On PRR Continuation Page 0 page:

On this PRR Continuation Page 1:

On PRR Continuation Page 2 page:

On PRR Continuation Page 3:

On the Horseshoe Curve page:

On the Continuation Page 1:

On the Continuation Page 2:

On the Continuation Page 3:

On the other RR pages:

My own LIRR pages may be of interest, as well (the Pennsy owned the LIRR from 1904 to 1966, having bought it out to gain access to Sunnyside Yard for Pennsylvania Station, and see also the Steinway System).

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Visit these courtesy and official home pages:

Long Island Rail Road Historical Society

Long Island Sunrise - Trail Chapter (National Railway Historical Society)

Sunrise Trail Division (Northeastern Region, National Model Railroad Association)

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The PRRT&HS Philadelphia Chapter runs a fantastic PRR Discussion Forum.

[Fans of Pennsy relative NYNH&HRR will be pleased to hear that the New Haven Railroad Historical and Technical Association, Inc. (NHRHTA) now has "THE NHRHTA NEW HAVEN RAILROAD FORUM"

One site that really got me, however, is Rob Schoenberg's, on which he has a PRR station sign maker, which allows you to assemble a Pennsy-style station sign in color, letter by letter.  I'm trying to go Rob one better by adding a space, a hyphen, and an apostrophe.  He has since superimposed a keystone outline (ya gotta have a keystone to make it a REAL make-believe Pennsy station sign!).

Rob also has on his site most of the PRR Equipment Diagrams!  These are detailed below under PRR Links.

Also, for Pennsy fans with good imaginations (or strong stomachs), ya gotta see my Berlinerwerke Apocrypha page and its continuation page 2!

The rest of the links are at PRR Links.

The Prototype HORSESHOE CURVE Story

I've finally added the Continuation Page 1, with Dimensions of the Horseshoe Curve, a mile-by-mile and even foot-by-foot guide to the Curve with actual (1:1) and HO scale (1:87.1) dimensions, and now Dimensions of the Horseshoe Curve in N (1:160) and Z (1:220) Scales to my Horseshoe Curve Continuation Page 3.

Also, on the Continuation Page 2, you'll now find an UPDATE of the BERLINERWERKE (HO) Saga.

Jack's narrows - One of the most dramatic areas for photography along the Pennsy Main is where the RoW, following the Juniata River upstream towards the crest of the Alleghenies (at Tunnel Hill), cuts northwesterly through Jack's Mountain in central Pennsylvania; it's supposed to be at Mapleton, but there ain't no such place.  There is a Mapleton Depot, which is close enough, on State Road 665 about 3 miles south of Mill Creek at U.S. 22, roughly half way between Mt. Union and Huntingdon, some 20 road miles east of Altoona.

Hey, you Pennsy juice-jackers, think you know all about PRR pan practice, eh?  Have a look at my Electric Boxcabs page, at the upper "Big Liz" (FF1) photo and then the GN-Y1-cum-PRR-FF2 which follows!

Here's a rough diagram showing where the lights were placed (NOT which lens was which!)

(Diagram by and © 2001 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved.)

Re: Marker lights

From: Jim Anderson (sny114@aol.com)
Category: General Questions
Date: 9/3/99
Time: 5:34:56 PM

Comments {emphases mine}

According to a 1910 PRR Book of Rules I have, at that time locos had a set of marker lights on the pilot beam; these displayed red to the front and green to the sides and rear.  There would also be a set of markers on the tender, lit if the engine was at the rear of the train pushing, running light, or running in reverse.  These also showed red to the rear, green to the sides.  By 1925, in a PRR Book of Rules, the green lights on the markers were replaced by yellow ones.  Otherwise, the rules were the same into the 50's, I believe.  There was often another set of colored lights, mounted on the loco's smokebox.  These were classification lights, indicating the train's class.  During the day, flags were used, at night the lights were used.  White flags or lights indicated an "extra", a train not listed on the schedule.  Green indicated that this was a scheduled train that had gotten so long that it had been broken into "sections", and that there was another section following this train.  The last section of the scheduled train would not display any special signals.  Starting in the 1930's, I believe, the PRR started removing the marker lights from the pilot beam of the locomotives.  Blue lights or flags (placed at both ends) indicated that workmen were working under or around the rolling stock in question (including locos) and the equipment was not to be moved or coupled to.  The blue signals were placed by the workmen doing the work, and no one but those same workmen could remove the signals.

While at the RR Museum of PA on 27 Jun 01, I made a careful survey of the marker/classification lights on the Pennsy steam locomotives on display; they were hardly consistent.  Here's what I found:

	H6	Pilot		Front		Red
	2-8-0			Outer		Amber
	#2846			Inner		(blank)
				Rear		(blank)

		Tender		Rear		Amber
				Outer		Red
				Inner		(blank)
				Front		(blank)

	GS5	Pilot		Front		Red
	4-6-0			Outer		Amber
	#5741			Inner		(blank)
				Rear		(blank)

		Smokebox	Front		White
				Outer		Green@
				Inner		White
				Rear		White

		Tender		Rear		Red
				Outer		Amber
				Inner		(blank)
				Front		(blank)

	D6sb	Pilot		Front		Red
	4-4-0			Outer		Amber
	#1223			Inner		(blank)
				Rear		(blank)

		Smokebox	Front		White
				Outer		White
				Inner		Green@
				Rear		Green@

		Tender		Rear		Amber
				Outer		Amber
				Inner		(blank)
				Front		(blank)

Now, there are many other Pennsy steamers there, but they are older or newer and don't carry the clawfoot marker lamps.

LIRR engine #35, having been modernized, only has two marker lamps for the tender deck and they each have an amber and a red lens and two blanks.

Last changed: 12 Jan 03 (Put up 23 Apr 00)

PRR BIBLIOGRAPHY - The bibliography, as expanded, overloaded this page and has been moved to a new PRR Continuation Page 2.

PENN ROMAN Type Font

(Image from Champ Decals set L-22 - NOT for commercial use - all rights reserved)
"Reproduction of this decal in any form prohibited for commercial purposes."
[Thumbnail image; click on picture for higher resolution image]
{NOT to any scale nor the size of the original Champ decal}}

"However, there are other decal sets that did manage to get it right."  Dave went through this comparison some years ago when he "tried to find decals for a K4 and Q2 in HO scale.  IMO, Microscale RH21 came very close for both letters and numbers for the dulux gold color (Q2).  Champ's BRH-9 set was equally as good for the metallic gold 1930's steam era (K4).  Champ's EH-798P set also seemed pretty good for the 5-stripe diesel scheme.  In all three of these sets, the numbers have the right proportions and 'notches' and the letters appear correct.

See also BNSF Red Rock Sub, above.

Ca. Fall 1941, my dad took me on the Pennsy down to Washington, DC, from NY's Penn Station (we flew back in a DC-2); I specifically remember balancing almost the entire trip on a circular stainless steel diamond-plate disc in the floor between two open halves of an articulated (double-length) dining car with a full-width diaphragm between the halves, so that there was no restriction of passage between them.  Does anybody know what car (set) that was?  This was not some rig across end vestibules; the inner ends of both cars were open full width to outside diaphragms and this disc turned with the cars, half-way for each, on the curves and I loved it!  That may not be much to go on but I am absolutely sure of this memory; as a budding mechanical engineer, this was akin to me to an eighth wonder of the world (and I'd just been to the Fair).  Anything solid will be posted to the PRRH&TS Discussion Forum and here:

On 31 May 02, "Bill <diesell48@aol.com>" responded on the PRRT&HS Discussion Forum that "P did have several diner dorm sets that ran in pairs and were joined by a full width diaphragm.  They also had wide doors on the ends that coupled to each other.  The ones I am familiar with had a full dining car in one of the units, and a kitchen/pantry/dorm in the other car.  I recall reading somewhere that P did this because there was insufficient space in dining cars on their 'name' trains.  Everybody wanted to eat in the diner at meal times (not surprising!) and the standard diners which were half aisleway and kitchen just could not handle the flow.  - - -  These combos ran on the Broadway in the 1950s ... that I know.  I have a couple of brass models of these diner dorm combos.  Kind of a neat idea.  And the mid-train lounges, which were NOT part of the 'set' often were hooked up to these cars.  Perhaps it was a nice 'waiting room' before your meal."  That's just what I wanted; thanks, Bill!

(Image by S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)

I put this question up on the PRRT&HS Discussion Forum on 16 Nov 99 and on the very same day E. B. Levin responded:

"The scale car in question is a 'Monitor' type scale test car.  They were numbered somewhere in the CR 80000-80095 series.  I believe the cars were purchased by Conrail new from Maxon Corp. and we might have built a few more at Sam Rea in the early 80's.  The car is equipped with a self contained hydraulic jacking system that locks the trucks to the carbody and then raises the carbody on four posts to calibrate the scale.  The car is also capable of positioning itself over the proper spot on the scale for calibration."

Here's another weird (but wonderful) one for you,

(Both photos by and © 1999 S. Berliner, III)

One of the honchos who runs the PRRT&HS Discussion Forum (formerly known as the Discussion Web and the Information Exchange Forum) advises (18 Jul 00) that Conrail engines which went to the NS have been renumbered to a PRR series; this was done for a number of reasons, one of which was to keep like-numbered Conrail units from being mixed with like-number NS units.  The black and white or white and black stencils with PRR are now NS power.  CSX power has gold/yellow stencils.

(Blurry photo by and © 1999 S. Berliner, III)

   On 08 Mar 00, Jason Charron, of Windsor, Ontario, Canada advised that

A correspondent asks about a black oiler in the merchant marine ca. 1919 on the "Grecian" (NY/San Juan) who painted a picture of the ship (and which the correspondent still has) and who then became a Red Cap for either the Penn Central or NY Central RR and was known as " the Painting Red Cap".  He apparently had a one man art show either in Philadelphia (at John Wanamaker's?) or NYC in the late 30's or early 40's.  Does anyone have any more information on this gentleman?

Another correspondent, named Salpino, asks, understandably, how the Salpino Curve just east of Tunnel Hill got its name (oops - I forgot to post the reply) - Oscar Salpino rose to General Foreman on Giulio Brandimarte's retirement in 1947; both men were immigrants who became PRR track workers who rose from the ranks (a particularly hard task, especially for immigrants, in those days) and each curve was named for these outstanding exponents of the American dream.  Salpino retired in 1969 but stayed on as caretaker of the Horseshoe Curve park until his death in 1988.   (31 Dec 04)

The Pennsy called itself "The Standard Railroad of the World"; perhaps they carried things to the extreme!  Ron Ziel notes in his book, "American Locomotives in Historic Photographs - 1858 to 1949" (Dover Publications, NY, 1993), that the PRR required Baldwin to replace its standard circular builder's plates with oval ones that matched the Juniata Shop's plate [ref. - Plate 63, PRR #9710 2-8-0; ditto Plates 57 (PRR #5400 4-6-2) and 97 (PRR #6775 4-8-2)].  In all these years, I'd never noticed that little detail!

More to follow.

© Copyright S. Berliner, III - 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 - All rights reserved.