Monthly Calendar Report for June 2008

An image for the ages. (Photo by Jim Shaughnessy©.)

The July 2008 entry in my Audio-Visual Designs black & white All-Pennsy calendar, the best one, is another classic Jim Shaughnessy shot, Pennsy Decapod number 4230 starting out of Max siding on the Elmira branch at Ralston, Pa., in 1957.
The Dek is the quintessential Pennsy steam-engine, 2-10-0; and is performing a quintessential Pennsy task, lugging a heavy train in a deep Pennsylvania valley.
It’s belching a heavy column of smoke and cinders high into the sky, an act which would inflame Granny, if her laundry was hanging outside at trackside. (Who hangs their laundry out any more? Ya blow-dry it with burning natural-gas in a dryer.)
Nowadays such smoke would be frowned upon — in fact, even back then it was frowned upon.
Engine crews were admonished to run their smokestacks clean, and stack police were around to blow crews in.
Yet nowadays the crews on restored excursion steam-locomotives are advised to make a lot of smoke, especially for photo-runbys.
The railfan photographers want the same towering pillar of smoke that’s in this picture.
The fireman pours so much coal (or fuel-oil) into the engine’s firebox, the fire burns so rich it creates an oily black smudge on the sky.
The Greenies would have a fit. GLOBAL-WARMING ALERT! POLLUTION ALERT!
And conditions have to be just right — they were right for this picture.
The air has to be still enough to not dissipate the smoke.
How many times have I seen smoky photo runbys ruined by smoke fanning over the countryside, dissipated by the wind.
Yet here we are deep in a mountainous Pennsylvania creek-valley, surrounded by towering hills, and Shaughnessy is ready.
Thank you, Shaughnessy — an image for the ages.
My friend Charlie Gardiner, who I graduated with from Houghton College in 1966, has a vacation abode in Vermont, and once pointed out a proposed steam excursion railroad.
It was scotched due to environmental concerns. (Even cellphone towers aren’t allowed.)

Raw and basic. (Photo by Peter Vincent.)

The July 2008 entry of my Deuce 1932 Ford hot-rod calendar is a Pheaton, set up to race at Bonneville — and photographed there.
It’s originally a show-car, a full-fendered Pheaton hot-rod, but unfortunately it burned to the ground in 1984.
The burned-out remains sat for 20 years, until rescued by Matt Reynolds.
He installed a 350 Chevy Small-Block, and reconfigured it to race.
It’s a classic hot-rod, raw and basic, and set up to go fast; not impress onlookers.
The original hot-rods usually rated flat-black primer. Glittering trinkets and baubles and fancy paint don’t make a car any faster.
Neither does the kerreck body, which to me would be a fenderless high-boy roadster or a three-window coupe with a chopped top.
I remember seeing a customized ‘50 Merc lead-sled in a northern Delaware fast-food joint: chopped, channeled, sectioned, lowered; the whole kabosh.
It had been done up in flat-black primer, yet looked great.
My old friend Art Dana, ex of the bus-company, built up a Model-A hot-rod with a ‘56 Pontiac V8.
“I hope ya brushed it with flat-black primer,” I said.
“Sure did, Hughsey,” Art said. “There’s no other way.”

The most beautiful railroad diesel-locomotive of all time. (Photo by John Dziobko.)

The July 2008 entry of my All-Pennsy color calendar is the most beautiful railroad diesel-locomotive of all time, the Alco PA — although the Baldwin Sharknoses styled by Raymond Loewy could give them a run for their money.
Unfortunately, the Alco PA wasn’t very reliable, although not as bad as the Baldwins.
But they weren’t as good as the EMD E-units.
The PA was rated at 2,000 horsepower, but out of only one engine, a turbocharged V16 Alco 244.
It was one of the earliest applications of turbocharging to a railroad diesel-locomotive.
The turbo would fail, crippling the locomotive, and/or sending pillars of black exhaust into the sky.
Fuel-metering was configured for turbo operation. Without it the engine ran incredibly rich.
A PA could emit a pillar of black exhaust even when the Turbo was working.
The Turbo wouldn’t spool up quickly enough, and the engine ran rich until it did.
The EMD E-unit was getting comparable horsepower out of two unturbocharged V12 diesel-engines.
Unfortunately they weren’t as gorgeous as the PA, but they were more reliable.
The 244 engine was rushed to market, and was so failure-prone it dragged down Alco sales. The later 251 engine was much better, but the damage had been done.
The PA pictured is in commuter service on the New York & Long Branch, a joint Pennsy and Central of New Jersey operation in north Jersey.
It was the final stomping-ground for many Pennsy engines, like the PAs, the Sharknoses, and the K4 Pacific steam-locomotive.
The unelectrified engines would run north to South Amboy, where they were swapped out for electric engines for final running to New York City.

The Stooges play golf: “nyuk-nyuk-nyuk-nyuk......”

The July 2008 entry of my Three-Stooges calendar is an all-time classic.
A movie-frame outtake, regrettably, but from one of the best Stooges skits of all time: the golf-game.
I think I have that in my Three Stooges video DVD.
In this frame they are analyzing a golf-hole; Larry looking suitably analytical, Curly looking wary, and Moe, as always, mugging insanely for the camera.
Moe looks completely freaked out, but it’s an act.
Without this, it wouldn’t be the Stooges.
“Here, see this?” POINK! “Why I oughta........”
But it ain’t Gleason and Carney in the Honeymooners.
Gleason (Ralph Kramden) and Carney (Norton) did the best golf skit.
“Okay Norton; lemme show ya how to play golf,” Ralph bellows.
“First ya gotta address the ball.”
Carney looks quizzically down at the ball, and says “hello, ball.”

Norfolk Southern double-stack through Oak Harbor, Ohio. (Photo by John Stanovich.)

The July 2008 entry of my Norfolk Southern Employees calendar is what I see all the time on Norfolk Southern Railway any more: two black Norfolk Southern locomotives leading a colorful double-stack freight-train, this time through Oak Harbor, Ohio.
What’s interesting to me is the lead locomotive; a brand-new SD70M-2 from EMD (GM’s ElectroMotive Division), one of a recent order of 130.
It ain’t the usual General-Electric Dash-9. (NS rates ‘em at 4,000 horsepower, so Dash-9 40C, instead of the usual Dash-9 44C (4,400 horsepower); “C” being a six-axle truck.
The SD70M-2 is the new EMD four-stroke prime-mover; previous EMDs were two-stroke.
The two-stroke was too sloppy to meet emission requirements.
During a recent trip to Horseshoe Curve I saw quite a few SD70M-2s, usually leading GEs; but sometimes the complete lashup.
The moving finger having writ, moves on.......
So much for the Dash-9s; although many were still in evidence.
Stanovich is a locomotive engineer based in Chicago.
He’s probably proud of these things. I can understand. I used to take pictures of buses when I drove bus at Transit. I really loved driving our first “artics,” and thought our GM “RTS” buses were gorgeous.
The calendar picture appeared to be widened some; the nose of the SD70M-2 was too wide.
An old Photoshop trick; stretch the picture to fit the calendar image size.
This pik was narrowed back to make the SD70M-2 look right. It looks more kerreck, but ain’t the original camera image.
The calendar pik didn’t appear to be either — it looked like the stretched HD-TV I see at the Canandaigua YMCA.

Lockheed A-28 “Hudson.” (Photo by Philip Makanna©.)

The July 2008 entry of my Ghosts WWII warbirds calendar is an airplane I never thought much of, the Lockheed A-28 “Hudson.”
As I recall, the Hudson was a military version of the Lockheed Model 14 Super Electra commercial airliner; used primarily by the Royal Air Force as bombers and maritime observation aircraft.
Two machine-guns were mounted in the nose of one version, so the airplane could be used as an attacker.
It was designed and constructed under Lend-Lease in the late ‘30s, a response to a British request in its effort against the Nazis.
The Hudson ain’t the North-American B25, which ended up being a primal force in the American war-effort.
The B-25 was a hot-rod, and the Hudson a turkey.

1981 C3 Corvette. (Photo by Richard Prince.)

The July 2008 entry of my Corvette calendar is a 1981 Corvette, perhaps the worst of all time.
The early ‘80s were a sad time for Corvette — the only engine available for Corvette was a 190 horsepower 350 cubic-inch Small-Block.
For heaven sake! In 1957 a Small-Block was available at one horsepower per cubic-inch: 283 horsepower for 283 cubes.
Zora Arkus Duntov was gone (retired in 1975), and the C3 had been around since 1968.
General Motors was even considering shortening a Camaro (a la the original American Motors two-seater AMX), and rebadging it as a “Corvette.”
Thankfully, this didn’t happen. A new C4 Corvette debuted in the 1984 model-year, and thereby saved the marque. The new C4 resolved many of the things that were wrong with the C3, and had a completely reengineered chassis.
That chassis is still being used in the C6, but has been improved.
The C4 saw reinstitution of performance as a goal with the Small-Block, as a 230-horsepower port fuel-injected version was installed in most Corvettes in the 1985 model-year. This is fuel-injection for each individual cylinder; much better that the twin crossfire injected Small-Blocks in previous Corvettes — which had two separate throttle-bodies for each cylinder-bank. Crossfire was better than carburetors (too sloppy), but not as good as individual port injection. (The 1957 fuel-injection was individual port injection.)
Even more powerful Small-Blocks were eventually installed.
During 1981 Corvette production transitioned from St. Louis to Bowling Green, Kentucky.
A manager at Transit had a C3, but his was 1976 — and he kept having problems with it.
It was a 350 Small-Block with a four-speed, and was “Hugger-Orange;” a beautiful car.
He finally had to sell it — the frame had rusted out. The body was fiberglass, but the frame was steel.
I shed a tear.

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

“Jim Shaughnessy” was a railfan photographer in the late ‘40s and the ‘50s. He was based in Binghamton, NY, and took a lot of railroad photographs in that area. Pennsy’s bucolic Elmira branch was nearby.

A “photo-runby” is when all the railfan photographers detrain, and set up in a “photo-line” at trackside. The train backs up, and then blasts by the photo-line; after which the photographers are picked up.

“Houghton College,” in western New York, is from where I graduated with a BA in 1966. I’ve never regretted it. Houghton is a religious liberal-arts college.

A “Pheaton” is an open four-seater with only a canvas roof. It wasn’t convertible. A “roadster” is an open two-seater (also unconvertible). Pheatons are no longer made; cars are closed.

“Bonneville” is Bonneville Salt-flats next to Great Salt Lake in Utah. It’s a vast open flat area where top-speed runs can be made.

The Chevrolet “Small-Block” V8 was introduced at 265 cubic-inches displacement in the 1955 model-year. It continued production for years, first at 283 cubic inches, then 327, then 350. Other displacements were also manufactured. The Chevrolet “Big-Block” V8 was introduced in the 1965 model-year at 396 cubic-inches, and was unrelated to the Small-Block. It was made in various displacements: 402, 427 and 454 cubic inches. It’s still made as a truck-motor, but not installed in cars any more; although you can get it as a crate-motor, for self-installation. —350 cubic-inches displacement.

A “high-boy roadster” is an unfendered roadster at stock height (although the front axle may be lowered). —A “three-window coupe” is a coupe with only three windows (four if you include the windshield): those in the doors (two), and the rear-window. “Five-window coupes” were also available, with small side-windows behind the doors. The yellow Milner coupe in “American Graffiti” is a five-window.

Usually a customized 1949-‘51 Mercury was known as a “lead-sled.” This was because so much custom metal-work at that time was done with molten lead.

“Chopped” is small sections cut out of the window-pillars, so the roof can be lowered. “Channeled” is constructing channels in the carbody, so it can be dropped lower on the frame. “Sectioned” is cutting longitudinal sections out of the carbody sides, so it will have decreased section height. “Lowered” is to lower the carbody relative to the axles. It was often done with lowering-blocks between the springs and the axle — although the front-axle might have to be “dropped:” rebent so the frame would sit lower relative to the wheels. (This presumes a front beam axle; a method out-of-fashion after the ‘30s and ‘40s.)

RE: “bus-company......” —For 16&1/2 years (1977-1993) I drove transit bus for Regional Transit Service, the transit-bus operator in Rochester, N.Y.

“Alco” is American Locomotive Company of Schenectady, NY; a longtime builder of railroad steam locomotives. When railroads began to dieselize, Alco switched; but is now out-of-business.

“Sharknoses” are Baldwin diesel-locomotives designed by Raymond Loewy, probably the prettiest diesel railroad-locomotive of all time — although it’s competing with the Alco PA. “Sharknoses” because they had the headlight overhanging the pilot, looking like the nose of a shark.

“Raymond Loewy” is a prolific industrial designer hired by the Pennsylvania Railroad — and also Baldwin Locomotive Works.

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

The “E-unit” was EMD’s passenger locomotive from the ‘30s through the ‘50s.

“Turbocharging” is using exhaust gases to drive a turbine-driven supercharger. —Supercharging blows (forces) more air into the engine.

The “New York & Long Branch” is a railroad in north Jersey that could operate commuter-service to New York City. At first it was a Jersey Central operation, but became a joint operation with Pennsy, when PRR proposed building a competing line. —The Pennsy tunnels under the Hudson River from Jersey to New York City required electric operation, since they weren’t ventilated enough to operate otherwise.

“Norfolk Southern” is a 25-year-old merger of Norfolk & Western Railroad (in Virginia and West Virginia) and Southern Railway. Along with CSX Transportation it operates the preponderance of railroad service on the east coast (including the northeast). —NS got most of the ex-Pennsy lines when Conrail was broken up and sold. (“Conrail” was a government amalgamation of east-coast railroads that went bankrupt pretty much at the same time as Penn-Central, a merger of the Pennsylvania Railroad and New York Central. It included other bankrupt east-coast railroads, like Erie-Lackawanna and Lehigh Valley; but eventually went private as it became more successful.) —N&W was immensely successful, since it served the Pocahontas Coal Region.

RE: “Double-stack...... “ is a system whereby two trailer-sized freight containers are stacked two-high in railroad well-cars. The system is very high, and required raising bridges and increasing tunnel-heights so it would clear. Stacking the containers two-high is much more efficient than only one-high — although one-high could also include the trailer-wheels (Trailer-On-Flatcar = TOFC).

“Two-stroke” diesels do a power-stroke for every down-stroke of the piston — “four-strokes” are a power-stroke for every other down-stroke of the piston. In two-stroke diesels the descending piston uncovered cylinder ports, through which intake air was blown into the cylinder. Poppet-valves would also open in the cylinder-head to let exhaust-gasses escape. —A four-stroke uses poppet-vavles to both let in the intake air and also the exhaust gasses. One piston down-stroke pulls in the intake air, and the last upstroke of the cycle exhausts. Being a diesel, fuel is injected at the top of the piston-stroke, and it self-ignites. The upstroke of the piston compresses the intake air, but with a four-stroke, this is a separate move. —General Motors developed light two-stroke diesel-engines in the ‘30, and the principles therein where used in truck and bus diesels, and much larger railroad locomotive diesels.

Horseshoe Curve, west of Altoona, Pennsylvania, is 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, and have been since I was a child.)

An “artic” (“r-TIK”) was a two-section bus powered by one motor. The second section was a trailer connected to the first section by bellows. —The General Motors “RTS” bus was a series brought to market in the late ‘70s. It was GM’s third series of buses, and replaced the TDH “New Look” series (the fishbowls). In my humble opinion, they were GM’s best styling effort — even better than their cars. They made the humble bus look great. (I called ‘em “Starships.”) —For 16&1/2 years (1977-1993) I drove transit bus for Regional Transit Service, the transit-bus operator in Rochester, N.Y. Regional Transit had many “RTS” buses.

RE: “It looked like the stretched HD-TV I see at the Canandaigua YMCA.......” —I work out in the Canandaigua YMCA exercise-gym, and it has over three wall-mounted flat-screen HD TVs. HD TV (in this area) uses the same image used in normal-width TV, only it’s stretched to fit the increased image width. The effect is slight, but you can ascertain it. The Photoshop computer program can be used to stretch an image.

Zora Arkus-Duntov is the former hot-rodder hired by Chevrolet. He made the Corvette the great sportscar it is.

Various Corvettes have been marketed over the years; 1953-1962; the Sting-Ray from 1963-1967; the mako-sharks (also Sting-Rays) from 1968-1982; the C4s from 1983-1996; the C5s from 1997-2004; and currently the C6 (2005-to date). Earlier Corvettes didn’t go by the “C” nomenclature, and “C” nomenclature is essentially a fan thing. Ergo, C1 is 1953-1962; C2 is 1963-1967; and C3 is 1968-1982. The car pictured is a C3.