In a previous entry, I mentioned the head of the New York Central System, Alfred E. Perlman. While making sure that I had his name spelled right, I found something very interesting:

Public Domain Theater Part II/IV (The Big Train)

This is a promotional film made by the Central in the 1950s; its content is unknown to me and I've never heard of it before. (Of course not; it's from the green team.) I'm downloading the film's two parts as we speak, and will post commentary in the near future. From what I understand, it follows the course of an Early Bird scheduled fast freight from Chicago to the City of New York. One source of mine indicates that the Central promised 29 hours from terminal to terminal and introduced the service in 1954; we shall see what the film says.

I've never really seen Perlman that much, nor have I ever heard his voice. This promises to be very interesting.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 06:20 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Inasmuch as I now consider myself part of the Harry Potter fandom, I pass this along in the spirit of the season:

"Hermione Got Run Over By A Death Eater"

Tip of the Sorting Hat to Ith.

This is rather funny. It is also very, very wrong.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 06:02 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Earlier posts have hinted about this in the past, but I might as well repeat it: I'm not much of a model railroad man, having not the time, space, skills, or budget for it. That being said, I like having the odd railcar to sit on a desk as a static display, inspired by a photograph of Stuart T. Saunders and Alfred E. Perlman wherein a model of a 50' boxcar is shown in the new jade green-and-black Penn Central livery.

I in fact bought an Athearn 50' Penn Central boxcar with that exact photograph in mind. It's a close enough match.

Anyways, I figured that it was about time to update the readership on the gradually growing fleet of railcars. All are in HO scale, which I find to be the best for display and low cost of acquisition.

Boxcars
PC 142772
DL&W 12022

Hoppers
NS 144711
PC 459755
N&W 12988
N&W 107579

Cabin Cars
PC 26403
N&W 557524

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I haven't yet laid out for any motive power, but I intend to, sooner or later, purchase an Alco C628 in Penn Central livery. I wouldn't mind having an N&W C630, especially in the Pevler Blue livery, but those don't seem to be as readily available for cheap.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 05:53 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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15 December 1890: The Shenandoah Valley Railway is sold to the Norfolk and Western Railway.

Construction on the SVRR began in 1879, with the completion of the Waynesboro-Hagerstown, Maryland component in 1881. A westward connection to Roanoke and the N&W would be completed in 1882.

By 1885, the SVRR was in receivership. It would remain so until its reorganization in September 1890 as the SVRY, after a foreclosure sale. Three months later, the Norfolk and Western Railway would acquire the line, providing single-line service to Hagerstown. Once in Hagerstown, connections could be made with the Pennsylvania Railroad for access to Northeastern markets.

So far as I understand it, the old SVRY is still valuable in its third century of existence, serving today's Norfolk Southern Railway.

UPDATE: I did some more digging, and came up with a bit more information that I thought useful.

As the rails lie, there are 239 miles in the N&W Shenandoah Division between Roanoke and Hagerstown. Scheduled passenger service for the spring of 1899 consisted of two trains, 3/4 running between Hagerstown and Roanoke, and 27/28 running between Hagerstown and Shenandoah.¹ A quick bit of very rough math---not taking into account any time for stops---suggests that 3/4, on an 8.5 hour schedule, averaged 28MPH. Trains 27/28 needed four hours to cover 107 miles, for an average speed of 27MPH.

For what it's worth, Roanoke-New York City and Bristol-New York City through service was provided for some time via the Shenandoah Division and the PRR northward. When the PRR discontinued its part of this service in 1962, the N&W cooperated with the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway to continue the New York connection. Sleeping cars from the then-Train 1/2 would be attached to the C&O's Fast Flying Virginian, ostensibly to head north to Washington Union Station for delivery to the Pennsylvania.

Information for the update came from George Elwood and Norfolk and Western Passenger Service 1946-1971 by W.E. Warden and K.L. Miller.

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¹ These train numbers are not to be confused with later uses. Numbers 3/4 would later be reassigned to The Pocahontas, which began running Norfolk-Cincinnati/Columbus in 1926.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 02:16 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I saw The Lion, The Witch & the Wardrobe earlier today. For a variety of reasons, some of which will be detailed hopefully tomorrow, I was rather let down by it.

Bloody well put a damper on the whole day, it did.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 11:39 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I have been exceptionally good this year. I have not overthrown Third World countries stupid enough to toss out my approved dictators, nor have I engaged in non-fair trade activities.¹ I have also refrained from illegal suppressions of minority votes in various elections throughout the country. I think this is sufficient to warrant granting my long-standing desire for various things.

I am, however, willing to further extend my my holiday magnanimity to the struggling Columbia Broadcasting System's paltry evening newscast. Indeed, I have been a viewer of the NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw for many, many years.² Furthermore, I had precious little respect for Walter "I Singlehandedly Sabotaged America's Effort in Vietnam, and All I Got Was Replacement by Dan Rather" Cronkite and the rest of 'em. For what it's worth, the last thing I watched on the CBS was The Magnificent Seven with Michael Biehn et al.

However, in the spirit of Christmas, I will watch the CBS Evening News if the Tiffany Network will do me but one thing:

HIRE THIS WOMAN

I will go so far as to overlook the Chirac government's rumored prevarications against the several States insofar as it will further allow me to enjoy this excellent example of Gallic womanhood, guilt-free. As Tom DeFalco or the crowd at Marvel back in the 1970s might've put it, "Make mine Melissa!"

Joyeux noël!

Yours truly,
TCP

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¹ Well, there was that one Vietnamese shoe deal, but you got what you wanted out of that one. Phil Knight thanks you, as does the DRV.

² Brian Williams is a hack.

Robbo and Steve gave me the idea for this, so all credit and a tip of the captain's hat from Richelieu to The Llama Butchers.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 02:24 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Regardless of what H.J. Granger might say, I regard the house elves of the Harry Potter series with considerable disdain. From where I sit, they're about as annoying as Smeagol/Gollum in The Lord of the Rings, which is to say that if Voldemort carried out a mass genocide of them, I wouldn't cry a tear.¹

In fact, I'd celebrate and fire off the Dark Mark.

Morsmordre!

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¹ Inasmuch as this Voldemort character seems to be a wimp, he doesn't get the honor of being dubbed 'Dark Lord'. The style manual for this publication notes that only Darth Vader warrants the title 'Dark Lord', usually in the full title of 'Dark Lord of the Sith'. Call it aging fanboy pride, but I figure Vader could take Voldemort easily. Can't cast a spell if you've got no arms to wave a wand and your head's been separated from your shoulders, now can you?

Posted by: Country Pundit at 03:47 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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As one reader writes, "Where have you been?"

I've been decorating for the bloody Christmas, that's where. Bloody full-time job it is.

That, and reading the Harry Potter series of novels. Posting will resume as possible.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 03:34 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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