1893 GE/MfrsRR/NHRR #1
SURVIVOR ELECTRIC BOXCAB
- Old Number One survives! GE #1 of 1893
Chicago Columbian Exposition fame is intact in her last running condition at the
Museum of Transport in St. Louis and, thanks to New Haven buff (and S gauger)
Dennis Conway out L. A. way, here she is as she looked in NH service ca. 1900 and as
she sits in St. Louis:
(05 Dec 02)
Dennis followed up with a scan of a side cross-section drawing (a scan of a copy of a
copy, which I made into a B&W GIF image) from "Street Railway Journal", Vol.
9, Jul 1893:
Three images courtesy of D. Conway
Note that she had faired headlights on the roof as built and there's no provision for a
pole on the drawing (could she have been a third-railer?).
(06 Dec 02)
Now, to the history, provided by Dennis (and edited by me). She was
purchased from GE (sn #1437) by the Manufacturer's Railroad of New Haven,
Connecticut (later an NHRR subsidiary) that same year and almost immediately put to
work on River Street in New Haven hauling freight, lettered as MRR #1 (soon
re-lettered as NYNH&H No. 1).
In 1901, #1 was returned to GE in Schenectady for rebulding. She received a
nearly-all-new understructure with GE-51A motors and then was rated at 15 tons.
She was given new sn #1607, and listed as type LS-209E.
She is still in her last working physical incarnation as modified by the Joe Cushing RR of
Fitchburg, Massachusets, in 1905 (slots in bonnets and changed windows for
improved vision, etc.) She has been repainted approximately as GE decorated
her in 1893. The museum plans to someday restore #1 to her original GE
appearance specifications.
GE #1 was actually built by Thompson-Houston in 1892-93, at about the same time
that General Electric bought Thompson-Houston. Thompson-Houston is the
same firm whose British subsidiary of that name built the 1932
Ford boxcab preserved and restored in Kent, Sussex.
I'm continuing, and expanding, coverage here (based almost entirely on
input from Dennis Conway).
Joe Cushing bought her through a broker acting for the NH/MfrsRR in 1905 and she
hauled flour in Fitchburg {the Fitchburg flour forwarder?} until the outbreak of
WWII. She was later donated to the St. Louis museum by the Joe Cushing RR.
Well, Dennis is trying to get more information about the Joe Cushing RR (there is a
story on it in about 1984 in the In Connecticut magazine, Vol. 1, No.1., and
he's trying to locate a copy of the article) and about the purpose of the bonnets at
each end. The bonnets were originally continuous from side to side and that
would have made #1 a steeple cab and I'd be hard presssed to justify including her
here (not that that would stop me!), but with the bonnets (or at least one of them)
split, they become, in effect, panniers, and thus she is (now, anyway) a true boxcab!
I told Dennis, like a little kid in school with the answer; "I KNOW! I KNOW! I
KNOW! Those are juice containers, so the lil' critter has enough juice to
run!" :·)
I seem to have completely forgotten to note that I am well into a POWERED
model of #1 in Z-scale (1:220)! Powered - really!
(20 Mar 03)
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