Monthly Calendar Report for May 2009

The railroad-crossing at Luray, VA. (Photo by O. Winston Link)

—The May 2009 entry of my O. Winston Link “Steam and Steel” calendar is what I consider the best railroad photograph Link ever took, his famous Luray, VA grade-crossing shot in March of 1956.
It’s 3 a.m., and Link is set up at trackside with his 89 bazilyun flashbulbs — actually 36.
A Norfolk & Western freight barrels through, powered by a Y-class 2-8-8-2 articulated, and Link records an image for the ages.
(Link took a number of photographs here, including one of the actual watchman.)
Two things stand out about this photograph for this old railfan.
—1) Is that up-in-the-air crossing watchman’s shanty.
Ya don’t see them any more.
Used to be the railroad/highway grade crossings were protected by a watchman, a human being.
It’s not that way any more. —Maintaining a gizmo cost less than that watchman.
The approaching train trips a circuit that drops the gates, and gets the red warning-lights flashing.
Often it also activates a bell — although now the bell-clangs are often just audio recordings.
In Haddonfield in south Jersey, the old Revolutionary War town adjacent to the suburb I grew up in, the alignment of the old Camden & Atlantic, by then the Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines, to Atlantic City from Camden, crossed Kings Highway at grade.
Kings Highway was the main north-south drag through Haddonfield, and was very busy.
When a train approached, two guys would waddle out from nearby Haddonfield station, one to flag the crossing and stop traffic, and the other to crank down the crossing gates.
Doing so seemed to drop all the other railroad-crossing gates throughout Haddonfield, and also set the red crossing lights flashing.
I used to love seeing this happen. A train was coming.
It was the late ‘40s, and trains on the PRSL were still steam-powered.
I don’t remember Haddonfield having an up-in-the-air watchman’s shanty; although I think there was one at ground level, but it was removed about 1947 or ‘48.
There may have been an elevated watchman’s shanty farther up the line at another grade-crossing in Haddonfield.
There also was a tower in western Haddonfield, where a bypass to Philadelphia merged into the old C&A alignment.
The old C&A alignment is now a rapid-transit line, and the line from Atlantic City to Philadelphia still exists but is NJ Transit.
Everything has been dropped into a below-grade cut through Haddonfield. Kings Highway is still what it was, but now on an overpass.
Pavonia (“puh-VONE-eee-yuh:”) Yard in Camden had a tiny shanty — the only one I remember — and it was elevated like this one.
Pavonia was a solution to the many tiny railroad yards within Camden, all at riverside and cramped up against what used to be ferry-crossings over the Delaware River into Philadelphia from Camden — which is just Philadelphia extended into south Jersey.
Pavonia was built in eastern Camden out along the old Camden & Amboy, by then Pennsy’s Bordentown branch, the first railroad in the nation, between Philadelphia and New York City, although with ferries at each end, since it was entirely in New Jersey.
It took a while for a railroad to get around to bridging the Delaware River, which was done at Trenton, NJ, upstream.
The Hudson River was tunneled under at New York City in 1910, but that’s only passenger service.
Freight from the west into New York City is still ferried, although also trucked.
Back then the Bordentown branch was still pretty active.
Trains from New York City to Atlantic City would switch over to the Bordentown, and then bomb southwest into Camden, before turning east for Atlantic City.
A main highway (the “Marlton Pike”) headed east out of northeastern Camden, and crossed a lot of Pavonia Yard at grade.
The yard was so busy with switching moves, a watchman’s shanty had to be built to protect the highway.
There also was the chance an Atlantic City express from New York City would bomb through.
It was a way from my paternal grandparents in Camden, a way that I preferred — mainly because I’d see trains.
But not my parents. It was more direct, but very rough over the railroad crossing.
Marlton Pike now leaps over the yard-throat on an overpass; no fun any more for a railfan.
—2) The other thing is those reflective glass buttons on the sign-lettering.
Ya don’t see that any more; now the entire signs are reflective.

Steve McQueen’s 1963 Ferrari 250 GT/L Lusso.

I was going to run the May entry of my Oxman legendary sportscar calendar third behind the hot-rodded Model A (below), but every time I see it I think “wow!”
Just about any Ferrari is collectible on brand-name alone, but the “Lusso” is the second-most collectible road Ferrari (the road legal and more luxurious version of the Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta).
I haven’t seen this particular car, but I have seen the most collectible road Ferrari of all time at a Watkins Glen sportscar show, what appears to be a 275 GTB Berlinetta coupe. —Identification of specific Ferraris is always difficult, since so many were one-offs (GTBs weren’t).

The most collectible road Ferrari ever; a 275 GTB (Gran-Touring-Berlinetta), Watkins Glen. (Photo by the so-called “old guy” with the dreaded and utterly reprehensible Nikon D100.)

Only 350 Lussos were made.
This is a car once owned by actor Steve McQueen.

That’s McQueen.

It’s powered by a three-liter version of the fabulous Colombo (“co-LUM-bo”) V12.
The Colombo V12s, designed by Gioacchino Colombo, are the most famous Ferrari motor.
Larger V12s were designed by Aurelio Lampredi (“lam-PRED-eee”), but they weren’t the fabulous Colombo motor; which of course isn’t as exotic as what’s available now, even on a garden-variety sport motorcycle.
The Colombo V12 is single overhead camshaft on a two-valve hemispheric cylinder-head. It used multiple two-barrel carburetors (three, or as many as six) — imagine trying to synchronize all that.
But for its time (late ‘40s on) the Colombo V12 was extraordinary. Its horsepower output was comparable to Detroit V8s of twice its displacement.
The most collectible Ferraris of all time are the early Testa-Rossa racecars; about 1960.
Phenomenal horsepower in a gorgeous two-seater sportscar body. “Testa-Rossa” because the cast-aluminum cam covers atop the cylinder-heads were painted red. (Red-Head.)
Current garden-variety sport motorcycles are double overhead camshafts with four valves per cylinder, and will rev to the moon.
But in 1963 a Lusso Ferrari was extraordinarily desirable; more so than even the fabulous 409 Chevy (introduced in the 1961 model-year).

“Live Wire.”

—The May 2009 entry in my Oxman hot-rod calendar is a 1931 Model-A Ford “low-boy” five-window coupe hot-rod, chopped and channeled.
“Chopped and channeled” means the top was “chopped,” and that channels were built into the body-floor so the body could sit lower on the frame.
Three-or-four inches would get hacksawed (“chopped”) out of the side-window posts, so the roof could be lowered.
Then everything could be welded back together for a low appearance, which looked really cool except to the poor scrunched driver.
“Channeling” is as described.
A “Five-Window” coupe is a two-seater coupe with small windows behind the doors, so that the total window count (less windshield) was five.
There were also “Three-Window” coupes, which lack the small windows behind the doors.
In my humble opinion these look better; very spare, and not as busy as a “five-window.”
I don’t remember the Model-A being built as a “three-window,” but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t.
The “Three-Windows” I remember were the ‘32 and ‘34 Fords. —Willys also had a three-window coupe for 1940 or so; much better looking than the ‘40 Ford, which looked pretty good — except it’s five-window.
The engine in this car is 1952 Cadillac.
In the 1949 model-year Cadillac and Oldsmobile introduced the first modern overhead-valve V8 engines.
They were very attractive to hot-rodders, because they could generate more horsepower then Henry Ford’s old side-valve V8 (the “Flat-Head”) introduced in the 1932 model-year.
Flat-Heads were cheap and available; the Olds and Caddy V8s weren’t. Ford produced the Flat-Head through the 1953 model-year, and hot-rodders continued to use it.
But then in the 1955 model-year Chevrolet fielded its incredible Small-Block V8, and thereby put the old Flat-Head out to pasture.
Small-Blocks were cheap and available; and responded well to hot-rodding.
The Chevy Small-Block also used ball-stud rockers, dispensing with the heavy rocker-shafts used on the Cadillac and Oldsmobile V8s.
Eventually Cadillac and Oldsmobile went to ball-stud rockers, as did just about every manufacturer.
And not being tied to a long rocker-shaft, the valves could be splayed to maximize flow; e.g. the Chevy Big-Block and the Ford Cleveland motor.
My friend Art Dana (“DAY-nuh”) was building a Model-A hot-rod like this, but his was an open roadster with a souped-up ‘56 Pontiac V8 motor.
Dana is a retired bus-driver from Regional Transit Service, Rochester’s transit-bus operator where I drove bus 16&1/2 years — until my stroke.
He and I share similar interests; e.g. hot-rodding.
Sadly, Dana has Parkinson’s, and was unable to complete the car and had to sell it.
It was a great concept, but crude, of course, as hot-rods tend to be.
The Pontiac V8 was much heavier than what was in there originally, so the weight balance was terrible.
So much the front shocks were overwhelmed.
There also was some question that humble banjo rear-axle, from a ‘46 Ford, could have sustained the output of that Pontiac V8.
But the car’s gone regrettably — a victim of electrical confusion.
The taillights were six-volt ‘50s Pontiac units, and would burn out with the car’s 12-volt electrical system.
People would come by, apparently just as confused as Art, and cross wires. No one was using a flow-chart.

Northbound Pennsylvania Railroad I1 Decapod (2-10-0) with coal-train on the Elmira Branch north of Trout Run, PA; 1957. (Photo by Jim Shaughnessy©.)

—The May 2009 entry of my Audio-Visual Designs B&W All-Pennsy Calendar is a classic Jim Shaughnessy shot of a northbound coal-train on the Elmira Division, now abandoned.
The Elmira Division is the old Northern Central line from Williamsport, PA north to Elmira, NY.
The line continued north to Canandaigua, and was extended further north to Lake Ontario at Sodus Point.
There a large elevated coal wharf was built for transloading coal into lake ships, for shipment to Canada.
Most of that line was abandoned; although some continues in shortline service. The coal wharf was also removed.
The old Northern Central line, from Baltimore north into New York state, was an outlet for Pennsylvania coal; which was why Pennsy got it in the late 1800s.
Shaughnessy, as mentioned before, was a railfan photographer from Binghamton, NY, who took railfan photographs with his press-camera in the late ‘50s.
Mainly he shot Delaware & Hudson, which traveled through Binghamton.
As a railroad, D&H was an outgrowth of the Delaware & Hudson Canal Corporation, and extended up to Albany and Montreal, and down to the anthracite coal region around Scranton.
It became a conduit for anthracite coal.
Shaughnessy would stray west to Pennsy’s old Elmira branch, primarily because Pennsy was still using steam on it, clear up to the end of steam in 1957.
The old Northern Central route was challenging; well suited to Pennsy’s Decapod steamers (2-10-0).
The area north of Himrod Junction north of Elmira up to Penn Yan, NY is especially stiff, apparently still operated by Finger Lakes Railway.
Pennsy would slam coal-trains up the old Northern Central to the coal-wharf at Sodus Point.
And there would be Shaughnessy trackside north of Williamsport in the bucolic Lycoming Creek valley to record the Deks slugging it out.
The one pictured is #4311. They rode rough, but were very strong. Basic pulling power. Little more than 10 drivers under a very heavy locomotive.
I have ridden part of the old Northern Central route, a short segment operated by Ontario Midland shortline.
OMID’s ex-Pennsy trackage is from where the old Pennsy crossed the Hojack at grade at Wallington, east of Webster, NY, down to Newark, where it crosses the Water-Level via a bridge, and also interchanges.
(OMID also operates much of the Hojack, but not west of Webster.)
By that time the ex-Pennsy route was only a box-car sized tunnel of leaves.
It was a “Fall Foliage” trip, punctuated by Alco power. (OMID is nearly all Alco.)
It was a nice ride, in the valley of Mud Creek.
Used were the Rochester Chapter’s (of the National Railway Historical Society) set of retired New York Central “Empire State Express” cars; fluted stainless steel.
The excursion gave an idea of what the Pennsy Deks were up against, although by then the railroad was easy; just very rural.

A Fairey Firefly. (Photo by Philip Makanna©)

—The May 2009 entry of my Ghosts WWII warbirds calendar is a Fairey Firefly, an airplane I’m not familiar with.
The Firefly is a fairly large and heavy airplane, bigger than a Mustang.
It was designed to meet British military requirements for a reconnaissance airplane that could operate from aircraft-carriers.
It’s a redesign of the Fairey Fulmar.
It’s engine is the Rolls-Royce Griffon, bigger and more powerful than the Rolls-Royce Merlin, but still a water-cooled V12. (2,249 cubic inches versus 1,649 cubic inches.)
The Rolls-Royce Merlin was used in the Spitfire at 1,478 horsepower, and a version was built by Packard here in America at 1,695 horsepower for the Mustang.
The Griffon in this airplane is rated at 2,250 horsepower.
It has a four-bladed propeller.
Only a few Fireflies are left, at least three operable. —As opposed to 89 bazilyun Mustangs; actually about 150. (About 50 Spitfires are still airworthy.)
The one pictured is NX518WB out of California.
It looks like it’s flying over the California desert.
Of interest to me is that NX518WB appears to have wing-root radiators.
The Griffon engine is water-cooled, and apparently early Fireflies had a chin radiator beneath the propeller-spinner like a P40.
But then the radiators were relocated into long rectangular housings ahead of the wing-roots.
You can see them here; long rectangular scoops at the wing-roots.
Seems such an arrangement would render better weight-balance.

Norfolk Southern mixed freight rolls through Payne, OH toward Bellevue. (Photo by John Lindquist.)

—Ho-hum! The May 2009 entry of my Norfolk Southern Employees calendar is a standard three-quarter view of a Norfolk Southern freight-train.
I suppose it was chosen because it’s the May entry, and it has pretty purple wildflowers in it.
The lead locomotive is a General Electric C40-9W, a Dash-9 of 4,000 horsepower, six-axle trucks (“C”), and wide cab (“W”).
Don’t even know if a regular cab version is available any more — the arrangement found on early road-switchers.
The full-width nose was a special modification of the regular narrow road-switcher nose, supposedly safer.
The front of a wide-cab locomotive is full width like the early cab-units (F and FA), but behind the cab it’s still a road-switcher, with a narrow casing of the engine, etc. with walkways along side.
Supposedly a full-width cab renders better protection in impacts.
Such cabs were better insulated to seal out noise and weather, thus improving the working environment.
Just the early diesel-locomotive cabs were a step up from steam locomotives, where the crew had to hang out in the open.
The engineer had to hang out an open side window, and usually the whole back of the cab was open so the Fireman could access the coal in the tender. —Not so in Canada.
And it seems General Electric made the Dash-9 at 4,400 horsepower; and sold mostly them.
But Norfolk Southern specified a derated 4,000 horsepower version to prolong their operational life.
One wonders how long this unit will last.
Soon they become moribund — already they are being replaced by EMD’s SD70M on premier freight-trains. And a six-axle road locomotive can’t be bumped down into local service or switching.
I’ve seen rusty GE units in the Altoona scrap lines, only 15 years old or so. —A steam locomotive usually lasted 30 years.

1969 American Motors AMX. (Photo by David Newhardt.)

—The May 2009 entry in my Motorbooks Musclecars calendar gets my boobie-prize this time, but that’s not fair, because it’s really a pretty good picture.
It’s just that I’ve always felt that the AMX was an el-cheapo cobble-job; hardly a true sportscar, more something a hot-rodder might put together under a tree in his backyard.
The AMX is the AMC Javelin pony car with the back seat area removed.
The entire section holding the rear seats was removed, making the car a two-seater.
The AMC Javelin was a pretty good pony car, although not a Mustang or Camaro.
Years ago (1970), the Penske/Donohue (“PENN-skee”) Trans-Am team switched from the Camaro to the Javelin, causing fans to charge sell-out. Mark Donohue (long deceased) was the driver, and Roger Penske the entrant. (Penske is still alive.)
But they got the old turkey running pretty good; even won a championship with it.
The AMX may have been a two-seater, but it was hardly a sportscar.
That’s the front-end of a Javelin, as is the rear-axle and tail.
The only things missing are the rear seats, and the surrounding chassis/body area.
When John Z. DeLorean (“de-LORE-ee-un”) was head honcho of Chevrolet in the ‘70s, he wanted to do the same thing to the Camaro and call it a Corvette.
Thankfully, he didn’t succeed. Though the Corvette is a bit of an overblown tub, it’s at least a sportscar — and so far, the best sportscar America has ever offered.
It was groomed to excellence by Zora Arkus-Duntov, and made good use of the fantastic Small-Block V8 introduced by Chevrolet in the 1955 model-year.
Chopping the Camaro and rebadging it as a Corvette would have been a HUGE step backward.
This didn’t happen — the ‘Vette guys prevailed.
Also of interest is that filmy speed-limit sign behind the rear tire.
The publishers probably hoped we wouldn’t notice.
The photographer probably shot a slew of angles, that included masking out that speed-limit sign.
Yet the publishers decided this shot was best — and we hope no one notices that filmy speed-limit sign.
—Coulda been fixed with Photoshop®.