to be thinly-machined aluminum castings. They didn’t look very sturdy.
Most of the motors were without cowlings, and each over a large puddle of engine-oil.
Someone reported that one motor was very difficult; nearly impossible to start.
Yet these were the planes that bombed the living daylights out of the Nazi Axis.
It’s a pity so many got shot down.
They’d take down a crew of 10, although many tried to parachute to safety, but into enemy hands.

Scott Williamson.

Lambo.

My Oxman sportscar calendar has a 1966 Lamborghini 400GT (pictured), a car I lusted after.
—Although I remember thinking it wasn’t very attractive. The GT was introduced in 1963 as the 350GT at the Turin Motor Show in Italy; an alternative to Ferrari.
As such it had a 3.5-liter V12 engine designed by Giotto Bizzarini. It was a good motor.
The 400 is a larger (later) variant of the 350; four-liter displacement.
The GT Lambo wasn’t very attractive, but an alternative to Ferrari, which seemed overblown.
Plus it had a V12 motor; just like the Ferrari — I wanted one. If I can’t get a Ferrari, I’ll take the Lambo.
But cars have become more pedestrian since then; as have my tastes.
Even back then, where could you properly stretch out a V12 motor? —Now would be utterly impossible.
What matters now is not performance, but techno-wizardry — can I play my iPod in it, and will it render GPS coordinates? All tricks to distract that you’re immobilized in a traffic-jam.
Okay, so I get a Ferrari; where do I put the dog? The groceries? Will it idle at 5 mph in traffic?
And now even ho-hum cars are better than that old Lambo. I rode around in a hot-rodded ‘55 Chevy once — the car of my dreams all through college.
Our Faithful-Hunda was a better car; slower, and not the blowsy old antique the ‘55 Chevy was.
A ‘66 Lambo would be an antique!

Tom Smart.

GP9a #7184 powers local-freight through the back-streets of Cincinnati in 1966.

The December entry of my All-Pennsy color-calendar is two Pennsylvania Railroad GP9s (pictured) powering a local-freight through Cincinnati.
Pennsy was a late-comer to diesel power, a holdout for steam clear until 1957 — perhaps because it moved so much coal, and steam-engines were coal-fired.
But it was a futile effort. Diesels were much better at moving heavy consists uphill at slow speeds: what Pennsy was doing.
Pennsy never really did the SuperPower gig in the ‘30s, perhaps because of electrification and the GG1.
So their steam-engines of the ‘20s were never replaced with ‘30s power; and Pennsy never really got into developing replacement power until the ‘40s — in fact, not until after the war. (Pennsy was also developing it own engines; it never bought from outside suppliers except to its own plans.)
So Pennsy may have never had GP7s — in fact, I don’t think it had F3s, or the EMD FT which was introduced in 1939.
So that by the time Pennsy dieselized, the Geep was already up to the GP9, and the so-called “Covered-Wagons” (the F-units) were up to the F7.
Pennsy passenger-diesels came earlier, but not as early as other railroads.
Freight kept moving behind steam; and when Pennsy finally dieselized, they had to purchase power from everyone and anyone — so much that what they bought was more experimental in nature.
As a long-time Baldwin customer, Pennsy bought a huge number of Baldwin diesels, but they were no match for the reliability of the General Motors EMD offerings. Baldwin diesels would break down and tie up the railroad — as did Alco and Lima-Hamilton. (Baldwin eventually became Baldwin-Lima-Hamilton.) The EMDs were more reliable.
So here we have GP9s powering a local-freight in Cincinnati — not Baldwin or Alco.
#7048 at the mighty Curve is a GP9; modified some, but still a GP9. #7048 is one of the 270 GP9s Pennsy had — as are these engines.

Scott Williamson.

The McMullen roadster.

My Oxman (same link as above) hot-rod calendar is the famous 1932 Ford roadster raced by Tom McMullen in the late ‘50s.
It’s now owned by someone else, but set the appearance-standard for 1932 highboys after appearing on the cover of Hot Rod Magazine in 1963 — which means I probably got that magazine at Houghton, since I was a subscriber in 1963; which means it probably caused weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth by my friend Neal “nerd” Frey, who was appalled that anyone would hot-rod anything by the greatest car-manufacturer of all time: Henry Ford. (Neal had a Model-T — “all ya ever need.”)
The McMullen roadster had a blown 327 cubic-inch Small-Block Chevy. It also had that tiny beer-keg in front of the radiator for gasoline — enough gas for a speed-run, but nothing more.
They looked very trick, so many hot-rods were built with that keg, plus a regular gas-tank in the back.
The car also has flame-paint laid out by Ed “Big Daddy” Roth, the infamous “Rat-Fink.” He also did the pin-striping, which looks ridiculous (it’s not visible on the trunk-lid). The Penske Trans-Am Camaros also had pin-striping, which also looked ridiculous.
But the McMullen roadster is still the same car it was in 1963 — one of the best-looking hot-rods of all time.

Martin Zak.

Alco RS3s past Slope uphill toward the mighty Curve in December of 1960.

My Audio-Visual Designs black & white All-Pennsy calendar is at a tower in Altoony that no longer exists: Slope.
Slope interlocking still exists, at the foot of the long grade over the Alleghenies (which includes Horseshoe Curve); but the tower is long-gone.
“Alto” Tower (in Altoony) still exists, and dispatches everything on The Hill. I’ve listened to their dispatchers on my scanner doing their Marlon-Brando Godfather imitations: “Track-uh Two-uh.” There also are some skirt dispatchers the train-crews try to flirt with.
The Hill was why Pennsy was so successful: a well-placed funnel that was fairly flat — flat enough to make transit west of the Alleghenies viable. Prior to Pennsy, horse-drawn freight-wagons took days to cross the Alleghenies, and then the state had a combination canal/inclined-plane railroad system to cross the state.
The combination canal/inclined-plane railroad system still took too long, so Pennsy was a smashing success; and it ended up moving huge quantities of freight, and opening up the midwest (and west).
By 1960 the Pennsy was in trouble — huge tax-bills and freight moving to trucks on the interstate-system. The Pennsylvania-Turnpike was also a competitor.
And yet The Hill still exists, although no longer Pennsy. It’s still so successful the Teamsters wanna shut it down, and have enlisted the help of Hillary-dillery.
The threat is that The Hill will get converted into a jogging-trail. Never happen; I say. (The state of Pennsylvania has millions invested to make that line clear double-stacked containers.)

Only one calendar remains: my Howard Fogg railroad calendar. It’s an oil-painting of a Southern-Pacific 4-8-2 Mountain steam-locomotive heading north toward Klamath Falls, Oregon with the second-section of a passenger-train. Ho-hum........

RE: “Alterate.......” —Years ago I passed a dry-cleaner that had a sign out front saying that it “alterated” clothes. I was driving transit-bus.

“Linda” is my wife.

The “300mm ‘cannon’” is the 300mm telephoto lens for my Pentax single-lens-reflex camera. It was as big as a “cannon.”

The “Water-Level” is the old New York Central railroad mainline across New York state. “Water-Level” because it follows rivers, and has easy grades.

“Geneseo” is a nearby rural town, but fairly large, because it has a branch of the state university.

“3.5-liter” is fairly small. The Small-Block Chevy is 4.34 liters and up (to around 6 liters). The Big-Block Chevy at 427 cubic-inches is 7 liters. (The Big-Block went up to 454 cubic inches — now it’s even bigger, but no longer in a car.)

“The Faithful Hunda” is our 1989 Honda Civic All-Wheel-Drive station-wagon, by far the BEST car we ever owned, now departed (replaced by our Honda CR-V). (Called a “Hunda” because that was how a fellow bus-driver at Transit [Regional-Transit-Service in Rochester, where I once worked], pronounced it.)

“Pennsy” is the Pennsylvania Railroad, no longer in existence. It merged with New York Central Railroad in 1968 as Penn-Central, and that went bankrupt in about two years. “Pennsy” was once the largest railroad in the world.

“SuperPower” was a specialized design of Lima Locomotive Works (in Lima, Ohio [“LYE-ma,” not “LEE-ma”]), maximizing horsepower and minimizing fuel-use. “SuperPower” locomotives could steam well at high cruising speeds — non SuperPower engines often ran out of steam at speed. “SuperPower” was mainly a ‘30s innovation, and many railroads bought “SuperPower” engines; although they were a waste at slow speed.

“The GG1” was an electric railroad locomotive designed by Pennsy for it’s New York City to Washington, D.C. service. It was extremely successful, and outlasted the railroad.

“EMD” is Electromotive Division of General Motors, GM’s manufacturer of railroad diesel-locomotives. Most railroads used EMD when they dieselized; although many now use General-Electric railroad diesel-locomotives.

“Geep” is the nickname given to EMD GP road-switchers (four axles). “Covered-Wagon” is the nickname given to full cab-units: e.g. F-units by EMD, FAs by Alco.

“Pennsylvania Railroad GP9 #7048” is on display at Horseshoe Curve (the “mighty Curve”), west of Altoona, Pennsylvania, by far the BEST railfan spot I have ever been to. Horseshoe Curve is a national historic site. It was a trick used by the Pennsylvania Railroad to get over the Allegheny mountains without steep grades. Horseshoe Curve was opened in 1854, and is still in use. (I am a railfan.) —GP9 #7048 replaced a Pennsylvania Railroad K4 Pacific steam-locomotive (#1361) built in the Altoona Shops in Altoona. (#1361 had been on display since 1957; until it was replaced and restored.)

“Baldwin” is Baldwin Locomotive Works on the Pennsy New York to Washington mainline in Eddystone, Pa. It is now defunct, but manufactured railroad steam-locomotives for many years. It started out in Philadelphia, but outgrew its original factory. Many Pennsy steam-locomotives were manufactured by Baldwin.

“Highboy” is a slang term to describe the hot-rodded 1932 Ford open roadster without fenders.

“Houghton” is Houghton College, from where I graduated with a BA in 1966. I’ve never regretted it. Houghton is a religious college.

“Blown” equals supercharged, in this case a 6-71 Rootes supercharger as used on GM diesel truck or bus-engines; driven by a large rubber belt.

The “Penske Trans-Am Camaros” were the Camaros entered in the early SCCA Trans-Am series; as entered by Roger Penske and driven by Mark Donohue (deceased).

An “interlocking” is where crossover switches, or switches, connect adjacent tracks. “Interlockings” are now called “Control-Points;” and used to be switched by lineside towers. They can now be switched electronically from a central location.

“The Hill” is the Pennsylvania Railroad’s grade over the Allegheny Mountains. It’s now operated by Norfolk Southern Railroad.

“My scanner” is the railroad radio-frequency scanner I monitor railroad radio transmissions with. Many railfans have scanners.

“Hillary-dillery” is Hillary Clinton.