Hmmmm... That SNE theory might be the best bet. If the SNE was never completed (stupid Titanic disaster), could this be one of the contractor steamers, but that's even if the SNE went through Uxbridge. I'd have to check my book again. All that I know is that there was a railroad line that served the Blanchard Quarry. Like I said earlier, I hope to get out there within the next few weeks.

The line across Harris Pond CROSSES the SNE Trail, (which was a ROW--just follow the tracks west to find bridges and all sorts of stuff--former New Haven?

The line that went by the quarry, runs southwest across Harris Pond and cuts through town before getting to live rail in Woonsocket (Providence and Western). The line actually might be the former Boston & Pascoag, with the SNE Trail being the former Boston & Willimantic. Not sure which ones the New Haven controlled, but an interesting read can be found here.

http://www.dot.state.ri.us/documents/in ... nalRpt.pdf

Suffice it to say, some interesting stuff back East (from here in Montana anyway).

Michael Seitz
Missoula MT

Guess they don't teach US history well. The Olympia is a battleship that was used in the Spanish-American war. It has been a museum for at least 50 years.

The Olympia is actually classified as a protected cruiser, considerably smaller than a battleship and with much less armor, but both are warships.

And the Olympia has a thread on this site.

Later!
Mr. Ed

Amazing that a ship has a thread on a RAILWAY preservation site. Nothing against anything nautical, as there has been a relationship between trains and boats for many years.

The title included OT.

Later!
Mr. Ed

The Olympia has some connection to railroads... It was built by Union Iron Works in San Francisco, who had earlier built some steam locomotives, and would later build streetcars for San Francisco's Municipal Railway.

Its continued preservation, and issues around that preservation are closely related to rail preservation...

Well, I've seen H.K Porter power lifts, and heard of Baldwin construction equipment, so it wouldn't surprise me to see a ship built by a company involved in streetcar and steam locomotive construction. All that we need now is a jet fighter built by Pullman, but what are the odds of that one ;)

I believe that Pullman built fighter planes during World War 2 at their plant on the south side of Chicago. Perhaps someone can confirm that.

Les

Well, now that ya'll mentioned it.....
Budd actually built a stainless airplane during WW2, just a prototype.......Having seen it, it actually looked to me like it was welded construction instead of rivets.
I believe the plane was the "conestoga"? and it is displayed at Pima air museum in Tuscon AZ. I have a picture if anyone wants to see it, but I'll have to crop it a bit to put it up here......
also, Edwards railcar (the original one), built aircraft components during the war, not sure what aircraft the parts were for.....they went out of business right after the war....

Wow. I'm amazed. Anywho, I plan to call my cousin and see if we can go find this thing this weekend, regardless of weather. That's what a raincoat is for.

The Pioneer I is the 1st stainless steel Budd aeroplane, on display outside the Franklin Institute on the SouthWest corner of 20th & Winter Sts., Philadelphia, Pa. It weathers wonderfully.
Pioneer II was the 1st stainless steel Budd railroad sleeping car.
Pioneer III were the 1st through 6th stainless steel Budd railroad electric Multiple Unit cars, built in 1958 for the Pennsylvania RR.
I don't know why the Budd Keystone Tubular Train, built in the mid 1950s for the Pennsylvania RR, wasn't in this series.

Talking about such exotica as a company that built locomotives also building warships brings to mind some others.

One stylish thing was the New Haven's Comet, an early articulated, double-ended streamliner, built by Goodyear-Zeppelin (American airship builder):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet_(train)

http://mikes.railhistory.railfan.net/r012.html

http://www.plan59.com/trucks/trucks035.htm

More recently there was the United Aircraft Turbotrain, which was an updated execution of a concept originally proposed by the C&O in the 1950s:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UAC_TurboTrain

http://www.google.com/patents?vid=3424105

http://www.google.com/patents?vid=2859705

Boeing, or more properly Boeing-Vertol, also built trolley cars:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_Standar ... il_Vehicle

http://thethirdrail.net/0007/lrt1.htm

Sadly, a common theme in all these is that aircraft builders couldn't seem to catch on to the art of rail cars, despite what should be apparent simplicity compared with aircraft. Part of this may be attributable to aeronautical engineers' obsession with weight; that's important for obvious reasons in an airplane, but aircraft live in a different world from the jolts, shocks, twisting, bouncing, controlled-collision (coupling), dusty world of a railroad.

One railroader supposedly said something on the lines that what "could go 250,000 miles to the moon and back again probably can't run from New York to Chicago."

One of my Uncles was a design engineer for Rohr (Southern Calif. aerospace company) in the mid-1960s. He was assigned to the BARTD cars Rohr was designing and building, and asked me why the railroad guys kept over-building and over-designing rail equipment. He never could get used to my explanation about the precison railroad tools used by car men: 10-pound sledge, 60-inch bar, 36-inch pipe wrench. And, the rough 'n ready techniques used in wielding those items.

Howard P.