PRR

[Bruette]

 

[Bob]

Nice photo, that engine sure looks good!
I also notice it appears to be the famed Brunswick Green. That’s a green so close to black you can barely tell them apart. It’s tricky to tell the difference on photos, since light and the age of the image can affect color. However, compare the color of the trucks and air tank, which are black, to the rest of it, I see a difference.

 

[Bill Anderson]

Good photo. Someone once described Brunswick Green as one drop of green per gallon of black.

 

[Bob]

Good photo. Someone once described Brunswick Green as one drop of green per gallon of black.

Yes, and this loco looks to be fresh out of the paint shop. Look closely at the right side, see the loco in the background? That's what they typically looked like. Now picture trying to distinguish between a very dark green and black when they looked like that.

 

[Bruette]

Baldwin Centipedes, class BP60, at Horseshoe Curve on October 13, 1955. Photo from John Lazar's collection

 

[Bob]

Nice shot! While a bit soft, it still clearly shows why they were called "Centipedes".

 

[Bill Anderson]

I read somewhere that the Centipedes had trouble serving as helpers on Horseshoe Curve. The curve was so tight that their sanders ended up spraying the sides of the road bed instead of the rails.

 

[Bruette]

I can't have a thread about the PRR without one of their passenger work horses! I would love to see one of these from Lionel in the Vision Line or at least a Legacy locomotive.
Pennsylvania Railroad class K4 - I love Wikipedia, it's a quick and easy source for novices like me.
A K4s-hauled train pauses at Aberdeen, Maryland on 1944-04-26. This is the classic prewar K4s configuration.

 

[Bill Anderson]

I love the Pennsy's streamlined era passenger paint scheme of red/maroon with gold pinstripes. Tasteful, simple elegance. I can't remember its official title, although I think it was facetiously referred to as "Rustoleum" in the PC era. I believe "Brunswick" was reserved for the green (which appears black to most of us) used on freight units.

I have an old, American Flyer model (if you can call those A.C. Gilbert tin plate trains "models") of a K-5 (?) Pacific that may be older than me.

Gerry Mulligan (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerry_Mulligan)
I believe the late jazz artist and composer Gerry Mulligan had a relative who worked on the Pennsy, which would have inspired the title of one of his compositions, "K-5 Pacific."

You Tube notes: From his 1972 album entitled "The Age Of Steam" issued on A&M label. With a great band including Tom Scott, Bud Shank, Bob Brookmeyer, Harry Edison and more.

I think The Age of Steam is an appropriate title for the album. The rhythm of K-5 Pacific reflects a train in motion.

More railroad connections: According to Wikipedia, as a child Mulligan lived for a while in Reading, Pennsylvania. In June 1988, he was invited to be the first Composer-in-Residence at the Glasgow International Jazz Festival and was commissioned to write a work, which he titled The Flying Scotsman. In 1991,

Here is a video of The Flying Scotsman performed by the Gerry Mulligan Quartet.

You Tube notes: Brilliant performance of The Flying Scotsman at the 1990 International Jazz Festival in Bern Switzerland … featuring Gerry Mulligan (bs), Bill Charlap (p), Dean Johnson (b) and David Ratajczak (d). The first festival took place in 1976 and has been thrilling jazz fans every year since.

That concludes our Covid-19 quarantine inspired threadjack. We return you to the regularly posted thread.

 

[Bruette]

Bill, I think it's Tuscan Red

 

[Bill Anderson]

Bill, I think it's Tuscan Red

You are right. Thanks for joggin' my old noggin'.

 

[Bruette]

Horseshoe Curve

 

[Bruette]

Aerial view of the "World Famous" Horseshoe Curve near Altoona in 1959. This photo also shows the water supply for the City of Altoona.
Jackson-Township historical preservation

 

[Bruette]

Here is an original colored slide that I took at the Pennsylvania Railroad's Horseshoe Curve near Altoona, Blair County during early May of 1966. Shown here (L to R) are PRR engines #9683 and #9777. Both locomotives were built by EMD and rated at 1,500 horsepower. #9683 is an EH-15 built in 1949, while #9777 is an EF-15A built in 1951. They are pulling an eastbound mixed-cargo freight.
(Photo from Thomas C. Ayers via https://www.facebook.com/groups/Altoonahashustle/)
Jackson-Township historical preservation

 

[Bruette]

This unique event happened at 10:40 at night on October 21, 1954. A momentary burst of lights unequalled in the annals of photography turns night into day for this history making picture marking the centennial of the world famous Horseshoe Curve of the Pennsylvania Railroad near Altoona, an engineering marvel to this day and the 75th anniversary of the incandescent lamp. The photograph was snapped through the collaboration of the railroad and Sylvania Electric Products Inc. Six thousand photo flash bulbs were mounted around the Curve on the wooded slopes above it, in the valley below it and even under the surface of the Altoona Reservoir, which the tracks encircle. Their simultaneous flash bathed the 2,000,000 square foot area in more light than the combined output of 15 million 60 watt household lamps. In the foreground is The Trail Blazer en route to Chicago from New York. Across the valley a freight train is moving toward Altoona. The diesel locomotive of another freight is moving on the Curve in the right foreground. The 6000 flash lamps were connected by 31 miles of wire to 3 huge generators and a central control point. The flash was synchronized with camera shutters atop a specially built 154 foot tower by telephone lines and a loudspeaker system. The brief flash was the climax of months of planning and preparation for what Sylvania officials said is a photo flash picture unprecedented in magnitude of area and illumination. Although roads were closed to private cars to avoid traffic hazards, special buses from Altoona brought throngs of amateur photographers and others to the scene.
(Photo from http://www.billspennsyphotos.com/)
Jackson-Township historical preservation

 

[Bill Anderson]

Wow! O. Winston Link x 6,000.
At first glance I thought it was a model railroad layout.

 

[Bruette]

E44s