Monthly Calendar-Report for June 2014

Empty coal-cars up The Hill. (Photo by BobbaLew.)

—The June 2014 entry of my own calendar is a photograph by yrs trly at a location my brother-and-I found the weekend restored Nickel Plate steam-locomotive #765 was in Altoona for employee-appreciation excursions.
That is, it’s not a Phil Faudi location, Phil being the railfan extraordinaire who takes me to various locations in the area to photograph trains.
They are the basis of my calendar.
But this location is not one Phil ever took me to.
In fact, I ended up taking Phil to it myself.
Phil monitors the railroad-radio, so can know if a train is approaching.
As I recall, this photograph is a result of Phil calling me from his house.
He was not leading me around, as he often does.
He was at home with his beloved wife who has Multiple-Sclerosis.
But he was monitoring his railroad-radio from his home as my brother-and-I chased trains.
He’d call my cellphone if something was coming.
My brother-and-I were leaving this location when Phil called to report this train had just left Altoona, and we would soon be seeing it.
DROP EVERYTHING! Set back up again. Sure enough, in about five minutes here it came.
Phil saved the picture. Without Phil we would have missed it.
It’s a train of coal-gondolas, probably empty, headed back to be loaded.
We’re on The Hill over Allegheny mountain.
The locomotives are EMD SD70ACe (part of the SD70 series), what Norfolk Southern often uses for road-power.
“AC” stands for alternating-current traction-motors. Most diesel locomotives used direct-current traction-motors, and have since dieselization began.
As I understand it, alternating-current traction-motors pull better at slow speed.
These locomotives are also built to meet the new Tier-Two emission regulations, as signified by the letter “e.” Earlier SD-70s weren’t.
If the train is empty, it’s probably climbing The Hill unassisted — no helpers.
Soon it will be circling Horseshoe Curve, passing MG tower (“MG” stands for “mid-grade,” not Morris Garages, manufacturers of MG sportscars), and cresting The Hill at the tunnels in Gallitzin (“guh-LIT-zin;” as in “get”).
Then it will go back down the west slope of The Hill, and pass the webcam in Cresson (“KRESS-in”) I watch on this computer.


(It’s hard to know what to place where, since they’re all pretty good this month, except perhaps the last.)


An Iron-Works hotrod. (Photo by Philip Makanna©.)

—The June 2014 entry of my Ghosts WWII warbirds calendar is the greatest fighter-plane Grumman ever fielded in the ‘Cat series, the Bearcat.
The ‘Cat series began with the Wildcat, an excellent aircraft-carrier fighter-plane, except its landing-gear was too narrow, which made it tippy.
Slammed into a carrier-deck, it might tip and drop a wing into the deck, and perhaps veer off into the ocean.
The Grumman Hellcat rectified that by retracting the landing-gear out on the wings, spreading it.
Thousands of Hellcats saw duty.
The Bearcat is sort of a souped-up Hellcat.
Well, same motor, but a smaller and lighter airframe.
And of course, its engine, the Pratt & Whitney 18-cylinder radial, was at the apogee of its development.
2,100 horsepower in the Bearcat versus 2,000 horsepower in the Hellcat.
Engineering and ingenuity were extracting incredible power from air-cooled radials.
The Navy was partial to air-cooling. Water-cooling could be disabled.
I’ll let my WWII warbirds site weigh in:
“The Bearcat was the last of Grumman’s piston-engine carrier-based fighters.
Two XF8F-1 prototypes were ordered in November 1943, and the first of these was flown on August 21st, 1944.
Grumman decided once again to utilize the most powerful engine available at the time, the Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp -- the same engine that had powered both their Hellcat and Tigercat designs.
This time, the engine was fitted to the smallest, lightest airframe that could be built. This resulted in a highly maneuverable, fast airplane with a rate of climb 30% greater than the Hellcat.
Production of the F8F-1 began just six months after the first flight of the prototype, and the first airplane was delivered to the U.S. Navy’s VF-19 squadron on May 21st, 1945.
Only a few Bearcats had been delivered to the Navy when the end of the war halted production.
Production resumed after the war, and at least 24 U.S. Navy squadrons flew the Bearcat, some until as late as 1952.”
A few years ago (perhaps 5-10 years) I watched a Bearcat fly aerobatics. It could do anything a Mustang can do.
I call it “Iron-Works” because Grumman fighter-planes had the reputation of being tough; for which reason the manufacturer was called “Iron-Works.” Grumman fighters always returned to base — usually an aircraft-carrier — even when severely shot up.



Way to go! (Photo by Mark Shull.)

—Look at that sky!
Photographer Shull managed to snag one of the best photographs in this year’s Norfolk Southern Employees’ Photography-Contest calendar.
The June 2014 entry is a mixed Norfolk Southern freight to Hickory, N.C. passing a field of soybeans in Elmwood.
A friend I used to work with at the Canandaigua Messenger newspaper, who is more successful at photography than me, tells me the sky is what counts.
Shull managed to get this picture between thunderstorms.
He’s been trying to get it for years.
I find it appealing because it depicts the world the railroad traverses. —Locomotive shots are a dime a dozen, I’ve taken plenty myself.
Shull tried the previous year, but the field was corn.
The farmer rotated crops; soybeans this year.
There is a farm-field not far from where I live. The farmer does the same thing. Field-corn, then soybeans, then field-corn, ad infinitum.
Shull asked permission to stand out in the field. The farmer would get a calendar if the photo ran.
One also wonders about train-frequency. At Allegheny-Crossing they run often enough I can do pretty good despite not being hip.
But I doubt they run often in N.C.
Shull would have to know this train was coming.
Like me, he probably carries a railroad-radio scanner, which gets defect-detectors and train-engineers calling out signals.
But he’s also a Norfolk Southern employee, and likely knows this train is scheduled.
My knowledge of what’s coming is poor, but Allegheny-Crossing is busy enough to get by.
The locomotives are #6160, an ex-Norfolk & Western SD40-2, built in 1978, followed by #3309, an ex-Southern Railway SD40-2, built in 1979, and #3484, a rebuilt ex-Burlington-Northern Santa Fe SD40-2, originally built in 1980.
Norfolk Southern is a long-ago merger of Norfolk & Western and Southern Railway.
So-called “Dash-2” locomotives use modern electronics, as opposed to rudimentary switchgear used since time immemorial; which the SD-40 used.



’32 Ford five-window coupe hotrod. (Photo by Scott Williamson.)

—The June 2014 entry of my Oxman Hotrod Calendar is a 1932 Ford five-window coupe made into a hotrod.
It’s pretty stock; the top hasn’t been chopped.
The car is raked down toward the front, as if the front-axle has been “dropped.”
“Dropped” meaning the forged I-beam axle, or an aftermarket tube-axle, has the ends positioned above stock so the front-end is “dropped.”
To “drop” a stock forged I-beam axle, you had to heat the ends to bend the forging.
An aftermarket tube beam-axle was curved so the center mounting-point lowered the car’s front-end.
The rear of the car sits at stock height.
What we have here is a stock ’32 Ford five-window coupe. Five windows because it has five windows other than the windshield. A three-window coupe doesn’t have the small windows behind the doors. I think the three-windows look better, especially chopped.

A three-window coupe with WAY too much motor. (Photo by Scott Williamson, I think.)

The car is built out of the entire drive-train of a wrecked ’58 Corvette. The engine is ‘Vette, as are the tranny and rear-axle.
The exhaust-headers also have lakes-caps, which removed leave open exhaust. When capped the exhaust diverts through mufflers.
A hotrod lives near where I live, a chopped ’32 Ford two-door sedan in gray primer. It’s very low to the ground, and its exhaust is open.
It’s not very loud, but its exhaust is clearly open.
Every once in a while I hear it revving up through the gears: glorious!
A few years ago I attended a car-show where a guy was tooling around in a ’60 283 Chevy with open-exhausts.
I was smitten.
I hadn’t heard anything like that since attending drag-races in the middle ‘60s.
I notice this car has a coon-tail attached to its radio-antenna. A period-touch I would never do.
When I was in high-school (early ‘60s) the period-touch was to mount dual swept radio-antennas atop the rear fenders. We also walked our high-school hallways with two pencils wedged atop our ears — “duals” we called ‘em.
Does anyone remember this stuff? If the Ivy-League buckle on your chinos was unbuckled, it meant you were unattached and available. If buckled you were “going steady.”
I notice this car also has an Indianapolis-Speedway decal.



Ready to roll west. (Joe Suo Collection©.)

—The June 2014 entry of my Audio-Visual Designs black-and-white All-Pennsy Calendar is a Pennsy Mountain (4-8-2) cooling its heels near Duncannon before heading west on Pennsy’s storied Middle Division.
The Susquehanna (“suss-kwee-HA-nuh;” as in “and”) river is at left, View Tower is ahead, and that’s Cove Mountain behind.
More than anything, the Middle Division was Pennsy. Rivers of freight travelled it. The Middle Division is part of the railroad originally built.
When torrents of freight got routed into Pittsburgh, it was aimed at the Middle Division. The Middle Division was essentially Harrisburg to Altoona, PA, half the original Pennsy main.

Mountains get serviced at Denholm. (Photo by Don Wood.)

Pennsy built a giant locomotive servicing facility at Denholm, PA, about halfway into the Middle Division.
It was once 12 tracks; it’s down to five in the picture at left.
Denholm ended with the stopping of steam-locomotion, and was torn down.
The train pictured will probably stop at Denholm. There it would be coaled and watered before continuing to Altoona.
In Altoona the Mountain would be replaced with something more appropriate to slogging The Hill.
But on the Middle Division the Mountain locomotives were perfect. A grade somewhat, but not much. That engine might cruise at 50 mph.
The Mountain was probably Pennsy’s most successful steam-locomotive design. Others came later, but the J-1 wasn’t a Pennsy design, and the T-1 was smoky and slippery.
There were massive Q-series duplexes, but they weren’t very successful.
Furthermore, a duplex has a long driver wheelbase. It needs straight track.
The Mountain had only a 70-square-foot firebox grate, a standard Pennsy size. 70 square-feet was used on many Pennsy locomotives, like the K-4 Pacific (4-6-2), and the I-1 Decapod (2-10-0). 70 square-feet is large for a Pacific.
But the Mountain also had a combustion-chamber ahead of the firebox, an area to more fully burn its coal.
Other Pennsy engines didn’t have a combustion-chamber. They weren’t as good generating steam as a Mountain.
The Mountain is pretty much devoid of “gadgets;” appliances that enhance steam-generation. Pennsy abhorred “gadgets;” they had to be maintained.
Just beef up the basic locomotive.
Sadly, Pennsy’s steam-locomotive development sort of fell apart after the ‘20s, mainly due to the expense of electrification. The Mountain, developed in the ‘20s, was Pennsy’s last successful steam-locomotive.
Pennsy’s biggest mistake was jumping on Baldwin-Locomotive-Works’ duplex bandwagon. Multiple cylinders over a long driver wheelbase.
This vastly reduces the weight of the siderod assembly.
But it also requires straight railroad. West of Pittsburgh is fairly straight, but Pennsylvania isn’t.
The T-1s and Q freighters are duplexes.



A 1970 Mark Donohue Javelin SST. (Photo by Peter Harholdt©.)

—The June 2014 entry in my Motorbooks Musclecar calendar is a 1970 Mark Donohue AMC Javelin SST ponycar, what American Motors entered in SCCA’s 1970 Trans-Am wars.
The SST isn’t really a Trans-Am entry.
It’s engine is 390 cubic-inches.
Trans-Am was limited to 305 cubic-inches, although you can get a lot of horsepower out of a racing Trans-Am V8.
390 cubes is a lot for a ponycar. One wonders about weight, and how it might effect handing.
Yet that 390 could be streetable. A racing Trans-Am V8 would be impossible.
Trans-Am entrant Roger Penske (“penn-SKEE”) and race-driver Mark Donohue won the Trans-Am championship in ’68 and ’69 for Chevrolet’s Camaro.
But for 1970 they switched; I’m sure AMC was offering a fortune.
This is an earlier Javelin. It’s not the one I remember Donohue racing, although that would be 1971.

Mark Donohue’s 1971 Penske Javelin.

All I remember is feeling “sell-out;” that Penske/Donohue had sold out Chevrolet switching to Javelin.
Javelin also raced in Trans-Am’s early years. They were raced by “ARA,” sponsored by Javelin dealers.

An ARA Javelin.

I cranked “ARA Javelin” into my Google Image-Search, but only came up with one hit — among 89-bazilyun pictures of Donohue’s Javelin, a fighter-jet, and Olympic javelin-throwers.
And the ARA Javelin pictured appears to be 1971.
I also came up with the 1970 Penske Javelins, which the calendar-car mimics.
The ARA Javelins weren’t top-drawer, but they were competitive. They had good drivers in Peter Revson and George Follmer.
I remember Revvy wound to-the-moon approaching the hairpin at Le Circuit Mont-Tremblant (St. Jovite [“sahn-joe-VEET”]) in an ARA Javelin.
St. Jovite was a really nice road-course near Montreal in the Laurentian Mountains. It was the farthest north I went in pursuit of road-racing. Very French-Canadian (foreign).
Donohue won two Trans-Am championships in a Javelin in 1970 and ’71.
But more impressive to me were the Bud Moore Mustangs. Compared to them, Donohue’s Javelin looked like a turkey.
And by then Chevrolet was no longer competitive. With Penske/Donohue they would have been.


The way it used to be. (Photo by Robert Olmsted.)

—Last but not least.....
The June 2014 entry of my All-Pennsy color calendar is Pennsy’s Manhattan Limited leaving Chicago Union Station back in 1954.
This calendar-picture runs last, but it’s pretty good.
If my Ghosts calendar was a biplane, it would run last.
Various car-pictures might also run last.
Next month’s Musclecar Calendar is a ’67 G-T-O.
Booby-prize for it, baby!
The train would arrive in New York City the next day scheduled at 6:40 a.m., allowing pursuit of business in New York the day following.
As the calendar says, we’re still in the era of inter-city train-travel, before the airlines took over the business.
Interestingly, the train next to it is Gulf, Mobile & Ohio’s Alton Limited headed for St. Louis.
The first jetliner I remember is the Boeing 707. It wasn’t the first jetliner, but it was the first nail in the coffin.
The locomotives are EMD E-units, two E-7s and an E-9.
E-units had two V12 diesel engines.
Pennsy, late to dieselize, tried many diesel passenger locomotives, including those of longtime supplier Baldwin Locomotive Works.
But Baldwin’s diesels were a disaster. They were unreliable, and unreliability clogs a railroad. You don’t just drive around a crippled locomotive. It’s on track you need.
EMD’s E-unit was the one that succeeded. They were reliable.
The lead unit has Pennsy’s single-stripe paint scheme, and it looks like the others do too.
E-units were first painted with the five pinstripe scheme, the “cat-whisker” scheme; a takeoff of Pennsy’s GG-1.
The five-stripe scheme was more costly to maintain than the single-stripe scheme.
The single-stripe scheme is what I grew up with, and I still think it looks pretty good.
The “cat-whisker” scheme is before-my-time.
No doubt 5901 and the following locomotives were scrapped

The Levin Es. (Photo by Bobbalew.)

Two E-units were saved, and were originally Conrail’s “Executive Es,” for executive train use. They were extensively rebuilt, probably re-engined, then sold with the Conrail breakup in 1999.
Conrail’s Executive-Es were purchased by Juniata Terminal (“june-ee-AD-uh”), the Levin brothers of Baltimore. They were repainted tuscan-red (“TUSS-kin;” not “Tucson, Ariz.) with the Pennsy wide yellow single-stripe.
I don’t think any are ex-Pennsy, although 5809 may be.
They now perform excursion service, including for railfans like me.
I’ve ridden behind them, and they are awesome. They can boom-‘n’-zoom.