8/11/09
6/22/09
Steve Landwehr
STAFF WRITER
Everyone's life has a story. In "Lives," we tell some of the stories about North Shore people who have died recently. "Lives" runs Mondays in The Salem News.
SWAMPSCOTT — Hobbyists of any ilk run the gamut from dabblers to devotees. Armand "Jack" Palleschi was one of the latter.
His fascination with all things railroad began when his kid brother, Ray, got him to cut through the cemetery in Swampscott to watch the Talgo trains the Boston and Maine was running between Boston and Portsmouth, N.H.
Both boys were smitten, and as adults, vacation destinations became places like Antonito, Colo., home of the historic Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Narrow Gauge Railroad.
Weeknights, they assembled HO gauge model railroad cars, locomotives, and the scale-model stores, industrial centers and other additions to model railroad layouts that make them more realistic.
And every Friday night, they could be found at the controls of the model trains they and their friends built.
Ray lost the man he called his business partner, brother and best friend on Wednesday, June 10, after Jack had a massive cerebral hemorrhage while standing outside a convenience store. He was 66.
That leaves Ray with some unfinished business, but more about that later.
Jack was born in Winchester on March 1, 1943. By the time he graduated from St. John the Evangelist Grammar School in Swampscott, the family had moved to the seaside town, into the house previously owned by Jack's grandparents.
Swampscott High followed, then the Wentworth Institute of Technology, where he obtained a degree in electrical engineering. That left him with at least one skill that would be valued by fellow modelers.
"He taught me how to solder the right way," said Harvey Robinson, who first met Jack 45 years ago.
"He was very good with wiring," Ray said.
Jack's interest in railroading took off after high school, and the brothers soon joined the Broken and Mangled Operators club founded by former Swampscott firefighter Al Lalime in the 1950s.
The Friday night tradition of operating trains began in Lalime's basement, but today it's a round-robin affair with club members taking turns hosting the weekly get-togethers.
"It's really more of a social club," Robinson said. Maybe, but to this day the members try to run their miniature railroads just like real ones.
"You don't just put a train on the tracks and see how fast it can go," Ray said.
About 20 years ago, the club started holding an annual RailRun, a weekend of intense running of a string of layouts.
"We call it operate 'til you drop," Ray joked. Enthusiasts from as far away as Minnesota attended this year. Ray says club members don't mind strangers operating their toys, but they do watch for undesirable behavior.
"They don't get invited back," Ray said.
Rolling stock
In 1981, Jack bought a van that had been converted to a motor home, and the brothers began their long-distance "rail fanning," as some people call it.
There were four trips to see the Cumbres and Toltec Railroad, others to the Durango and Silverton and to Gibbon Junction, Neb., where Ray says as many as 187 trains a day pass through.
When the trips first started, Jack was recording them on a Super 8 camera, then a Super 8 with sound, then a video camera and more recently a digital camera.
"He always loved to do that," Ray said.
The brothers, who lived in their grandparents' old home since moving to Swampscott, also owned a condo in North Carolina, where they were surrounded by places to indulge their other hobby, golfing.
Jack was also known for his green thumb and the meticulous care he took of his lawn.
There was one thing missing in all this.
Remember all those Friday night get-togethers with fellow train enthusiasts? Jack and Ray never hosted a single one.
All those plastic railroad cars and scale-model cafes with scale-model people eating at scale-model tables? Jack and Ray built them for other people's layouts.
Their home is small, and the cellar gets wet. They never had their own layout.
That was changing. Last year, they began converting one stall of their two-car garage into fit space for a layout and were hard at work putting together their own railroad, which they were calling the Eastern Eagle and Condor.
Ray says he'll have to finish it himself once things settle down again, but you sense some of the fun has gone out of it.
Staff writer Steve Landwehr can be reached at 978-338-2660 or slandwehr@salemnews.com.
5/26/09
4/2/09
3/2/09
Hello all:
The schedule page for February under the fourth Saturday stated "Atlantic Shores by George"! Christine and I couldn't stop laughing, however, it dawned on me that some of you may not understand. When I was published in Model Railroader the editor messed up and called my layout the "Atlantic Shores" and me George Senftleben. Who ever did this, and it could be anyone, reminded me of when I spoke at a ProRail convention in the Twin Cities and was introduced as George Senftleben and was given a name tag with George on it. Everyone at the convention called me George all week. Jere was one of them.
Thanks to who ever did this it made my day.
Carl
12/10/08
TRAGIDY NARROWLY AVERTED BY QUICK THINKING ENGINEER
Yesterday a fast freight train operating on the Atlantic Shoals Railway narrowly missed being buried inside tunnel number six just west of Fairgrounds at MP 187.3. While operating an eighteen car freight with two locomotives from Church Point to Port Evangeline engineer Don Howd noticed part of the roof of tunnel number six falling onto the tracks ahead of his train. Thinking quickly Mr. Howd went to full throttle and pulled his locomotives beyond the falling debris just as a section of the tunnel fell onto the second car in his train. The locomotives and one car managed to get out of the tunnel but the remainder of the train became uncoupled and suffered the brunt of the damage. Emergency forces were dispatched to the west end of the tunnel and found the Conductor and flagman wandering around in a dazed condition but thankfully they were unhurt. It took the car and track departments several hours to remove the debris rerail the cars and pull the remainder of the train to daylight. Engineer Howd was quoted as saying “hot dam I didn’t know those new fangled diesels could get up and go that fast”. The head brakeman who wishes to remain anonymous quit his job on the spot.
10/26/08
7/2/08
At approximately 7:45 PM Tuesday July 1, 2008, "without warning" the A.S.Ry was picketed in front of it's headquarters by a large group of workers representing the operators union. Management took immediate action by calling the Pinkerton Detective Agency for reinforcements. Alas, cooler heads prevailed and after concessions from both sides the picket line disbursed and the operating session, although starting late, was a success.
The action did, however, take it's toll on the employees involved as witnessed by the actions of the bridge tender at Port Evangeline, who could not lower the bridge for the passage of train CP-PO. After relearning his duties and the proper procedure he did manage to get the bridge closed safely. In the spirit of reconciliation management did not take any disciplinary action, rather generous considering the pressure the operators had placed on him!
Ownership felt a flash of relief when the session ended and most union members admitted that the two and a half month closure of the railway was worth it because of the new heating system which allows much wider aisle space, something most of them need do obvious reasons if you have seen them.
The only obvious damage by this illegal action may be the permanent trauma inflicted on Carl's next door neighbor who was quite upset by the turmoil on Anawan Avenue. He did however, to managements dismay, wish the workers good luck and was quoted, although unconfirmed, as saying "I hope you get even with the bastard".
6/29/08
To The Broken & Mangled society -
The mishap at the Dividing Creek RR (Fraizers Coal Yard) was definately not the fault of the road crew assigned to the Terminal Switcher. The incident in reality must be directly attributed to the Railroads lack of vigiorous enforcement of it's maintainance program.
I'm sure there are mitigating circumstances in play here, this being the summer (a particularly heavy vacation period) much of the DCRR road maintance crews were enjoying the weather and their family for the first time in many months. That being said the buildup of the brush and debris at the top of the ramp must have escaped the watchful eye of the brass hat and therefore attributed greatly to this unfortunate mishap.
The engineer when backing the car in question up the ramp to the coal dock , being seated in the right side of the cab and not having his brakeman on board (was still on the ground at the switch below the ramp) the car was backed up the ramp with all due care and all proper handling procedures followed. The first time the engineer became aware of a problem was when he saw the coal car tipped at a 15-20 degree angle from his window, whereupon the brakes were immediately applied, the car however persisted to tip and landed at the bottom of the caol yard. Fortunately old man Fraiser was in the back of the yard working on another vintage Saab restoration.
The incident was properly reported to the DCRR management and photos taken which clearly show the foliage at the top of the ramp. A proper "pee in the bottle test" was administered and the upcoming results will of course completly absolve the Atlantic Coast Senior Engineer of all blame and place it squarely upon the shoulders of the DCRR maintance department where it properly rests.
I'm becoming quite annoyed with this "AhHa! another AC&E mishap" being reported without due process being served before findings are discovered.
A. Cutter
Senior Operations Director
Atlantic Coast & Eastern Railroad
6/28/08
DISASTER AT DIVIDING CREEK--During the last operating session at Dividing Creek, the Trainmaster/Dispatcher was visiting a local crew at Gassetts when he heard cries of dismay from the direction of Catherine Street yard. Upon closer investigation, he found a CNJ hopper upside down in the middle of Frazier's coal yard. According to eyewitnesses, apparently some foliage became wedged between the rocks and the car being spotted on the trestle. The car started to tip and before it could be rescued, it slowly continued its journey to the ground. And of course, this car had a live load. Fortunately, no damage or injuries resulted.
In the aftermath of this, a vicious rumor started that the same train crew was involved in dumping a car load of sand on the streets of Port Evangeline some time ago. Is a pattern beginning to show?
Don
6/26/08
Calendar has been updated for the 2nd half of the year.
UP Northern is out of the rotation until further notice, Jim will still attend other sessions.
Cycle code is: “Jointed (Jozak) Rail (Robinson) has (Howd), serious (Senftleben), consequences (Cutter).
5/13/08
The Transcontinental Conveyer belt
So this is how it went down on our latest vacation:
Monday we arrived in Chicago by air. It rained so we spent the day in museums, Chicago has lots of them and they are all great.
Tuesday the weather was clear and cool so we “walked” the city but included a ride on the loop. If you are a rail fan you MUST ride the loop. A two day pass on the CTA cost $9.00 and will take you any place on the system including transit and bus. The loop is unbelievable and you can actually ride up front with the motorman! That afternoon we had an appointment with the South West Chief so we arrived at Union Station and settled into the first class lounge. Our train, Number 3, was called and departed on time. Sailing across the old triple track Burlington main line to Galesburg was a delight and our attendant, a man with 30 years of service was professional and quite a wit. The food on the train was very good with a dining car staff that obviously liked the work and made the dining experience fun. BNSF handled our train superbly, however, for reason unknown to us, I didn’t ask, we los 70 minutes in KC while we slept.
Waking, still in Kansas, it’s big; we had a very good breakfast and watched the Great Plains unfold before our eyes. Noonish brought us to southern Colorado and the assent to Raton (ra- tone) Pass. Up we went twisting and turning and over the top thence down to the town of Raton. Lunch was great and we made up time. Glorieta pass, a more gentile decent, went smoothly and soon we were in Lamey the connection to Santa Fe MN, named for Rev. Lemay a very stern but influential Catholic leader in early New Mexico. We arrived in Albuquerque in the midst of a ferocious dust storm passing a “railrunner” commuter train on the outskirts. We struggled to find a taxi; the Amtrak agents helped us, and fled to our hotel. I must mention the Railrunner commuter service, by the way everyone calls it the Roadrunner, this brand new service runs from Belene (bee lyn) to a suburb about thirty miles north of Albuquerque. It’s only one year old and is already being expanded to Santa Fe. The last 15 miles of this extension is brand new roadbed placed mostly within the median strip of the interstate. Not bad for two small cities who recognize that its highways are not going to keep up with its growth. Eventually the two cities will probably become connected with vast suburban neighborhoods.
The next morning we visited Belene, a crew change with a medium size yard on the BNSF. A Harvey House museum including a fair model railroad is located at the old station. We sat in the “Roadrunner” station for about one hour and saw nine trains arrived and depart with new crews, what a show.
That afternoon we went to Santa Fe and for four days forgot about trains and enjoyed New Mexico with several road trips and a day down town. Santa Fe is at 14,000 feet and can get cold at night but the days were perfect. Our B&B was great and we had a wonderful time.
Next we departed Santa Fe via I 40 for the painted dessert and the Petrified Forest finally arriving in Winslow Arizona sometime after three PM. The treat of the trip for me and also for Christine, excepting maybe lunch in Sedona, was the two day stay at La Posada! La Posada is a completely restored Fred Harvey hotel with reasonable rates and very good food. Located with the front of the building facing the ATSF main line which host up to one hundred, that’s right I said one hundred, trains a day all getting a change of crew usually within ten minutes the show never ends. No grade crossings exist in Winslow so the trains are almost silent as they glide in and out. Some have radio control pushers and no train I saw was less then a mile long. This incredible piece of American railroad is definitely getting the job done! Train crews are friendly but definitely stay off the property as railroad police frequently patrol the yard area. You can see it all from La Posada and public roads. Winslow also has the “standing on the corner statue and flatbed Ford from the song made legendary by the Eagles, and a great gift shop catering to Route 66 memorabilia.
After two days of drinking fine wine on our balcony, make sure you get the Bob Hope Room it has a balcony, looking out on the tracks and watching the transcontinental conveyer belt we reluctantly moved on towards Flagstaff, called the “Flag” by the railroaders. Traveling west again on I 40 we took a side trip to Canyon Diablo on a road, that will test your skills avoiding boulders and ruts that probably I shouldn’t have tried in a Dodge Avenger, but we mad it the three miles and were not disappointed. Don’t try this side trip if your partner is squeamish it’s a long way from civilization and you could be stranded facing a three mile walk back out to the interstate!
Back on the road we could see several mile long trains following each other at seventy miles per hour over the vast expanse of the Arizona high dessert, absolutely amazing vistas with the San Francisco Peaks in the distance with snow on the higher elevations.
We stopped at “Flag” at the beautiful Amtrak depot and caught one last westbound “Z” train headed west. Alas we then had to turn south towards Phoenix for our date with Air Tran Airways for the trip back to Beautiful but train starved Massachusetts.
This was a vacation for anyone with a partner who enjoys beautiful scenery and fine food. Your significant other will love La Posada; it’s a three star hotel and restaurant that just happens to have arguably the greatest train show on earth. Flagstaff has it all and of course be sure to take Oak Creek Canyon Road down to Sedona, maybe the most beautiful town in America. Williams and the Grand Canyon are also within easy reach of Flagstaff.
Carl and Christine
April 19, 1952
to - Atlantic Shoals R.R.
Dear Superintendent Klaus:
I read of your misfortunes in the Railroad trade press of the Boston & Mangled Society and express my regrets at your service interuption to the citizens of Port Evangeline, (We all know that they have been through quite a lot in recent years, not excluding our litigation with your railroad and all over that paltry sand spill).
The Atlantic Coast & Eastern R.R. has two barges that it will lease for a small fee to allow for improved service to the Port, we currently have them tied up at our Northport facility and I'm sure arrangements could be made in short order to transfer them to your company for a short duration. Please advise us of your intentions.
To my trained mind (pun intended) It would appear that a maintenance issue caused the bridge to deteriorate long before its useful life expectancy was reached. My thought would be to retrieve all inspection records to determine if proper maintenance was performed in accordance with your original agreement with the Paleschi Bridge & Steel Co. even though they may have gone out of business years ago there are always heirs who can be brought into a lawsuit.
I would therefor strongly urge you to consider a lawsuit to retrieve damages and to compensate your company for the loss of revenue due to your service interuption.
Please contact my offices if I may be of service to your Railroad.
Sincerely,
W. E. Gettum Esq.
Counsel to the Atlantic Coast & Eastern Legal Department.
224 Oak St.
Wakefield MA 01880
CR9 9878
Ref, Bridge falure.
Dear Klaus,
The Arcadia Terminal Bridge and Dock engineering dept. will offer the use of our metalurgy dept. at no cost to you get to the actual root of the falure of you span. Our initial feelings that "The sky is falling" sounds like Chicken Little and is a little like chicken S#%& it smells.
Please be advised the metalurgy being used in the replacement bridge meets or exceeds your specifications by a safety factor of 200%.
Please have W. E. Gettum Esq. contact our office for the test data if needed for your pending litigation.
P.Laier
Engineering Manager
Bridge & Dock Division of the
Arcadia Terminal Street & Dock Railroad.
Engineering Manager
Arcadia Terminal R.R
At approximately 11:00 AM today April 18, 1962 while contractors worked above installing a new hardwood floor in the Atlantic Shoals company headquarters building a twin florescent fixture fell directly onto the Central Valley Corp. truss bridge. The carnage was complete, the bridge was cut up and removed as a hazard to navigation. While the "risk factor" was calculated with the company bean counters the loss of this bridge still came as a shock. Service to Port Evangeline is being rerouted via the Dominion Atlantic car float until a new bridge can be located and built. The original builder was Ray Palleschi Inc., but that company may not be in business since it was constructed in 1902!
If all goes well we will have a session on Tuesday April 22, however be prepared for a rather bleak sky as the ceiling is gone anticipating the installation of a new heating system starting on May 13.
A couple of Saturdays ago, the operating session was at Dividing Creek and the three-way turnout at West Rutland was causing a problem. The points were not making proper contact. So, a couple of days later, I took a look at it and while trying to make the fix, I managed to melt the ties and points into a solid lump. Very clever of me, especially being a Master Model Railroader and all. Now what am I going to do? RailRun is coming and I have one more Tuesday op session in February. Swinging into action, I called Ace Cutter and asked if he would swap Tuesday to give me some breathing room. My next step was to search the internet for a replacement. What luck, Caboose Hobbies in Denver had a Walthers (Shinohara) Code 83 three-way turnout in stock. After placing the order, I felt able to relax--all would be well. Not so fast! After a couple of days, I received an email from Caboose Hobbies--it was all a mistake, they really did not have the turnout in stock and they would be backordered. I checked Walthers own website and they indicated that the three-way would be available in July!!. Not good. I called around to what I laughingly call my local hobby shops--no Walthers Code 83 three-way turnouts. I haven't quite panicked, but close.
I made the decision to replace the elusive three-way with two Atlas #6 turnouts, a right and a left. So I went to Tyngsboro's Hobby Emporium. With the Atlases in hand, I ran into Ian (LNU). You know Ian, the guy who works magic with HO and N trucks. Just for fun I asked if the shop had the Walthers Code 83 three-way. After Ian stopped laughing, he told me to wait a sec while he made a call. He let me know that AA Hobbies in Warwick, RI had not one of the three-ways but 5! Can you believe my good fortune? While my long-suffering bride checked out the nearby Trader Joe's, sat in our car and call John Reid at AA. I ordered 3 of the three-ways and John indicated they would be shipped that very afternoon and I should have them in couple of days. Huzzah, all would be well for the next Tuesday session and RainRun. Monday the 18th was a holiday and no mail delivery. Tuesday came--no turnouts. OH NO! I emailed AA and found that Bob got to the shop too late on Friday to send my order, and his car broke down Saturday and my order was not shipped until Sunday. Well, Wednesday the 20th, my three worth-their-weight-in-gold code 83 three-way turnouts arrived. But wait, there's more and the story gets better.
I installed the new three-way at West Rutland, fully expecting to reattach the turnout controls the next day. My right foot felt sore all Wednesday and on Thursday, I could barely walk, never mind crawl under the layout to install turnout controls. At the doctor on Friday, he told me I had gout. No doubt from all my high living. Anyway, medication and two or three days later, my foot is well on the mend. The controls will be installed in plenty of time for RailRun.
On Monday I turned on the power for 24 hours and the whole RR stayed up , so I thought I could eliminate the turnouts (shinoharra's) from the equation.
On Tuesday I spent about 5 hours rewiring all of my connections to the rails and separated the connections to the 3 breakers into 3 separate feeds thru a 6 position terminal strip
by now I think I have re-wired most all of these connections. I set two engines running, one in the Yard at Rumford and one in West Livermore and they ran OK for about 2 hrs before the damn thing went down again. By now there was about a 6 foot flame coming out my backside and I just sat down and looked at what I had just spent hours doing when I thought, Oh crap, I never, ever, changed out the power supply. I exchanged the power supply in Somerville with the Rumford power supply and 15 minutes later the whole Somerville section acted like my Rumford problem.
Voila, the answer was simple after all of the re-wiring and hours of aggravation.
I ran up to MAINE TRAINS, Gerry is most helpful and talented - (shameless plug) and got a new power supply and let it sit running for 6 Hours, stayed up fine, set two engines on two districts and let them run for 3 hours and all stayed up. Finally the solution to this huge pain in the you know where was simple after all.
I had been saying right along that it acted like something thermal and everyone kept telling me solid state electronics are not thermal, they are right but the damn power supply is just electrics not electronics. My thoughts were at least vindicated.
To all who have assisted me in chasing this, THANK YOU for all of your time, I never suspected this was the root of the problem (the over heating of the power supply and it just shutting down.) was never apparent to me as the point of concern.
I think we can expect the AC&E to run at it's best after all of the re-wiring, the RR is now pretty much bullet-proof and should provide some good running in the future.
Ace
4/6/07
I have noticed strange slowness on my server @ home where the webpage was hosted so I moved the webpage to a more reliable location. The transition should have been fairly seamless but if you notice any broken links or errors, please report them.
-Mike
3/25/07
We hope those who made it to this year's RailRun had a great time and a special thanks to the hosts for their hard effort making this possible.
The gallery will be updated as pictures come in.
3/8/07
I redid the scheduling section to make it a little more pleasant. It is more automated now and at this point I am still the only one who can update it. If you have any questions or concerns feel free to ask!
Enjoy
-Mike