1.
Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad
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The Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad was a Class I railroad in the United States. It was also known as the Rock Island Line, or, in its final years, at the end of 1970 it operated 7183 miles of road on 10669 miles of track, that year it reported 20557 million ton-miles of revenue freight and 118 million passenger-miles. The song Rock Island Line, a spiritual from the late 1920s first recorded in 1934, was inspired by the railway, construction began October 1,1851, in Chicago, and the first train was operated on October 10,1852, between Chicago and Joliet. Construction continued on through La Salle, and Rock Island was reached on February 22,1854, the Mississippi river bridge between Rock Island and Davenport was completed on April 22,1856. In 1857, Abraham Lincoln represented the Rock Island in an important lawsuit regarding bridges over navigable rivers, the suit had been brought by the owner of a steamboat which was destroyed by fire after running into the Mississippi river bridge. Lincoln argued that not only was the steamboat at fault in striking the bridge, the M&M was acquired by the C&RI on July 9,1866, to form the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad Company. The railroad expanded through construction and acquisitions in the following decades, the Rock Island stretched across Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Texas. The easternmost reach of the system was Chicago, and the system also reached Memphis, Tennessee, west, it reached Denver, Colorado, and Santa Rosa, New Mexico. Southernmost reaches were to Galveston, Texas, and Eunice, Louisiana while in a direction the Rock Island got as far as Minneapolis. The heaviest traffic was on the Chicago-to-Rock Island and Rock Island-to-Muscatine lines, in common with most American railroad companies, the Rock Island once operated an extensive passenger service. The primary routes served were, Chicago-Los Angeles, Chicago-Denver, Memphis-Tucumcari, the Rock Island ran both Limited and Local service on those routes as well as locals on many other lines on its system. In 1937, the Rock Island introduced Diesel power to its passenger service, in competition with the Santa Fe Chiefs, the Rock Island jointly operated the Golden State Limited with the Southern Pacific Railroad from 1902–1968. On this route, the Rock Islands train was marketed as a low altitude crossing of the Continental Divide, the Rock Island did not concede to the Santa Fes dominance in the Chicago-Los Angeles travel market and re-equipped the train with new streamlined equipment in 1948. At the same time, the Limited was dropped from the trains name, the local run on this line was known as the Imperial. The 1948 modernization of the Golden State occurred with some controversy, in 1947, both the Rock Island and Southern Pacific jointly advertised the coming of a new entry in the Chicago-Los Angeles travel market. The Golden Rocket was scheduled to match the Santa Fes transit time end-to-end and was to have its own dedicated trainsets, one purchased by the Rock Island. As the Rock Islands set of streamlined cars was being finished. The Rock Islands cars were delivered and would find their way into the Golden States fleet soon after delivery, the Golden State was the last first-class train on the Rock Island, retaining its dining cars and sleeping cars until its last run on February 21,1968
2.
Midland Railway (Kansas)
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The Midland Railway is a heritage railroad headquartered in Baldwin City, Kansas. It was chartered in 1982 to find a railroad line to operate. Midland purchased the line from Baldwin City to Ottawa, Kansas from the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway in 1987, total length of the line is 11 miles. Midlands base of operations is the built in 1906 by the Atchison, Topeka. This building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983, Midland has received two matching federal grants to rebuild track. Private grants have and are being used to rebuild railroad equipment, starting in 2004, excursion trains are run all the way from Baldwin City to Ottawa. The regular operating season runs from Memorial Day to October 31, special events and fairs are held at various times through the year. Weekend Boy Scout camps are held in the spring and fall, midlands Scout program is one of the few in the country to offer a railroading merit badge. Baldwin City, Kansas Norwood, Kansas Ottawa, Kansas List of heritage railroads in the United States List of Kansas railroads Official website
3.
Baldwin City, Kansas
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Baldwin City is a city in Douglas County, Kansas, United States about 12 miles south of Lawrence and 15 miles west of Gardner. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 4,515, the city is home to Baker University, the states oldest four-year university. Baldwin City began as a stop on the Santa Fe Trail named Palmyra. The small town consisted of a shop, blacksmith, hotel, lawyer, drug store. In 1858, a group of Methodist ministers gathered at Kibbee Cabin, the town of Palmyra bought land to the south for the university and surrounding city. A main benefactor was John Baldwin and the town was named in his honor, Baldwin built a saw mill which was at present-day Fifth and Indiana Streets. The first post office in the town, then called Palmyra, was established in June,1857, Baldwin was incorporated on September 22,1870. Baldwin City unwittingly found themselves surrounded by the events led up to the American Civil War. Three miles east of Baldwin was the site of Black Jack where the Battle of Black Jack took place on June 2,1856. The night before that battle, John Brown stayed in Prairie City, in 1863, Quantrills raiders passed within three miles of Baldwin after the burning of Lawrence. In 1867, the Leavenworth, Lawrence and Fort Gibson railroad laid tracks, in 1906, the Santa Fe Depot was built and today the Midland Railway offers over 20-mile round trip excursion rides to Ottawa via Nowhere and Norwood. Midlands Scout program is one of the few in the country to offer a railroading merit badge, every year since 1957, Baldwin City has hosted the Maple Leaf Festival during the third full weekend in October. It began as a way to celebrate a successful harvest and to view the fall foliage. Today, it is the largest fall family event in the area and features a parade, arts and crafts, quilt show, theatrical performances, history tours, train rides, annually it draws crowds of 30,000 or more. Baldwin City is located at 38°46′39″N 95°11′15″W, according to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of 2.64 square miles, of which,2.62 square miles is land and 0.02 square miles is water. The areas climate is characterized by hot, humid summers and generally mild to cool winters, according to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Baldwin City has a humid subtropical climate, abbreviated Cfa on climate maps. Baldwin City is part of the Lawrence Metropolitan Statistical Area, as of the census of 2010, there were 4,515 people,1,501 households, and 1,011 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,723.3 inhabitants per square mile, there were 1,665 housing units at an average density of 635.5 per square mile
4.
Electro-Motive Diesel
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Electro-Motive Diesel is an American manufacturer of diesel-electric locomotives, locomotive products and diesel engines for the rail industry. The company is owned by Caterpillar through its subsidiary Progress Rail Services Corporation, in 1930, General Motors purchased Electro-Motive Company and the Winton Engine Co. combining the two to form its Electro-Motive Division in 1941. In 2005, GM sold EMD to Greenbriar Equity Group and Berkshire Partners, in 2010, Progress Rail Services completed the purchase of Electro-Motive Diesel from Greenbriar, Berkshire, and others. EMDs headquarters, engineering facilities and parts manufacturing operations are based in McCook, Illinois, while its final assembly line is located in Muncie. EMD also operates a traction motor maintenance, rebuild and overhaul facility in San Luis Potosí, as of 2008, EMD employed approximately 3,260 people, and in 2010 it held approximately 30 percent of the market for diesel-electric locomotives in North America. Harold L. Hamilton and Paul Turner founded the Electro-Motive Engineering Corporation in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1922, the company developed and marketed self-propelled railcars using General Electrics newly developed internal combustion-electric propulsion and control systems. Hamilton started his career as a fireman, then locomotive engineer, on the Southern Pacific Railroad. Financing himself, he quit his sales position and set up shop in a hotel with his partner. In 1923 EMC sold two gasoline-powered rail motor cars, one to the Chicago Great Western and the other to the Northern Pacific, EMC subcontracted the body construction to St. Louis Car Company, electrical components to General Electric, and the prime mover to Winton Engine Company. The motorcars were delivered in 1924 and worked well, fortunate for the fledgling company, in 1925, EMC entered full-scale production, selling 27 railcars. In 1930 General Motors was seeking to improve their Diesel technology and they purchased the Winton Engine Company who, in addition to their Diesel products, sold non-Diesel engines for EMC-developed rail motorcars. The combined resources of GM and their new Winton subsidiary were focused on developing Diesel engines with improved power-to-weight ratios, GM saw EMCs role in marketing and applications development as fitting their objectives and purchased the company shortly after the Winton acquisition, renaming it Electro-Motive Corporation. In 1933 EMC designed the power setups for the Zephyr and M-10000 streamliners, the Zephyr used the first major product of the new GM-Winton venture, the 600 hp Winton 201A 2-stroke Diesel engine. Encouraged by the success of the new streamliners, EMC invested in a new locomotive factory. The new headquarters on 55th Street in McCook, Illinois, west of Chicago, in 1938 EMC started production of locomotives using GMs new 567 engine, which upgraded the horsepower to 2000 per locomotive unit and increased reliability. The 567, named for its displacement-per-cylinder of 567.45 in³, was a two-cycle Roots-blown, Uniflow-scavenged, Unit-injected engine with overhead camshafts and it was built as a V-6, V-8, V-12 and V-16. Charles F. Kettering and the General Motors Research Corporation were in charge of its development and their nearest competitor was the American Locomotive Company, who started production of less-developed Diesel locomotives to compete with the E-units in 1939. Baldwins response to the challenge of the E-units was to develop a steam locomotive design that pushed beyond the limits of practicality, passenger trains made little money for the railroads, but replacement of steam engines with reliable Diesel units could provide railroads with a crucial difference for profitability
5.
A unit
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This terminology is generally used in North America, since only there was it commonplace to build B units—cabless locomotive units which normally could not lead a train. Typical driving cab features, and therefore A unit features, include windshields, rectangular windows, crew seats, heating. B units always lack all of these features, except that some EMD F-units have an extra side window for a hostler. This terminology has fallen out of use for newer locomotives, since it only applied to the cab unit style of locomotive. Thus, the cab unit is used only when an A unit has a carbody design. Hood unit road switcher types were equipped with driving cabs. In some cases, A units were converted to B units, if the unit had been involved in a collision which damaged the cab, it was sometimes more cost-effective to rebuild the unit without the cab. In rarer cases, B units were converted to A units, the Chicago and North Western Railway converted several E8B units purchased from the Union Pacific Railroad. The cabs on the units were referred to as Crandall Cabs. Library of Congress Catalog Card No
6.
B unit
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A B unit, in railroad terminology, is a locomotive unit which does not have a driving cab or crew compartment, and must therefore be controlled from another, coupled locomotive with a driving cab. The terms booster unit and cabless are also used, the concept is largely confined to North America. Elsewhere, locomotives without driving cabs are rare, some B units cannot be moved without a controlling unit attached, but most have some simple controls inside, and often a side window at that control station. For example, B unit versions of the EMD FT with conventional couplers had a fifth porthole-style window added on the side only for the control station. These controls enable a hostler to move the B-unit locomotive by itself in a yard or shops, B units without controls are generally semi-permanently coupled to controlling units. Sometimes, there is a distinction between the types, a booster is a B unit with hostler controls, and a slave is a B unit without hostler controls. The reasons railroads ordered B units included the fact that a B unit was slightly cheaper, with no driving cab, B units lack windshields, crew seats, radios, heating, and air conditioning. There would also be no toilets, which were found in the short hood of an A unit. When a three- or four-unit locomotive was considered an indivisible unit, finally, B units gave a smoother line to the train for passenger service. B units were built in the cab unit days in the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. Few B units have been built in the last 40 years, railroads that kept ordering B units longer than most were largely Western roads, including the Southern Pacific, Union Pacific, Burlington Northern, and the Santa Fe. Santa Fe ordered the GP60B model in 1991, which were the final B units built for service in North America as of 2005. In some cases, a B unit is converted from an already existing A unit, the cab is either removed or has its windows blanked out, and all non-essential equipment is removed. The degree to which equipment is removed depends on the railroad, but may include the removal of the speedometer, event recorder, horn, headlights, toilet. This conversion was performed when the A unit had been in a collision. In some rare instances, B units were converted to incorporate a cab, the homebuilt cabs were referred to as Crandall Cabs. Also, the Santa Fe rebuilt four of its five GP7Bs to GP9us with cabs, in the Illinois Central Gulfs GP11 rebuild program, some of the engines used were ex-UP GP9Bs, and in their SD20 program, some ex-UP SD24Bs were also used. BNSF converted a former ATSF GP60B #370 into a cab unit and was renumbered to #170 in 2010, in rare instances, a B unit will run at the front of a train
7.
Track gauge
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In rail transport, track gauge is the spacing of the rails on a railway track and is measured between the inner faces of the load-bearing rails. All vehicles on a network must have running gear that is compatible with the track gauge, as the dominant parameter determining interoperability, it is still frequently used as a descriptor of a route or network. There is a distinction between the gauge and actual gauge at some locality, due to divergence of track components from the nominal. Railway engineers use a device, like a caliper, to measure the actual gauge, the nominal track gauge is the distance between the inner faces of the rails. In current practice, it is specified at a distance below the rail head as the inner faces of the rail head are not necessarily vertical. In some cases in the earliest days of railways, the company saw itself as an infrastructure provider only. Colloquially the wagons might be referred to as four-foot gauge wagons, say and this nominal value does not equate to the flange spacing, as some freedom is allowed for. An infrastructure manager might specify new or replacement track components at a variation from the nominal gauge for pragmatic reasons. Track is defined in old Imperial units or in universally accepted metric units or SI units, Imperial units were established in United Kingdom by The Weights and Measures Act of 1824. In addition, there are constraints, such as the load-carrying capacity of axles. Narrow gauge railways usually cost less to build because they are lighter in construction, using smaller cars and locomotives, as well as smaller bridges, smaller tunnels. Narrow gauge is often used in mountainous terrain, where the savings in civil engineering work can be substantial. Broader gauge railways are generally expensive to build and require wider curves. There is no single perfect gauge, because different environments and economic considerations come into play, a narrow gauge is superior if ones main considerations are economy and tight curvature. For direct, unimpeded routes with high traffic, a broad gauge may be preferable, the Standard, Russian, and 46 gauges are designed to strike a reasonable balance between these factors. In addition to the general trade-off, another important factor is standardization, once a standard has been chosen, and equipment, infrastructure, and training calibrated to that standard, conversion becomes difficult and expensive. This also makes it easier to adopt an existing standard than to invent a new one and this is true of many technologies, including railroad gauges. The reduced cost, greater efficiency, and greater economic opportunity offered by the use of a common standard explains why a number of gauges predominate worldwide
8.
Bogie
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A bogie is a chassis or framework carrying wheels, attached to a vehicle, thus serving as a modular subassembly of wheels and axles. Bogies take various forms in various modes of transport, while bogie is the preferred spelling and first-listed variant in various dictionaries, bogey and bogy are also used. A bogie in the UK, or a truck, wheel truck. In Indian English, bogie may also refer to a railway carriage. In South Africa, the bogie is often alternatively used to refer to a freight or goods wagon. The first standard gauge British railway to build coaches with bogies, an alternate configuration often is used in articulated vehicles, which places the bogies under the connection between the carriages or wagons. Most bogies have two axles, but some cars designed for heavy loads have more axles per bogie, heavy-duty cars may have more than two bogies using span bolsters to equalize the load and connect the bogies to the cars. Suspension to absorb shocks between the frame and the rail vehicle body, Common types are coil springs, or rubber airbags. At least one wheelset, composed of an axle with bearings and a wheel at each end The bolster, the railway car is supported at the pivot point on the bolster. Axle box suspensions absorb shocks between the bearings and the bogie frame. The axle box suspension usually consists of a spring between the frame and axle bearings to permit up-and-down movement, and sliders to prevent lateral movement. A more modern design uses solid rubber springs, brake equipment, Two main types are used, brake shoes that are pressed against the tread of the wheel, and disc brakes and pads. More modern, bolsterless bogie designs omit these features, instead taking advantage of the movement of the suspension to permit rotational movement. The Commonwealth bogie, manufactured by the English Steel Corporation under licence from the Commonwealth Steel Company in Illinois, fitted with SKF or Timken bearings, it was introduced in the late 1950s for all BR Mark 1 vehicles. It was a heavy, cast-steel design weighing about 6.5 long tons, with sealed roller bearings on the axle ends, the leaf springs were replaced by coil springs running vertically rather than horizontally. The advanced design gave a better quality than the BR1. The side frame of the bogie was usually of bar construction, with simple horn guides attached, the axle boxes had a cast-steel equaliser beam or bar resting on them. The bar had two steel coil springs placed on it and the bogie frame rested on the springs, the effect was to allow the bar to act as a compensating lever between the two axles and to use both springs to soften shocks from either axle
9.
Blomberg B
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The Blomberg B is a B diesel locomotive truck. These trucks were the standard EMD four wheel truck from the FT until the GP60, EMD introduced the truck in 1939. Unofficially it is named after Martin Blomberg, who joined the company the year before, the truck was derived from an earlier three axle truck designed by Blomberg, and was used starting with the FT. Blomberg trucks can be identified by their prominent outside swing hangers, the outside placement has the advantage of widening its spring base from 56 to 96 inches. Due to the swinging hanger suspension system these trucks are referred to in the railroad business as swing hanger trucks. The term Blomberg truck isnt used even in some railroad training literature that specifically describes truck types, a popular modification by railroads in later years was reducing the number of brake shoes from 8 to 4 by reconfiguring the double-clasp brake rigging, removing one brake shoe per wheel. This can give the Blomberg B a similar appearance of later Blomberg M trucks, a modified version of the truck called the Blomberg M was used starting with the four-axle Dash 2 series locomotives. Hydraulic snubbers were used on diagonally opposite journals, and the spring suspension was replaced with rubber pads. This version had only one brake actuating cylinder per side and revised brake rigging using threaded adjusters, there is also a later variation of the Blomberg M found on the GP60 and F59PH models. The main spotting features of this version are leaf spring suspension and exposed roller bearing ends, similar looking trucks can be found under modern MPI MPXpress locomotives. The rubber pads seen in the trucks in place of springs are actually springs themselves. Theyre constructed of laminated layers of rubber cushioning material and steel plates and they do provide suspension, truck AAR type A switcher truck
