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THE TRANSFER TABLE
The Wilmington Chapter NRHS Official Newsletter
Internet Edition

VOLUME 34   NUMBER 04 AUGUST 2011

Back To Wilmington Chapter Web Site

JULY 2011 MEETING NOTES

President Mike Burkhart did NOT call the meeting to order because there was no meeting in July. As there was no meeting, as a direct result, there are no meeting notes.


Current plans for the Fall 2011 NRHS Conference & Board Of Directors Meeting include the following:

Thursday, Oct. 27: Arrive early and explore Wilmington, or watch the bustle of Amtrak and SEPTA trains at the Wilmington train station.

Friday, Oct. 28: Licensed, chartered motor coaches will depart shortly after noon for a visit to the West Chester Railroad where a special mixed train will provide a round trip and photo opportunities amid the fall foliage. A Regional Vice President's meeting will be held in the evening beginning at 7:30 p.m.

Saturday, Oct. 29: A full day of activities will begin after breakfast (on your own) with the scheduled 7:30 a.m. departure of our licensed, chartered motor coaches to Richland, NJ, where we will be met by a special chartered train of the Cape May Seashore Lines. Our one-way journey aboard the train will take us to Tuckahoe. There will be opportunities for photostops, and a boxed lunch will be served upon arrival at Tuckahoe. Our motor coaches will return you to the hotel in plenty of time for the Saturday afternoon directors' working session. The traditional Saturday evening banquet will be served buffet-style, and feature three delicious entrees, side dishes, breads and desserts. Our keynote speaker will be Mario Bergeron, Amtrak's Chief Mechanical Officer.

Sunday, Oct. 30: The Board of Directors_ meeting will be held from 8:30 a.m. -1 p.m. After the meeting you can explore downtown Wilmington or visit other sights of the Brandywine Valley such as Winterthur or Longwood Gardens.

Our host hotel for the weekend is the DoubleTree Hotel Downtown Wilmington, 700 N. King Street just seven blocks from the newly-restored Joseph R. Biden, Jr., train station in Wilmington. We have a block of rooms reserved.


 From The Editor

Sadly, I might need to report the passing of another of our members - David H. Frazer of Wilmington, DE. Our Treasurer, David Warner uncovered some information while trying to confirm all Chapter Member addresses and reconcile membership records with NRHS headquarters. If anyone has any information about David Frazer, please contact David Warner or this Editor.


! ! VOLUNTEERS NEEDED ! !

How about contributing a little time and effort to help out your Chapter and the NRHS? With all of your local knowledge, you could contribute to a positive experience for our out-of-town visitors! You could help with the many behind-the-scenes preparations that are necessary and/or the up-front activities of greeting and hosting.

We need Chapter Members to step up and help out with preparations before and to provide assistance during the National Director's meeting that we be hosting October 27-30, 2011 Please contact Dave Warner to sign up to help out at: 302-762-2389 or david.warner@comcast.net

We need people for:
Thursday 3-6 PM Greeting / Registration
Thursday 6-10 PM Greeting / Registration
Friday 10 AM-2 PM Greeting / Registration
Friday 2-6 PM Greeting / Registration
Friday 2-5 PM meeting assist
Friday 6-10 PM Greeting / Registration
Friday 12-7 PM bus hosts
Friday 7-11 PM meeting assist
Saturday 7-11 AM Greeting / Registration
Saturday 7 AM-3 PM bus hosts
Saturday 11 AM-4 PM Greeting / Registration
Saturday 3-5 PM meeting assist
Sunday 8 AM-1 PM meeting assist


McCloud River 2-6-2 25 Enters Service in Oregon
by Tom Smith

McCloud River RR 2-6-2 25, an Alco product of 1925, has worked its entire life for the McCloud River RR in northern California. It is one of only a few steam locomotives still in service for its original owner and never retired, although it did spend much time in inactive storage over the years, and once came close to being scrapped. As the sole remaining steam locomotive on the McCRRR following dieselization, It was popular on fan trips from the 1950's to the 2000's.

In 1992 the McCloud River RR was sold to new owners and became the McCloud Railway. Former McCloud 2-8-2 18 was reacquired for the railroad's new excursion train program, which hoped to augment sagging freight revenues.

Dependent on forest products, hard times hit the McCloud Ry in the recession, and the line gradually went out of business. No. 18 was sold to the Virginia & Truckee in 2005, the same year the McCloud Ry filed to abandon almost all of its trackage. Finally, No. 25 came up for sale.

I had never seen this engine, having missed it for various reasons, but in a fortunate turn of events, now I did not have to go to see it, it was coming to me! The 2-6-2 was sold to the Oregon Coast Scenic RR, a somewhat obscure tourist line operating a 5-mile stretch of track out of Garibaldi, Ore. along the Pacific Ocean owned by the Port of Tillamook Bay RR Following a highway move on a 13-axle low boy, No. 25 arrived in Tillamook in the spring of 2011, and was placed in a shed next to the blimp hangar. It was expected to go into service Memorial Day, but didn't.

I had heard No. 25 was going to be making some short runs on July 4, so on my way to Garibaldi and the Coast, I swung by the Tillamook blimp hangar, and found the engine outside steamed up! The word was that 25 was going to run light the 13 miles to Garibaldi, then pull the 4PM excursion and later that evening the fireworks special.

The Port of Tillamook Bay RR is moribund, and hasn't turned a wheel in almost 4 years. Weeds have taken over the rusty main line, and crossing signals are deactivated. Almost all of their fleet of SD9's have been scrapped on the spot, as have some of the freight cars stranded there when the line closed following a washout. Other cars were trucked out. The only active engine is GP9 101, painted in a Holstein cow color scheme. It looked like the run of engine 25 would be the first movement north of Tillamook in several years.

About 1:30 No. 25, accompanied by GP9 101, left Tillamook and plowed its way through the weeds to Garibaldi, with about a half dozen railfans who had learned of this move, in pursuit. Garibaldi presented some photo ops as 25 exchanged places with the OCSR's Heisler #2, and switching with exGreat Norther F7 274. I then made the first revenue run with 25 pulling the excursion train to Rockaway Beach where a half hour layover allowed a visit to the beach and tourist joints,

No. 25 was used on the July 5 scheduled excursions, and then was to deadhead back to Tillamook where it will stay until a new engine shed is built for it at Garibaldi. That will take awhile, as the permits have not even been issued yet. An existing enginehouse at Garibaldi is only big enough to hold Heisler 2, which will finish out the season.

The fate of the Port of Tillamook Bay RR is questionable. The railroad has no plans to rebuild, and likely will apply to abandon, which could have consequences for the tourist railroad. But a legendary steam locomotive, working now for only its second owner has joined the ranks of operating steam locomotives!


Comments on the Edgemoor North End Photo
From Woody Massara (page 17, July 2011 Transfer Table)

It's interesting what changes a few years bring. Between the time of Dick Hall's picture of September, 1957, and my hiring in April of 1959 ( a period of only 1-1/2 years) all the structures in the picture were gone. The old yard office at the North End suffered from an infestation of rats, mice and other vermin, and someone conveniently threw a fusee in it. When I hired, there was a new steel building complete with crew room and lockers, lunch table, etc.

The picture was shot from the Southbound platform of the Bellevue station immediately south of the Edgemoor Road overpass. The tracks in the foreground are #4, #3, and #2 main, the 'B' track, and Shellpot #2 and #1 (known as the Northbound and Southbound) are all wired tracks. There are two leads behind them, one trimming North class tracks 1 through 10, and the other tracks 11 through 24. The cabin car is sitting on the fence track, the assigned locomotive storage track at the North End.

The only recognizable structure remaining when I hired were the two power poles to the right of the picture - they were right next to where the water tower stood. Yard motor power for Edgemoor, other than hump power, were Baldwin S-12's, designated BS-12 by the Pennsy, and numbered 8753 to 8764.

Of other interest, #4 main was removed in 1961 or 1962. It ran from Bellevue tower to Landlith, and had been used for almost a year to store 160 obsolete/surplus gondolas. They were moved with the 8818 to Perryville, Md. It took the engineer, George E. Thomas 7 hours and 50 minutes to get them all moving and out of the yard. Interestingly, there were two Bellevues in the time table, The station where this picture was taken, and the tower North of Edgemoor. Sometime in this period, the tower was renamed Bell. It took 4 painters two days to blank out the 'evue' on the signs identifying the tower.


NEWS BITS


SCHEDULE NOTES

Notices, announcements, schedules, etc. are provided here as a service to the members. The Chapter has no affiliation with any commercial operation, museum, or tourist line.

January 15, 2011 - October 31, 2011 Philadelphia & Reading Railroad & the Civil War
Reading Railroad Heritage Museum, 500 S. Third St. in Hamburg, PA. New temporary exhibit Any Saturday (10-4PM) and Sunday (Noon-4PM) for the regular admission charge of $5 adults and $4 Seniors

Saturday, April 16 thru Saturday, December 31, 2011 Railroad Communications & Signaling @ RR Museum of PA. From solitary signals to centralized traffic control centers, learn about the history of railroad technical operations and try to run a simulated railroad. Photographs, artifacts and video from the Museum's collections will round out the story of rail communication.

April 15, 2011-May 30, 2015 Civil War 150th Anniversary: The War Came By Train@ B&O RR Museum in Baltimore. Monday - Saturday (10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.), Sunday (11:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.) Between April 19, 1861 (The Baltimore Riot of 1861) and April 21, 1865 (Lincoln's funeral train leaving Baltimore for Illinois), the B&O stood witness and participant in the greatest conflict the U.S. has ever faced and changed the course of American history. The War Came By Train serves as the B&O Railroad Museum's primary attraction for the five year commemoration of the War's sesquicentennial. The National Landmark Roundhouse will exhibit the largest assemblage of Civil War railroad equipment in the world featuring locomotives and rail cars that served during the war, significant military and personal artifacts that will change annually to portray each year of the war (some artifacts never before on public display), and a narrated train ride to the original site of Camp Carroll, the largest Union encampment in Baltimore.

June - September Williams Grove Railroad Complete Train Schedule for 2011

Saturday August 13th. Steam Locomotive Engineer Training noon until 5 PM

Sunday August 14th. Run the steam train for passengers 9 AM until??

Fall Show August 28th through September 5th.

Sunday August 28th. Run the steam train for passengers 9 AM until??

Wednesday August 31st. Engineer Training noon until 3:30PM then passengers until??

Thursday September 1st. Engineer Training noon until 2:30PM then passengers until??

Friday September 2nd. Engineer Training noon until 2PM then passengers until??

Saturday September 3rd. Run the steam train for passengers 10 AM until??

Sunday September 4th. Run the steam train for passengers 10 AM until??

Monday September 5th. Run the steam train for passengers 10 AM until??

We reserve the right to substitute a diesel for the steam locomotive on passenger trains.

June - December Open Houses @ Stewartstown Railroad

Sunday, August 21, 2011, 1-5 p.m.: Open house at the station in Stewartstown.

Sunday, September 18, 2011, 1-5 p.m.: Open house at the station in Stewartstown.

Sunday, October 23, 2011, 1-5 p.m.: Open house at the station in Stewartstown.

Sunday, December 11, 2011, 1-5 p.m.: Christmas at the station in Stewartstown.

Sunday, December 18, 2011, 1-5 p.m.: Christmas at the station in Stewartstown.

AMTRAK's 40th ANNIVERSARY EXHIBIT TRAIN Schedule

AUGUST

27 - 28 Albany Amtrak Station, Rensselaer, N.Y.

SEPTEMBER

3 - 4 Steamtown National Historic Site*, Scranton, Pa.

10 - 11 Gateway Station, St. Louis

17 - 18 TBD

24 - 25 Galesburg Amtrak Station, Galesburg, Ill.

OCTOBER

1 - 2 Chicago Union Station, Chicago

8 - 9 Jackson Amtrak Station, Jackson, Mich.

15 - 16 TBD

22 - 23 King Street Station, Seattle

29 - 30 Portland Amtrak Station, Portland, Ore.

September 2-3, 2011 Railfest 2011 Celebrate the 25th Anniversary of Steamtown, the 40th anniversary of Amtrak, & the 125th anniversary of Scranton's electric trolley system. Locomotive Shop Demonstrations = Removing wheels from axles using Steamtown's newly restored 300-ton wheel press, Replacing tire on locomotive drive wheel using 'ring of fire', Wheel lathe demonstrations to resurface & profile railroad wheels, vertical boring mill demonstration. Visiting Equipment = Amtrak 40th Anniversary Train, Canadian Pacific, CSX , Norfolk Southern, NYS&W. Excursions & Train Rides = Caboose rides, Live Steamers, Trolley Rides, Scranton Limited Short Train Ride , Moscow Excursions Special Exhibits & Programs = Track demonstration, Big Boy Cab tours, Big Band Music, Special Ranger Guided tours

September 11-12, 2011 The Great Lehigh Valley Train Meet
Sat. 10 am - 4 pm, Z, N, On3, HO, Brass & all train related items, Sun. 10 am - 3 pm, S, O-27, O, Standard & G including repair parts, Both days Railroadiania, pictures, die-cast, scenery, etc. Merchants Square Mall, 1901 South 12th Street, Allentown PA 18103

Saturday, September 24, 2011 Members Day @ RR Museum of PA
Museum members enjoy special members-only presentations and other great railroad and Museum-related activities.

Sunday, September 25, 2011 FAREWELL TO THE FAITHFUL SILVERLINERS excursion on SEPTASponsored by Philadelphia Chapter, NRHS. Special train leaves Suburban Station, 16th St. & JFK Blvd. in center city Philadelphia at 10 AM, picking up passengers at 30th Street Station at 10:05 AM. Fare: $50.00 per person. Both former PRR and Reading lines will be covered with numerous photo stops and lunch stop scheduled. Train will return to Suburban Station and 30th Street about 5 PM. Event will mark the upcoming retirement of SEPTA's 1963 Budd Silverliner II's and 1967 St. Louis Silverliner III's (among America's oldest commuter cars still in regular service). Order tickets from: Philadelphia Chapter, NRHS, P.O. Box 7302, Philadelphia, PA 19101-7302, enclosing SSAE. For further information, visit website www.phillynrhs.com, email ayrestower@comcast.net or telephone (215) 947-5769. [The routing of the trip has not been completely finalized because of a major track work project around "Arsenal" interlocking in Philadelphia, but we do have some good photo locations already picked out. Train service from Wilmington, Airport, and Elwyn will be disrupted by the above-mentioned track work project, it is believed at this date that Wilmington/Marcus Hook service will operate into 30th Street Station (lower level) and terminate there......this project covers some four weekends.]

October 13-15, 2011 Train Collectors Association, Fall York Train Meet, York, Pa. Thursday-Saturday, Info: http://www.tcamembers.org/newsandevents/york.htm

October 27-30, 2011 Wilmington Chapter will host the NRHS's Fall National Director's Meeting

October 29-30, 2011 Great Scale Model Train Show, Timonium Fairgrounds, Timonium, MDState Fairgrounds Sat. 9-4, Sun. 10-4, Admission $9, under 15 free, family $18, tickets good for both days.

November 6, 2011 Train Meet - Ramada Inn Essington, PA 8:00 AM until 1 PM at Ramada Inn on Rt 291 (I-95 Exit 9) Essington, PA


CHAPTER EVENTS

Thursday Aug. 18, 2011 7 PM Chapter Meeting program by Phil Snyder

Thursday Sept. 15, 2011 7 PM Chapter Meeting program by Dave Warner

Thursday Oct. 20, 2011 7 PM Chapter Meeting (short) program by Dan Frederick

October 27-30, 2011 Wilmington Chapter will host NRHS's Fall National Director's Meeting

Thursday Nov. 17, 2011 7 PM Chapter Meeting program by Frank Ferguson

Sunday Dec. 4, 2011 5 PM Holiday Dinner in lieu of normal monthly meeting

Thursday Jan. 19, 2012 7 PM Chapter Meeting program by Dave Watterson

The Wilmington Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society (NRHS) meets at 7:00 PM on the third Thursday of each month [except August & December] in the Darley Room at the Claymont Community Center on Green Street in Claymont, Delaware. Visitors are always welcome. Admission to regular meetings is free. Check out our Website (thanks to Russ Fox) at:


The Transfer Table is published six to ten times per year as the newsletter of the Wilmington Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society. Items in this publication do not represent the official position of either Officers or Members of the Wilmington Chapter or the Editor of this publication.

Permission to reprint articles and news items appearing herein is granted to NRHS Chapters and other newsletters provided appropriate credit is given.

Contributions are always welcome and should be sent to the editor at SD40GMA@aol.com or send to: P.O. Box 1136, Hockessin, DE 19707-5136.
Deadline for entries is the 25th of the month.

Chapter Officers
President: Mike Burkhart
Vice President:  Dave Watterson
Treasurer: Dave Warner
Secretary: Dan Frederick
National Director & Trip Director: Steve Barry
Editor: Greg Ajamian
Web Master: Russ Fox

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