Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Recovering From a Truck Accident
There are approximately 251 million registered vehicles in the United States alone and in 2004 there were 198.8 million registered drivers with an estimated 6.6 million driver's licenses likely to be issued in 2007-2008, according to information obtained from programs under the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) and the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV).
In 2005, there were nearly 6.4 million auto accidents resulting in approximately 40,000 fatalities, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). In 2007, the USDOT reported that:
* There were 236,468 non-fatal large truck accidents.
* 54,961 injury-related large truck accidents.
* 80,752 injuries due to large truck accidents.
Large truck accidents account for a significant portion of vehicle accidents every year and also account for a portion of crash-related injuries and fatalities among drivers, passengers and pedestrians.
According to research conducted by the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI), fatalities caused by truck accidents are rising and have steadily risen 5.8 percent over a the previous ten-year period. Causes of Truck Accidents There are a plethora of reasons that an individual can become involved in a truck accident, but there are a list of common, reoccurring truck accident scenarios that have been identified by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), which conducts research on highway collisions involving an array of motor vehicles.
The following are some of the primary causes for a fatality or injury because of a truck crash:
* Trucks hitting pedestrians.
* The force of the collision between a large truck and a smaller passenger vehicle/vehicles.
* Trucks hitting fixed objects.
* Loss of control (tire blow out, vehicle failure, weather conditions, etc.).
* Animal in roadway.
* Physical driver factor, including falling asleep, heart attack, etc.
Another study conducted by the FMCSA also found that truck accidents will vary based on roadway type, weight of vehicle and cargo body type. The study found that of the three main categories of roadway types (rural, urban and unknown), urban roadways (interstate, freeways, expressways, etc.) accounted for 63 percent of all large truck accidents. Additionally, weight factored into the equation of truck accidents and truck fatalities/injuries.
The study measured truck weight by single unit trucks (two axles, threes axles, etc.) and combination trucks (tractor trucks, truck pulling trailers, etc.). Of these, 62 percent of accidents were made up by combination trucks, specifically the tractor truck pulling a trailer.
Additionally, the study reported an array of truck varieties that had been in an accident:
* Van trucks, including closed van, refrigerated van and open top van.
* Dump trucks (rear dump trucks and bottom dump/hopper bottom).
* Tankers (tank-liquid, tank-dry bulk and tank-compressed gas).
* Garbage refuse trucks.
* Cement mixers.
* Pole/logging trucks.
* Auto carriers.
* Livestock carriers.
* Bobtail units (with no cargo body).
* Other category, which includes tow trucks, etc.
* Unknown category (meaning un-inspected vehicles).
Of these trucks, the van trucks accounted for 46 percent of large truck crashes with dump trucks accounting for 16 percent of accidents and flatbed trucks accounting for 15 percent.
Truck Accident Costs While the percentage of truck accidents varies each year, the UMTRI has noted that there is a steady increase of truck accident fatalities and injuries among passengers.
Accompanying this increase is the rising costs per crash. Research determining the average price for medium as well as heavy truck accidents was conducted by the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, which was paid for by USDOT.
The study found that: An average truck accident cost $91,112 in 2005.
* Crashes involving truck-tractors with two or three trailers accounted for the most costly crashes averaging $289,549 per crash.
* Truck crashes involving trucks with no trailers and straight trucks cost an average of $56,296 per crash.
* Reports have suggested that it will cost more than $3.6 million per crash for truck accidents involving a fatality.
* Whereas, truck crashes involving injury-only crashes averaged at $195,258 per crash.
While the costs of fatal and non-fatal accidents have been considered shockingly high by some, the study noted that these cost estimates excluded additional factors such as:
* mental health costs.
* roadside furniture repair costs.
* cargo delays.
* it is estimated that even those who are involved in or caring for a victim that was in a truck accident will have lost earnings.
* the value of schoolwork lost was also not factored.
Because of these exclusions, the estimated truck accident costs may even be considerable higher than estimated by the USDOT.
Seeking Assistance after a Truck Accident
It is often difficult for an individual to gauge the devastation that has just occurred after a truck collision. It is important that an individual who has suffered from a truck accident seeks medical attention immediately.
While an individual may feel no pain after an accident, their injuries may be internal and an examination by a medical professional immediately following an accident can ensure that the appropriate safety precautions are taken.
Additionally, it may be necessary for a truck accident victim to consult an experienced truck accident attorney for legal purposes, which may include a legal consultation for a potential truck accident lawsuit.
Developing a truck accident lawsuit may seem to be a drastic measure by some, but when considering the costs associated with a truck accident, whether fatal or non-fatal, it can be deemed a necessary step, one that may provide monetary compensation in return for damages following a truck collision.
To better understand the importance of a truck accident lawsuit, visit LegalView's truck accident portal. Also visit the LegalView legal library at for details on the possibility for a Levaquin recall or to learn about the latest Avandia lawsuit.
Choose From A Wide Variety Of Off Road RC Trucks To Play In The Dirt
Are you tired of driving your cars only on the road? Are you looking to get a little bit dirty? Or even a lot dirty? If you need a change from RC street racing, it is time to go off-road with the extreme off-road RC trucks. With a large variety of RC trucks to choose from, there is something for everybody, and every skill level.
Why an RC Truck?
If you have experience with RC cars, you might be thinking, why do I need an RC truck? What is wrong with my RC car? Well if you currently drive a streetcar, you do not know what you are missing. With a remote control truck, you can live out all your 4 x 4 dreams. Depending on the type of truck you get, you can take your truck in the dirt, in the mud, through snow and ice and even drive it through streams and puddles!
Get wet and dirty with extreme RC Trucks! The types of trucks that you can buy range quite dramatically. The most popular types of RC trucks are:
1) Monster trucks
2) Sport trucks
3) Suburban style
4) Hummers
5) Ford styles
You can get RC trucks in almost any make; however, the Hummer styles have become quite popular as well as the Ford styles. This is likely due to their reputation as being rough and tough trucks.
Can You Race RC Trucks?
RC trucks are not only for taking off-road. You can experience the speed and thrill of the race by racing your trucks as well. There is a whole segment of Radio Control trucks that are mean solely for racing. These trucks are generally built with a smaller body and are designed to be lightweight so that they can go faster. In order to race off-road trucks successfully you need the perfect combination of a fast truck, a rugged truck, and a light truck.
You can race off-road trucks on specially designed dirt racetracks with obstacles and jumps. Some tracks are especially designed with ramps, mud puddles and obstacles that you need to race through and avoid all together.
Other racetracks are built the same as RC car tracks. These courses are built for speed and are carried out on pavement or some other track like surface.
What Is The Best Type Of RC Off Road Truck?
There are many different types of off road truck, and the best kind depends on what you are looking for. The first thing that you need to determine is if you are looking for an electric or nitro vehicle. The electric trucks are typically less expensive; however, they are not usually as fast or as rugged as their gas-powered counterparts are.
A good quality off road 4x4 car is the Traxxas Stampede. This is an extra tough and powerful truck. The Stampede is known as the pit-bull of trucks because it is the meanest and toughest around. With its huge tires and high clearance, this truck can handle all types of terrain. Because of the quality, rugged construction, this truck is especially for first time RC truck owners. First time drivers can be especially tough on a truck as they learn how to manage their vehicles. You do not have to worry about breaking a Traxxas Stampede truck easily. The truck comes with a fully assembled chassis, a ball bearing equipped engine with a recoil starter. The truck comes ready to run, just paint whichever color you choose, add the decals and you are ready to drive.
The T-Maxx is another great 4 x 4 truck. This truck is built for racing with 60 percent more horsepower than you can find from other racing engines. This truck is nice and lightweight, which is the perfect formula for off-road truck racing. Every good racer knows that you need more power and less weight in order to achieve faster speeds and quick acceleration. With the T-Maxx truck, you achieve top speeds in excess of 40 miles per hour, and do wheelies on demand. This is the perfect truck for performance-minded drivers.
The Final Word
There are many different types of off-road extreme RC trucks. The type of truck that you choose will depend on what you are looking for, and what your budget allows. If you are looking at an electric truck, the prices will start around $100. The prices on these trucks increase as you add features, and nitro-fueled trucks are more expensive as well. No matter what type of off road RC you choose, you are sure to have fun feeling like a kid again, driving it through the mud, snow, and taking it off dirt jumps. Whether you are a professional or a hobbyist, the name of the game is to have fun.
© 2005 [http://www.rc-cars-now.com]
Kevin Brown is successful author and publisher of many informative websites including [http://www.rc-cars-now.com] . His websites offer tips and advice on a wide array of topics including rc trucks [http://www.rc-cars-now.com/rc-trucks.html], cars, planes and more.
GMC Trucks - 100 Years of Heavy-Duty Trucks
History of GMC Trucks
When it comes to trucks, GMC is known the world over for its production of a variety of trucks from service trucks and commercial vehicles to pickup trucks. It had its beginnings with a commercial hauling truck company created in 1902 by Max Grabowsky called the Rapid Motor Vehicle Company.
Seven years later, General Motors bought out Grabowsky's business because they wanted to form their own trucking company, which was called General Motors Truck Company. They added Reliance Motors to their inventory in 1911, and in 1912 GMC (General Motors Corporation) Trucks was born out of those two acquisitions.
GMC - The Early Years
GMC produced a mere 372 trucks out of the nationwide total of 22,000 trucks that first year, which pales in comparison to the millions of commercial vehicles they produce today. An interesting note though is that GMC was a forerunner in battery-powered electric model trucks and made nine different models ranging from one-half to six tons capacity.
In an effort to bring up their popularity, GMC Trucks put on a publicity stunt in 1916 featuring one of their truck models. William Warwick drove a loaded GMC 1-1/2-ton truck from Seattle to New York and back, making it the very first truck to cross the entire USA in less than 32 days.
GMC During World War I
The venture may have worked, as that same year the Army went with ¾ ton GMC trucks as part of their fleet of vehicles. In fact, WWI brought major breakthroughs for their business, as 90 percent of all its production was bought by the military from 1917 and 1919. GMC delivered 8,500 vehicles to the Army during those years.
GMC Trucks After World War I
The next few years brought more innovation in the GMC Truck production as pneumatic tires replaced solid rubber tires in 1920, and their K model trucks came out that year as well with a capacity between ¾ and five tons. The following year electric lights replaced what had been oil lamps as standard gear on all trucks as well and seven speed transmissions became the standard for heavyweight trucks.
By 1923, GMC trucks had capacities ranging up to 10 tons if you counted the trailer. Rear wheel brakes were starting to be used on some models by 1925.The company expanded by 1927 when they built a truck assembly plant in Pontiac, Michigan which was the biggest truck building plant in the world then at 26 acres of property.
That same year the company brought out their T model of trucks with a ½ ton panel express truck and a screen side express truck and "Cannon Ball" Baker drove a T model 40 GMC tank truck full of water from the Atlantic Ocean all the way from New York to San Francisco in under six days, which set a speed record for heavy-duty trucks.
GMC continued its innovative strategies when it started providing tandem driving rear axles for their heavyweight service trucks in 1930 and the following year it was a GMC T-95 model truck that pulled a refrigerated GMC trailer full of fresh produce from Los Angeles to New York, setting another record.
Between 1931 and 1940 GMC Trucks were producing more than 20 models of truck trailer chassis, 15 new models of different weight trucks, and it had added several models of heavy weight trucks to its lines.
GMC During World War II
The next war also seemed to benefit GMC as their production numbers continued to escalate with all of its trucks going to the war effort by 1942. GMC built 600,000 trucks during this time frame for the military. In fact, GMC trucks were presented the E Award for Excellence in 1944 because of its help in the war effort.
GMC After the War
The company was back to making trucks for the civilian market by then, but had some issues with a six-month long strike by its workers in 1946 that briefly slowed things down. Even so, by 1950 it proudly had 75 models of trucks going through its production lines.
In 1954 GMC Trucks offered power steering for the first time on some models and in 1956 tubeless tires were standard, and they were the first to put air suspension on front and rear axles on some of their heavy weight model trucks.
GMC Trucks continues to Grow
Between the 50s and the 60s GMC grew even larger and by 1968 they were considered the third largest truck producer in the world. Once again they prospered in the war effort and produced more than 9,000 trucks for the military in 1951. They were M-135 series that had the ability to ford deep water, thus being very useful for military operations.
The company again showed how GMC was first in implementing innovative features when in 1967 they produced trucks with energy absorbing steering columns, instrument panel pads and dual brake systems well before they were required by the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards.
GMC Trucks Between 1970 and 2012
GMC continued its truck production over the next several decades, weathering many difficulties changes in production lines, increasing production costs, competition from foreign companies, problems with the fuel shortages in the middle 1970s and deregulation and recession issues in 1980s. The problems were so severe, that some trucking companies went out of business. The production plant in Pontiac was also torn down in late 1980s and the production was moved to Janesville, Wisconsin.
GMC's high points include placing third in the production of trucks in the U.S., being chosen as the official truck of the 1984 Olympics and in 1988 they stopped making heavyweight trucks, in 1990 electronic fuel injection became the norm, and by 1996 the name was shortened to just GMC, instead of GMC Trucks and they merged with Pontiac Motor Division to form Pontiac GMC Division of General Motors.
The following year all of its commercial vehicles production was moved to Flint, Michigan. Since then, GMC Trucks has continued to grow and produce award-winning trucks of all kinds with production and distribution all over the globe.
GMC Trucks will celebrate a milestone anniversary in 2012 - 100 years of truck manufacturing.
If you are interested in buying a GMC vehicle and would like to see photos, listings of trucks for sale, and articles on various other manufacturers, this site has all that and a little bit more GMC Trucks for sale.
For other vehicles, such as service, flatbeds, lube trucks and many others this site is a must see: Work Trucks.
International Trucks - A History of the Famous Internationals
History of International Trucks - Navistar International is a company that manufactures various commercial vehicles and diesel engines. It is also the company that now owns and produces the International Trucks brand of heavy duty trucks, which are known for being some of the best quality trucks in the industry.
In the Beginning of International Trucks History - At first, International made farming and agricultural machines and vehicles and the International brand of equipment was well known in the mid-1800s among farmers. Cyrus Hall McCormick made the very first horse drawn reaper in 1847 as the McCormick Havesting Machine Company. By 1902 he and his brother combined this company with some other farming and equipment companies and formed what was called the International Harvester company.
International's First Truck - Over the next several years the company continued to make tractors, trucks and other agricultural gear. In 1907 they produced what was called an "auto wagon," which was a motor truck with an air-cooled engine, high wheels and two cylinders, thus giving farmers a truck to use for moving around their gear and supplies. This truck is what first put International into the truck building business.
In actuality, the name International wasn't being used by itself until 1914, so these were International Harvester auto wagon vehicles. In fact, they were not even considered motor trucks until 1910 either, but were considered auto buggies. In their first year, the company made 73 of them, which was about seven percent of the entire trucking industry in the U.S. in 1907. The next year in 1908 that pittance skyrocketed to 725, which increased to nearly 2,500 in 1909.
International's Trucks joined the transportation industry By 1915, the company began to make even more new truck products, coming out with a low-wheeled vehicle that had more power and more speed than ever before. The following year, one of these little trucks was the first truck to climb Pike's Peak.
World War I and the World of Trucking
The Army needed lots of trucks during World War I and this caused the trucking business to double from 92,000 vehicles in 1916 to more than 227,000 in 1918. About 49,000 of these trucks ended up overseas for use during the war. After the war, the leftover trucks were sold off and shipping things by truck began to get more popular.
After World War I
By 1921 International Harvester made motor trucks in a plant in Springfield, Ohio, where it produced the first trucks known to have pneumatic tires and could go at a higher speed, making them work well on the newer roads that were becoming more prevalent by the 1920s. These and other trucks International made helped their production grow from only 7,183 trucks in 1920 to more than 39,000 in 1928 and more than 10,000 more the following year.
During the 1920s International was the brand of truck that first crossed the Sahara Desert when a British soldier, hunter and explorer named Sir Charles Markham, and Baron Bror Frederick von Blixen-Finecke used an International in that endeavor.
In 1923 International Trucks opened another plant up in Fort Wayne, Ind. and in 1925 the company had the first armored truck when it built them special to protect payrolls for the Brinks Express Company.
International Trucks: Built from the ground up International trucks were different, as they were built from the ground up to adapt them to the job, which was unlike most trucks in the era that were mass produced. The engineers who built them would go to find out the exact use for the truck and then built it accordingly. In 1938 they made the first trucks with a Metro body through a contract with Metropolitan Body Company in Connecticut, and by 1939 International was making engines for trucks at yet another plant in Indianapolis, Indiana.
During the 1930s and 40s, International produced their C, D and K line of trucks. These were sizes from a high ton pickup style of truck, up to huge six-wheeled trucks that were heavy weight and could perform off road. By then, the company was producing more than 86,000 trucks a year.
International Trucks Role in World War II - World War II brought a request by the federal government for International to build all wheel drive trucks for the military. So, between 1941 and 1943, the only trucks International made were military trucks. These included trucks such as half-tracks, armored, gun mounted trucks and more.
In 1944, the company formed their motor truck division to take care of the ever increasing amount of truck products and activities it was starting to handle and by 1947 International trucks was back into making trucks for the civilian market and had made several new innovative changes in the trucking world.
After the War
By 1946 International had opened a new plant in Emeryville, Calif. It made special made heavy weight trucks called a Western type of truck. They had the capacity to haul as much as 90,000 pounds over rugged mountainous terrain. They were very popular at the time. As before, these were specialized, not mass-produced and each model had a specific job to do.
International Trucks was famous for putting its trucks through tough tests to be sure that they could perform in rough areas and in harsh conditions and it continues to test its trucks for high performance today.
Trucks continued to get more popular and the call for even more and faster vehicles and International met the demand when it made a record 165,600 trucks in 1948 and even more the following year when its L model came out.
This L model was a total redesign for International and it spent a whopping $30 million to revamp the plants to produce it in Fort Wayne, Springfield and Indianapolis. The L trucks were four wheelers that ranged in gross vehicle weight from 4,200 to 30,000 pounds, as well as six wheelers weighing up to 50,000 pounds gross vehicle weight, and cab-forward trucks that could handle more than 14,000 pounds. It had one of the most totally complete lines of trucks in the world at this time.
In 1952, International again rocked the trucking industry with the development of factory-installed liquefied-petroleum-gas-powered engines or LPG. These engines gave truckers more efficiency and at a lower cost.
Over the next few years other improvements were made and diesel also became popular in engines. Trucks also continued to get more powerful and International put out their S line of lighter, as well as both medium and heavy weight trucks.
Throughout the 50s International added things like automatic transmission, power brakes, and power steering to the trucks it produced. By the end of the decade International was listed as having 498 different kinds of trucks. That year the company made a record $749 million in sales and broke that record in 1960 with $766 million in sales. This meant International had an incredible 45 percent of the trucking market.
Passenger trucks appeared
The 1960s brought a three person passenger truck to International called the Scout. It had a removable top, a pickup body, and an International Harvester engine with two or four wheel drive available.
A new name-Navistar International Corporation
During the 1980s International had issues with money, strikes and other problems and sold off everything except its trucking and engine division, which was renamed Navistar International Corporation, which is it called today. The new company had the first hybrid diesel/electric truck in 2007 and now had dealers all over the world.
Navistar is also one of the main suppliers of U.S. MRAP armored vehicles, as well as the maker of the biggest truck that can be bought in today's market-a giant tractor trailer weighing more than 127,000 pounds. They also make the MaxxForce brand of diesel engines, as well the Workhorse brand of chassis for vans and motor homes and the IC Bus brand school buses and commercial buses.
Navistar earns nearly 10 billion dollars a year in revenue and has dealers in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Brazil and several other outlets in 90 countries.
If you have an interest in buying an International Trucks check out this site: International Trucks For Sale
Or check here if you are looking for another type of trucks for sale
What Would We Do Without Trucks?
DREAM TRUCKS
In this day and age, truck makers realise that safety comes first - this has become their first priority. Truck makers have gone the extra mile to make sure truck owners and their employees are safe when driving behind the wheel. Advances in technology mean that truck manufacturers have been able to create machines which are not only fast and reliable, but which can cope with the most hostile of terrains remaining ultimately safe to drive. This particular sector of the automotive industry is itself a well-oiled machine worth taking the time to find out a little more about.
The World Is Changing Fast
Whether you are a produce or hi-tech goods supplier, global raw material distributor, a manufacturer of any sort or a factory owner in Naples, you will almost without doubt be reliant on the trucking industry. Your company may find itself in need of tipper trucks, curtain side, flat bed trucks, graders, diggers, tippers or perhaps even just the tractor unit on its own. The upshot of it all is that without trucks almost all global enterprise would cease to exist. As companies continue to grow, developing world countries continue to develop and the people who live in this world continue to improve the surroundings in which they live - the demand for commercial trucking will not die down. In fact, the need for trucks has been growing consistently during the past decade. Even in the recession, the economy relied on the use of trucks, despite the demand for new trucks falling through the floor. That remained a constant requirement. The growth of new markets within developing countries in Asia, Africa and South America has given truck manufacturers a great opportunity to expand their own share.
Different Size Types of Trucks Available
There are many different types of trucks and not everyone may be aware of just how many variations of truck the manufacturers have to offer, especially small or medium size business owners who rely on the global logistics market every bit as much as the international construction and mining companies do. Manufacturers of trucks categorise them by the amount of weight they are capable of carrying. Trucks in the US are categorised into eight weight classes, ranging from the lightest at class one up the scale to class eight. For example, a Dodge Ram 3500 falls into a Class 2; a class 3 vehicle would be something like a Ford F-350. A GM C4500 falls under class 4, while the Ford F-550 is categorised class 5. Trucks which are bigger than, say, a GM8500 or a Ford F750, would most likely fall into a class eight.
The tractor unit of the truck is really where all the important stuff happens. This is the bit which not only houses the engine and gearbox, but is also the cab of the truck and it has to pull the trailer as well! The trailers are usually built for purpose and ordered separately from the tractor. There are many different tractors and each has a specific purpose much the same as for trailers. Trailer manufacture is just as big an industry sector as that of the truck tractor itself. To give you an idea of the differences between types of truck the categories are as follows:
Light Duty Trucks - These trucks provide a lower capacity of storage. The light duty trucks are utility provider carriers; they transport many of the products we use in our homes on a daily basis. They also deliver the products we need to build the homes we live in. If these trucks did not exist, we would not have many of the everyday items available to us which we so take for granted!
Main Models- These trucks are service trucks, dump trucks, flatbed trucks and the pickup trucks. These medium size model trucks are usually used for the lighter capacities of carrying and quickest way of transporting. Medium duty trucks have better carrying capacities than light trucks, and are used by most large companies for transporting goods between branches or depots. Some types of commercial trucks are: medium duty box trucks, bucket trucks, reefer trucks and rollback trucks. These are the most frequently used commercial trucks, which all types of companies and businesses use.
Large commercial trucks are also sometimes called articulated trucks, or Artics for short. The trailer of these trucks is able to swivel on a hook, hinge or tow-bar, giving them articulation by design and thus name. These are the really big trucks, which get the big jobs done. Mac trucks are what we knew them as while I was growing up. This is a brand name, however, and the same as calling a vacuum cleaner a Hoover. Both the construction and transportation industries rely heavily on the use of articulated, heavy-duty dump trucks and graders. They have a justified reputation for immense power and the performance to match, moving industrial sized mounds of earth or transporting thousands of tons of heavy machinery or raw materials such as iron and steel from suppliers to construction sites around the world.
There are a handful of companies which come to mind immediately - namely Mack, JCB and Caterpillar - when thinking of any need, application or location possible for a truck. Mack have a reputation for building reliable construction trucks, reliable motorway and interstate transporters, and the most hardy of refuse trucks in the US. Mack trucks always deliver! Both Caterpillar and JCB build a huge range of ultra reliable articulated dump trucks and graders which operate under the harshest conditions imaginable from building schools to preparing runways in the harsh African sun, to operating in the world's biggest diamond mines and coal mines in Russia or the world famous opal mines of the Australian outback. These amazing giants of the automotive world often operate night and day, thanklessly performing their important function time after time as quickly and safely as possible. The tyres alone on these monster trucks often need to be made to order and can cost around twenty thousand pounds each. They need to be flown to some of the most inhospitable places on earth at a moment's notice as down time on these machines costs corporations hundreds of thousands a day when they are taken out of operation. Time really does equate to money in this game!
Heavy-duty cab chassis trucks, sleeper trucks and dump trucks are among the main types of these. Many land development companies use these types of trucks; they are also popular with related industries such as construction.
Commercial trucks have various uses:
1. Transport of small and medium sized goods.
2. Transportation of fuels, liquids and gases in tankers.
3. Contributing in the development of residential construction.
4. Maintaining a safe community by playing their part in road construction.
5. Waste elimination.
6. Providing services for other companies or residential.
There is more to add to the list. The list of types of operation or business in which commercial vehicles play a part is endless; trucks play an enormous part in all of our business and personal lives.
Some of the best names in the world of big trucks are Peterbilt, Mack, Kenworth, DAF, Renault, Mercedes, Freightliner trucks, Feterl Manufacturing Corporation. Some of the best looking and high functioning trucks on the market are supplied by these companies. Unique among transport vehicles and truly in a class of their own, they exhibit flair, strength and speed all in one hit. New commercial trucks on the market by these manufacturers never fail to create a buzz in the global business world.
Trucks of all sizes and shapes are being advertised and sold primarily by these big-name commercial truck makers. A massive percentage of all commercial truck supplies to both UK and US markets are made by these major companies. Over the years, they have made huge efforts to make their trucks well known worldwide, with a very successful migration to the Asian, African and South American markets. It can be said that commercial trucks have changed, and are still changing, the world as we know it.
CEO and company managers worldwide strive to help improve our societies' infrastructure by quickly moving everyday goods and perishable resources between company depots, from cities to rural areas as well as between countries, as is the case in Europe. Our economies can only move forward with the help of big trucks. It is often neither cost effective nor logistically possible due to rail infrastructure to haul large amounts of freight across Europe and Britain.
Commercial trucks are easy to buy through expert distribution services worldwide made available by the big names in the trucking world. Franchised dealerships will often have heavy regulation from the manufacturer so as to ensure their desired level of service and supply of equipment and parts. Commercial truck providers are helping to improve communities and the hard working people who live in them. At the end of the day, commercial trucks bring results, and results go on to create jobs and more results.
A stable financial future for us and for generations to come depends on continued economic growth. The global recession has crippled truck sales across the UK, Europe and the US. Smaller dealerships acting as representatives on behalf of big manufacturers have experienced crippling blows to order books and unprecedented returns of new trucks. The reason is not as complicated as governments may like us to think either; it's down to simple economics - high interest rates on truck loans for small businesses have continued to be offered to struggling companies even after reserve banks lowered their lending fees and the small business, still left at the mercy of the big banks, have simply had to return the trucks or risk going broke.
While some small businesses may no longer be able to consider purchasing a new truck, the flip side of the coin is that the market for used commercial vehicles in some sectors could actually see positive growth. Commercial vehicles play a part in so many types of operation. Whether you are a small enterprise starting out with a couple of Ford Transit Vans, perhaps a larger company needing to downsize to smaller vans, or maybe you are considering whether to buy a minibus to move workers between sites - the used commercial vehicle industry is yet another important facet of the truck industry as a whole.
The future of the trucking industry around the world is still bright. Trucks perform a critical job; keeping our economy moving by delivering building materials, consumer goods such as TVs and hi-fi equipment to super stores and perishable goods from our farms to the supermarket shelves. Most truck drivers spend a lot of time away from home; spare a thought for the driver who may be many miles from home and family next time you see a big truck on the road.
Ben Weaver Used Commercial Vehicles sell Minibuses and used vans - specialising in LDV and Ford. There are many used vans for sale to the public skipping the middleman so call on 01142 757 076 or have a look at the new website where new stock is being added all the time.
Stephanie Andrew writes and publishes articles for SEO consultants ePage Solutions, whose clients include Ben Weaver Commercials, A family business with "The best prepared minibuses for sale in Yorkshire". Ben Weaver Commercial Vehicle Sales Supply Minibuses, Wheelchair accessible minibuses and used vans direct to business and private individuals.
Sunday, May 13, 2012
The Cass Scenic Railroad
Morning mist, like a transparent sheath, rose from the green-carpeted Cheat Mountain in West Virginia's Monongahela National Forest on that Memorial Day weekend, but the hot sun quickly intercepted it during its gentle ascent, leaving a flawlessly blue sky.
Like a pocket of history, somehow frozen in time, the town of Cass, accessed via curving, mountain-hugging roads and a short, Greenbrier River-traversing bridge, sported its railroad depot, historic buildings, and dual tracks, all cradled by a valley in Back Allegheny Mountain. The tracks themselves, stretching toward and disappearing into a dense forest, were the very reason for the town and its railroad and also the reason why neither disappeared into history.
Densely covered with virgin forests during the late-19th century, West Virginia ubiquitously sprouted oak, hickory, pine, walnut, and chestnut at its lower elevations and hemlock, spruce, maple, and birch at its higher ones, providing rich lumber resources, with its eight- to nine-foot diameter trees, for the houses, stores, churches, and schools demanded by the state's increasing population.
Logging, once dependent upon rivers to power sawmills, evolved into a significant industry with the concurrent development of the steam engine and the circular saw, a combination which permitted location anywhere the operation required it, independent of external water power.
Trees were traditionally felled, cut into manageably sized logs, propelled down slopes by means of wooden skids to streams, and transported to mills on log rafts.
Because of the inherent imprecision and danger of the manual skidding method, the Lidgerwood Company of New York designed the first steam-powered skidder, which constituted another logging industry advancement. First used in West Virginia in 1904, the device, featuring a mile of 1 7/8-inch thick cable which extended up to 2,600 feet, was either mounted directly on the ground or atop a rail-provisioned flat car, gripping the log and transferring it from forest to stream in a secure, controlled manner. It significantly increased the capability of the horse-drawn method it often replaced.
Water-born logging rafts, as equally imprecise because of rock, boulder, branch, and rapids obstructions during the summer and ice in the winter, were eventually replaced with steam-operated loaders and logging railroads.
Large band saws, substituting for the earlier, circular device, converted timber into lumber more rapidly, precisely, and efficiently, eliminating needless waste, and had an average daily capability of 125,000 board-feet.
By the late-19th century, West Virginia had become one of the country's largest lumber producers, more than one hundred railroads transporting raw timber to mills for cutting and processing before being shipped for sale as a finished product. Peaking in 1909, the industry cut some 1,473 million board feet of lumber per year.
One of the most major logging operations had been the West Virginia Spruce Lumber Company. Founded in 1899 when John G. Luke acquired more than 67,000 acres of red spruce in West Virginia, it was a subsidiary of the West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company located in Covington, Virginia.
The Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad, foreseeing a need for freight and lumber transportation, hastened its own plans to extend its track into northern Pocahontas County, incorporating a subsidiary designated the "Greenbrier Railway Company" in 1897 and commencing roadbed and track construction two years later. The line reached the area that December. Threshold to virgin forests, it was uniquely positioned to carry timber to the Covington sawmill and also to connect with the Coal and Iron Railway, which itself was later amalgamated into the Western Maryland Railway.
Although it provided a vital link, it did not penetrate the mountain-clinging forests themselves, nor did it possess the proper locomotive equipment to do so. Logging railroad track, by necessity, exhibited several unique characteristics. Mountain forests usually dictated both sharp curves, which could equal 35 degrees, and steep grades, which required switchbacks to surmount, while track needed to be portable, moved after each area was cut and depleted. Resultantly, it was usually built up of short, skinned logs directly laid on the bare earth, without the benefit of prepared roadbeds, and the rails themselves were then spiked to them. Rail weight, ranging between 50 and 75 pounds per yard, was more than sufficient.
Although these temporary, impromptu tracks fulfilled the immediate need before being moved to the next location, they were ill-suited to conventional, rod-type locomotives with their rigid frames and fixed driving axles. Often falling victim to imperfections, they slipped and frequently derailed. What was needed was an engine with numerous, small drive wheels, ideally ranging between eight and 16, which could deliver low-speed traction, continuous contact, positive power, and effective braking, yet exhibit considerable flexibility.
Ephraim Shay, a Michigan logger who was well acquainted with such obstacles, designed the first articulated locomotive for logging purposes in 1874. Its driving force was subdivided into the cylinders-connecting rods and the driving wheels mounted on pivoting trucks, the side-mounted cylinders themselves counterbalanced by an offset boiler, while the tender truck's own driving axles both contributed to this force and added to the locomotive's adhesion weight. The geared steam engine, replacing the conventional locomotive's rod-driving propulsion system, was equally easy to maintain and repair with its entirely exposed parts.
The first such Shay, patented and constructed by the Lima Machine Works of Lima, Ohio, in 1880, featured slide vales, a vertical boiler, and eight drivers.
Later, progressively larger examples sported three right-side mounted vertical cylinders counterbalanced by a left side boiler, which itself provided clearance for the cylinders, and a small water tender-connected coal bunker located immediately behind the cab. Since the engine was seldom far from either a coal or water supply, its relatively small capacity proved sufficient.
Cylinder pistons, by means of bevel gears, enabled each truck to independently negotiate the rail's imperfections and their small, 36-inch drive wheels provided the needed adhesion and traction. Yet, since all wheels were interconnected either by line shafts or axles, single-wheel slippages were impossible.
The Shay locomotive, enjoying a 2,771-production run between 1880 and 1945, proved to be the most ideally-suited and numerically most popular powerplant for logging operations, whether specifically in West Virginia, where more than 400 were employed, or elsewhere. It also had limited application for steep-grade, heavy-load lines and industrial switching.
The West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company's first locomotive was a two-truck, 42-ton Shay.
The first pulpwood shipment to the Covington, Virginia, paper mill, hauled by the Greenbrier Railway Company, was made on January 28, 1901, but what was needed for more immediate processing and independent operation was a strategically located sawmill. This became operational the following year.
In order to support the massive workforce required for a rapidly expanding logging enterprise, a company town, designated "Cass" after West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company Vice President Joseph P. Cass, arose from a small farming community and wagon road river crossing previously called "Leatherbark Ford."
Carefully planned and revolving round the sawmill itself, the incorporated town, with an official major and council, was located on one side of the Greenbrier River and boasted of a 2,000-strong population, sustained by houses, schools, stores, offices, churches, and civic and social organizations. It quickly blossomed into one of West Virginia's largest boom towns.
Its three-story Pocahontas Supply Company store, constructed in 1902 and partially rebuilt 16 years later after fire had consumed its upper floor, sold everything from food to appliances to furniture and was the nucleus of the town. It had also served as the site of the US Post Office and the lumber company's offices.
The smaller shop next to it housed Nethkin's Meat Market.
Residents used wooden boardwalks to negotiate the area by foot.
Contrasted with the brothels and hotels located on the town's east side, which was alternatively dubbed "East Cass" or "Dirty Street," the dual-structure comprising the Cass Hotel was frequented by businessmen, workers in good standing, and respected visitors.
The elite, in general, lived in the town's Big Bug Hill section.
The mayor's office, replacing a temporarily employed boxcar for incarcerations, ironically housed the more permanent jail on its first floor and the mayoral headquarters on its second.
Between 1901 and 1920, the railroad had constituted Cass's only access.
Propelled by its small Shay locomotive, the West Virginia Spruce Lumber Company commenced logging railroad operations in January of 1901, pulling red spruce-piled flat cars over an initial eight miles of off-line track in order to supply the Covington paper mill with pulpwood until Cass's own mill had been completed the following year. By 1908, the operation had sustained dramatic growth, with logging trains running both day and night, supported by 200 draft horses and 1,000 men and supplying the mill with hemlock and spruce bark. Forty-four daily cars hauled raw material and finished products from Cass.
After subsidiary West Virginia Spruce Lumber Company had been acquired by and amalgamated into parent Pulp and Paper, and the operation had entered its second life phase, the railroad had been rechartered as the Greenbrier, Cheat, and Elk, opening a main line into the Elk River Watershed in order to log a 2,000-foot-long by 100-foot-deep area designated the "Big Cut," then the largest and most costly engineering project ever undertaken by an eastern logging company. Comprised of 82 miles of main and 40 additional miles of spur line track at its peak, it enjoyed 21 years of common-carrier operations.
A typical logging operation entailed cutting the designated trees, skidding them down the slope to the tracks, and loading them, as log limbs, on to the flatbed cars, cradled between vertical, side-forming and -mounted wooden stakes, which formed pockets. After being transported to the mill, they were unloaded in to the mill pond, at which time pike-provisioned men channeled them on to jack slips-inclined, cleated, conveyor belt-like chains-for travel into the actual mill's sawing room. The finished product, assuming the form of cut board, was then dried and reloaded on to standard-gauge trains pulled by traditional rod locomotives for distribution to the company or lumber yard which had ordered them.
The mill, equipped with 11 miles of steam pipes, cut more than 125,000 board feet of lumber per shift and dried 360,000 per run, there having been two 11-hour shifts per day, scheduled six days per week, resulting in 1.5 million board feet per week and 35 million per year.
The West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company, having grown into one of West Virginia's largest logging enterprises, was continually subjected to expansion, as evidenced by its statistics: the Greenbrier, Cheat, and Elk Railroad had operated over 66 miles of track by 1917 and over 101 miles four years later, when the workforce had exceeded 1,500.
But, by the time World War II had raged, the forests surrounding Cass had been depleted, despite still-prevalent hardwood and second-growth trees below Bald Knob. The West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company, unable to justify the economic viability of extending its track into the timber span, sold the operation to F. Edwin Mower, head of the Charleston-based Mower Lumber Company. Demand for southern yellow pine, traditionally used for paper production, had already precipitated a decline and 68,000 acres had been sold to the US Forest Service in 1936. The remainder had been acquired by Mower. The West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company thus entered the third phase of its life, albeit under a new name.
Laying 12 miles of short branch track off the Cabin Fork Line to Bald Knob, the Mower Lumber Company was able to continue harnessing the precious wood resource. But with only 65,000 acres remaining by 1960, a handful of still-unharvested hardwood patches, and deteriorating rolling stock and machinery, it only operated three weekly trains pulled by an equal number of Shay locomotives, and finally ceased operations on June 30 of that year. Victim, like most of the other logging railroad enterprises to forest depletion and new, automated mill processing methods, it retreated into the history books, leaving less than half-a-dozen concerns in West Virginia. Its track, mills, machinery, engines, and cars almost went with it.
The Midwest Raleigh Steel Corporation, to which the operation's components had been sold, began dismantling its track, with the intention of having it completely removed before the onset of winter, while the locomotives, rolling stock, and logging equipment would be junked. Walworth Farms, a landholding company, acquired its wooded property.
Russel C. Baum, a Pennsylvania rail fan who coincidentally spent a three-day vacation in Marlinton, West Virginia, during this time, witnessed the painstaking dismemberment process, but immediately foresaw the historical and tourist value of the railroad.
Commencing a campaign to save it and pleading his case in Charleston's Capitol Building, he was able to obtain a temporary injunction which dictated suspension of the dismantling process, and a committee, formed for the purpose of investigating its tourism potential, ultimately recommended that the state acquire its roadbed, rolling stock, and 40 acres on Back Allegheny Mountain for $150,000. It would then be operated by the Department of Natural Resources. On June 15, 1963, the operation entered its fourth life phase when the Cass Scenic Railroad was born.
Pulled by Shay locomotive #4, the first passenger-carrying excursion train left Cass and the railroad carried 23,106 during its first year of operations. That number has increased every year since. Restoring the line to fully operational status, it opened the second portion, to Bald Knob, on May 25, 1968, to the excursion train, its tracks having now carried both logs and passengers.
On the same date, Cass Scenic Railroad State Park, which includes almost 100 buildings in the town itself, was added to the National Register of Historic Places, and today, as a unit of the West Virginia Park System, is the site of the nation's longest-running tourist railway, the geared steam locomotive, the mill town, the locomotive repair shop, the Cass Company store, the Last Run Restaurant, and the Shay Railroad Shop.
The Cass Mill, having been owned by the West Virginia Spruce Lumber Company between 1902 and 1910, the West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company between 1910 and 1942, and the Mower Lumber Company between 1942 and 1960, had been comprised of the drying kilns, the boiler house, the powerhouse, the sawmill itself, the millpond, and the storage area for finished lumber, all located between the tracks and the Greenbrier River. Reconstruction occurred from 1922 to 1923 because of fire, the reason for its final demise during the 1980s.
II
Belching thick, black smoke from its stack and clanging its bell, Shay locomotive #6 pulled its still-empty cars to the Cass depot on the left of the two main tracks 30 minutes before its 1100 departure to Bald Knob on that late-May morning, a four-and-a-half hour, 22-mile round trip journey.
The cars themselves consisted of six wooden, converted logging cars with paneless windows, a roof, and side-facing bench seats, painted green with red window trim, and a single wooden, enclosed coach with forward- and aft-facing, booth-like seats, designated "Leatherbark Creek."
The depot next to which they stood, constructed here in 1901 to serve the just-completed Greenbrier Division of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad, was modified in 1923 to accommodate an increasing volume of freight and passengers, but the present wooden, white-painted structure was rebuilt in 1979, four years after fire had claimed the original one.
The 162-ton, Class C-150 Shay locomotive #6, originally constructed for the Western Maryland Railway and the largest of its type, had been shipped to Elkins, West Virginia, on May 14, 1945 for service on the nine-percent graded Chaffee Branch. The three-truck engine, with 48-inch drivers, a 17-inch bore, and an 18-inch stroke, was then donated to the Baltimore and Ohio Museum, in Baltimore, Maryland, after four years, and was subsequently exchanged for a Cass Scenic Railroad Porter 0-4-0 after another 26. Other locomotives in its inventory include the 93-ton Shay #2, the 80-ton Shay #4, the 90-ton Shay #5, and the 103-ton Shay #11. A 70-ton Shay #9 and 100-ton Heisler #6, although not currently operational, round out the fleet.
Emitting an ear-shattering whistle and releasing a volcanic eruption of billowing, blinding black smoke, the Shay #6, assuming a pusher-configuration, bit into the rails and prodded its cars into abrupt motion, steam pressure pulsing its pistons which then rotated its crankshaft, and this, in turn, rotated the all-driver wheels through reduction gear. Plying the tracks acquired by the state park in 1978 after the Chesapeake and Ohio's Greenbrier Division had operated its last freight service on them, the train moved past the water tank, which had been shared with the C&O, but is presently a replica which had been installed in 2005. It also marked the spot, at the junction switch, where the logging railroad actually began.
The deadline, cradling several locomotives, was the service area for coaling, sanding, and repairing.
Crossing Back Mountain Road, the train trundled near the original, 1901 track, which had been on a cribbing through the wet bottomland of Leatherbark Creek, and the bridges which had traversed it had been little more than wood stringers until they had been replaced by steel structures in 1959. West Virginia's highest stream, the creek itself flowed from a point below Bald Knob.
Rumbling and vibrating with every track joint traverse, the chain of cars commenced a four-percent graded ascent through a cool, almost sun-obstructing forest of tall spruce, hemlock, white pine, and red spruce trees, the raw timber which constituted the very reason for the railroad's creation. Most had now been third-cut vegetation, with the patches receiving the most sunlight having been the first to regrow.
In order to avoid an excessive amount of circumventing track and gain the maximum amount of elevation in the minimum amount of distance, the logging railroad installed two switchbacks, the lower of which was reached at mile 2.3. Ceasing motion beyond the actual v-configured rails before releasing a soot-reeking geyser from its stack and assaulting the forest's solitude with a billowing stream of coal cinders, the Shay locomotive, puffing and panting, lurched its cars in a pulling mode, filling its lungs with every chugging breath as the crankshaft provided the vital connection between the vertical pistons and the rotating wheels. Settling into a rhythmic, albeit explosive, forest-echoing chug, the mass re-established motion.
Initiating a 22-degree curve on a 3.65-percent grade, the Bald Knob run arced into the 158-degree circle characterizing Gum Curve at mile 2.6. The sun-illuminated clearing, comprised of rolling, velvet-green pastures, revealed the equally green waves of the highlands off the left side.
At mile 3.1, the train's seven cars, bombarded with lung-choking steam and smoke, moved past Limestone Cut, the track's roadbed having been created after limestone rock itself had been hand-cut with the aid of picks, shovels, black powder, and horse-drawn pans.
Once again immersed in dense, dark forest, the railroad maneuvered through an arrest-reinitiated motion sequence as it spewed black plumes to the towering treetops and negotiated the upper switchback, the locomotive assuming its pusher-configuration.
Mountains, varying in color with distance, seemed to roll and crest, like ocean waves, dividing the line between Virginia and West Virginia. Those closest to the train appeared green while those furthest from it appeared dark-blue to gray.
Commencing a 0.2-mile, s-curve at a 7.1-percent grade, the train crossed the access road to Whittaker and surmounted a plateau, a sanctuary-exuding meadow in the middle of a steep forest flanked on either side by densely treed mountains. Having climbed from 2,452 feet at Cass to a current 3,250 at Whittaker Station, the Shay engine breathed a sigh and suspended its journey at 1145.
Aside from the views of Cheat Mountain and the snackbar facilities, the station itself afforded the opportunity to experience the Mountain State Railroad and Logging Association's reconstructed logger's camp.
Originally the site of a Hungarian railroad laborer's camp during the turn-of-the-century, the present reconstruction, depicting a later set-up from about 1946, featured three tracks on which railroad cars, equipment, and miners shanties were positioned, the latter built using measurements from actual structures near Bald Knob.
Although such camps were usually isolated, spartan, and offered little more than a suspension between work shifts to facilitate washing, eating, and sleeping until the person could return to the main logging town, such as Cass, they were an integral part of West Virginia railroad logging from the late-1800s to 1960.
Because the activity had constituted the predominant growth industry during this period, and because timber companies needed significant numbers of immigrant workers to meet their operational requirements, they usually contracted large city-located labor agents to screen and hire them. Typically, they encompassed people from Italy, Sweden, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Russia, and Poland. The camps, crude and crowded, employed kerosene lamps for light and coal or wood for heat. Food, in copious quantities, was vital to worker productivity.
The Whittaker camp's four-wheel logging caboose, constructed by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in 1883, was usually attached at the end of logging trains and accommodated by brakemen and management-level personnel so that they could inspect remote sites. Later employed in Swandale, Clay County, it was finally acquired by the Cass Scenic Railroad.
The camp's several shanties, which utilized less-than-premium lumber and were transported from area to area after it had been depleted of trees, exemplified the structure's size and internal facilities relative to position importance. The wood shanty was tiny. The filer's shanty contained a larger window to provide maximum light for saw sharpening. And the desk-provisioned surveyor/cruiser shanty was housed by the men who determined which timber should be cut and how it should be removed from the mountain.
The kitchen and dining car, sporting a long,, bench-lined, internal table for eating, and the abundant portions served on it, were tantamount to sustaining logging operations, since the human bodies were the primary "machines" involved in the operational chain, over and above the mechanical ones, and therefore had to be properly "fueled." There had been little else to which loggers would look forward during their nocturnal downtimes.
Sleeping in spartan surroundings, as evidenced by the lobby/bunk car, was the standard until the worker could return to home and family in the company town. A stove provided warmth and a method by which wet clothes could be dried throughout the night.
The diesel-powered log loader, usually riding car-fastened rails and thus capable of both independent and collective movement with the remainder of the train, facilitated log transfer from ground to rolling stock. The camp's example was capable of handling tree-length specimens.
The steam-driven Lidgerwood log skidder, operated by a three-man crew and built by the Meadow River Lumber Company in 1944, had been employed for some two decades, and facilitated log delivery from the cutting source to the actual railroad by means of an aerial cable.
Snoozing during its 15-minute interlude, the black Shay locomotive exhaled white streams of breath through its vertical piston nostrils, the high-pressure steam discharged from the cylinders itself eradicating its piston chambers of condensation. The restful state, however, was soon shattered by its subsequently released, atmosphere-piercing whistle, its sound waves reverberating off of the surrounding slopes and beckoning the passengers back to the cars for the continuing journey.
Re-boring its way through the deep, dense wood forest, whose foliage slowly moved by like a green mosaic within an arm's length of the windowless coaches, the train trundled over the culvert at Whittaker Run, the sharper curve of the old grade visible on the track's low side.
Clinging to Leatherbark Gorge, the rails briefly threaded their way through Austin Meadows, on whose slope farm fields once grew, and thence over Gobbler's Knob.
A skidder set, located on a 225-foot siding on the uphill side of the train at mile 5.4, had occupied the site between 1940 and 1941, its 3,000-foot cable transferring logs at a 500-foot height over the creek from the far mountainside.
Climbing a 5.4- to six-percent grade at mile 6.0, the string of cars passed an overlook whose view took in Leatherbark Creek Valley, located below the lower switchback and from which smoke, created by the 1200 Whittaker train, now rose. At the present elevation, spruce trees had become ubiquitous.
The logging spur leading to Camp 5, which had been hollowed in 1911, moved off the side at mile 6.2.
The tracks, forking a half-mile further into the journey, led to Old Spruce on the left and Bald Knob on the right, the former following the main line which connected with tracks destined for the Cheat and Elk River drainages at the abandoned mill town of Spruce. Located at a 3,940-foot elevation on the Shavers Fork of the Cheat River, the bark-peeling pulpwood mill- and railroad shop-equipped town was considered the "highest and coldest...in the east."
Arcing to the right of the two, the train entered the logging spur, and the last to have been laid by the Mower Lumber Company, so that it could access the highest-elevation timber. It served as the threshold to Bald Knob.
Operations, ceasing in 1960, never permitted use of the railroad grade located on the high side and destined for the head of Leatherbark Creek.
Arresting its travel on the eight-percent graded track at the Oats Creek water tank, the engine was intravenously-fed 4,000 gallons of the life-providing liquid by means of a steam-driven siphon and portable hose extending from an old mill boiler which continually collected creek water run-off. The 6,000-gallon tank, located directly over the engine's driver wheels, ensured both increased traction and greater rail adhesion.
Somehow emulating a polluting factory, the Shay locomotive once again released a black, vertical plume as it propelled the train over the seven-percent grade of Johnson Run, at mile 8.2, past the Snowshoe ski resort overlook, now entrenched in third-cut hemlock, ash, white pine, and red spruce tree sentinels.
The wye, at mile 9.1, had led to a one-mile-long spur off to the left which had been equipped with five skidder sets and a camp train between 1950 and 1951, but had since been reduced to a fraction of this length.
Clanking, lurching, swaying, and screaming with protests at every turn, and releasing its own periodic explosion of steam, the train moved round the Big Run watershed, at a 1.5-percent downgrade, the track having been laid from Shavers Fork in 1910 when skidding had still been accomplished by means of horse power.
Moving through the ten-mile marker, it traversed the logging road crossing, initiating its final, mile-long approach to the mountain's summit on a nine-percent grade. A small clearing indicated imminent arrival.
Passing the left-arcing logging railroad grade, the train ceased motion for a final time at mile 11.0 in the cooler, more rarefied air at 4,750-foot Bald Knob, the highest point reached east of the Rocky Mountains by a non-cog railroad and the third-highest in the state of West Virginia.
The billous black, 162-ton Shay locomotive, having voraciously consumed mini-mountains of coal and unquenchably gulped water by the thousand gallons, instantaneously ceased its persistent chug, belch, hiss, screech, clang, and shrill at 1320, leaving silence-and the breathtaking view of the gentle, dark green, blue, and gray, wave-resembling ridges rolling into one another almost 5,000 feet above the surface from the eastern edge of the Allegheny Highland, as viewed from the scenic overlook platform.
Eleven miles ahead lay the mountains marking the Virginia border, but only a few yards behind, cradled by the terminating track, was the Shay #6 locomotive, its coal tender, and its seven vacant cars. Its forest- and five sense-assaulting technology, although now crude and primitive, had been instrumental in West Virginia logging railroad history, once removing the raw, vitally-needed timber to build the country's towns and sustain their people, but today returned them to the mountain forest where they could witness its feats.
Enticed back to the train 40 minutes later for the 11-mile journey back to Cass, the passengers, numbering in the hundreds, owed it a silent salute.
A graduate of Long Island University-C.W. Post Campus with a summa-cum-laude BA Degree in Comparative Languages and Journalism, I have subsequently earned the Continuing Community Education Teaching Certificate from the Nassau Association for Continuing Community Education (NACCE) at Molloy College, the Travel Career Development Certificate from the Institute of Certified Travel Agents (ICTA) at LIU, and the AAS Degree in Aerospace Technology at the State University of New York - College of Technology at Farmingdale. Having amassed almost three decades in the airline industry, I managed the New York-JFK and Washington-Dulles stations at Austrian Airlines, created the North American Station Training Program, served as an Aviation Advisor to Farmingdale State University of New York, and devised and taught the Airline Management Certificate Program at the Long Island Educational Opportunity Center.
A freelance author, I have written some 70 books of the short story, novel, nonfiction, essay, poetry, article, log, curriculum, training manual, and textbook genre in English, German, and Spanish, having principally focused on aviation and travel, and I have been published in book, magazine, newsletter, and electronic Web site form. I am a writer for Cole Palen's Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome in New York. I have made some 350 lifetime trips by air, sea, rail, and road.
Model Railroading - It's a Way of Life!
When one is a model railroader you might expect to see some train pictures on the wall and maybe train and model railroader magazines laying around but, there just might be a little more to it than that. In this article we will reveal some of the obsessive qualities a model railroader may exhibit.
1. Talk Of The Model Railroader-A model railroader probably at some time will be mumbling and rambling on about numbers and letters such as 2-6-0, 4-8-8-4, GP38, SD40-2 just to name a few. If one is unfamiliar with such terms those are descriptions of steam and diesel locomotives. The names of several different men who have been a big influence on the hobby will most likely come up in conversation such as John Allen and George Sellios. Of course they are always talking about expanding the model railroad layout at some point.
2. Model Railroader Furniture-In the home of a serious model railroader you might walk into the living room and find him sitting there watching the latest model railroad DVD by Allen Keller on his custom built cabinet TV that looks like a boxcar and his remote to the TV looks like a railroad flatcar. Of course there is a G-scale train that comes from the kitchen right to his chair side hauling a special load of refreshments in coal cars such as chips and dip, oh and a ice cold glass of ice tea. A coffee table with a glass top so you can see a N-scale model railroad inside it. His decor on the walls consist of railroad memorabilia he has collected over the years and at train show swap meets. He waters his plants with an old railroad oiler's can. His dinning room is of course decorated like that of an old Pullman dinning car. And if a model railroader can score one, a restored wooden caboose sitting beside the house. As you can see it can get quite compulsive.
3.Model Railroads Everywhere-Of course there is a HO scale model railroad consuming the entire basement. A train running around the top of the walls going from room to room throughout the whole house. Model railroad dioramas mounted on the walls. The yard outside of a model railroader's house is occupied by a G-scale garden railroad. There might even be a z-scale model railroad found in his briefcase. Yes, also the coffee table N-scale railroad as mentioned earlier.
4. Model Railroaders Shopping Habits- A model railroader will not go shopping willingly unless it is to a hobby shop. If he goes to the grocery store it is the one located closest to the hobby shop. If sent to the hardware store for the wife to pick up vacuum bags for the vacuum he will most likely come home with tubs of plaster or any other materials he can use on the railroad. He probably have to go back to the store because he forgot the vacuum bags the first time.
5. A Model Railroader's Vacation- Of course there will not be any vacations that do not center around a railroad somewhere. Either to ride the train or to take pictures of it or both. Maybe it might be to go see the world's largest railroad classification yard. Sometimes a vacation might be to spend several days at a model train show and swap meet.
So as you can see when model railroading becomes A Way Of Life it can be quite concerning for family members or friends or the neighbor who is looking in awe when the caboose is being delivered next door who doesn't know that this hobby is quite addictive. A a side note if your are wandering about the wife in all of this. Most likely this guy is a bachelor or has taken the time yet to look for a wife that would put up with all of this. Yes there are wives that have to live with this obsession and we thank you for putting up with us. Until next time keep the trains running!
B. Conley has been in model railroading for 30 years and has observed the humorous side of model railroading and the personality of the "model railroader". He has come up with several different humorous model railroad designs depicting the hobby and some of the different personalities found in the hobby. To see some of the many items featuring his designs from t-shirts, mugs, calendars and more visit his site Conley Creations and take a look around.
The Railroad Roots of Altoona, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania Railroad:
No city is more synonymous with the Pennsylvania Railroad than Altoona. Located at the base of Brush Mountain, in Logan and Pleasant valleys, it is the state's tenth most-populous one after Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown, Erie, Reading, Scranton, Bethlehem, Lancaster, and Harrisburg. But it was that very mountain which first inhibited, and then sparked, its growth.
Blanketed by hard-wood forests and traversed by the spine of the Appalachian Mountain range-which stretches from Newfoundland to Alabama and serves as the Eastern Continental Divide-Pennsylvania posed an obstacle to both westward population expansion and trade with its own Allegheny ridge section of them thrust as high as 4,000 feet toward the sky. Trans-state travel, by rudimentary tracks and trails left by wild animals and Native Americans, over the imposing peaks, required three weeks to complete-under the best of conditions.
British colonists, etching out a few clearings for farms in the 18th century, constituted the area's first modern settlers, while early industrialists harnessed its minerals through coal and iron furnaces. Yet their products could only be transported by wagons to Pittsburgh, considered the gateway to the west, over these crude trails.
The first remedial effort to ease this transportation barrier was made in 1823 when John Stevens was granted a state charter to construct a dual-section railroad, the first from Philadelphia to Columbia and the second from Columbia to Pittsburgh. But the idealized, east-west rail link evaporated with its promised capital.
New impetus for the connection, however, occurred when trade, hitherto brisk in Philadelphia, was siphoned off to the Erie Canal route, completed in 1825, and legislature, attempting to reverse its effects, authorized construction of a state-owned Main Line Canal linking Philadelphia with Pittsburgh for the first time by means of the Allegheny Portage Railroad. Opening on March 18, 1834, it employed an inter-modal system in which canal boats would ply waterways to the Hollidaysburg Canal Basin in the east before being transferred on to flatbed rail cars and then transported across the 36.65-mile Allegheny Ridge section, pulled by cables and stationary steam engines. Refloated in the Johnstown Canal Basin in the west, they would then complete their journey to Pittsburgh via water.
Although it reduced the trans-Pennsylvania trip to four days over the rudimentary, trail-plied Conestoga wagon method, the system was still less-than-optimal, arduous to negotiate, and subjected to the occasional mishap. What was needed was a single-mode, continuous-track link, the obstacle to which, of course, was the mountainous terrain.
Its spark, once again, was lit by competition. Indeed, destined already for Pittsburgh, at least in construction form, was track to be used by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, stretching 178 miles from Cumberland, Maryland, and approaching it from the southeast.
Fearing a second loss to its lucrative trade with the west, Philadelphia advocated a Pennsylvania-indigenous lifeline across the state in the form of a rapid, efficient, single-mode rail link. Surprisingly, the Pennsylvania State Assembly, concurring with the need, authorized both the extension of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's track to Pittsburgh and the charter of a state-reflective line named the "Pennsylvania Railroad," which was to construct a 249-mile extension of the existing Philadelphia-Harrisburg track, consequently competing with the Main Line Canal and Allegheny Portage Railroad interchange system.
First movement of the indigenous, intra-state line, no further than an inch, was the one imprinted on paper in the form of Governor Francis R. Skunk's signature on April 13, 1846, changing vision into law, and such overwhelming support had been received for the new railroad, that the Baltimore and Ohio charter was revoked the following year.
Following election of the first board of directors, comprised of President Samuel Vaughn Merrick and Chief Engineer John Edgar Thomson, on March 30, 1847, surveys revealed three potential routes, the most feasible of which was the westerly one from Harrisburg through Logan's Narrows to Sugar Gap Run and then to Robinson's Summit (which would later be named "Altoona"), following the Susquehanna and Juniata rivers before gaining 800 feet of elevation over the Allegheny Mountains and terminating in Pittsburgh.
But the Allegheny Portage Railroad could only surmount the imposing peaks by means of its ten inclined planes. How, then, could the Pennsylvania Railroad do so without them? And, while both were seen as competitors, in reality, they initially complemented one another.
The Pennsylvania Railroad's eastern section, consisting of 173 miles of track from Lancaster to Duncansville, opened in September of 1850, connecting the following month with the Allegheny Portage system, while the western section, from Pittsburgh to Johnstown, was completed on December 10, 1852.
The Allegheny Portage, having already walked in the Pennsylvania's shoes with its intermediate, and laboriously-slow, mountain vaulting water-and-rail interchange, only temporarily served as its link, since it attempted to design an all-track route.
The problem lay, literally, in laying track, which would have to climb the mountain's rock face to surmount its 1,216-foot summit through a tunnel with existing locomotive capability, yet avoid the stationary engine-inclined plane system. The required grade would have been prohibitive.
The solution was a long, double loop of track, which assumed a more gradual, locomotive-capable elevation gain, reducing a ten-percent grade (or a rise of ten feet for every 100 feet of distance) to a more docile 1.8 percent.
Touted along the north side of the valley, the line arced to the left, over a manmade embankment, to Kittanning Point, where it formed, after necessary rock wall chiseling, the now-famous, half-mile-long Horseshoe Curve, its gradual rise indicated by its west side elevation, which is 122 feet higher than its east.
Declared operational on February 15, 1854, it reduced the four-day journey between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh by the Allegheny Portage Railroad to only 15 hours by its Pennsylvania counterpart, and caused a rapid passenger and freight loss to it, forcing the dual-mode interchange system to concede defeat.
Although it had employed hybrid technology of infantile development, it nevertheless succeeded in surmounting the topographical obstacle and served as one of the necessary steps in man's technological climb.
More importantly, the Horseshoe Curve, symbolic of the triumph of the state's very Allegheny Mountains to east-west travel, sparked a secondary rise-from the virgin land-of the city needed to maintain it and the railroad which had given birth to it. That city was Altoona.
Altoona Shop Complex:
Located at the foot of the Alleghenies, Altoona sprouted from the 224-acre David Robinson farm whose strategic location, 235 miles west of Philadelphia and 116 miles east of Pittsburgh, was optimal from which to dispatch additional locomotive power to aid the climb over the increasing grade. In conjunction with these train reconfigurations was the need for both engine and unpowered rolling stock maintenance and repair.
The deed of transfer, signed on April 24, 1849 after the $10,000 purchase price had been paid, provided the necessary land for the first railroad shops. As the heart of the Allegheny Mountains, nourished by the area's coal, iron, lumber, and water resources, the town pumped life into the area.
Based upon the original plans devised in 1849, the Pennsylvania Railroad's Altoona Complex included a machine shop, an engine house, and an erecting shop, to which were added an eight-stall and -track roundhouse and a long structure housing a locomotive repair shop, a foundry, a blacksmith, a machine shop, a woodwork shop, and a painting shop, enabling it to maintain its first, single-track connection with Pittsburgh by means of sections of the New Portage Railroad in 1850. Progressive capability enabled it to perform the three primary functions of car production, locomotive part manufacture, and repair.
But insatiable demand required ever-increasing capacity. By 1855, its existing facilities had been expanded and a 26-stall engine house had been built.
The city's own growth paralleled that of the railroad complex's, increasing from 2,000 in 1854 to 3,591 in 860 and eclipsing the 10,000-level a decade later, at which time a full ten percent of its population had been employed by the railroad shops. They had intermittently burgeoned into a mini-metropolis of their own, with a car shop, a tin shop, a carpenter shop, a car repair shop, a boiler shop, a roundhouse, an engine repair shop, a paint shop, and an iron and brass foundry. Administrative offices were located throughout the city.
Acquisition of the Main Line of Public Works in 1857 and the closure of the New Portage Railroad only served to increase rail transport demand, requiring commensurate capacity increases in the Altoona Complex.
Civil War-necessitated demand of rail cars to transport Union Force munitions and soldiers further rendered the Pennsylvania Railroad's facilities integral to the effort, sparking yet another series of expansions in 1862.
But the unending demand, exerting its effects against the boundaries of its original, 1850 Altoona Machine Shops Complex, coupled with the increasing size of locomotives, prompted it to consider a secondary engine production and repair location. The engines themselves, hitherto weighing under 30 tons and built up of smaller sections, could be manually moved and assembled with the aid of basic blocks, jacks, and swing cranes, but their increasing capability, reflected by their sheer size, required greater clearances and power cranes to move, neither of which could be accommodated within the original compound.
The Consolidation engine, for instance, weighed 48 tons, but was succeeded by the 57.3-ton Class R type of 1885.
The new site, in the eastern section of the city, was reflected by the facility's very name-the Juniata Shops-which were constructed between September of 1888 and 1890, and offered a full array of functions: a blacksmith shop; a paint shop; a boiler shop; electric, hydraulic, and gas houses; a paint structure; storerooms; a hydraulic transfer table, and an office. A longitudinal assembly line, in a boiler-blacksmith-machine-erecting shop configuration, facilitated increased locomotive production, which standardly began with the flanging, punching, construction, and riveting of its boiler in its appropriate shop before being moved, in completed form, to the erecting location. Frames and forgings, having been transferred from the blacksmith to the machine shop, were now united with the cylinders and castings, positioned at the center of the building, while the boiler was joined with its matching parts in the erecting shop.
Final assembly, progressing from individual parts at the building's west end to a completed unit at its east, usually required a week.
Like its Altoona counterpart, the Juniata Complex expanded in response to the demand exerted on it. Enlarged erecting, blacksmith, machine, and boiler shops, for example, were built between 1902 and 1903, and a second blacksmith shop and altogether new storehouse were subsequently added.
At the end of World War I, a second machine shop took its place within the sprawling facility and it was initially used for locomotive tender construction and repair.
By 1926, the Juniata Locomotive Shop consisted of two blacksmith shops, a boiler shop, two machine shops, a tank shop, and an erecting and machine shop, enabling it to repair four locomotives per day and produce 12 altogether new ones per month. A fire, occurring on December 27, 1931 and incapacitating the original Altoona Complex, resulted in the transfer of all locomotive work to Juniata seven years later.
Two historical events increased activity to a fever pitch: during World War I, tanks let out an unceasing plea for armor plat strengthening, while the complex's transition from the traditional steam engine to the more advanced diesel-electric type necessitated internal reconfigurations. Because of its increased reliability, however, it also signaled the reduction of personnel by 1957, since it required fewer repairs and overhauls.
The Altoona Works, peeking with 122 buildings and 218 acres of yards spanning three miles, employed 20,000-4,000 of whom worked in the yards and 16,000 of whom were in the shops-and produced 6,873 locomotives, becoming the world's largest such railroad shop complex. Altoona's population hovered at the 90,000-mark.
Once subdivided into five locations, it performed locomotive repair and production in the Altoona Machine Shops, themselves comprised of 36 departments and running from 12th to 16th streets. The Altoona Car Shops, located in the southern portion of the city, both built and repaired passenger, parlor, sleeping, and mail coaches. The Juniata Shops fielded the full range of current locomotive propulsion types: steam, electric, gas electric, and diesel electric.
At 395 feet in diameter, with a 75-foot turntable, the East Altoona Engine House, its fourth location, was the world's largest, featuring 50 stalls. The hub of locomotive servicing, it handled between 325 and 350 per day, including the T-1 Class, the last and largest steam engine built in Altoona after a 110-foot turntable had been installed in 1942. The nearby East Altoona Coal Dock, a 135-foot-high concrete structure based by a steel-frame and replenished by 35 daily hopper cars, supplied steam engines employed on the Pittsburgh and Middle divisions with its 1,250-ton capacity.
The South Altoona Foundries, the fifth of the complex's facilities, produced wheels for both locomotives and cars.
The post-World War II decline in train travel, sparked by an increase in automobile popularity, saw the progressive replacement of the railways with highways, beginning a period of Altoona Shop facility and employee retrenchment.
The short-lived merger between the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central, which formed Penn Central on February 1, 1968 and initiated a $6.5 million modernization program, just as quickly plunged into the tunnel of bankruptcy two years later, on June 21, emerging as Conrail after Congress passed the Regional Rail Reorganization Act of 1973 to study the precarious Penn Central situation. The recommended, and adopted, solution was the formation of the privately-owned Consolidated Rail Corporation, or "Conrail," from similarly-blighted companies, including the Penn Central, the Erie Lackawanna, the Central of New Jersey, the LeHigh Valley, the Lehigh and Hudson River, and the Reading railroads, and, in the event, it selected the Juniata Locomotive Shops as its principle repair facility, of which it assumed managerial control.
After a 1983 modernization program, it was able to offer a full menu of production, repair, overhaul, and maintenance services of engine governors, alternators, power assemblies, fans, generators, and blower motors, as well as manufacture of state-of-the-art EMD and General Electric locomotives for BNSF, CSX, and Norfolk Southern, the latter of which ultimately acquired Conrail's Pennsylvania route system and, indirectly, its Juniata Shop Complex.
Still fielding some 60 to 80 daily trains, including the easterly and westerly "Pennsylvania" runs to New York and Pittsburgh operated by Amtrak, Altoona, located at the foot of the Allegheny front and in close proximity to the Horseshoe Curve, capitalized on its topographical obstacles, making an invaluable contribution to both the country's transportation infrastructure and the Industrial Revolution, through the Pennsylvania Railroad and its shop complex, in an ultimate obstacle-into-opportunity transformation.
An Allegheny Mountain tourist hub, the "Railroad City" of Altoona shares its past with present visitors through its Railroaders Memorial Museum and Horseshoe Curve sights.
Railroaders Memorial Museum:
Located in the 1882 Master Mechanics Building, formerly used by the Pennsylvania Railroad as a testing lab, "the Railroaders Memorial Museum," according to its self-proclaimed purpose, "is dedicated to revealing, interpreting, commemorating, and celebrating the significant contributions of railroaders and their families to American life and industry," chronicling the history of the railroad without which Altoona would not have existed.
Sprouting form a seed first planted in 1967, when the Altoona Railway Museum Club was formed, it was officially incorporated as the "Railroaders Memorial Museum" five years later. Its eventual five-acre parcel of land, once occupied by the Penn Central Railroad Shop Complex and sold by the Altoona Redevelopment Authority to Center Associates, was acquired in 1993, along with the former Masters Mechanics facility, and the museum, having already had its grand opening on September 21, 1980, celebrated a second such event 18 years later, on April 25, 1998, with these additions.
Entering the interactive museum's time portal, which transports the visitor back to the Pennsylvania Railroad's 1950s pinnacle-of-operations period by means of recreated scenes, store fronts, interiors, voices, and sounds, he finds himself at a railroad station alive with hissing steam and ear-piercing train whistles, about to board a full-sized replica of a K-4 locomotive displaying number 1361.
The reason for the town's very existence is explained in the "Why in the World Altoona?" exhibit. Pittsburgh needed a rail connection with the eastern part of the state, it explains, and the fledgling Pennsylvania Railroad fiercely competed with the already-established Baltimore and Ohio for the right to build it. Eventually winning, it linked Pittsburgh in the west with its mirror-image metropolis in the east, Philadelphia. But mounting the Alleghenies was an almost impossible climb. A spot of wilderness, chosen by Chief Engineer Thomson, developed into the base camp, which supported the feat and was designated "Altoona," ultimately evolving into the railroad capital of the world. Trains were designed, constructed, tested, and repaired here. Its people would change the face of America and prove indispensable in its protection, from the Civil War to World War II.
Like so many chapters of technological development, Altoona, its people, and the Pennsylvania Railroad played an important role in America's rise as a nation.
Additional insight about the area's railroad roots can be gleaned from two films, "Altoona at Work: An Era of Steam" and "Birth of a Curve," shown in the first floor Norfolk Southern Theater.
The second floor "Railroad Work" and "A City of Railroaders" exhibits bring early-Altoona back to life by means of its storefront and neighborhood recreations, such as Dutch Hill and Little Italy, and even features an extensive Pennsylvania Railroad model train layout.
"The Pennsy was the 'engine' of Altoona's growth," it explains. "But the company did not build the city that made up 'the rest of the train.'" Although it founded, laid out, and aided it, it elected not to own and construct the city beyond the actual shops. Nevertheless, the company's power and influence coursed through its arteries. Its many neighborhoods were the result of railroaders reinvesting their savings to build houses, which, in turn, provided income-supplementing rents.
The visitor can temporarily step into their shoes. At the Newstand, which was formerly located at the 12th Street Bridge, a boy, "standing" behind it in holograph form and bordered by magazines for sale, relates tales about old Altoona. In Kelly's Bar, which was once located at the threshold to one of the many railroad shops, you can also eavesdrop on the talk of the town.
Several residents shared insights through the philosophies they left behind. Sally Price, for example-a Pennsylvania Railroad clerk-proclaimed, "A dirty city was good because it meant that people had work. We always considered it gold dust, not coal dust. That's what made America run."
In May of 1936, Fortune magazine reported, "Think of the Pennsylvania Railroad as a nation at war. The men who move these trains are soldiers on duty, day and night."
And the far-reaching value of the railroad's track network, which ultimately spread throughout the northeast like a spider's web, was captured by this compact gem: "Travel is the nation's university."
There was no more appropriate name for a railroad than that which reflected the very state it conquered and connected with the rest of the country.
The museum's third floor exhibits, which offer a children's focus, include "Railroaders as American Heroes," "The World's Fair," "How to Run a Railroad," "A Report to the Shareholders," "The Test Labs," and "The End of an Era."
Outside, the museum invites the visitor to "stand at the center of what was once the greatest railroad shop complex in the world-the Altoona Works of the Pennsylvania Railroad." Established in 1850, along with the town, the shops eventually sprouted across 218 acres and occupied 122 buildings. Containing 88 acres under roof, they held 4,500 machine tools and 94 overhead cranes. Four distinct groups of buildings emerged.
The shops met the Pennsylvania Railroad's ever-growing need to build, test, repair, and rebuild a vast fleet. In the eight-decade period from 1866 to 1946, some 6,873 steam, diesel-electric, and electric locomotives were produced here, along with thousands of standard--and the world's first all-steel--cars, of which 16,415 for freight alone emerged from its doors between 1921 and 1940.
Today, you can inspect several types of Pennsylvania Railroad cars, inclusive of a Class N5 cabin car/caboose (number 477577), a Class X29L steel boxcar (number 2136), an express refrigerator car (number 2561), and a Class D78F dining car (number 4468). At 81 feet in length, this "Altoona-built restaurant on wheels" accommodated 36 at formally set tables, but a later reconfiguration reduced this number to 32, along with another ten seated in a lounge section. In 1941, the Pennsylvania Railroad served 3.9 million meals.
Horseshoe Curve National Historic Landmark:
An innovative engineering approach to conquering the Allegheny Mountains and thus provide a trans-Pennsylvania, continuous-track, east-west rail link between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, the Horseshoe Curve replaced the inclined-plane hurdle employed by the Allegheny Portage Railroad. Located 5.9 miles from the Railroaders Memorial Museum, it is included in its admission price.
With its increasing popularity as a train-viewing area, Kattanning Point, site of the curve, was developed into a telegraph and sightseeing station in 1855, while a reservoir, built in the middle of it, provided water to the ever-growing city of Altoona.
Demand for rail transport, generated by the equally growing country's need for factory-produced commodities, soon necessitated increased train frequencies, which, in tun, required additional track to accommodate. The Horseshoe Curve, opening with a single line, was quadrupled by the very end of the 19th century, receiving a second track in 1898, a third in 1899, and a fourth in 1900, the latter two of which could only be laid after additional clearance was provided with removal of part of the rock face--all the while accomplished while trains continued to ply the inside of the curve.
Accessed for the first time by a macadam road in 1932, Kattanning Point sprouted a small stone guest lodge at its base eight years later, but it was relegated to a gift shop and visitor center, since that very road was symbolic of what had gradually gnawed away at the track's original purpose. This actual station was subsequently demolished.
By 1957, operation of the park was transferred from the Pennsylvania Railroad to the city of Altoona, and a decade later, Horseshoe Curve was designated a National Historic Landmark.
The semi-circular curve-an industrial link to the west, a topographical triumph, and a catalyst to growth-represents, in essence, an act of perfection, designed by and for the railroad which gave birth to the very town where its locomotives and rail cars were manufactured so that its Horseshoe Curve could connect it with the rest of the country-a single need, sparking multiple byproducts, to serve each other, none of which could have been possible without the other, in an ultimate earthly expression of "creation."
Two plaques attest to these facts. The first, reflecting its status as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark, states, "Horseshoe Curve was designed and built under the direction of Pennsylvania Railroad Chief Engineer, and later company president, J. Edgar Thomson. When it opened, (it) was 366 meters across, 1,310 meters long, and had a 1.8-percent grade."
The second states, "Horseshoe Curve has been placed on the National Register of Historic Railroad Landmarks-1854-2004. First railroad to cross the Allegheny Mountains between Harrisburg and Pittsburgh with a maximum grade of 1.87 percent, was engineered by J. Edgar Thomson 150 years ago."
The museum, across from the gift shop, features exhibits entitled "Building the Curve," "Maintenance," and the "Changing Face of the Curve," as well as an area relief map and a small video room where the film "Birth of the Curve" can be viewed, if it was missed at the Railroaders Memorial Museum. It is also the departure point of the 12-passenger funicular, which ascends to the summit of the ridge and the Horseshoe Curve viewing area. Alternatively, the area can be reached by climbing the 194 steps.
A picnic table-dotted park, whose centerpiece is Pennsylvania Railroad diesel locomotive number 7048, enables the visitor to view the frequent trains rounding the three tracks which currently comprise the Horseshoe Curve in front of him or the Kattanning Reservoir behind, which appears like a blue gem shimmering amidst the verdant hills. A train-viewing schedule, available in the Visitor Center's gift shop, lists frequencies, approximate passing times, and passenger- or freight-comprised operations, and is augmented by the loud speaker-broadcast transmissions from the actual trains. Dual-locomotive-pulled Norfolk Southern freight trains, emitting protesting screeches as they round the massive curve on the furthest, shale rock-hugging track from the viewer, are common sights.
A plaque lists the curve as being 2,375 feet long and having a nine-degree, 15-minute curve, a 220-degree central angle, a 1,594-foot east end elevation, and a 91-foot-per-mile grade.
A board, positioned in front of the track and entitled "Over the Hill," describes "how railroads surmounted the spine of the Alleghenies between Altoona and Johnstown."
The state-owned Allegheny Portage Railroad, of course, was the first to do so, its eastern terminus located just west of Hollidaysburg and its "first of ten," so designated because it was the first of its ten inclined planes. Duncansville served as the original connecting point between it and the Pennsylvania Railroad, whose initial mainline had been routed through Altoona until the Horseshoe Curve opened in 1854.
Concurrent with its design had been the building of the continuous-track New Portage Railroad, which eliminated the awkward inclined-plane method of travel. Purchasing it in 1857, the Pennsylvania Railroad failed to use it until 1904, when increased freight transport demand necessitated a reliever route, but abandoned it a second time in 1981.
Area tracks had also been used by the S. E. Baker Railroad and, later, by the Glen White Coal and Lumber Company.
Today, the Pennsylvania Railroad's mainline, originating in New York and routed through Philadelphia and Harrisburg, arcs through the Horseshoe Curve before negotiating numerous, but lesser ones, including the McGinleys, McCanns, AG, Greenough, Brandimarte, Allegrippus, Cold, Bennington, and Salpino curves. Continuing through the Allegheny and New Portage tunnels, it proceeds to Pittsburgh and the west-the goal envisioned more than a century and a half ago.
A graduate of Long Island University-C.W. Post Campus with a summa-cum-laude Bachelor of Arts Degree in Comparative Languages and Journalism, I have subsequently earned the Associate in Applied Science Degree in Aerospace Technology at the State University of New York - College of Technology at Farmingdale. I have also earned the Continuing Community Education Teaching Certificate from the Nassau Association for Continuing Community Education (NACCE) at Molloy College, the Travel Career Development Certificate from the Institute of Certified Travel Agents (ICTA) at LIU, the Art and Science of Teaching Certificate at Long Island University, and completed a Multi-Genre Writing Program at Hofstra University. At SUNY Farmingdale Aerospace I completed some 30 hours of Private Pilot Flight Training in Cessna C-152 and -172 aircraft.
Having amassed almost three decades in the airline industry, I managed the New York-JFK and Washington-Dulles stations at Austrian Airlines, created the North American Station Training Program, served as an Aviation Advisor to Farmingdale State University of New York, and devised and taught the Airline Management Certificate Program at the Long Island Educational Opportunity Center. A freelance author, I have written some 70 books of the short story, novel, nonfiction, essay, poetry, article, log, curriculum, training manual, and textbook genre in English, German, and Spanish, having principally focused on aviation and travel, and I have been published in book, magazine, newsletter, and electronic Web site form. I am a writer for Cole Palen's Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome in New York. I have made some 350 lifetime trips by air, sea, rail, and road.