A few weeks ago, there was mention here of an electrodynamometer car at the Univ. of Ill. in Champaign/Urbana. Having grown up there in the years before and during World War II, I have some related memories. In those years, the U. of I. had a separate Railway Engineering Department. It was located on a spur track along with the University power plant.

In 1902 and 3 what was to become the Illinois Traction Co. built through Urbana on mostly private right-of-way and through Champaign mostly sharing the track of the local streetcar system. The University facilities were on the private right-of-way section in Urbana. From the beginning this line had a substantial freight business. In 1906, in an effort to remove the freight trains from the streets of several cities, the Illinois Traction began developing belt lines to bypass city centers. In 1927, using mostly trackage rights on the Illinois Central and Wabash, IT opened a belt around Champaign and Urbana. As a result, the old route through these cities was no longer needed except to service the University. Where not using local streetcar tracks of the Illinois Power and Light Company, this route was abandoned except for about a mile and a half to access the University. This continued in service until the University built a new larger power house on the Illinois Central main line in Champaign and was serviced, I believe, by an IP&L electric locomotive stationed in Champaign.

Facilities of the Railway Engineering Department included a steam locomotive testing plant, a brake testing machine that had a huge flywheel which it was said had the energy storage equivalent of a freight train, and an old interurban car modified as an electrodynamometer car with rail testing equipment. Once a year the entire Engineering School had open house for the public. The locomotive testing plant could be seen in operation then and was a very popular spot. The brake testing equipment was interesting too although the great flywheel disintegrated one day with pieces going through the roof and was not repaired if I remember correctly. The old interurban car was also open to visiters on these occasions. I heard the Rwy. Eng. Dept. representative explaining that they used to run that test car on the Kankakee & Urbana Traction Co. line north from Urbana at night after the last scheduled car had departed. This gave them many miles of track for training and testing purposes and to have a good time, as he said. But of course this was not possible in the years I remember because the K&UT was long gone by then. Since the Illinois Traction ran freight trains at night, that line was probably not available to the University so they would have been restricted to the spur.

I used to think that car was such a gem that it would surely be preserved in some museum but I don't find it on any roster. Does the University still have it? Bob Reich


RJReich@aol.com

This posting brings to mind another topic: universities with a railroad. I'm not talking about just a campus rail spur to bring students by the trainload to football games and such. I mean univerities actually using rail on campus for bringing in coal and such. Notre Dame comes to mind as an example.

> A few weeks ago, there was mention here of
> an electrodynamometer car at the Univ. of
> Ill. in Champaign/Urbana. Having grown up
> there in the years before and during World
> War II, I have some related memories. In
> those years, the U. of I. had a separate
> Railway Engineering Department. It was
> located on a spur track along with the
> University power plant.

> In 1902 and 3 what was to become the
> Illinois Traction Co. built through Urbana
> on mostly private right-of-way and through
> Champaign mostly sharing the track of the
> local streetcar system. The University
> facilities were on the private right-of-way
> section in Urbana. From the beginning this
> line had a substantial freight business. In
> 1906, in an effort to remove the freight
> trains from the streets of several cities,
> the Illinois Traction began developing belt
> lines to bypass city centers. In 1927, using
> mostly trackage rights on the Illinois
> Central and Wabash, IT opened a belt around
> Champaign and Urbana. As a result, the old
> route through these cities was no longer
> needed except to service the University.
> Where not using local streetcar tracks of
> the Illinois Power and Light Company, this
> route was abandoned except for about a mile
> and a half to access the University. This
> continued in service until the University
> built a new larger power house on the
> Illinois Central main line in Champaign and
> was serviced, I believe, by an IP&L
> electric locomotive stationed in Champaign.

> Facilities of the Railway Engineering
> Department included a steam locomotive
> testing plant, a brake testing machine that
> had a huge flywheel which it was said had
> the energy storage equivalent of a freight
> train, and an old interurban car modified as
> an electrodynamometer car with rail testing
> equipment. Once a year the entire
> Engineering School had open house for the
> public. The locomotive testing plant could
> be seen in operation then and was a very
> popular spot. The brake testing equipment
> was interesting too although the great
> flywheel disintegrated one day with pieces
> going through the roof and was not repaired
> if I remember correctly. The old interurban
> car was also open to visiters on these
> occasions. I heard the Rwy. Eng. Dept.
> representative explaining that they used to
> run that test car on the Kankakee &
> Urbana Traction Co. line north from Urbana
> at night after the last scheduled car had
> departed. This gave them many miles of track
> for training and testing purposes and to
> have a good time, as he said. But of course
> this was not possible in the years I
> remember because the K&UT was long gone
> by then. Since the Illinois Traction ran
> freight trains at night, that line was
> probably not available to the University so
> they would have been restricted to the spur.

> I used to think that car was such a gem that
> it would surely be preserved in some museum
> but I don't find it on any roster. Does the
> University still have it? Bob Reich


denmeg_hogan@msn.com

A buddy has been researching the University of Michigan's line. It used both overhead trolley wire and third-rail. The GE steeplecab eventually was gas powered and ran on the Warwick RR (RI) before going to Strasburg.

Rob

trains@robertjohndavis.com

Iowa State at Ames had a steam powered commuter line from Ames to the campus
M.N.


http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/bhsm/toh/eckley/eckley.asp?secid=14
2rivers@upstel.net

>...univerities actually using rail on campus >for bringing in coal and such. Notre Dame comes >to mind as an example.

U of Wisconsin in Madison had (has?) a coal-fired power plant with coal delivered by rail. The Milwaukee Road's Prairie Du Chien Div. ran thru the campus and brought football specials in the pre-Amtrak era.


tmanz@afo.net

Penn State's coal-fired electric plant was serviced by the Bellefonte Central. It featured mixed trains and a meandering line that traversed rolling fields and meadows on its way to State College. It was a favorite of Lucius Beebe and was featured in many of his books. Sadly, not much remains except for some yard trackage and an enginehouse which is now utilized by the Nittany & Bald Eagle Railroad.

My late father studied electrical engineering at the UI in the 1920s. He recalled going out on the IT toward Danville on a class outing. I still have his Electric Railways textbook.

Is the locomotive test plant still there? I never saw it when I attended the UI in the 1960s, so I doubt it.

gbrewer@yahoo.com

> A few weeks ago, there was mention here of
> an electrodynamometer car at the Univ. of
> Ill. in Champaign/Urbana. Having grown up
> there in the years before and during World
> War II, I have some related memories. In
> those years, the U. of I. had a separate
> Railway Engineering Department. It was
> located on a spur track along with the
> University power plant.

> In 1902 and 3 what was to become the
> Illinois Traction Co. built through Urbana
> on mostly private right-of-way and through
> Champaign mostly sharing the track of the
> local streetcar system. The University
> facilities were on the private right-of-way
> section in Urbana. From the beginning this
> line had a substantial freight business. In
> 1906, in an effort to remove the freight
> trains from the streets of several cities,
> the Illinois Traction began developing belt
> lines to bypass city centers. In 1927, using
> mostly trackage rights on the Illinois
> Central and Wabash, IT opened a belt around
> Champaign and Urbana. As a result, the old
> route through these cities was no longer
> needed except to service the University.
> Where not using local streetcar tracks of
> the Illinois Power and Light Company, this
> route was abandoned except for about a mile
> and a half to access the University. This
> continued in service until the University
> built a new larger power house on the
> Illinois Central main line in Champaign and
> was serviced, I believe, by an IP&L
> electric locomotive stationed in Champaign.

> Facilities of the Railway Engineering
> Department included a steam locomotive
> testing plant, a brake testing machine that
> had a huge flywheel which it was said had
> the energy storage equivalent of a freight
> train, and an old interurban car modified as
> an electrodynamometer car with rail testing
> equipment. Once a year the entire
> Engineering School had open house for the
> public. The locomotive testing plant could
> be seen in operation then and was a very
> popular spot. The brake testing equipment
> was interesting too although the great
> flywheel disintegrated one day with pieces
> going through the roof and was not repaired
> if I remember correctly. The old interurban
> car was also open to visiters on these
> occasions. I heard the Rwy. Eng. Dept.
> representative explaining that they used to
> run that test car on the Kankakee &
> Urbana Traction Co. line north from Urbana
> at night after the last scheduled car had
> departed. This gave them many miles of track
> for training and testing purposes and to
> have a good time, as he said. But of course
> this was not possible in the years I
> remember because the K&UT was long gone
> by then. Since the Illinois Traction ran
> freight trains at night, that line was
> probably not available to the University so
> they would have been restricted to the spur.

> I used to think that car was such a gem that
> it would surely be preserved in some museum
> but I don't find it on any roster. Does the
> University still have it? Bob Reich

The car is now at the Museum of Transportation
ion St Louis. It measured drawbar pull by means of a hydraulic cylinder and made a record of stoker input, injector input to the boiler, steam
pressure, back pressure, speed, horsepower, and
more on a moving sheet of paper.
As far as I know the last use of the car was the
testing of locomotives equipped with the "Royal"
Auxillary Value during WW2. On one test North bound from Fulton the 4-8-2 being tested was pulling a 25 car train 95mph. As one Engineer
said, "She wasn't exhausting, she was purring."
Jim


rrfanjim@mvn.net

> Penn State's coal-fired electric plant was
> serviced by the Bellefonte Central. It
> featured mixed trains and a meandering line
> that traversed rolling fields and meadows on
> its way to State College. It was a favorite
> of Lucius Beebe and was featured in many of
> his books. Sadly, not much remains except
> for some yard trackage and an enginehouse
> which is now utilized by the Nittany &
> Bald Eagle Railroad.

North Dakota State University in Fargo, ND still has a coal fired power plant that is served by a BNSF spur, which I guess is origionally a GN spur judging from it's proximity to what I know is a old GN yard.

The Museum of Transportation in St. Louis has the IC/U of I dynamometer car, which was jointly owned. The university owned the equipment and the railroad built the carbody. The instrument dated to 1906 and was formerly housed in a wooden carbody. We also have the electric test car from Purdue, which was built and used in the electric railway test program for the St. Louis World's Fair in 1902. I suspect the U of I electric test car was not saved. I think the building for the locomotive test plant was recycled to another use as it was still there when I attended in the early 1960s.

Museum of Transportation
rdgoldfede@aol.com

Denison University in Granville, Ohio had a coal-fired plant service by the old Toldeo & Ohio Central (Ohio Central Divison) of the NYC until the late 1960's. The tracks were pulled up in the late 1970's and early 1980's and have now become the T.J. Evan's Bike Trail, which runs from Heath to Johnstown on this section of the line. Just a point: with the exception of Heath, (which just had its depot and the last remaining tower on the old Pennsy Panhandle until 2000) every depot on this ection of the line still exists, including Granville (Real Estate Office), Alexandria (back from the bike path, recently put back together after being cut in half), and Johnstown (last knew of it as a printing office, owned by a trucking firm).

Can you tell this was my old stomping grounds? ;-)

TJG


Port Huron Museum

tjgaffney@phmuseum.org

Michigan State University has a sizable coal plant served by a three-track yard and switched by a GE 45-ton switcher, which replaced an earlier 45-tonner in the 1990's. The Diesel is painted in a green-and-white "Spartan" paint scheme. At various points in the past there were two other coal plants served by a siding off the former PM. This siding carried occasional very long football specials and ROTC troop trains in WWII, and was the means by which PM 1225 was installed on display on the campus in 1957 (and removed just before the siding was removed in 1982).

An odd tenant on the campus warehouse siding at the moment is a 1937 Canadian National streamlined coach. This car is being modified to represent the Michigan Department of Natural Resources fish hatchery car "Wolverine" by the MSU Museum exhibit carpenters, under contract to a nonprofit society developing a museum of fish husbandry. The interior of the 1913-era wood-bodied Wolverine is being recreated inside half of the lightweight coach, using the surviving interior carpentry of the original car as a guide. Exhibits will fill the other half of the car. The car is expected to be moved to Oden in northern Michigan this summer.

Lessons: there's a museum for everything, and you never know what you'll find out behind the power plant . . .

Aarne Frobom
The Steam Railroading Institute
(formerly MSU Railroad Club)
P. O. Box 665
Owosso, MI 48867-0665

froboma@mdot.state.mi.us