New Haven, Boston & Maine, and Boston & Albany Railroads – New England Model Trains

Please keep the subject to model trains of the New England railroads.

MELGAR

The Boston and Maine “Minuteman” leaves Lawrence, MA on the run from Boston to Portland, ME.  It is headed up by EMD E8 no. 3821, the only E8 on the B&M roster.

John

New Haven Railroad Y-3 USRA 0-8-0 Switcher #3400 – New England Model Trains

New Haven Y-3 #3400 was a USRA 0-8-0 switcher built by Alco (Schenectady) and delivered to the railroad in September 1920. 175 locomotives were built to the USRA 0-8-0 design during World War 1 and 1200 copies followed later. The nominal weight of a standard USRA 0-8-0 was 364,000 pounds (engine and tender). Tractive effort was 51,042 pounds at 175 pounds-per-square-inch boiler pressure with 51-inch driving wheel diameter. Cylinder bore was 25 inches and piston stroke 28 inches. The last New Haven 0-8-0 switcher was retired in 1952.

My model of New Haven #3400 was made by MTH Premier (20-3148-2) with PS2, scale wheels, and offered in the 2005 Volume 1 Catalog at an MSRP of $599.95. The pictures and video show it pulling New Haven Dairy refrigerated milk car GICX300 (by Weaver Models), New Haven steel boxcar #33406 (by MTH) and New Haven NE6 caboose C-681 (by Atlas O). The train speed in the video is 16.5 scale miles-per-hour.

MELGAR

Look like someone needs to work on there car counts. The local went to spot two cars at the brewery. The conductor must have been trying to get some samples. Now we got two car on the ground. So now they are waiting on the wreck train to show up.

Mel, NH 3400 is just a beautiful engine, standing still and navigating your layout.  With your "T" rail cross section you probably don't have issues with the scale wheels derailing but that wouldn't be an ideal match for tubular.

@coach joe posted:

Mel, NH 3400 is just a beautiful engine, standing still and navigating your layout.  With your "T" rail cross section you probably don't have issues with the scale wheels derailing but that wouldn't be an ideal match for tubular.

Joe,

There was a time when I bought some 3-rail engines with scale wheels. The New Haven #3400 is OK on my Atlas O-54 curves but it does have some problems on the curved path through Atlas O-54 switches. In fact, I've modified the frogs on my two switches so that the engine makes it through. The frog modification is quickly removable but I will be buying only engines with "3-rail wheels" in the future. I still prefer the solid rails of Atlas O track and switches to anything else....

MELGAR

B&M’s “Gull” passes by powered by P3 Pacific no. 3702.

John

John,

I like the view from the back of the layout. Your B&M "Gull" train is beautiful. Who made the cars and engine? It was a long way from Boston to Halifax.

MELGAR

Thanks, Mel!  I tend to take pictures and videos from the front of the layout because the lighting is better, but i probably should take more from the other side.  Like you, I don’t have a large layout, it’s 13’ long, 6 1/2 ft on one end, 5’ on the other.

The train is all MTH.  The engine is a Premier, the cars Railking.  Here’s another view of the train from the “good side”.

John

Great photos and movie clips, gentlemen!

Peter

New Haven Railroad DL-109s #0719 and 0722 – New England Model Trains

Ten ALCO DL-109 diesel locomotives (#0700 to 0709) were delivered to the New Haven Railroad between December 1941 and April 1942. They were immediately pressed into freight and passenger service on the shoreline between New Haven and Boston heading freight trains at night and passenger trains during the day, thereby becoming one of the first successful dual-service diesel locomotives. ALCO received special permission from the War Production Board to continue building DL-109s for the New Haven Railroad and, by the end of World War 2, it owned a fleet of sixty. After the war, they were superseded by ALCO FA (freight) and PA (passenger) locomotives. New Haven’s DL-109s ran in local commuter service around Boston until 1959.

Until dieselization was completed in the 1950s, the New Haven’s DL-109 locomotives, and its other diesel types, had numbers prefixed with a zero to indicate that they were “other than steam.”

Each DL-109 had two ALCO 539-T six-cylinder turbocharged 1000 horsepower diesel engines. The New Haven’s locomotives were geared for a maximum speed of eighty miles-per-hour for dual-service use, although on other railroads their maximum speed was 120 mph in passenger service, with a weight of 337,000 pounds and a tractive effort of 56,250 pounds.

My MTH Premier model of New Haven #0719 (20-2325-1 with 5-volt PS2) was offered in their 2001 Volume 3 catalog with MSRP $379.95. It was delivered in December 2001 and has been running on my model railroads for more than twenty years with a BCR.

The consist in the videos includes two highly detailed Railway Post Office cars #3286 and #2782 by Weaver Models, one with a round roof and the other with a clerestory roof.

Also shown is my MTH Premier model of New Haven #0722 – The Cranberry (20-2438-1) offered in the 2003 Volume 3 catalog. The Cranberry was a passenger train that ran between Boston and Hyannis, Massachusetts from 1949 to 1953 with #0722 painted in a bright red and white color scheme.

MELGAR

Those are beauties Mel! ALCO should have stuck with that body style instead of the FA/ PA bodies.

Bob

Mel  Love your Hunter Green DL 109. I think that is the best looking NH diesel ever.
below are pics of my Cranberry. It was an old new stock PS2 I found on EBay  The two passenger cars are prototypical Osgood Bradley made by Weaver   They were also old new stock. 15 minutes of running them at 18 volts they both blew their capacitors. I re did them with Gunrunner John’s led lighting boards

The bright lighting shows coaches full of vacationers many decked out in Nantucket Red clothing  Too bad NH never painted the coaches to match the Cranberry

New Haven RS3 529 on run from Berkshire’s with express freight and milk. Passenger coaches are hand me down heavyweights from one of the mainlines. The 529 is at the Railway Museum of New England where it was restored in the late 80’s

Painting by famous Cape Cod artist Edward Hopper   Even without any markings the engine is obviously inspired by the DL 109 “Cranberry “ featured in posts by me and Mel

Wvm,

Very nice and thanks for posting. I like the Edward Hopper painting. Do you know when was it done? I would bet that young Edward is the boy in the painting.

MELGAR

Mel. Glad you asked when painted. I found out is was painted in 1944 for an ad by American Locomotive Company (AlCO)i I have been wrongly assuming that Hopper was inspired by the Cranberry but since the Cranberry didn’t start service until 1949, I am now thinking the NH was inspired by Hoppers painting from 5 yrs earlier

Wvm,

Where did you find the Hopper image or the Alco Advertisement?

Thank you.

Sunset 3rd Rail FL9.  Unfortunately only non powered so I have to MU with an RS3 or in this case double end for photo. I have seen pics of MUd with RS11. I was lucky enough to find old new stock on Public Delivery Track. Last I looked they still had available.

BTW.   CTR you can find the the Cranberry reference by searching Edward Hopper American Locomotive

Canadian Pacific Alco FA1 no. 4001 and FB1 no. 4403 head up a coal drag in Greenville, ME. No, it isn’t a war zone!  Some troops from the ME National Guard are training on the property of a patriotic farmer.  This actually happened to me when I was a member of the MA National Guard!

John

@Steam Crazy posted:

Canadian Pacific Alco FA1 no. 4001 and FB1 no. 4403 head up a coal drag in Greenville, ME. No, it isn’t a war zone!  Some troops from the ME National Guard are training on the property of a patriotic farmer.  This actually happened to me when I was a member of the MA National Guard!

John

John, I think you have very nice looking tubular track on your layout. Arnold

Arnold, thank you for the compliment!

John

The Boston & Albany Railroad used 2-6-6T and 4-6-6T double-ended locomotives in commuter service between South Station in Boston and the city’s western suburbs. Commuter trains ran a circuit - outbound along the railroad’s main line 12.25 miles to Riverside (in Newton, MA) and inbound on its Highland branch. They also ran the circuit in the opposite direction. These double-ended suburban type locomotives operated equally well in both forward and reverse, and therefore it was unnecessary to turn them when they completed a circuit. After the B&A terminated suburban passenger service, the Highland branch was purchased by the Metropolitan Transit Authority in 1958 and the branch was reopened as the MTA Riverside Line with light-rail electric cars in 1959.

The 2-6-6T locomotives were built by ALCO Schenectady in 1906 and ’07. Five 4-6-6Ts (Class D - #400 to #404) were built by ALCO in 1928 and remained in Boston commuter service until 1951. They ran on 63-inch driving wheels, weighed 352,000 pounds and produced 41,600 pounds of tractive force at 215 pounds-per-square-inch boiler pressure. They were designed for rapid acceleration and could pull up to 20 passenger cars.

The O gauge models of the 4-6-6Ts were first produced by K-Line and more recently by Lionel – from the same tooling. My model of D-1a #400 (Lionel SKU 2031010) was offered in 2020 at an MSRP of $1099.99. The photos and videos show it in operation on my 10’-by-5’ model railroad. I believe that the 4-6-6T locomotives hauled steel passenger cars when they began service. In later years they pulled New York Central round-roofed passenger cars. Since I don’t own the correct passenger cars for this engine, I run MTH Premier unlettered wood-sided passenger coaches behind this locomotive.

MELGAR

Wonderful layout.  Would love to see your engine roster someday!

Mel, I hereby appoint you as the unofficial Forum historian!  Enjoyed the history lesson, photos and videos!

John

From the club last night…

CentralFan1976,

Very nice. I like the track pans too.

MELGAR

@Steam Crazy posted:

Mel, I hereby appoint you as the unofficial Forum historian!  Enjoyed the history lesson, photos and videos!

John

John,

For me, buying books about railroads and their history is a part of model railroading. I like to read about how the railroads contributed to the development of the United States, growth of cities, towns and industries, and also about the technical details of the locomotives, especially steam engines. And, old photographs in the books can be useful in building a model railroad.

Here is a closeup video of the B&A #400 tank engine running at 16 scale miles-per-hour on my 10'-by-5' layout. It's my favorite locomotive model.

MELGAR

My hometown is Mt. Vernon, NY, and I remember in the late 1950s taking the New Haven passenger train from the downtown Mt. Vernon train station to Grand Central Station with my mother.

I thought the New Haven passenger train was beautiful. I believe the passenger cars looked like shiny, silvery, aluminum extruded cars, and the locomotive was an electric (pantographs running from overhead catenary) with the orange, black and white McGuiness livery.

Does anyone else remember these New Haven passenger trains in the 1950s?

If so, is my above description of them accurate?

If not, how would you describe them?

Arnold

Arnold, your memory hasn’t failed you!  Here’s a video of my NH EP5 electric being passed by aNH RS3 pulling shiny stainless steel passenger cars.

John

John, the video of your New Haven passenger train on your layout brings back fond memories of the real New Haven passenger train I rode with my mother in the 1950s. Thank you for sharing it. Arnold

B&A fast milk run…

Thanks!

- Mario

Mel, I also enjoy railroad history and technical data, which is why I enjoy your posts.  I also have a collection of RR books and videos.

You've inspired me to post of video of my B&A 4-6-6T and passenger cars;  I'll do that sometime this week.

John

Boston and Albany 4-6-6T no. 403 backs it’s train into South Station, Boston, MA for an afternoon commuter run to Boston’s Western suburbs.  The tank engine is K-line converted to MTH PS3.  The heavyweight passenger cars are MTH Premier models.

I videoed the train backing because I’ve never seen it done on the Forum.  Let’s see more backing moves!

John

John,

Thanks for posting. I regret having passed up the chance to purchase MTH Premier B&A heavyweights.

MELGAR

Mel, I won't bore you with my long list of regrets!

John

This picture has my Flyer New Haven A-A diesels, My New Haven Electric and my Boston and Maine F-3's. Flyer also produced a single A unit which is there.

We had Weaver do two Boston and Maine and two New Haven PS-2 covered hoppers. Weaver also did two Boston and Maine box cars. 

The G&O operates red, white and blue trains on the 4th of July and other national holidays.  Some of these trains are composed of State of Maine products box cars.  These cars were purchased by the Bangor & Aroostook and New Haven railroads to haul Maine products to market.  I understand that it was mostly potatoes but other products were also hauled.  The cars were insulated but were not reefers with ice.  These cars traveled throughout the nation hauling other products after the Maine growing season.  

Note that some cars are lettered for the Bangor & Aroostook and others for the New Haven.  The dark blue cars are MTH.  The others are K-Line or Lionel.  I don't know which blue is correct.  I wish that the railroads had put the red stripe on the top instead of the blue.  The engine and caboose on this train are K-Line.  Much of this scenery has been upgraded since these photos were taken.  

NH Joe

Maine Central 2-8-0 #501 was manufactured by Alco (Schenectady) in 1910 and, as best I can determine, is awaiting restoration at the Conway Scenic Railroad in North Conway, New Hampshire. The engine weight was 193,000 pounds and the total locomotive weight was 333,000 pounds. It produced 37,000 pounds of tractive force at a boiler pressure of 185 pounds-per-square-inch and rode on 63-inch-diameter driving wheels.

My diecast model of #501 was made by Weaver Models. It’s a model of a Baldwin locomotive and is similar to the full-size #501 but not entirely accurate. However, it is close and has a great steam whistle, so I enjoy running it. There are 4 chuffs/rev.

The #670 caboose probably came along after #501 was retired and is an anachronism on my train. Is there an O gauge model of a steam era Maine Central caboose? I would buy one.

MELGAR