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DID YOU KNOW? PART II
By Jim Herron
- The Z-4000 output per handle is 165 watts each, not 200.
- The first Lionel #300 Hellgate Bridge sold in 1928 for $16.50.
It was a standard gauge accessory.
- The "Sunset Limited" was the only passenger train
to travel coast to coast from Atlantic Ocean to Pacific Ocean
without changing trains. Amtrak still keeps up that service.
- The Grizzly Flats Railroad is an actual functional railroad.
It operates in the late Ward Kimball's backyard. It has 900
feet of track, two steam locomotives, four cars, a caboose,
a windmill, a depot station and a water storage tank (a one-tank
town, of sorts). It began in 1938 with the purchase of a locomotive
for $400.
- The Long Island Railroad, chartered in 1834, is the oldest
major railroad still operating in the United States under its
original name. It is the nation's largest passenger-carrying
railroad.
- Kansas City's Union Station is the third largest passenger
station built in America, exceeded in size only by Penn Station
and Grand Central Station in New York.
- Madison Hardware first started in 1909 in New York City.
In 1929, it relocated to 105 East 23rd Street. It remained there
until July 1989 when it was bought by Richard Kughn, then-owner
of Lionel. It was Lionel's oldest service station, and was moved
to Detroit, Michigan when Richard Kughn bought Lionel. .
- The most hated name in Lionel post-war train collecting was
Ray-O-Vac. This battery did more damage to Lionel diesels and
engines than any other source, even kids!
- In its 1955 version, Lionel modified the color scheme of
its Texas Special F-3 by using white painted panels on red F-3
car bodies with silver trucks, capturing the distinctive appearance
of the E-7 Texas Special.
- By 1909, two of the Western railroads (Santa Fe and Southern
Pacific) were consuming 20 million barrels of oil a year, to
operate their locomotives. The railways bought the oil for $1.00
a barrel.
- In 1954, The NY, NH and HRR took delivery of ten E-P-5s nicknamed
"Jets." New Haven's new chairman, Patrick B. McGinnis,
introduced the first eye catching color scheme of vermillion
(reddish orange), black and white geometric stripes. Fortunately,
the color scheme outlasted Patrick B. McGinnis.
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