The GREAT REPUBLIC

A brief profile of the Yankee Clipper

The Yankee Clipper was a luxury extra fare all parlor car train limited to 175 passengers each assigned to a 1st class seat serving well-to-do travelers between Boston and New York City via the New Haven Railroad Shoreline Route.

The Yankee Clipper named for the great sailing ships of the 19th century known for their speed, quality construction and fine naval architectural lines. 

Inaugurated into service on the March 18th 1930 and publicized as the "Flagship" of the Shore Line Fleet. Like the swift seaborne commerce of the clipper ships, this train was also known for its speed. Scheduled to complete the distance between terminals in 4 3/4 hours made possible by priority dispatching enroute and only stopping at Providence R.I. and New Haven CT.

A comprehensive history of the Yankee Clipper can be found in the NHRHTA magazine Shoreliner, Vol 37 Issue 2, still available as of this writing thru the NHRHTA store at a modest price, a great article well worth the read!

Additionally, there is an earlier article about the Yankee Clipper in the Shoreliner, Vol 11 Issue 4. Possibly, this 1980 issue could be found on the used market, also a great article. 

Consist of the Yankee Clipper

Built entirely by Pullman Standard, all Yankee Clipper parlor cars and a pair of "Deluxe" dining cars limited to just 36 seats, offered the latest in design, equipment, finest passenger comfort and onboard service. 

Initially assembled as a pair of identical seven car consists to travel simultaneously in opposite directions on the New Haven Shore Line Route between their respective terminals, Boston South Street Station and Grand Central Terminal in New York City.

All cars built for the Yankee Clipper were named for a noted 19th century clipper ships and displayed a ship's name on both sides of that car.

The seven car consists of the initial Yankee Clipper train numbers #22 & #23 from the New Haven Passenger Consists List below.

The 34 chair parlor cars of the Yankee Clipper

Note the four 34 chair parlor cars marshalled with a dining car in-between in the consists above.

These 34 chair parlor cars were built to Pullman Plan 4001. The four cars were named for the respective clipper ships, SOVEREIGN OF THE SEAS, GREAT REPUBLIC, JAMES BAINES and DONALD McKAY.

Possibly as a result of the 1930's economy, starting as soon as 1932 these four 34 chair cars were no longer regularly in the consist of the Yankee Clipper as the train sets were down to a five car consist as below.

These 34 chair plan 4001 cars returned to the Yankee Clipper briefly during 1934 although only in the consist Mondays and Fridays. Beyond 1934, all four cars were listed as "spares" in the consist lists until the end of World War 2.

Post war, all four of these 34 chair cars were re-assigned thru 1948 to the paired consists of the elegant extra fare Merchants Limited that served business passengers offering first class only seating on trains #26 & #27 that also ran simultaneously in opposite directions between Boston and New York City.

The GREAT REPUBLIC at Boston in a consist of the Merchants Limited 1947, below.

With the arrival of New Haven's all new post war stainless steel clad passenger car fleet in 1949, the four 34 chair parlor cars, SOVEREIGN OF THE SEAS, GREAT REPUBLIC, JAMES BAINES and DONALD McKAY, originally built for the 1930 Yankee Clipper once again returned to being listed as "spares" in the railroads consists lists with the exception of some being assigned in the mid 1950's to summer only seasonal trains between New York and Cape Cod.

SOVEREIGN OF THE SEAS consisted in seasonal Cape Cod train #104 or #107-108 at Hyannis, below.

The Parlor Car GREAT REPUBLIC

Singling out the parlor car GREAT REPUBLIC here has a connection to the passenger train operations on the Berkshire Line during the era of the layout.

The GREAT REPUBLIC was listed in the 1957 consist of weekend trains #144 - #147

This heavyweight parlor car has long been the one missing car during passenger train operations on the layout. Time to build a model the GREAT REPUBLIC!

Named for a clipper ship

Parlor car GREAT REPUBLIC was named for the clipper ship GREAT REPUBLIC, when launched 1853 it was the largest wooden ship in the world. There is much information to be found about the clipper GREAT REPUBLIC by searching the internet and in the Shoreliner Magazine Vol 11 Issue #4

Saved from the scrappers!

Jim Bradley of Stonington, Connecticut, purchased six heavyweight Pullman cars that had been withdrawn from service by the New Haven railroad during 1961-62 and had them moved to his property in Stonington that overlooked the New Haven Shore Line Route. Fortunately, the GREAT REPUBLIC was one of the cars he saved from scrapping.

Jim Bradley passed away in 1988, thanks to his preservation efforts his collection of Pullman cars were all saved, one to a private owner, four to the Railroad Museum of New England and the Great REPUBLIC to the Valley Railroad where it continues to serve on the Essex Steam Train.

During a visit to Essex about a decade ago, this photo below.

  Next, a start on building a model of the GREAT REPUBLIC for the layout.........

Modeling State Line Interchange Yard - Finale

The state border line between MASS & NY

New Haven Railroad State Line interchange yard was located entirely in Massachusetts, at the western end of the yard is the border line between the states of Massachusetts and New York.                              

The New Haven Railroad property ended a just short of the state border line but it's interchange track continued across the border connecting with the Boston & Albany interchange yard located in New York state immediately across the state line.

Border Line Marker

There was no border line marker on the New Haven Railroad but the closely paralleling Boston & Albany Railroad marked the transition between the states with a concrete border line monument with the lettering MASS on one side and NY on the opposite side

A portion of Jim Dufour’s prototypically modeled and highly detailed HO scale Boston & Maine Cheshire Branch layout includes the State Line location on that branch. 

Jim, knowing that I also model a "State Line" had taken the eastern faceing photo below of the state line monument while railfanning at the site of the B&A state line and kindly sent it to me.

I hadn't thought about including this monument until seeing Jim's photo but realized it would be a nice final detail at the western end of the State Line scene on the layout where the interchange track disappears into staging.

A year ago while railfanning the northern portion Berkshire Line I was able to take a photo of the western facing side of the monument that has the letters "NY".

The photo was sized then cut out and mounted to a scale styrene monument and placed next to the B&A track, below.

The track in the foreground is the NH lead to the B&A interchange yard (to staging on the layout). The B&A main in the rear had 3 tracks at this location in 1957, on the layout this scene is only 12" deep, no room for 3 so a single track will have to do.

This completes the State Line interchange yard portion of the layout!

Thank You

Modeling State Line to any degree of accuracy would have been very difficult without the help offered from George Ford, for the photos, his remembrances of the time spent there when his dad was the station agent and all that he so very kindly shared with me.

Thank You!  

Modeling State Line Interchange Yard & Rising Junction part 18 - Structures

What was, wasn't, but is anyway

What was

These simple railroad structures built during 1896 that were once located at New Haven State Line interchange yard have long appealed to me since first seeing the above photo 47 years ago in the NHRHTA Shoreliner magazine article, THE BERKSHIRE LINE, authored by the late Tom Curtin.

 What wasn't

According to the document below the more substantial freight office/bunk house was removed during 1939 and assuming the other structures were at the same time. 

Gone 18 years before 1957 and wasn't there during the era of the layout.

What is anyway

Moving forward to the 1957 era of the layout, these structures are modeled and placed on the layout anyway because of my personal attraction to them!

These simple quick build models were assembled using readily available Evergreen styrene shapes and siding, Tichy windows and doors.

Although not prototypically correct, the structures now have an extend life forward into 1957 on the layout.

Modeling State Line Interchange Yard & Rising Junction part 17 - Structures

Finishing the Boston & Albany station

Colors and some signature details

The station colors appear to be a light gray with darker gray trim in the 1952 Thomas J. McNamara photo posted before and below. The second photo below is the restored B&A Chester MA. station about 40 miles to the east of State Line, it displays a fresh but similar gray color scheme, window trim and end rafter/truss support.

Some of the signature details seen in the photos to be added to the model are the exterior rafter/truss supports at the roof ends, decorative trim over windows and doors, roof snow guard, plumbing vent on roof and center draining rain gutter and downspout that is not visible in this photo.

Assembly

The decorative trim over the tops of the windows and doors has been added and door height increased below.

The 3 sides visible when on layout are painted in the gray scheme with windows and doors installed ready for assembly.

With the sides and partial roof assembled, a final test fit onto the foundation placed into the scene during part 15. 

Some basic weathering was applied to the sides before assembly. The vertical scrap piece styrene glued on top of the interior walls will support the ridge beam from sagging on the finished model.

The second side of the roof now in place, a test fit of the roof snow guard made with phosphor bronze wire.

The non prototypical eave and gable braces have been attach in this photo. All remaining roof trim and details were then attached, but no photos taken during that part of the assembly.

Station in place on the layout

The finished station in place on the layout.

Prototypical signature roof details, snow guard, center drain gutter with downspout show in this photo.

Seeing station agent George Ford's black Plymouth sedan at the station indicates he is on the job today!

The west side.

And east side.

 

Modeling State Line Interchange Yard & Rising Junction part 16 - Structures

Boston & Albany Railroad station building at the State Line Massachusetts interchange yard

Searching for historical and dimensional information that would be useful in building a model of the Boston & Albany station structure that once stood at the State Line interchange yard located in the town of West Stockbridge Massachusetts has not been productive. Honestly, if more time had been devoted to an in depth search maybe there is dimensional information somewhere but it is time to move on. 

A quick internet search of railroad and local historical societies provided only one article in the Berkshire Edge that has some photos of the West Stockbridge station and two photos of the State Line station, these two photos like several others discovered focus on the B&A side of the station and offer limited use for modeling the New Haven side of the structure that will be visible when installed on the layout.

The below photo of the New Haven Railroad side of the station by an unknown photographer and era is the most useful for overall modeling from a photo to date.

This Thomas J McNamara photo from the NHRHTA collection taken during a 1952 New Haven fan trip to State Line. Although mostly blocked by the RDC it offers colors, window trim and building condition closer to the era of the layout.

   

An interesting detail about this station are the very ornate Eave and Gable braces circled in the photo below. Most likely 3D printing would be the practical way to reproduce these in HO scale. Unfortunately, I do not have the design skills to create the necessary drawings for these to be printed.

The Model

The best outcome to be hoped for will be a model that is a reasonable representation of the station building working from limited photos for proportional dimensions and using readily available windows, doors and braces.

A basic full size HO pencil drawing helps deciding on proportions and roof pitch that look reasonable when comparing with photos of the prototype, layout of windows, doors and size of the foundation (already installed on the layout).

Below the clapboard sides placed over the drawing with Tichy windows and doors temporarily placed in the cutouts with Grandt Line eave brace that will be used in place of the ornate prototype braces. The doors will have to be lengthened and trim pieces added to window and door perimeters as prototype.

This build is straightforward and should go quickly.

Modeling State Line Interchange Yard & Rising Junction part 15 - Structures

Bridge #10.33 

The State Line bridge numbering indicates that it was located 10.33 miles west from the junction point with the Berkshire main at Rising Junction.

Reference photos for modeling State Line bridge #10.33 over Flat Brook are scarce. The only photo reference of the bridge decking available to me is a photo I took of a TV screen during a paused VCR tape. This VCR tape was purchased many years ago, its title unknown now and not even sure that it is still my collection plus the means to play it no longer available. I believe this recording was taken during a fan trip to State Line, possibly late 40's early 50's. Some good reference here for modeling the station building too. Glad I had the foresight to take this paused screen photo, although blurry, and save so long ago! 

The main issue with modeling the bridge deck is the switch stand located on the bridge itself and the switch points possibly being on the bridge also. Because the switch on the layout is powered by an underneath switch motor there was no practical way to make that work and the switch was moved the minimal distance from the bridge and switch stand not modeled.

The deck is modeled with Evergreen styrene, instead of individual styrene strips to model the deck planking V-Groove siding sheet was used to ease construction. The railing is various sizes of styrene strips.   

The finished bridge permanently in place, painted and ballasted

I decided during installing the bridge to also complete the scenery and trees to the west end of the State Line diorama in preparation of modeling the B&A station building.

While completing the fore mentioned scenery a "foundation" for the station building and parking lot were installed at the same time.

Modeling the station building next project.

Modeling State Line Interchange Yard & Rising Junction - Structures

More structure modeling for State Line interchange yard.

The next two modeling projects for the New Haven RR State Line interchange yard diorama will be to complete the decking of bridge #10.33, then build a model of the State Line Boston & Albany RR wood frame station building, both were located on the far western end of the New Haven yard. 

The map below shows the location bridge #10.33 over the Flat Brook and the B&A station building. The New Haven yard is completely located in the state of Massachusetts, the end of the New Haven RR property indicated on the map is very close but just east of to the border line between Massachusetts and New York. 

The Boston & Albany RR portion of the interchange yard is completely located in New York state just west of the Mass/NY border line, off-scene to the left on the map above.

Below, a pair of New Haven RS-3s pull a string of interchange cars from the B&A yard onto the lead track to the New Haven yard located behind the photographer who is standing on the borderline between the two states.  This photo is probably from the winter months of 1956-57 correct for the era of the layout judging from the 1957 Cadillac Fleetwood on the advertising billboard to the left. 

On the layout, the B&A yard will be represented by an off-scene staging yard with a reverse loop that will facilitate fully interactive interchange operations with the on-scene New Haven State Line yard diorama.

By agreement between the NH and B&A railroads, the NH would pull incoming interchange cars from the B&A yard, reciprocally the B&A would pull outgoing cars from the NH yard during interchange operations. 

This agreement offers an opportunity to run some NYC locomotives on the visibly modeled NH State Line yard adding interest to the live interchange operations.

Modeling bridge #10.33 and the B&A station building 

Completing the bridge decking with pedestrian safety railing, track ballast and associated scenery will be first, followed by modeling the station building.

Below, the bridge deck and railing are just beyond the switch points of the center track, the B&A station is to the right.

The B&A interchange yard is just behind (west) of the house on the left, both will not be visible to the modeled portion of the State Line diorama.

New Haven station agent George Ford's black Plymouth sedan parked in its usual spot in front of the station building will need to be modeled too!