“Did You Know Part VIII”
By Jim Herron
1. On the tracks siding next to the old Lackawanna Railroad terminal in N.J. sits a Pennsylvania R.R. Red GG-1 – original paint and stripes crying for someone to do a restoration.
2. The Liberty Magazine of November 23, 1946 costs a dime ($.10). It was also the first of Lionel’s post war catalogues that was included in the middle of the magazine. It contained all of sixteen pages.
3. Cincinnati’s Union Station built in 1933 cost more that $20 million depression dollars to build, making it one of the last and most expensive stations built in America. It is now a Museum of Science and remains an Amtrak stop, too.
4. The White Pine Historic Railroad operators out of Ely, Nevada. It is considered by historians to be the best, most intact short-line railroad when it shut down as the Nevada Northern in 1983. All aspects of the road were left on site including a 1910 Baldwin Locomotive and an old depot.
5. The Lionel Nuclear Reactor was originally a prototype way back in 1958. It was a manually operated accessory, which lit up and had a hand crank.
6. All of the pre war and post war Hudson’s had the prototypical number, a Lionel Hudson number board trademark.
7. The Alaska 6464-825 boxcar is extremely hard to find in excellent condition with the box. The production model was blue painted over a gray plastic body. The slightest chip on the car made the gray show through the blue.
8. One of the rarest of the GP-7 was the Pennsylvania No. 2028. There were three known color variations; one gold, one yellow and the last, silver.
9. The Virginian Railway AB Class was the first 2-8-8-2 compound articulated Mallet type on the railroad. The huge, slow mallets were perfected for hauling Virginian’s heavy coal loads up and down mountains.
10. The Canadian Pacific sleeper cars were named after prominent French Canadian historical leaders.
11. The Canadian Pacific dome/observation cars were named after Canadian National and Provincial parks. They were decorated by well known Canadian artists.
12. The Canadian Pacific Railway was the longest dome car ride in the world. They placed an order with the Budd Company in 1953 for 173 fluted cars to house two transcontinental trains traveling in both directions; a streak from Montreal to Vancouver, British Columbia of over 3,000 miles through the Canadian Rockies.
