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Hi! 

I am a huge D&H fan and it look like I'm a little late to the party. 

I am a member of the BridgeLine Historical Society:  bridge-ling.org   I have been doing a lot of research along with my friend, Dr. Robert Powell from Carbondale, PA, on where the D&H got started in railroading - The Gravity Railroad. Fascinating stuff.  

A lot of firsts with the D&H. Here are a couple of them: 

- First to run a steam locomotive in America, the Stourbridge Lion.

- First to operate a Gravity Railroad, it opened in 1829. This was most likely a huge contributor to the industrial revolution. It was also the first assembly line type of operation as workers remained in one location as the string of coal cars moved across the system. (I know what you are going to say, Henry Ford invented the assembly line - please note that I'm used "assembly line type of operation" as they were moving coal - not building coal cars.)

I will have to share photos of my rolling stock and layout later tonight.  

Larry

GNERR posted:

Hi! 

I am a huge D&H fan and it look like I'm a little late to the party. 

I am a member of the BridgeLine Historical Society:  bridge-ling.org   I have been doing a lot of research along with my friend, Dr. Robert Powell from Carbondale, PA, on where the D&H got started in railroading - The Gravity Railroad. Fascinating stuff.  

A lot of firsts with the D&H. Here are a couple of them: 

- First to run a steam locomotive in America, the Stourbridge Lion.

- First to operate a Gravity Railroad, it opened in 1829. This was most likely a huge contributor to the industrial revolution. It was also the first assembly line type of operation as workers remained in one location as the string of coal cars moved across the system. (I know what you are going to say, Henry Ford invented the assembly line - please note that I'm used "assembly line type of operation" as they were moving coal - not building coal cars.)

I will have to share photos of my rolling stock and layout later tonight.  

Larry

Welcome, Larry... this is definitely one of my favorite threads. I’ve lived in NE Pennsylvania for the last 24 years, not far from Honesdale. On my list of things I need to get around to is going up to see the Stourbridge Lion. I finally made it to the Starrucca Viaduct a few months ago. I checked out the website for the historical society you mentioned - some great info on the D&H... thanks for sharing. (And it already taught me that Honesdale was named after the first President of the D&H)

This video of a Lionel D&H smokin' switcher hauling oil tankers is reminiscent of an event I attended a few years ago at West Point.

At that time my 6 year old grandaughter was a cheerleader in a Pop Warner-like football game. The playing field was at West Point close to railroad tracks on the western side of the Hudson River. Long freight trains run along those tracks.

Suddenly, the ground started to shake and one could hear the roar of a freight train. It thundered past us pulling seemingly endless oil tanker cars. Breath-taking.

Arnold

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Apples55 posted:

Facebook is pretty rich today... there is something interesting about this humpbacked beast - it is, at once, beautiful and ugly!!! The caption reads:

”Delaware & Hudson , No.1403 , the L.F.Loree ,last built of the D&H high pressure experimentals , 4-8-0 , Schenectady 1935 . at the Colonie NY. Shops , 6-1935 …. H.K.Vollrath collection …. SLP library photo”

F2A1FBE2-5149-4074-9572-4FFDBD9EE142

 

Why the saddle tank? Auxiliary water for long runs?

This info (and much, much more) comes from a great book - Delaware & Hudson by Jim Shaughnessy. 

A few other interesting tidbits about the 1403 (christened the L. F. Loree, a President of the D&H).

  • it was the only locomotive built in the country in 1933
  • it was the world’s first four cylinder triple expansion, non-articulated compound steam locomotive
  • it carried 500 pounds of pressure in the water tube boiler
  • it had four cylinders, but unlike articulated engines, it had one cylinder in each corner of the frame (it’s a bit hard to see in the pic, but you can just make out the rear cylinder)
  • the average thermal efficiency of conventional steamers of the day was 6%... the Loree attained almost 13%
  • the high temperature and pressure was the engines early downfall - it was retired after a few years with only 9,845 miles of service 

Picked this up from Grzyboski’s yesterday. I have to admit, I am pretty impressed by the sharp details of the add-on railings, grab irons, etc. Although it has, what looks to me to be a smoking chimney pipe, there is no smoke - a plus for me as I never use smoke!!! AND, it has the “hidden” coupler release - no thumbtacks.

55D1C279-3363-4919-844D-027F74A6D141

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D&H in the Lone Star State. 

The late Bill McClanahan of Dallas, employed with the Dallas Morning News, was well known for his freelanced Texas & Rio Grande Western HO scale layout located in the attic of his home in Big D.  He also authored a well known paperback book on scenery for model railroaders which was published by Kalmbach.  It was a popular publication and subsequently went through several printings over the years.   

Bill was also a regular customer at Bobbye Hall's Hobby House in Dallas.  Miss Hall, as she was affectionately known by most of her customers was the Queen of model railroading.  Because she demanded only the best from her Asian brass importers and didn't take any bull off of them, became known as the Dragon Lady among them!

In his senior years, Bill found the Deleware & Hudson's blue and grey color scheme so attractive that he adobted it for his T&RGW.  The D&H Texas style if you will?  Though my heart remains in O gauge, I am still fasinated by large scale.  A future project of mine will be to to obtain a well used LGB White Pass & Yukon Alco road switcher and have it professionally painted for my G gauge T&RGW, using the D&H scheme of course, not only as a tribute to Bill, but also the Bridge Line to New England as well.   

Although my small basement here in my German apartment won't take much more than a compact around the wall mainline with a lift out bridge for continuous running in large scale, it's purpose will be to keep me active in the hobby.  International shipping, including insurance and customs, not to mention the weight factor, is too expensive for me to order model trains from the States to begin with.  Besides, LGB is readily available here in Deutschland anyway.  An exception will be a Hartland Locomotive Works MACK switcher, which will receive solid black with the old red, white and blue D&RGW herald applied under the cab window.  Item: By the way, Hartland products are Made in the Good Old USA, in their Indiana factory!

Why G gauge and instead of say Z in my small basement you ask?  Having just passed Milepost 73 this Fourth of July my eyes like to see what's running on the layout without the aid of using a magnifine glass!  Also, the early LGB Rio Grande stock car, that for some unknown reason received green instead of black, will finally feel right at home hauling cattle on my basement empire!  The later released black painted Grande stock car will also be found on the T&RGW.  It comes equipped with sound, albeit less any "PU" authentic smells, thank goodness!

Happy Rails Y'all!

Joe Toth

 

 

  

 

          

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