Post by prr 4467 on Apr 6, 2024 6:26:26 GMT -8
What Baikal's numerical breakdown says is what is clearly visible in the Lehigh Valley books. He gave the numbers, and to me they are useful and illustrate what is very clearly evident in the various color books.
They were on a tight budget and needed any available useful motive power. That's why they accepted mostly worn out used Alco RS-11 roadswitchers (that PRR actually hated and wanted to be rid of) from controlling parent PRR. LV had lots of actual switchers, and they took multiple unit lashups of switchers which they already owned and which were apparently pretty reliable, and they sent those multiple unit lashups out onto the mainline to pull mainline freight trains, and they did it fairly often--enough that there are plenty of photos that illustrate this.
What the numbers do not tell you is that from the very minute the Northeast Extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike was even partly opened in 1956, on a basically parallel route to the Lehigh Valley, CNJ, and somewhat Lehigh and Hudson River, the Lehigh Valley NEVER showed a profit again. It's documented in one of the Morning Sun books that did the through the years of what happened to the LV.
If I know the percentage breakdown of any railroad's roster, and I look up just the total number of units, I can easily figure out how many of what unit were owned. I maybe do not always agree with Baikal's or anyone else's views, but here I will agree. The math part is simple. I'm not going to have 1000 HO locos ever, but if I wanted to model a given road and he already has the percentages, then fantastic. I just do not understand the criticism of his posts here.
One point that has been made in various magazines is that LV's purchased new Alco RS-11 low nose units always performed much better for them than the hand-me-down units from PRR. At least one issue of Flags, Diamonds and Statues clearly states that PRR sent units to the Valley that were already pretty much worn-out junk. The Valley did the best they could as long as they could with the locos they were able to acquire. It seems some Alco production lots were also much much better than others, and I don't think it's as simple as blaming the mechanical staffs of some railroads as to why Alcos were so troublesome, but more likely some were actually well made and others not so much.
They were on a tight budget and needed any available useful motive power. That's why they accepted mostly worn out used Alco RS-11 roadswitchers (that PRR actually hated and wanted to be rid of) from controlling parent PRR. LV had lots of actual switchers, and they took multiple unit lashups of switchers which they already owned and which were apparently pretty reliable, and they sent those multiple unit lashups out onto the mainline to pull mainline freight trains, and they did it fairly often--enough that there are plenty of photos that illustrate this.
What the numbers do not tell you is that from the very minute the Northeast Extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike was even partly opened in 1956, on a basically parallel route to the Lehigh Valley, CNJ, and somewhat Lehigh and Hudson River, the Lehigh Valley NEVER showed a profit again. It's documented in one of the Morning Sun books that did the through the years of what happened to the LV.
If I know the percentage breakdown of any railroad's roster, and I look up just the total number of units, I can easily figure out how many of what unit were owned. I maybe do not always agree with Baikal's or anyone else's views, but here I will agree. The math part is simple. I'm not going to have 1000 HO locos ever, but if I wanted to model a given road and he already has the percentages, then fantastic. I just do not understand the criticism of his posts here.
One point that has been made in various magazines is that LV's purchased new Alco RS-11 low nose units always performed much better for them than the hand-me-down units from PRR. At least one issue of Flags, Diamonds and Statues clearly states that PRR sent units to the Valley that were already pretty much worn-out junk. The Valley did the best they could as long as they could with the locos they were able to acquire. It seems some Alco production lots were also much much better than others, and I don't think it's as simple as blaming the mechanical staffs of some railroads as to why Alcos were so troublesome, but more likely some were actually well made and others not so much.
