Mallory Hope Ferrell

Another Colorado railroad book; I used to have a professional interest but now it’s just collecting books. The Denver, South Park and Pacific was one of several railroads trying to reach the mountain silver mines in the 1870s and 1880s (The “Pacific” in the road’s name reflected unbounded optimism; the DSP&P never even got out of Colorado, much less to the Pacific). Author Mallory Ferrel has written a typical railroad book; old photographs of railroad workers standing in front of engines and rolling stock accompanied by text describing the various corporate trials and tribulations (the DSP&P went bankrupt, was reorganized as the Denver, Leadville and Gunnison, and was eventually absorbed by the Colorado and Southern). Of particular interest to me were accounts of the Alpine Tunnel, the Mason Bogie engines, and of the Great Snowplow Contest.

The DSP&P often found itself a day late and a dollar short competing for right of way in Colorado; other railroads got the easiest grades and the DSP&P was stuck with a lot of hard climbing. The Alpine Tunnel bypassed Altman Pass on the way to Gunnison; it ended up late, over budget, and plagued with cave-ins. Although finally closed to rail traffic in 1910, the tunnel had a long life as a attraction for adventurous mountain tourists; it was still possible to walk through it in the 1960s. You can take four-wheel drive roads up to the tunnel portals, and the west portal has some reconstructed buildings and informational signs. I’ll have to essay a trip some day.

Mason Bogie engines, built by the William Mason firm of Taunton, Massachusetts, used a continuous boiler-cab-tender with the drivers and tender wheels on pivots (“bogies”). The DSP&P ran both 2-6-6T and 2-8-6T Mason Bogies (the “T” indicates the six trailing wheels were under the tender). The engineers liked the Mason Bogies; a typical report was “they ran like sewing machines”. The advantage of the Bogies was they could take tight turns on narrow gauge track; the disadvantage was they tended to leak steam at the boiler-to-cylinder connection and had to use complicated external valve gear.

The Great Snowplow Contest ran in 1890, between a Leslie Rotary Snowplow and a Jull Centrifugal Snow Excavator. (For more on the Leslie, see American Locomotive Co. Rotary Snowplow; Orange Jull had invented both plows, but had sold the rights to the rotary to Leslie Brothers of Toronto, who in turn passed them on to the American Locomotive Company). Anyway, Jull was back with a new plow design and a competition was staged between it and a Leslie on the tracks going up to the Alpine Tunnel. The Leslie won handily; the Jull kept derailing, even in only a few inches of snow.

An entertaining and easy read. There are numerous photographs, line drawings of engines and rolling stock, a roster of engines, paint schemes, a bibliography and a good index.… (plus d'informations)

Tweetsie Country by Mallory Hope Ferrell

Tweetsie Country is a handsome pictorial history of the East Tennessee & Western North Carolina Railroad. ET&WNC, born in the Blue Ridge Mountain country in the 1880s reflects for us today the color and charm of the steam era. Tweetsie Country is the story of the little railroad that could, that over came physical obstacles and the Great Depression to travel the Blue Ridge country bringing the outside world to the mountain folk of east Tennessee and western North Carolina.

While telling the colorful history of the East Tennessee & Western North Carolina Railroad, this book is an indispensable reference for rail fans or modelers. It contains many illustrations of the line, rolling stock and locomotives. This is a fun, informative and thoroughly useful book.… (plus d'informations)

Tweetsie Country by Mallory Hope Ferrell

Tweetsie Country is a handsome pictorial history of the East Tennessee & Western North Carolina Railroad. ET&WNC, born in the Blue Ridge Mountain country in the 1880s reflects for us today the color and charm of the steam era. Tweetsie Country is the story of the little railroad that could, that over came physical obstacles and the Great Depression to travel the Blue Ridge country bringing the outside world to the mountain folk of east Tennessee and western North Carolina.

While telling the colorful history of the East Tennessee & Western North Carolina Railroad, this book is an indispensable reference for rail fans or modelers. It contains many illustrations of the line, rolling stock and locomotives. This is a fun, informative and thoroughly useful book.… (plus d'informations)