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Discussion relating to the D&H. For more information, please visit the Bridge Line Historical Society.

Moderator: MEC407

 #335759  by march hare
 
OK, here's an opeartions/traffic question from the late 1970s.

I just picked up a couple of Intermountain (HO) Boston and Maine bilevel autoracks, fully assembled, on the cheap. They're nice cars, operate reasonably well, and I'd like to add some cars/vans to fill them up. The paint scheme is solid blue and appears to be the late 1970s "BM" with no ampersand. Post-1978 if memory serves me.

Presumably, these cars would have operated over the D&H.

Aybody have an idea what kind of automobiles were being carried on these cars? Fords? GM?

Walmart is currently carrying Ford and Dodge vans for a couple bucks a piece, and I'm tempted to use them to fill up these cars.

 #335767  by BobLI
 
Just looked at a pic of a partially enclosed EL Bi-level rack and it was carrying Dodge vans.

Have a very Merry Christmas!
 #336447  by Palmerfalls
 
At some point in the 1970's, The D&H was moving VW bugs and Vans
from the Port of Albany to ???? south. I will have to research it in my D&H
library.

Ed

 #337738  by Mark R.
 
For what it's worth, The Summary Of Equipment List as of April 01 1978, shows no auto-racks on the B&M roster. Are those auto racks you have proto-typically correct for that paint scheme ??? Got me curious now.

Is this the car you have ?? ....

Image


Mark.

 #337851  by Mark R.
 
Still can't find any concrete evidence of those auto-racks. :(

However, I did find that through the late 70's / early 80's there appears to be a prominence of Ford / Mercury products, especially in the Albany / Mechanicville area.
D&H did move a lot of Volkswagon products in the early 70's, but that was rather short-lived. Oddly enough, there appears to be a prominence of American Motors products through the 60's !?!

This has just been my observations and I have no rhyme or reason as to these findings.

Mark.
 #338265  by Palmerfalls
 
I looked through my D&H library and found 2 pictures that show open top
autoracks, the first is in "A Decade of D&H", on page 19, they are being pulled south on the Penn Division, the second is in "Bridgeline Blues" on page 39, they are in Oneonta yard in the spring of 1980. Hope this help's.

Ed
 #338299  by Mark R.
 
Palmerfalls wrote:I looked through my D&H library and found 2 pictures that show open top
autoracks, the first is in "A Decade of D&H", on page 19, they are being pulled south on the Penn Division, the second is in "Bridgeline Blues" on page 39, they are in Oneonta yard in the spring of 1980. Hope this help's.

Ed
Hey Ed - sorry, But I seem to have lost sight of what exactly you're trying to pin down. Are you questioning the proto-typical accuracy of the cars you have ( IF they are accurate at all ) .... what brand of autos were carried in racks on the D&H in general for a given era .... the routing of racks on the D&H or just the use of auto racks in general on the D&H ??? The pictures you refer to as well as others I've come across are not B&M racks and they are of a slightly later era than the open side racks. Also being enclosed racks makes it virtually impossible to determine what's on them in the way of brand specifics, unless you are lucky enough to come across an up-close 3/4 shot to see what's poking its nose out the end of the car !!!

Mark.
 #338404  by Palmerfalls
 
Mark,
I am always interested in learning more about the D&H operations
1970-1980. I agree that those reference photo's are not specifically
B&M cars, not sure if the D&H even had it's own? I do not belive they did.

Auto's were moved as bridge traffic and as well as a destination some
place on the railroad? (Voorhesville)?I am not aware of any plants that assembled or even detailed auto's?

I do have a great photo of the Sharks pulling open auto racks full of
VW's.

I thinks that the car you posted is very close to the type cars of the
1970-1975 era.

Ed

How do we post photo's?

 #339426  by Mark R.
 
Ed - I could be wrong, but I believe most if not all autorack traffic was all run through. D&H themselves never had any auto racks. A friend of mine was an engineer on the D&H for 24+ years .... I'll see if he has any clearer insight on the actual traffic load itself.

For posting pictures of your own, the pictures first need to be located in an online photo-hosting site ( or linked from your own web-site if you have one ). Photo-bucket is a commonly used host site that many use. Registration is free. Just upload your pictures to your Photo-bucket account, then just cut and paste the URL box ( the bottom one of the three listed ) to the reply box back here - it's pretty simple really.

Here's your pic ....

Image

Mark.

 #339498  by Mark R.
 
Ed - in your picture (below) , I can deduct three factors rather quickly. The shot is taken in the old Bevier St. yard which closed in January 1980. The Ford vans on the racks reflect a body style that was introduced in 1975. The NW unit #8017 is a GE C30-7 which began production in 1976. I can't gleen any other pertinent facts from the picture other than that. The NW unit apears to have some signs of road wear suggesting it to be at least a year or so old. So, based on those facts, I'd narrow the date down to sometime between 1977 and 1979.

Image

Mark.
 #341820  by ChiefTroll
 
The D&H didn't own or control any auto racks or the flat cars that they were mounted on. I remember the VW's moving via the Port of Albany on open-top racks, and the eastbound racks going into the Voorheesville Industrial Park when the D&H connecting track was completed in early 1970. That move was assigned to OA-1 when it was created about the same time. OA-1 also took the MT's to Colonie, and AO-2 took them around through Mohawk back to Oneonta.

Before that, in 1967, we started getting new Chevrolets via CP from Ste. Hyacinthe (sp?) Quebec right after we raised the roofs of Ti and Willsboro Tunnels, and we had taken down Smith Weed's Bridge over the Champlain Division just north of the Saranac River in Plattsburgh. I don't know where the Chevy's went.

Some of the Chevy's also went to the NYC via Adirondack Jct - Massena - Watertown. Several times when I was riding NJ 105 to St. Luc we met the NYC on CP headed from St. Luc to Adirondack Jct with FA's and autoracks in his train.

I did a clearance survey in Belden Tunnel in early 1970, using the D&H Hi-Rail paint truck with the clearance frame. That was the old tunnel, before Guilford rebuilt it. We had just barely enough clearance for open-top auto racks, and I found yellow paint in the top quarters of the arch. After a little research, I found that the yellow Frisco racks were about two inches higher than the rest, and that was the source of the yellow paint.

I don't remember ever seeing a B&M rack car on the D&H or anywhere else, but that doesn't mean that they didn't exist. I also don't recall the D&H interchanging automobile traffic with the B&M.

 #344719  by trevor macpherson
 
I have a video of the D&H in 89'. It shows NW auto racks with coverd sides but open tops. (well the sides werent totally coverd...they were like three rows with like a 1' slit between each. Ill have to look to see what cars were carried on them)