Monthly Calendar Report for November 2008

‘32 hi-boy roadster of Dennis and Debbie Kyle, of Huntington Beach, CA. (Photo by Peter Vincent.)

The November entry of my All-1932 Ford hot-rod calendar may be one of the greatest hot-rods of all time.
But maybe not. It’s just that that “Stroker” vanity-plate rings a bell.
There are others, of course: like “California Kid” and the Milner coupe from American Graffiti.
But California Kid is a ‘34 Ford with flames, and I’ve never really liked flames.
Or pin-striping. Hot-rodders always did that, as did Penske/Donohue on their Trans-Am Camaro in the late ‘60s.
And to me the ‘34 isn’t as fabulous-looking as the ‘32.
And the Milner coupe is a Model-A; and five-window as opposed to three — which to me look better. (California Kid is a three-window coupe.)
The car pictured is a hiboy roadster — purest of the pure.
About the only thing wrong is the surfeit of louvers.
They’ve even louvered the gas-tank, probably making it non-functional.
People put imitation beer-kegs, and real beer-kegs, between the frame-rails in front of the radiator. Moon Equipment Company began making imitation beer-keg fuel-tanks — and the gas-cap was a wheel knock-off.
They were used in racing; and held only enough fuel for a run or two.
The car pictured can have a beer-keg fuel tank, and the owners, Dennis and Debbie Kyle, can install various wheels. The headlights also are detachable.
The car is an old racecar; speed-trials at Bonneville Salt Flats in 1978.
Amazingly, this car isn’t photographed at Bonneville, unlike so many other cars in this calendar.
It’s photographed in southern California, about the only place it could be driven and enjoyed.
That’s because it’s a topless roadster; i.e. it better not rain.
I’ve been to southern California. It hardly rains at all. (When it does, there are mudslides.)
It has a 327 Chevy Small-Block, and a Halibrand Quick-Change rear, which is visible.

Bam-bam-bam-bam! (Photo by Mike Usenia.)

The November photo of my All-Pennsy Color Calendar is a picture of the same train that was on the April entry of my All-Pennsy Color Calendar, two Pennsylvania Railroad Decapods on the front of a Mt. Carmel ore-train in 1956.
The Mt. Carmel ore-trains, in the middle ‘50s, were the swan-song of Pennsy steam-powered freight locomotion.
Pennsy would lash four Decapod steam-locomotives on a heavy ore-train; two on the front, two pushing on the rear.
That’s four crews. Steam-locomotives couldn’t be MU-ed like diesels.
The train would then traverse the uphill Mt. Carmel branch to Mt. Carmel, PA to a connection with the Lehigh Valley Railroad.
The iron-ore was for processing, probably at the steel-mills in Wilkes-Barre, Scranton or Bethlehem.
The 2-10-0 Decapod was the quintessential Pennsylvania Railroad steam freight locomotive, designed mainly for lugging up torturous grades.
The boiler and drive-pistons were HUGE; Pennsy men called them Hippos.
And unlike SuperPower high-speed steam freight locomotives, as developed in the ‘20s (the Dek is late teens), they were all drive-wheels, and no trailing-truck to support the firebox. (Although there was a two-wheel pilot-truck in the front.)
Driver size was only 62 inches; not extremely small (I’ve seen them at 56 inches: “pie-plates”), but not large enough to allow adequate counter-balancing.
With those unbalanced drive-wheels clear back beneath the cab, up-and-down hammering would occur at speed.
A Dek might get 50 mph, if you could stand it.
But with the full weight of the heavy locomotive spread over 10 drive-wheels, they could pull anything.
The Deks were immensely powerful, and reflected the railroad’s need to drag heavy trains over its challenging route profile.
But the Dek could be too much for itself.
-A) With a firebox of only 70 square feet, it could run itself out of steam. I have an audio recording of one stalling in Tyrone, PA on the mainline.
It’s uphill, but not very steep.
-B) I also have a photograph of bent drive-rods at trackside, behind a crippled Decapod.
The rod had twisted like a pretzel.
Being steel forgings, they could do that without breaking. The breakage was at the drive-pins; enough to throw the rod off.
Sometimes the drive-pin itself might shear, or a cylinder-head might blow off.
Norfolk & Western Railroad was more state-of-the-art when it came to steam freight locomotion. They would power two driver-sets with one boiler, an “articulated.” Being one boiler and one firebox, it could operate with one crew.
The effort of two Decapods with only one crew, and Norfolk & Western was always shooting for greater efficiency — like Pennsy they developed and built their own locomotives. Their articulateds used less fuel per ton-mile.
But Pennsy had so much traffic they could afford double-crewing — and less efficient engines. Norfolk & Western had a lot of traffic too (it served the prolific Pocahontas [“poke-uh-HON-tus”] coal region), and their profile was even more challenging than Pennsy.
Pennsy tried to merge with Norfolk & Western, but that was scotched. Pennsy eventually merged with arch-competitor New York Central, but that (Penn-Central) went bankrupt in two years, and belly-up six years later.
The failed Penn-Central and other bankrupt east-coast railroads were merged into Conrail by government fiat, but that became independent as it became more successful.
Meanwhile Norfolk & Western merged with Southern Railway to be competitive with CSX Transportation in the east.
CSX was itself the merger of many eastern lines into Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad, a successful coal road like N&W.
Conrail was eventually broken up and sold. First it was to go to CSX, but NS wanted a piece of the action.
So Conrail was broken up; most of the ex-NYC lines going to CSX, and most of the ex-Pennsy lines going to NS.
Pennsy’s old electrified New York Division had become part of Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor, so Conrail had to use another route to access the New York City area; namely Reading (“REDD-ing” not “READ-ing”) and Central of New Jersey.
NS uses that route.
The yards in Newark, etc. across the Hudson from New York City are still a Conrail operation; joint CSX and NS.
So now Norfolk Southern operates what is in effect the Pennsy, with its VAST traffic flows.
The cardinal rule I have at the mighty Curve (part of the ex-Pennsy main’s ascent of the Allegheny barrier), is wait 20 minutes and a train passes.
Sometimes it’s longer, but then usually a burst of trains occurs.
Often I see two at-a-time.
The mighty Curve has three of the original four tracks remaining — I’ve seen all three occupied.
“Milepost 238.8, track three; no defects.” Whup; here comes another, westbound uphill at Brickyard Crossing. We ain’t leavin’ yet.

The next three calendar pictures are equally good, perhaps better than the Decapods — but the Deks are Pennsy steam in a bucolic setting.
The piks are only arranged that way so that one isn’t stepping on another.

Commonwealth Aircraft “Boomerang.” (Photo by Philip Makanna©.)

The November 2008 entry of my Ghosts WWII warbirds calendar has a Commonwealth Aircraft “Boomerang.”
Never heard of it. Well, of course not. It’s Australian, not north American.
I had to research the “Boomerang.” It was the Australian response to the inability of the Brits to supply enough fighter-aircraft to the Pacific Theater, and the prolific American aircraft industry supplying the north American military first.
The Boomerang is apparently a redesign of the successful Commonwealth Aircraft “Wirraway” trainer in Australia.
At first, the Wirraway was going to be updated, but it was totally redesigned for improvement.
It uses the Pratt & Whitney Twin-Wasp R-1830 1,200 horsepower radial engine used in the American Grumman Hellcat naval fighter — the motor apparently manufactured in Australia under license.
The Boomerang is small and maneuverable, but was slow and unfavorable at high altitudes.
Yet it succeeded with radial-engine technology, unlike the American water-cooled V12-powered fighter planes.
Of course, the U.S. Navy did quite well with radial-engine technology, and the radial-engine guys were bending incredible horsepower out of their motors.
So much the Army Air Corps gravitated toward radial-engines: the Pratt and Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp engine of 2,535 or more horsepower in the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt.
The Mustang, etc. might look more streamlined, but the P-47 was a sledgehammer.
Apparently only two Boomerangs are left — this is one.
They were replaced by superior fighter technology in the Pacific theater: e.g. the Mustang and the Spitfire. American industry especially was gushing airplanes.

Loaded Norfolk Southern coal-train threads an ice-encrusted cut in Ohio. (Photo by Willie Brown, NS engineer.)

For November, my Norfolk Southern Employees calendar has a loaded Norfolk Southern coal-train negotiating an icicle-encrusted cut near Powhatton Point, Ohio.
The train is powered by a single unit, SD40-2 #3331.
I had to research #3331 to see what it was, since I can no longer discern an SD40-2 from an SD60, etc.
#3331 has apparently done helper-duty on Horseshoe Curve (the “mighty Curve”).
In fact, it may be doing it now; I’ll have to see if I see it next time at the mighty Curve.
SD40-2s are antiques; built in the ‘70s-early ‘80s.
A diesel freight locomotive might last 15-20 years, about the same as a bus — but the SD40-2s have lasted way longer, Steam locomotives might last 30 years, but were much more labor-intensive.
SD40-2s have been used as helpers on The Hill a long time.
I asked Big Mike Kraniak (“CRANE-eee-yak”), a railfan supreme, and proprietor of Tunnel Inn in Gallitzin, PA (“guh-LITZ-in”), the trackside Bed & Breakfast we always stay at when visiting the mighty Curve, if he had any idea when the SD40-2s might be retired.
He allowed that the reason they’ve lasted so long is because General Motors (Electromotive Corporation) allowed outside suppliers to make replacement parts for the SD40-2. (General Electric won’t — their Dash-9 freight locomotives.)
This made it possible for the railroad to keep the SD40-2s running at low cost.
#3331 in this picture is dragging a loaded coal train near Powhatton Point, Ohio.
Powhatton Point is a location in Ohio next to the West Virginia panhandle that goes up next to Pennsylvania.
Looks like an ex-Pennsy line up to Steubenville, connecting to an old Pennsy main to Pittsburgh.
It’s only a single unit, so it’s probably downhill from the coal loader to the mainline.
But maybe not, it could be mainline too, but I think it would warrant more than a single SD40-2 if it was.
Like perhaps two SD70Ms or GE Dash-9 road units.

“Factory shop-order.” (Photo by Richard Prince.)

The November entry of my All-Corvette calendar has a “factory shop-order” 1967 Corvette.
You can tell by the six taillights.
The racing-stripe is also “factory shop-order,” and it has a wooden Nardi steering-wheel and American Racing wheels.
What this means is the Corvette factory installed these options per “factory shop-order.” —They’re not normal options.
That six taillight rear has to be a special modification of the body-mold, unless the taillight holes are just cut-outs in the rear panel.
That could be easily done, but if any sort of recess is required for those taillights, the mold for that fiberglass-reinforced plastic rear body-panel had to be modified per special order.
This “factory shop-order” Corvette was a special order for Bob Wingate, a salesman at Clippinger Chevrolet in southern Californy, who sold more Corvettes than anyone.
It also looks like the car may have been photographed at Long Beach Drag Strip; one of the most famous drag-strips on the planet.
Oil refineries are in the background, as they are at Long Beach.
Six-taillight Corvettes were fairly common. I saw a few; and always wondered if it was customization by the owner.
Perhaps not.

Oh-oh............ (Photo by Martin Zak.)

I almost skipped the November photo of my Audio-Visual Designs black & white All-Pennsy calendar.
I only included it because it’s a sterling example of what rail photographers dreaded most in the ‘50s when diesel-locomotives were replacing steam.
A steam-powered train is visible far away, but as it approaches, a diesel-locomotive (“growler”) is on the point — horror-of-horrors!
You get this now. Railfan excursions are often powered by restored steam-locomotives, but they often have a diesel behind in case they break down — or the diesel may make the excursion possible.
Not always the case, but often is.
Norfolk & Western 611 (a fabulous 4-8-4 restored steam engine, since retired) broke down once on an excursion out of Buffalo.
“Ya gotta expect this kind of thing,” the crew said. “That steel is over 50 years old.”
My brother-from-Boston and I were chasing it, and it crippled where it was supposed to turn; far from Buffalo, in Girard, PA — a break in the framing for the trailing-truck.
The entire consist had to sit for hours until a diesel could rescue it.
The last steam-engine came off of Pennsy in 1957. This picture is in March of that year.
The steam-engine is a 4-8-2 Mountain, the standard steam freight engine Pennsy used on its Middle Division across Pennsylvania for years.
The diesel (#8624) is an Alco RS11. Alco is no longer in business.

The November entry of my Three Stooges calendar is not worth running.
It’s one of those laughable movie stills, this one of Moe and Larry fixing to perform medical service on Curly.
Larry is sharpening large butcher-knives, and Moe is aiming a giant hypodermic needle at Curly’s forearm.
Moe is mugging for the camera, and Larry is looking devilish.
Curly is probably saying “Wub-wub-wub,” but looks like he’s singing an opera aria.
He has his hand over his heart, and mouth open as if singing “Oh, solo-mio!”

The “Penske/Donohue Trans-Am Camaro” is the Chevrolet Camaro racing-car entered by Roger Penske (“PENN-skee”) and driven by Mark Donohue (“don-uh-HUE”) in the Sports-Car Club of America’s (SCCA) Trans-American racing series for pony-cars. Donohue won a few championships, and the Penske/Donohue car was dominant.

From 1928 until 1931 Ford’s offering was the “Model A;” it replaced the Model T. In 1932 Ford introduced a V8 powered car, and its four-cylinder car was the Model B. —These cars are the basis of all hot-rodding.

A “five-window coupe” is a coupe with five windows separate from the windshield. A “three-window” has only three windows. “Five-windows” had a small window behind each door.

A “hiboy” is a car at standard height on the frame-rails — not dropped, as in “channeled,” where channels were built into the car-body to allow it to be sit lower on the frame; although the front-axle may have been dropped, giving the car a rake, dropping forward toward the front. A “hiboy” also lacks full fendering, but may have individual motorcycle fenders.

“Bonneville Salt-flats,” next to Great Salt Lake in Utah, is a vast open flat area where top-speed runs can be made, but the running surface is salt.

A “roadster,” at that time, was an open car that only seated two, and lacked a convertible top. Since then, open two-seaters with convertible tops are called “roadsters.”

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 larger 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.

A “Halibrand Quick-Change rear” was a special modification of the standard Ford “Banjo” rear axle (called that because it looked like a banjo). A small cover-cap could be removed allowing quick change of the differential gears, so the rear-axle could be tailored to the application. —A higher ratio provided more git; and a lower ratio provided faster top-end speed. They were made by Halibrand.

“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.

A “Decapod” (“Dek”) was a 2-10-0 steam freight locomotive.

“SuperPower” was an application of steam-locomotive engineering made available by Lima (“LIE-mah,” not “LEE-mah”) Locomotive Works, of Lima, Ohio in the late ‘20s. The idea was create a boiler-firebox of sufficient size and capacity to generate steam at continuous high speeds.

“70 square feet” was a standard Pennsy firebox size, 70 square feet of grate area (the area coal was spread on). SuperPower was running around 100 square feet — almost the size of a living-room.

The “Pocahontas coal region” is a large area of West Virginia and eastern Kentucky underlaid with coal.

An “articulated” is a steam railroad locomotive with two-or-more (usually two) driver-sets powered by one boiler, “articulated” in the sense the front driver-set was on a hinge independent of the rear (which was solidly mounted to the boiler), so the locomotive could track through curves — especially crossover switches — despite it’s extreme length. —At first “articulateds” were Mallets (“mal-LETT” or “mal-EEEE” [the French pronunciation]), a French principle whereby steam was used first by the rear driver-set, and then used again by the front driver-set. But eventually Mallets became passé, and fresh steam was used to power both driver-sets. More than two driver-sets (Erie Railroad had triples) used too much steam, and ran out. But that was around the turn-of-the-century. Later on a boiler might have been built big enough to power three driver-sets; but “articulateds” never got larger than two driver-sets.

“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. Conrail included other bankrupt east-coast railroads, like Erie-Lackawanna and Lehigh Valley; but eventually went private as it became more successful. Conrail has since been broken up, sold to CSX Transportation Industries (railroad) and Norfolk Southern railroad. CSX got mainly the old New York Central routes, and NS got the old PRR routes.

The “mighty Curve” (“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.)

The “Allegheny barrier” is the northeast-to-southwest range of mountains across Pennsylvania (and farther south) that was a barrier to west-east commerce in the early 1800s. This was because it was unbreachable with the technology available at that time (usually canals). There were no gaps — no low points to thread a canal through. —Early railroads also found them a barrier, since crossing them required steep grades that made railroading impossible. Early railroads did not have the grading technology now available. Pennsy’s Horseshoe Curve was a grading trick that made a railroad crossing of the Allegheny barrier possible.

RE: “Milepost 238.8, track three; no defects........” —I have a railroad radio scanner that monitors the Norfolk Southern operating channels. “Milepost 238.8, track three; no defects” is a machine broadcast from a trackside defect detector, that the train-engineer monitors after the train passes the defect-detector. I can monitor this transmission too, with my scanner. Hearing “Milepost 238.8, track three; no defects” I know a train has passed the defect-detector at Milepost 238.8, and the train is on Track Three (uphill). 238.8 is the defect-detector at “Brickyard Crossing;” actually Coburn Road in Altoona, but next to an abandoned brick-yard.

For 16&1/2 years (1977-1993) I drove transit bus for Regional Transit Service, the transit-bus operator in Rochester, NY. A bus lasted about 15-20 years.

“The Hill” is the Pennsylvania Railroad’s crossing of the Allegheny Barrier. The eastern (westbound) climb was the steepest, and about 12 miles. Bottom-to-top was a climb of over 950 feet; a 1.75% grade; 1.75 feet up per 100 feet forward — not very steep, but steep enough to often require helpers. Horseshoe Curve is part of it.

A “drag strip” was a quarter-mile straight, level two-lane auto-race track for drag-racing; which is standing-start to finish over the quarter-mile. Drag-racers are now getting over 300 mph from a standing-start by the end of a quarter-mile. —Drag-racing was especially popular during the late ‘50s and throughout the ‘60s.

“Long Beach,” CA.

“Alco” is American Locomotive Company of Schenectady, NY. For years, American Locomotive Company was a primary manufacturer of railroad steam locomotives. (It was originally a merger of many steam locomotive manufacturers.) —With the changeover by railroads to diesel-locomotives, American Locomotive Company brought out a line of diesel-electric railroad locomotives much like the railroads were switching to, and changed its name to “Alco.” Alco tanked a while ago; they never competed as well as EMD.