Hobo Jungle

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Have you not drunk that Old Engine Oil yet?!!???

It's good for what ails a body.......

[Tramp]

Sarge, thank you for the photos of your two trees. They made a difference in our Christmas, particularly the library fellow. Cheers!

The Slenderette once again:

[healey36]

Tramp, the Slenderette looks like a balsam fir, maybe? They are tough to find down here...most firs found locally are frazier firs.

I was looking through a few old auction catalogs...Howard Fogg did some great work:



Never realized the P&LE was a division of the New York Central.

Healey

[2railjon]

Sarge and Tramp, thanks for sharing the photos!
Sarge, as you can see I'm slowly building my British Empire back again!


Pay no mind to the Orc's skulking below the glass!

[webenda]

Orc's?
Magenta (Barclay #610) wants to see one of your Orcs Jon.

[E7]

Never realized the P&LE was a division of the New York Central.

Healey

The P&LE had a Berkshire called an A-2a which were painted an interesting shade of light green. They were done in "O" by Overland. I have always sort of lusted for one.

"Pittsburgh & Lake Erie
The Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad had the distinction of receiving the last steam locomotive built by the American Locomotive Company. This locomotive was a "Berkshire" type that was delivered to the P&LE in June1948 and it was assigned road number 9406. The P&LE only bought seven "Berkshire" type locomotives. They were all built by ALCO in 1948 and were designated as Class A-2a and assigned road numbers 9400 through 9406.

These 2-8-4s had 63" diameter drivers, 26" x 32" cylinders, a 230 psi boiler pressure, they exerted 67,100 pounds of tractive effort and each weighed 426,000 pounds.

Delivered in May and June of 1948, this group had the shortest life span of any of the modern design steam locomotives. Numbers 9400 through 9406 were retired in August of 1956 and then scrapped in the early months of 1957.

There are no surviving P&LE 2-8-4 "Berkshire" type locomotives"

Rich

[Tramp]

Rich, anything like this?




If you have any other photos, I'm hugely curious about these Berkshires. Some how the Berk gets to me. Remember San? I think he was a Berk guy.

Healey, thanks for the painting repo. Jon, thanks for the story.

Here's a quiet photograph from yesterday evening when D.T. was reading his wonderful story I've heard every Christmas since I was 14.

The tree by the way was much smaller this year than previous years. Did anyone notice?

[MurphOnMillerAve]

Tramp, "Did anyone notice the tree was smaller this year?" Nope. Not at all. The tree seems so much a part of its setting, and the setting so grand and serene that the whole impression is a large one, quite beautiful, indeed. The tree stands tall and in-charge of it all.
Murph

[Tramp]

Murph, Daisy named it the Slenderette because it's about half the bulk of our usual tree, but so much easier—half the lights, half the ornaments, so wonderful to carry out of the field it felt like a choir pamphlet under my arm. (Healey—I hope it's a balsam. So difficult to tell.) Past trees were probably not balsam.

[rex desilets]

Never realized the P&LE was a division of the New York Central.

Healey

The P&LE had a Berkshire called an A-2a which were painted an interesting shade of light green. They were done in "O" by Overland. I have always sort of lusted for one.

"Pittsburgh & Lake Erie
The Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad had the distinction of receiving the last steam locomotive built by the American Locomotive Company. This locomotive was a "Berkshire" type that was delivered to the P&LE in June1948 and it was assigned road number 9406. The P&LE only bought seven "Berkshire" type locomotives. They were all built by ALCO in 1948 and were designated as Class A-2a and assigned road numbers 9400 through 9406.

These 2-8-4s had 63" diameter drivers, 26" x 32" cylinders, a 230 psi boiler pressure, they exerted 67,100 pounds of tractive effort and each weighed 426,000 pounds.

Delivered in May and June of 1948, this group had the shortest life span of any of the modern design steam locomotives. Numbers 9400 through 9406 were retired in August of 1956 and then scrapped in the early months of 1957.

There are no surviving P&LE 2-8-4 "Berkshire" type locomotives"

Rich

MTH produced a nice one in 3R. If you can find one (about as rare as the prototype) rrjjf could 2-rail it....

[sarge]

Tramp:

No, the P&LE Berk looked nothing like that. What you show is a B&A A1 painted in a highly debated (in B&A circles) green scheme suggested by Bob Buck and Warren Smith. No-one knows whether it really existed nor agrees on what it should be, and no colour photo exists to confirm the existence of that scheme.

The PLE Berk was a thoroughly modern design albeit a very specialised ore hauler (hence the 63" drivers). After they sat for a while, they got fobbed off on Big Four and put into general service with only the most rudimentary service (typical of the diesel era) after NYC dieselised PLE. Being what they were and with so little attention, they failed spectacularly in general service, get a very bad and undeserved rap from the amateur historians, which is really unfair for what would have been a good design.

The scheme was originally an all-over medium olive with a debate as to yellow (Dulux Gold) or flat aluminium lettering or perhaps both at different times.

https://images.search.yahoo.com/images/ ... rt=mozilla

[rogruth]

Sarge,

That is a strange but interesting collection of photos referenced above.

[2railjon]

IMHO the most gorgeous Berk was the one with the coffin feedwater housing.

[2railjon]

LOL, Wayne!! You asked for Orcs, Orcs you'll get!

[E7]

Rich, anything like this?

If you have any other photos, I'm hugely curious about these Berkshires. Some how the Berk gets to me. Remember San? I think he was a Berk guy.

Greetings Tramp,

I remember San Diegan well. I think he forgot his password and came back on the forum under another handle, but even that has been a while back.

As for the PL&E Berks, I have never seen ANY color photos of the actual engine, only the Overland model, and the green paint on those has varied from slightly darker than that of the engine in your image to near an olive drab. I like that shade of green shown on the loco in your image a lot.

Here is a B&W of the A-2a:

http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/nyc/nyc-s9402.jpg

Hope You and Daisy have Happy and Prosperous New Year1

Rich