Steeplecab research 3

I left my Steeplecab research with the "missing link", the Valtellina engine which was the prototype for the North Eastern Railway Electric Number 1. Entirely coincidentally, I subsequently stumbled across a photograph of only the second General Electric steeplecab ever built -- seen here in 1956 at the Ponemah Mills Company in Connecticut:


Built in 1894 by Thomson-Houston at General Electric's Lynn Works, it spent a year at Cayadutta Electric Railroad before finding a permanent home at Ponemah Mills. It operated for more than sixty years before retiring to a museum. The 35 ton engine produced 500hp and operated from 500v DC overhead line.

A number of striking images of working steeplecabs was captured on colour film by enthusiasts in the 1950s and 60s, at the very end of the era of United States' electric interurban railways.

Here, in 1945, is a 1912 General Electric 40 ton steeplecab belonging to the tiny Aroostock Valley Railroad in Maine:


The Chicago, North Shore & Milwaukee Railroad was a 122 mile system that operated both passenger and freight services. Part of the system was not electrified, and this 1927 General Electric locomotive was designed to operate from both the 650v DC overhead wire and, for up to an hour or so, from onboard storage batteries:


This 30 ton baby, photographed in 1962, was built by General Electric in 1921 and delivered two years later to the tiny Hutchinson & Northern Railway (which operated no less than 6 miles of route in Kansas). It remained in service until the line was dieselised in 1970:


This 1951 scene captured the Sacramento Northern Railway in California. One part of the route had gradients of 1:38, a formidable obstacle for railways, and one of the reasons for electrification (steam locomotives struggled where intrinsically more powerful electric engines could operate more easily). This glorious 61 ton steeplecab was built in 1923 by General Electric and could operate at 30mph. The Sacramento Northern, previously one of the larger systems, was abandoned by 1965:


Caught just in time, in 1954, the year before dieselisation, this exquisite General Electric, 32 ton steeplecab was built in 1907 for the Claremont Railway in New Hampshire. Whereas almost every electric railway in New England disappeared, the CR was a major connection between mainline systems and it survived long after most of its contemporaries:


This magical 1950 shot (nearly 60 years old!) was taken at Niagara Falls, New York, of a 1928 Baldwin-Westinghouse 60 ton steeplecab. The railway was originally built to support the construction of hydro-electric power stations, but has since largely served the chemical factories that have mushroomed in this region. It operated for a further 29 years until the line was dieselised, in 1979, when it transferred to Port Authority Transit in New Jersy to continue to work train movements:


The Pennsylvania Railroad liked to consider itself the world's finest railway, and there's no doubt that their GG1 electric locomotives were pretty formidable. Here, number 4862, in black livery with gold pinstripe lining, is seen in 1957 powering through the yard at the west end of Pennsylvania Station, the destruction of that glorious building still a couple of decades in the future. The GG1 was styled by uber-designer Raymond Loewy:


The GG1 marks our drift away from a focus on steeplecabs to a broader look at electrical rolling stock.

The next delightful shot was taken in 1954 at the London & Port Stanley Railway yard in Ontario, Canada. Number 10 was a 50 ton car built in 1915 by Jewett and could operate over this 24 mile, 1500 v DC system, at up to 50mph. Number 12 was built the following year and was similar other than being about 3 metres longer. Number 7 was actually ordered by the St Louis & Montesano Railroad, a project that was not completed, and it was acquired by the L&PS instead. Number 16 was acquired from the Milwakee Electric Lines and re-equipped to operate on the L&PS voltage. Early electrical equipment frequently changed owners:


This meaty-looking boxcab locomotive was built in 1924-26 by English Electric and Beyer-Peacock at the famous Vulcan Foundry in Newton-le-Willows, before being shipped to Montreal for service in Canadian National Railways. This 101 ton monster could operate heavy passenger trains at up to 35 mph over the 27 mile electrified route:


To finish, an image I have chosen more for the extraordinary ordinariness of the scene it shows. Back on the Aroostock Valley Railroad in Maine, this time not for a steeplecab but an electric car. Captured in summer 1945 as the Second World War ground to an end, the scene is obviously just a part of everyday life. But it seems extraordinary today to reflect that relatively recently the US had a network of more than 20,000 miles of electrified railway providing transport to the majority of the population, mostly made up of tiny companies like AVR.


The Aroostock Valley Railroad operated 34 miles of route, at 1200v DC. Their passenger services using three cars manufactured in 1912 by Wason, and the end-to-end time of the journey was an hour -- a mean speed of just over 30mph.

It was a slower time.