Dave's Depots-Norfolk & Western Railway-Roanoke, Virginia

Business travels took me recently to Roanoke, Virginia. Of course, Roanoke was the corporate headquarters for the Norfolk & Western Railway. I stayed at the Hotel Roanoke, the hotel formerly owned by the N&W, across the street from the depot and shop complex. More on my visit to Roanoke later, but here are some shots of the depot. The building was originally a classically-styled structure. After World War II, the N&W hired Raymond Loewy to re-style the interior and exterior of the station. The effect is a stunning mid-century modern effect. Though the depot later fell into disrepair, and the concourse over the tracks was demolished, the structure remains. It currently houses the fantastic O. Winston Link Museum, and a visitor center for Roanoke.

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CSL Trailer in Chicago

While looking through old issues of First and Fastest on Julie Johnson's excellent CAERR.com site, I came across a list from 1986 of preserved CSL equipment. (Vol 3 #4, p. 35) A note at the bottom says: "Trailer #8051 is a lunchroom at 38th and Central Park in Chicago." That sounds interesting! Does anyone know anything more about this?

One thing that bothers me is that maps show there isn't any intersection of 38th and Central Park, due to a long gap in Central Park Ave. So what gives?

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319 Report

In order to repaint the 319 interior, I need to fill in various cracks that have appeared in the original paint. And I don't want to sand it all down to bare wood. So acting on advice from Bob Kutella and Pete Galayda, I went to an auto supply store and bought some polyester glazing putty. This is somewhat similar to Bondo; it uses a cream hardener but is a smoother consistency and has a longer working time. It's intended only for shallow applications like this. This is what it looks like after application.

About a half hour later, it's ready to sand. Sanding off the thin layer left over the old finish paint is not difficult. I now have a nice smooth subsurface.

And once I was satisfied with the work done by my new girlfriends Polly and Esther, it seemed feasible to put a coat of primer on the entire wall I've been using as a testing ground. It looks pretty good if I say so myself.

I also started applying the putty to some other walls.

And I put a first coat of finish paint on the wrecking tools, window shade tracks, and the last four windows.

And in other news, Phil explained what the ATSF trucks we rerailed last week are for. These trucks have tread brakes and will not fit under the Silver Pony dome car, which still has its skirts. So they will go under the baggage car Olympus, (which has lost its skirts -- eek!) and the disk-brake trucks from the Olympus will go under the dome car. Hope that makes sense. If we had unlimited funds the correct trucks might be available, but of course we have at least ten good uses for every dollar that comes in.

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West LaGrange

Does this look familiar? On Thursday, B&G installed the ElectroMotive sign from the EMD plant in LaGrange on its new base alongside the connector track, as seen here. Since it faces northeast, a good picture will have to be taken early in the morning, just as the sun rises over the Hoffman barn. Maybe next week.

Here's the back of the sign, by the way. Your message here, at reasonable prices.

I did some more painting; the final four 319 windows got white primer on the inside surfaces; the first three are seen here.

I also did the remaining window shade tracks, and the wrecking tools, which will likewise be painted the basic wall color.

Then two electric car trucks arrived from Cleveland on a flatbed, so I helped unload them. We're still receiving parts from the Trolleyville collection.

Joel is running the big forklift, while Dan Fenlaciki watches. An EIB truck without motors was unloaded and placed along Bruneau Ave.



Here the truck driver helps Joel position the forks over a 4000 motor truck. This truck is heavy, dude! Five of us wound up sitting on the back of the fork lift to put sufficient weight on the rear axle so it could be steered. I sure wish I could have taken a picture of us!

Then we had a derailment to clean up. These trucks had been pulled out of the material yard, but one of them went on the ground. After Joel, Dan, and I put it back on the rails, it's evident what the problem is. You may notice that one wheel isn't even touching the rail. This problem can easily be fixed, of course.

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Trip Report - Gold Coast Railroad Museum - Miami, Florida

On the last day of our Florida Vacation, we spent the day in Miami, as we had a flight back to St. Louis that evening from Miami International Airport. Our first stop in Miami was the Gold Coast Railroad Museum. The Museum has its origins back to the late 1950s, when the founding members, working with the University of Miami, managed to acquire several pieces of railroad equipment, including the famous Pullman car Ferdinand Magellan, the car used by Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman.

The museum is located near the Miami Zoo, on the site of the former Richmond Naval Air Station. Richmond N.A.S. was built during World War II as a base for the Navy's fleet of blimps. The blimps were used to patrol the coasts and Gulf of Mexico, looking for German U-Boats. The site included to gigantic hangars for the blimps. In 1945, a hurricane and resulting fire destroyed the hangars, and the base was subsequently abandoned. There are remains, however, including one of the concrete towers that supported the sliding doors. The Museum's train shed is also built on the foundation of the blimp hangar.

The museum has a variety of equipment, including a pair of non-operational ex-Florida East Coast Railway 4-6-2 light pacific steam locomotives, several Budd-built streamlined passenger cars, and some diesel locomotives. The most historic and most impressive artifact in the collection, however, is the Ferdinand Magellan. The car was originally built in the 1920s by Pullman as a private car for the company's rental fleet. The car was part of the "explorer series" which included other cars, such as the Marco Polo. In 1941, the Association of American Railroads bought the Ferdinand Magellan from Pullman, and then contracted with Pullman to modify the car, in order to make it secure for Presidential travel. The modifications were extensive, and included thick armor plating on most of the car, 3" thick glass windows made of bullet-resistant glass, heavy-duty trucks, a rear door that looks like a bank vault, and other modifications. The number of bedrooms for the car was reduced, and one made larger for FDR. The car also has an "escape hatch" in the roof of the rear compartment of the car. The hatch looks like a submarine hatch.

After the modifications, the car was then loaned to the U.S. government for FDR to use in his wartime travels. Later, the car was acquired by the government. The car was reportedly kept in the basement of the Treasury Building in Washington, D.C. between trips. President Truman was also a frequent user of the car, using it on his famous "Whistle Stop Tour" during the 1948 election. It is from the back of the car that Truman held the famous, erroneous "Dewey Defeats Truman" edition of the Chicago Tribune. This occurred the day after the election in St. Louis Union Station. The car was only used a few times by President Eisenhower, and was declared surplus in 1956.



In 1984, prior to the car's listing as a National Historic Landmark, President Reagan rode the car on a one-day whistle stop tour in Ohio, as part of his re-election campaign.

Overall, the car is in a remarkable state of preservation, both inside and out. Inside the car are numerous photos of the car during its use by 4 Presidents. The car is no longer open to regular tours, but a volunteer was kind enough to show us through.

Overall, the museum had a nice selection of equipment on display, including a dome-observation car from the California Zephyr. As a bonus, the museum had two Atlantic Coast Line class M-3 wood cabooses. I am about 90% finished with a laser-cut HO scale wood model of these cars. I managed to get some good photos of some details I was curious about, like handbrake placement, and bracing of the tool box.

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Dave's Depots - Atlantic Coast Line - Naples, Florida

Vacation recently took Katy and I to Naples, Florida. Naples is located on the Gulf Coast of Floria, far south, approximately across the state from Miami. Naples is also known as a community that attracts a lot of retirees, in fact, my great uncle has lived there for about 20 years. We chose Naples due to its lack of over-commercialization. It is in many ways, still a small town, with local fish markets, clean beaches, and a easy pace of life. Besides looking at old depots, we spent time on the beach, eating good seafood and enjoying the nice weather.

Located just off of downtown is the town's former Atlantic Coast Line depot. The depot was built in 1926, when the ACL's tracks were extended to the town. The building is in good shape, and apparently hosts a Lionel train museum, which was not open. The building is undergoing further renovation to become a local history museum. The trackage to the depot has been abandoned for some time. Near the depot were three pieces of rolling stock, a Soo caboose, painted as an ACL caboose, a baggage car, and a round-end obs car.

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