Another interesting Find......

I have found another interesting site that has train reports from 1911 to 1994. Check it out...

http://dotlibrary1.specialcollection.net/scripts/ws.dll?websearch&site=dot_railroads


Lisa


The Michigan Central Railroad's first depot on the north side of Campus Martius circa 1870.
Image : http://info.detnews.com/redesign/history/story/historytemplate.cfm?id=203

DT&I

Did you know that Henry Ford LOVED trains and purchased the DT&I railroad? I didn't so I decided to do so detective work. Here is a short of what I found. Remember, check out the website for more of the history.

Probably the best known era of the Detroit, Toledo & Ironton began on July 10, 1920, when the Ford Motor Company purchased the company for about $5 million. The DT&I was truly the "Darned, Tired and Irksome" as two and a quarter years of wartime neglect had undone much of what had been accomplished before governmental control. For his part, Ford received over 300 miles of rundown main track and branch lines, 80 locomotives, 2,800 freight and a couple dozen passenger cars - most of this in anything but satisfactory condition. Henry Ford himself assumed the president's chair in March, 1921, and made frequent trips over the road, often in the locomotive cab.

http://www.michiganrailroads.com/RRHX/Stories/DT&I-TheRailroadThatWentNoPlacePart2.htm


I even found a video on YouTube but I'm not sure if it's DT&I. I bet most of you that worked in the city or at /near the Rouge plant will know where is video is taken. Here's one for you dad, Rick Moffatt.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-2YTxh1YhA


Lisa

Deep Sea Detectives.........

Have you heard of this show on the History Channel? Me either but I was watching it yesterday and it was pretty interesting. I have found the History Channel's review of the show along with the website address for you.

Deep Sea Detectives : Underwater Train Wreck. Aired on Tuesday June 24 06:00 PM

Our shipwreck hunters become railroad experts when they find two ghostly locomotives, upright and intact, just a few miles off the coast of New Jersey. How did these massive land vehicles end up 90 feet below the Atlantic in the first place? With no shipwreck nearby to explain their existence, we launch an investigation to find out how these locomotives wound up in deep water seven miles from land. Maybe the locomotives slid off a vessel during a storm? Perhaps they were jettisoned to save a ship? Our investigators are going to have to narrow down the time frame of when these trains were built to find out how they sank. To help solve the mystery, we bring in experts to analyze the evidence. But can we piece together this puzzling problem before time and/or some unscrupulous diver removes the evidence forever?
http://www.history.com/minisite.do?content_type=Minisite_Episodes&content_type_id=1412&display_order=2&mini_id=1069


Here is another site with a different perspective...
http://njscuba.net/sites/site_locomotives.html

I have also found a "You Tube" video of the find. Here is that website.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hE4IbZj5JS4&feature=related


Enjoy, Lisa

Cleaning the trains

On another note, this coming Saturday, June 28 there will be another garage workshop. The time for this Saturday will be from 12:00 till 4:00. See you here.

Len

Part Two.....

I couldn't fit in all the pictures on the first blog so I did 2. Remember, if you click on the picture it will get bigger. Not that much but some.

Enjoy, Lisa

I Went on Vacation.......

I went on vacation to Tennessee and they have a Sonic Restaurant. I have never been to one so we went there for a drink. As My girlfriend and I were taking pictures of each other, I heard a train. These are the pictures I took...

Lisa

Have You Ever Heard Of.......

Chicago & North Western 1596 (GP7) and 1584 (GP7) sit in front of the coal dock in Chicago, Illinois.
(October, 1964)

Have you guys ever heard of a "web ring?" If you haven't, you can go to http://dir.webring.com/rw and pretty much type in what ever you want. Then you will be directed to all these "sub categories." Pick one, I.E. model railroads, and then you will be directed to all these website that deal with model railroads.


I decided to pick this sub category
http://lb.webring.com/cgi-bin/hubsearch?search

And then I went here......
http://www.jerryapp.com/rr_album.html

He has lots of fun train pictures that I thought you might want to look at.

Lisa

The Blue Ghost Tunnel

Blue Ghost Tunnel

Great Western Railway Tunnel, Welland Canal Constructed in 1876 out of limestone blocks, the Great Western Railway was built in order to allow trains to travel underneath the 3rd Western Canal.

This railway, located at GM Glendale- Gate 12, was active until 1915, when the tunnel was abandoned due to frequent use of the 4th Welland Canal. At this point, the GWR Tunnel’s greatest use was providing a shortcut for local farmers.

Acting as reservoir to their respective canals, locals began building man-made ponds near every canal in 1903. However, building the pond for the 3rd Welland Canal became troublesome as the builders were forced to relocate the St. Peters Church Cemetery. It is believed that only 250 graves were removed, leaving behind over 500 dead bodies to rest beneath the brand new reservoir.

Though there are no records of any deaths from within, the tunnel known as the Blue Ghost Tunnel has seen its fair share of violence. Two trainmen lost their lives after their trains had collided just yards beyond the tunnel in 1903. An accident in 1912, at the tunnel’s 22nd lock, forced portions of the tunnel to break, drowning two boys caught gallivanting in the tunnel.

It has been reported that while listening to the tunnel, the sobbing cries of a young boy can be heard along with whistling. Though some reports speak of confusing drops of water from the melting ice with whistling, other reports have mentioned that the whistling hummed a very specific tune. Conversations have been heard coming from the tunnel’s east end, and music, early 20th century music described as coming from an old music box has been heard as well.

One patron who dared to enter took a photograph of the mouth of the tunnel, captioning a strange blue mist surrounded by a cloud of white mist. It is unknown whether or not the photograph had anything to do with the tunnel’s nickname of the Blue Ghost Tunnel.

by Chase Kell

Here's some more websites on the tunnel.

Lisa

http://www.robertsewell.ca/tunnels/blueghosttunnel2.html#inside

This site has pictures of the tunnel's insides
http://creekpool.tripod.com/blueghosttunnel/

This site is a "slide show" of the inside.
http://www.htoc.com/gallery/slideshow.php?set_albumName=may-24-2003

Anyone for Some Trivia?

There are pages and pages of trivia and Q&A to get you through the week.....

1942 Quiz Book on

Railroads and Railroading.......

#6. What is the difference between miles of railroad and miles of track? A mile of railroad may consist of a single track or it may consist of two, three or more parallel tracks, and it may also include sidings, spur tracks and yard tracks. Thus, a mile of railroad may embrace several miles of tracks.

#21. Who invented and perfected the process of making steel rails? The original process of making steel rails was invented by Henry Bessemer, of England, and perfected by A. L. Holley, an American. Their inventions produced a steel rail with a life several times greater than that of iron rail. The openhearth process, developed by William and Frederick Siemens, of Germany, and improved by Samuel T. Wellman, an American, has now largely replaced the Bessemer process.

Here's the site for you to catch up on your 1942 railroad knowledge.

http://www.railwaystation.com/1942/01.html

Lisa (Oh did I mention the photos on the site.....)

Orphan Train Riders

The stories of the Orphan Train Riders

by D. Bruce Ayler (Descendant)

The following rider information was obtained from reunions talks, magazine articles, and newspaper articles. Occasionally, there is a personal letter from the rider or descendant. More detailed information is available in the six volumes produced by the Orphan Train National Organization. These biographic volumes were written by the riders, themselves, or by a descendant of the riders.

As the various riders tell their stories, several things become clear about their common experience:

1. They all thought that they rode the only orphan train. Very few realized that they were part of a major migration into the western parts of the United States. Nor were they aware that other countries were also moving their children.

2. Most of these riders thought that there was something wrong with them—their parents had given them away. In truth, there were many reasons that the children rode the Orphan Trains—parental deaths, inability to feed them, children born out of wedlock, neglect, abuse, etc. There was no one reason which applied to all of these children.

3. The children were instructed not to try to contact their birth parents. They were to break all ties to their past. To be an orphan carried a heavy stigma among their peers. An Orphan was different. They were not as good as anyone else. Many of the orphans, described in these stories, carried heavy emotional scars through out their lives. Many refused to tell their own families about their past.

There were many stories among the children. Many found good, loving homes. Others found that they were a cheap source of labor for the farmers and merchants. Some were treated with love while others found abusive homes. Some adored their new parents while others ran away never to be heard from again.

Not all of these children were adopted. Some were indentured [not the same thing]. Unless the child was legally adopted, or unless specified otherwise in a will, many of these children were not allowed to inherit.

Without birth certificates, many of these children had legal problems as they grew older. Birth certificates were required for marriage licenses, passports, identification papers, social security, driver’s licenses, etc. Orphans, which had fought for our country had trouble re-entering their own country after the war was over.

When one hears these stories, one wonders how anyone could be so heartless as to break-up so many families. Please remember, at that time, children were property. They had no rights. Because of the large influx of immigrants from Europe, jobs were scarce. Their extended families were not available. Child protection agencies and welfare did not exist. If relatives did not help these children, very few had anyone to turn to. For many, the Orphan Trains, not only saved their lives, but moved them to an environment where they stood a chance of making something out of their lives.

The Orphan Train movement was the first documented foster care system in America. From this mass movement of children, states soon developed their own child protection laws. Aid for dependent children, School lunches, Child labor laws, and many other programs gave the children rights and protection. These new laws, and public opinion, eventually made the Orphan Trains unnecessary. Officially, the last trains ran in 1929. There are several documented orphan train riders that came out unofficially in 1930.

This came from the website http://www.orphantrainriders.com/riders11.html

I was also doing some research on this topic and I found out that most trains originated from New York but ended up in different states. Here are some more websites with different destinations.

KANSAS: http://www.kancoll.org/articles/orphans/orphan_t.htm

MICHIGAN: http://www.program-source.com/orphan_train_project.htm

NEBRASKA: http://www.nebraskahistory.org/sites/mnh/orphans/

IOWA: http://iagenweb.org/iaorphans/

WISCONSIN: http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wiorphan/sitemap.html

Now That's Funny!!!!!

Two drunks were walking upgrade between the railroad tracks. One of them said, "this is is longest stairway I have ever been on." The other one said, "It's not the stairs that bother me, it's the low banister."



hahahahahahaha
Lisa

Guess What I Found.......

I have no idea where I find these things.....I just do.


Among the earliest diesels purchased by the Wellsville, Addison & Galeton was this 125 ton center cab GE. Originally Ford number 1000, it was renumbered to 1200 at the time of its puchase in 1955. The 900 HP switcher was built in September, 1937. Builders # 12229

Here is the website I found this on:
http://www.wagplow.org/WAGVHS-MemberArchives.html

Lisa