Thanks, Eric

Early Mail Operations

I wrote a paper titled Mail Operations on the Pacific Coast Railway, available on Academia.edu, for those interested in mail movement. During the RPO period, the Post Office Department was required to provide annual reports to Congress about which railroads were moving what volume of mail where. These reports are available on Google Books and provide a mass of data about how busy different RPO routes were. The PCR is an interesting introduction because the number of trains and mail volume both were so small; the data is digestable.

General periods

There are 3 general periods in the "pre-Depression"  years.  

1900-1906/1910 :  The years before standardization of safety appliances, reporting marks and the ICC.

1906/1910-1917/1918 :  The years before the USRA.

1918-1930 :  The post-USRA era.

USRA Era

No USRA era, then?  USRA ended in March 1920.  

Additional era details

As Dave has noted, there are distinct eras in the decades before the Depression. I presented a clinic several years ago outlining some of these points. Here are my notes.

• 1893 - US Safety Appliance Act is passed, mainly covering brakes and couplers
• 1900 - approximately 1.85 million Class 1 and Class 2 railroad-owned freight cars in service 
• August 1900 - all railroad cars required to be equipped with air brakes & knuckle couplers

1901-1910

No USRA Era

Fair enough, though I was reacting to the pre- and post- USRA listed, which didn't separate out the USRA at all.

Wonderful!

Hey, gang. New here and just getting back into model railroading for the first time since I was in high school. I’m currently deep into research for a proto-lanced central Pennsylvania short line c.1905, so this topic is extremely timely for me. Looking forward to learning more and contributing when I can. The challenge should make the result that much more rewarding. 

Here are a few photos I’ve saved while researching.

Sonestown, Penna. - c.1900

Team track, Dushore, Penna - c.1900 - Lehigh Valley

New Berlin, Penna. - c.1905 - New Berlin & Winfield 3’ gauge

Loganton, Penna. - c.1910 - White Deer & Loganton 3’ gauge

Early coal? Don’t forget the mules. And boys.

Really looking forward to this discussion. Thanks for starting it, Eric.

Thank

Thank you so much to start this blog.

For a Belgian like me these kind of blog are really a learning cursus about train in the US.

Marc

My favorite line...

My favorite RR, the (3 foot) East Tennessee & Western North Carolina, in various places in the teens and 20s.

I'd love to know where this is, possibly Boone, NC but I sort of doubt it:

Near pardee Point in Doe River gorge, near Hampton, TN, probably between 1936 and 1938:

Cranberry, NC, in the teens:

Question

1901-1910

• All steel freight cars introduced in 1902

I am surprised by this date, is it truly all steel, or just all steel underframes? If all steel cars were introduced so early why were wood sheathed cars around into the 1950s?

Model an ERA, not just the rolling stock!

Keep in mind, modeling an era also means the structures, figures, and such. It's not just the trains and for the visitors to such a layout, the trains are more an afterthought. In my own 1943 theme layout, non-train-types never notice the trains at all when they walk into the layout room, at first.

I have not forgotten that, and have put a lot of focus onto the historical aspects of the layout itself. I've spent the better part of my life researching the 40s, and though it's a little after the era of this thread, plenty of things from the 20s and 30s were around at the time...

Don't forget open top cars

Jim,

All steel open top cars for coal and aggregate service were widely introduced in 1902 with a few car designs. You might recognize this one.

This all steel hopper was built to the Pennsylvania Railroad GL class car design. It is lettered for the Erie & Pittsburgh subsidiary. This image is pulled from a larger 1901 image of the Erie, PA docks that is available to download through the Library of Congress. The car has a 1900 New date so it slightly precedes the 1902 marker. 

A similar design preceded the PRR GL cars. This Pittsburgh, Bessemer & Lake Erie hopper was built to a design originated by the Schoen Pressed Steel Car Company.in 1898.

All steel gondolas were entering service in the 1900-1902 years, too.

The PB&LE was an early adopter of all steel hoppers and gondolas. Andrew Carnegie held an interest in the Schoen Pressed Steel Car Company and alo realized all steel freight cars mean more business for his mills. 

By 1902, NYC , B&O, C&O, and other roads were embracing all steel construction for gondolas and hoppers. It would take a couple more decades for all steel boxcars to become more popular.

Eric

All steel cars

Its actually earlier than that, the PRR had all steel hoppers, the GL series started production in July 1898.  By 1904 there were over 20,000 GL series cars in service.

Upstate Pennsylvania

There was an excellent series of softcover books on the logging lines in Pennsylvania, with maps, pictures, rosters and descriptions of the various lines.  It might be a good source for RyanAK.

Pennsylvania logging booklets

I had forgotten about those, Dave. I’ll need to search them out. I’m very interested in three general areas - Union/Centre/Clinton Counties, Sullivan County, and the Western Middle Anthracite Field - and logging/wood products were a major factor in the first two regions. Pennsylvania was just saturated with interesting railroads in the early 20th century. 

Glen Iron, Penna. - c.1905 - Lewisburg & Tyrone, then Pennsy. 

Northern Pacific and Fargo

Thought I would share these as i was hunting down photos of NP section houses.

http://fargohistory.com/northern-pacific-railroad-fargos-first-industry/

One thing that stood out is the 3 way stub point.

PB&LE Hoppers/Gons

Great catch on those PB&LE cars....   

The line (B&LE) is still intact today, CN owned... Still hauling ore from lake to milll

PA Logging books

The Pennsylvania Logging books are loaded with details for Pre-Depression Era modelers. They are also the only place to find historical details of the Tionesta Valley, one of the last logging narrow gauge roads of the east. 

A related book covers lumber operations in western Maryland and includes a great chapter on the Preston Railroad that operated out of Crellin, MD. The Preston was one of the few eastern operations that pulled logs out of a valley to a mill on top of the mountain.

Eric

PRR hopper update

Thanks for the extra Pennsy GL hopper details, Dave. My research library is still mostly boxed up until the new hobby room takes shape. 

Eric

Another twist

Ryan has mentioned several interesting Pennsylvania narrow gauge lines. I was an eastern narrow gauge modeler for several years until switching to standard gauge nearly 20 years ago. As modelers, we can use the inspiration of these narrow gauge lines but adapt them to a standard gauge layout. You can retain the look of the Waynesburg & Washington, the White Deer & Loganton, or the Tuscarora Valley but use readily available Spectrum steam locos and a wide array of plastic freight cars for your fleet.

I visited Steven Haworth's Rio Grande Southern layout last fall and he has done something similar. Many scenes are reflective of the RGS but his rails are standard gauge. Buidlings and track geometry reflects prototype locations but locs and rolling stock are standard gauge. It's a different twist on proto freelancing that offers modeling appeal.

Eric

Standard Gauge Narrow Gauge Roads

You can retain the look of the Waynesburg & Washington, the White Deer & Loganton, or the Tuscarora Valley but use readily available Spectrum steam locos and a wide array of plastic freight cars for your fleet.

This. I had dabbled with the thought of prototyping the White Deer & Loganton in HOn3, but initial research into appropriate HOn3 Climax locos indicated that as a non-starter. So... I’m using various narrow gauge roads and independent or associated short lines/branches as inspiration for a fictional short line with a blend of prototype details and operations. The goal is create a perfectly feasible pike for central Pennsylvania in the first decade of the 20th century that absolutely feels prototypical. 

And because I like prototype photos...

Loganton, Penna. - c.1910 - don’t forget the popularity of BICYCLES!!

Dushore, Penna. - c.1895 - looks almost ‘western’, eh?

Narrow Gauge to Standard

Many railroads were eventually reguaged.  Several roads were concieved as narrow guage but built as standard.  

Freight Cars

Thanks, I was thinking of wood versus steel boxcars/reefers, not all the other types of cars (gons, hoppers, etc).

Interesting prototype industry

I lived across the street from this place for a year when I was in my mid-twenties. It’s begging for additional research and to be included on a layout. I think it’s perfect for a module, a shelf switcher, or a one-town layout, especially pre-Depression era. There would be lots and lots of different cars to switch: coal for the boiler/power house, lumber or logs (needs additional research), dry chemicals, tank cars, box cars for product shipments...

‘The Pennsylvania Match Company’ - est.1899 - Bellefonte, Penna. (pre-Depression = pre-Zippo)