On February 3, 2020 at 8:04 AM Craig Zeni <clzeni@gmail.com> wrote:



On Feb 2, 2020, at 1:05 PM, main@RealSTMFC.groups.io wrote:

4c. NYO&W
From: David <jaydeet2001@yahoo.com>
Date: Sun, 02 Feb 2020 10:55:53 EST

O&W didn't have much to do after their anthracite traffic collapsed in the 1940s. The 7/50 ORER shows 234 hoppers, 35 gondolas, 34 box cars, and 11 flats; versus 2803 hoppers, 202 gondolas, 58 box cars, 25 stock cars, and 106 flats in January 1940.

As an on-and-off O&W modeler, 'hermit road' is a pretty decent description. Once the on-line anthracite mines played out / went bankrupt in 1937 the railroad (which held mortgages on those very mines) followed them into bankruptcy and never emerged, shutting down almost exactly 20 years later. The bankruptcy trustees took a different tact, working to make the O&W a bridge road between western connections and Maybrook Yard into New England. The haul was very short, the interchange at Coxton Yd with the LV tenuous with backing moves, and there was the other 2/3s of the railroad that managed to avoid every major population area.

To my knowledge, the O&W never owned a 40' box car of any type, let alone a steel box car. When the K brake ban was approaching, the road bought around 17 USRA two bays from the New Haven that were fitted with AB brakes as none - zero - of the O&W's cars had them.

Having said all that, it's a neat road to model. Camelbacks (double cabs in O&W parlance), some handsome 4-8-2s, and a diesel fleet that's bog easy to model with off the shelf FTs, F3s, and NW2s. The 5 GE 44 tonners are not in plastic, but W&R models did pretty little brass ones that run well. Short trains are kosher. Nickle Plate Products made most of the major steam classes though some require some hefty repowering. NPP and the Old & Weary Car Shops did cabeese; the latter did the drop bottom coal gons in brass...also available from F&C in resin.


Craig Zeni
Cary NC