LwS S1, E1: Why Preserve Anything & What’s a “49-A”?
In first episode of Living with Steam, we’ll take a look at why archival preservation on film or audio recording device is such a necessity. Since we’re interested in the railroad industry of Buffalo, why was it so important to take pictures or make sound recordings of trains? Why did people find the need to preserve anything especially if what they were interested in was so common and assumed to never go away? If the railroad industry was such an important part of American industry and culture, why did most of it seem to disappear so quickly?
New York Central's Interlocking Tower 49-A was located about one mile West of Buffalo Central Terminal. The tower controlled the movements between the Pennsylvania Railroad's Buffalo Branch line, and the four-track mainline of the New York Central.
The PRR did not have their own station in the Buffalo, NY area so they used Central Terminal. But in order for their trains to access the terminal, the PRR would pull off their line and cross over the very busy NYC tracks. Once they were clear of all the switches needed to make this complicated maneuver, the trains would then back down a spur/siding and into Central Terminal.
Likewise, whenever PRR trains would leave Central Terminal, they would back OUT of the station and down the 1-mile siding until it arrived at Tower 49-A. The train would then be switched from the siding, over the tracks of the NYC, and onto the PRR tracks.
The photograph above is one John shot from in front of Tower 49-A. It's showing a Pennsylvania Railroad train, perhaps 571, as it pulls off the PRR line and onto the New York Central tracks. It will need to cross over 4 tracks before it can be switched onto a siding and back down into Central Terminal.
Images were taken from the respective photographers or members of the Facebook group "Abandoned Rails - Buffalo & Western New York"
Penn Central photograph from J. Henry Priebe Jr.'s incredible railfan page.
John Prophet captured this Pennsylvania Railroad train backing out of Buffalo Central Terminal. The train is passing New York Central's Tower 49. The dead giveaway for the movement of the train is the direction the smoke from the engine's exhaust is blowing.
Many of the PRR engines heard in this episode of LwS are M-1 steam engines.
The images below were taken from The Locomotive Wiki page “The Pennsylvania Railroad Class M-1” and a Reddit post entitled “Mountains You Say? How About the PRR M1a, Pennsy's Best Steam Locomotive?”
One of the most exciting recordings featured in LwS episode 1 is one made by John while he and a friend paced train #78, The Paul Revere, on April 3, 1953. The train was a daily that ran from Cincinnati to Boston... with connections from St. Louis and Pittsburgh. John’s friend was driving the car while John sat in the back seat with his wire recorder; the mic just inside the open window to minimize wind noise. This stunt was made at 1:30 in the morning at speeds reaching close to 60 mph! The Niagara-class locomotive was so loud that the sounds the S-1 was making would have gotten over the wind noise especially since John was so close to the tracks.
Below is an example of a Niagara-Class S-1 locomotive similar to what John captured in his recording (image courtesy of https://www.pinterest.com/pin/505318020674315466/). You can also view the excerpt from John’s notes concerning this recording.
I’ve also included an annotated Google Map to show the route the train and John took to make the recording.
Below is the page from John’s note concerning the Tower 49-A recordings from January 14, 1950.
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