I would again like to say Thank-You to Gayle and Ron Althardt for their hospitality in hosting the meal and meeting at their home. As always great fellowship was enjoyed and despite the lack of a presentation due to unforeseen circumstances, there were no complaints. Remember that the next board meeting will be held 2 October 2010 at the Park Ridge Public Library, in the 3rd floor meeting room. The meeting will start at approx. 2:30 PM.

For this month it is time to recognize some of the historic anniversaries in the industry, which gave birth to our hobby. Did you know that 215 years ago, in 1795, the first railroad in North America was a short length of wooden track laid on Beacon Hill, Boston, Massachusetts, to carry building material for the state house. Silas Whitney operated it.
The first American Railroad charter was obtained on February 6, 1815 (195 years ago) by Col. John Stevens of Hoboken, New Jersey, to build and operate a railroad between the Delaware and Raritan Rivers near Trenton and New Brunswick (birthplace of your president). Lack of financial backing prevented construction.
The first steam locomotive in North American was built by Col. John Stevens in February 1825 (185 years ago) and was tested on a circular track at his home at Hoboken. It had four flat-tired wheels guided by four vertical rollers running against the insides of the rails, and was propelled by a central toothed rack.

The first Railroad in the USA to offer a regular service as a public carrier was the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad on May 24, 1830 (180 years ago). The B&O at that time opened its first 21 miles of track between Baltimore and Ellicott’s Mills, Maryland for passenger and freight traffic.
The B&O Railroad can probably lay claims to more firsts than any other railroad. The following is a short list: They ran the first train to Washington, D.C. on August 24, 1835; the first to operate a streamlined passenger train, the “Windsplitter”, Baltimore to Washington, from May to August 1900; to operate and air-conditioned car, the diner “Martha Washington” in April 1930, and lastly to operate a streamlined diesel-electric locomotive on long distance passenger services, the “Royal Blue”, on May 25, 1935.

I could go on but there is one year that had a dramatic effect on motive power of the time and foretold of things to come, 85 years ago in 1925. Just what made this an exciting yet pivotal year? Since 1922 the number 3 locomotive manufacturer (a distant 3rd) the Lima Locomotive Works, had a mechanical engineer named William E. Woodard. By making a number of significant changes to maximize a steam locomotive's capacity to generate and utilize steam, Woodard was able to make such locomotives significantly more powerful and faster. He did this by making an experimental H-10 heavy Mikado (2-8-2) for the New York Central and applying both relatively new science and every efficiency-enhancing tool available. Larger firebox, increased super heat, feed water heater, improved drafting, higher boiler pressure, a trailing truck booster engine and by applying limited cut off (the range of steam valve admission settings) to prevent locomotive engineers from using excessive steam at starting. The results were outstanding with an increased efficiency of 26%. NYC was so impressed that they bought 301 copies in 1925.
All the experimenting brought forth the demonstrator for what was known as Super Power. In addition to the other changes the new locomotive had a larger firebox, a 4-wheel trailing truck to support it, a combustion chamber, thermal siphons. The first Demonstrator was the A-1 Berkshire (2-8-4) and gave birth to larger more powerful locomotives up to the Union Pacific “Big Boy”. Super power lasted until 1946.

Also, in 1925 an experimental type locomotive was commercially sold. A new type locomotive started to make its way, the Diesel. A 600 HP box cab switcher built by Alco supplying the body, Ingersoll Rand supplying the diesel engine and General Electric supplying all electrical components. It was built to help railroads meet the no smoking ordinances within city limits. Nobody ever thought what would happen in 21 years. 1925, for locomotives, signaled the beginning of the end (steam) and the end of the beginning (diesel).

Our meeting next month will be September 22nd and will be held at the Holiday Inn in Itasca, 860 Irving Park Road, (630) 774-2340. Our guest presenter will be John Cloos. He will be talking about traction and the art of scratch building of trolleys. The meeting will begin with a meal at 5:30pm.

Look, Listen and Live,

Brian

NOTES:
1. There is a PDF copy of the list of Train Videos that were donated to CAGRS and compiled by our librarian, in the Members Area for you to download.