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RE: (erielack) Advisory Mechanical Committee
Very well written, Rick.
SGL
> -----Original Message-----
> From: erielack-owner_@_lists.elhts.org
> [mailto:erielack-owner_@_lists.elhts.org] On Behalf Of RJFlei@aol.com
> Sent: Saturday, August 05, 2006 10:46 PM
> To: martinpl3_@_earthlink.net; erielack@lists.elhts.org
> Subject: (erielack) Advisory Mechanical Committee
>
> To Philip Martin,
>
> What was the Advisory Mechanical Committee? The answer to
> this can be found in many sources. Books that have to do with
> the Erie, Nickel Plate Road, Chesapeake & Ohio, and the Pere
> Marquette have bits and pieces of information on the AMC. Try
> " The Nickel Plate Story" , "The Van Sweringen Berkshires",
> "The Allegheny, Lima's Finest", "Chessie's Road", "C&O
> Power", and "Erie Power".
>
> This all has to do with the Van Sweringen brothers of
> Cleveland, Ohio. They were real estate developers and had
> developed a suburb of Cleveland called Shaker Heights. They
> wanted to put in a rapid transit system to connect Shaker
> Heights to downtown Cleveland. These guys were not railroaders.
>
> At that time the NKP was a part of the the New York Central
> and I think that the government forced the NYC to divest
> itself of the NKP. The "Vans" bought the NKP to obtain a
> right of way into Cleveland. I think this was about 1916.
>
> After aquiring the NKP, the Vans also aquired the Erie RR,
> the C&O, and the PM. After the purchase of these railroads,
> the Vans decided to form the Advisory Mechanical Committee to
> pool each road's engineering talent, and use common designs
> for the purpose of cutting costs and standardizing parts for
> the four roads.
>
> From what I have heard, the AMC was headquartered in
> Cleveland, and had offices in the Terminal Tower downtown. I
> think this is where their design work was done. Someone
> correct me if I'm wrong please. The Van Sweringens also built
> Cleveland Union Terminal and the Terminal Tower.
>
> Among things that the AMC did was to design rolling stock and
> locomotives for the participating railroads. A couple of the
> top designers (mechanical engineers), came from the Erie RR.
> I believe one of them was William Black.
>
> Several famous locomotives were designed by these guys. The
> first of these was the Erie's 3300 series Berkshires. As I go
> on you will see the influence of the AMC on the member RR's.
>
> In the late '20's the C&O needed a new locomotive for coal
> service and they borrowed Erie Berk # 3377? for testing on
> coal trains. In 1930 they produced the C&O class T-1 2-10-4's
> by expanding the Erie Berk into a Texas type. If you look at
> it, the T-1 kinda looks like an Erie S class engine. And look
> at the class designation. The Erie engine was the "S" class
> and the C&O was the "T"
> class. Right in sequence ! The T-1 was a smashing success in
> the service for which it was designed , just like the Erie
> 3300's. These engines replaced 2-8-8-2's in coal train
> service AND were fast enough to be used for time freights in
> hilly country, when needed. They normally handled 160 car,
> 13,500 ton, coal trains between Russell, KY. and Toledo, Oh.
> During WWII on these engines were copied by the Pennsylvania
> RR and were of the J-1 class.
>
> Later on the NKP needed a new locomotive to speed up it's
> time freights on it's water level, single track, mainline.
> The AMC went back to work. They took 70% of the dimensions of
> the C&O class T-1's and came up with the now famous NKP class
> S Berkshires. These engines were a bit smaller than the
> Erie's 3300's but had more effficient boilers. They had a
> tractive effort that was the same as the road's H-6 Class
> Mikados with the boosters cut in. The H-6's were replaced by
> the Berks in high speed service. The first of the class was
> built in 1934.
>
> The NKP Berks were designed to handle a 4,000 ton freight
> train (about 80
> cars) at 70 mph. on level track. This is something they did
> every day. Many were also equipped for passenger service. In
> the transition to diesels you'll notice that the NKP never
> owned and F units. That's because the NKP 700's were equal to
> an A-B-A set of EMD F-3's in fast freight service. To get
> better performance, they would have had to add a fourth unit
> to the consist, and that would have resulted in higher
> initial costs, AND higher operating costs.
>
> About the same time the Pere Marquette needed a more modern
> locomotive to handle it's business. The AMC came up with the
> N class Berkshires that were based on the NKP class S, except
> these engines had cylinders with a 26" bore instead of the
> NKP's 25" bore. If you look at locomotive pictures, the PM N
> class was a dead ringer for a NKP class S.
>
> In the 1930's the Vans both died but, somehow the AMC
> survived the break-up of the Vans RR empire.
>
> In the 1940's the C&O needed a new design for their time
> freights and the AMC updated the PM class N to the C&O's
> class K-4 Kanawha. These were dual service engines.
>
> The AMC also designed the C&O's H-8 class 2-6-6-6
> Alleghenies. The first ten that came from Lima in 1941 were
> the heaviest reciprocating steam locomotives ever built. Not
> only that but, they also had the highest drawbar horsepower
> ever recorded with a dynamometer car, at 7,498 DBHP at 46
> mph., on a 14, 075 ton train. This happened in 1943. This
> information came from the book, The Allegheny, Lima's Finest.
>
> AMC influence can also be found in the C&O's Hudsons and
> Greebriars. The Hudsons were designed to handle a 15 car
> passenger train at 90 mph. The Greebriars were designed for
> passenger service on the C&O's Mountain Subdivision. If you
> had a chance to see C&O 4-8-4 # 614 on those trains
> from Hoboken to
> Port jervis, you really got a fine show.
>
> After doing some personal research, I found that there are
> also an awful lot of similarities between the boilers of the
> Erie's 3300's and the C&O's 4-8-4's. They're so similar that
> it's scary.
>
> In addition to this, they also designed other equipment.
>
> Well, I hope this helps in your search for information on the AMC.
>
> Rick Fleischer
> Cortland, OH.
>
>
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