Talk:Royal Blue (train)

(Redirected from Talk:Royal Blue (B&O train))
Latest comment: 7 years ago by InternetArchiveBot in topic External links modified
Featured articleRoyal Blue (train) is a featured article; it (or a previous version of it) has been identified as one of the best articles produced by the Wikipedia community. Even so, if you can update or improve it, please do so.
Main Page trophyThis article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page as Today's featured article on May 15, 2008.
Article milestones
DateProcessResult
November 16, 2007Good article nomineeListed
March 12, 2008Featured article candidatePromoted
On this day...Facts from this article were featured on Wikipedia's Main Page in the "On this day..." column on April 26, 2010, April 26, 2012, April 26, 2018, and April 26, 2022.
Current status: Featured article

Article created

edit
update: I've added additional images of the Royal Blue from 1898 and 1937; the latter is shown with both diesel and steam power, the P7a Pacific #5304 steam engine in its first Otto Kuhler streamlining of 1937–1939. Also, a recent photo of American Flyer's S-guage model made in the early 1950s. I also have a free-license image of the Lord Baltimore steam locomotive posed at the 1939 NY World's Fair with the iconic trylon and perisphere in the background, but have omitted it because any more images would overload this article, I'm afraid.JGHowes talk - 19:43, 17 December 2007 (UTC)Reply

Royal Blue Line

edit

As mentioned in the article Lead, Harwood states that the B&O collectively referred to its Washington–New York passenger service as the "Royal Blue Line", at first calling the premier train on the route the "Royal Limited" and then calling the trains "Royal Blues". Later, after omitting the term during WWI, only one of the eight NY-Wash. trains was called the "Royal Blue" and the rest had separate names, e.g., "Marylander", "Diplomat", etc. Kind of like the C&NW "400" trains. JGHowes talk - 15:05, 29 February 2008 (UTC)Reply

Electrification

edit

As best I can tell from other pages the only part of the Royal Blue that was electrified was a long tunnel. Does this warrant the statement that: "The B&O's use of electrification instead of steam power on the Royal Blue, beginning in 1895, marked the first use of electric locomotives by an American railroad and presaged the dawn of practical alternatives to steam power in the 20th century." Specifically, I don't know that the phrase "on the Royal Blue" feels true. As far as I know the electric locomotives moved ALL trains through this tunnel, and electrification is only tangetially related to the Royal Blue trains themselves. Paulc206 (talk) 04:32, 15 May 2008 (UTC)Reply

I've clarified the sentence to say Royal Blue Line trains. Prior to construction of the Baltimore Belt Line (which gives more details on the electrification project), B&O used carfloats to get freight across Baltimore harbor. While that was somewhat satisfactory for freight, the tunnel was essential for B&O to resume its Washington-NY passenger service in the 1890s when their erstwhile PW&B RR connection was lost. Once the tunnel was completed, it was used by both passenger and freight trains. JGHowes talk - 09:09, 15 May 2008 (UTC)Reply

Images

edit

I've swapped the "Royal Blue" and #51 pictures as the former picture doesn't properly belong in the section in which it was placed (by that period the engine in question had been re-shrouded and moved to the Cincinnatian). It's not ideal to use #51 for the '50s, but it is more representative of equipment in that era. Mangoe (talk) 19:33, 7 March 2008 (UTC)Reply

Congratulations on Main Page

edit

Another collaborative WP job well-done. Mark in Historic Triangle of Virginia (talk) 02:49, 15 May 2008 (UTC)Reply

Trenton stop?

edit

I've removed the mention of a Trenton stop, because it is not shown in either the 1920 or 1956 B&O timetables I have. Harwood says in his book, Royal Blue Line, that when the Reading cut some local train service during the Depression: "Beginning in November 1933, five B&O trains each way were routed over [the Reading's] Jenkintown line...Some B&O trains also stopped at West Trenton, another Reading local point. The Jenkintown detour added time to the B&O runs, and it was ended in April 1935..." (p. 137). JGHowes talk - 19:17, 22 May 2008 (UTC)Reply

What other stops still exist?

edit

I saw something about a stop at "Wayne Junction, Pa.". Is this the same Wayne Junction that now serves as a massive SEPTA Regional Rail hub? And what other existing stations were used by this train? ----DanTD (talk) 23:26, 23 March 2009 (UTC)Reply

The B&O's Royal Blue Line used Reading Company rails north of Philadelphia, including the Reading's station in Wayne Jct. As noted above, the B&O used the cut-off and did not go thru Jenkintown except for a brief period in the mid-1930's. Part of the Reading's mainline is now the SEPTA R3 line to West Trenton, so I've added a wikilink in that article to this one. Other than Wayne Jct., B&O's trains did not stop at any other Reading station, going thru West Trenton without stopping and continuing north to Bound Brook, NJ, where the Central RR of NJ took over. JGHowes  talk 03:52, 24 March 2009 (UTC)Reply
edit

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on Royal Blue (train). Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

This message was posted before February 2018. After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{source check}} (last update: 5 June 2024).

  • If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
  • If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.

Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 17:21, 20 May 2017 (UTC)Reply

Reference notes

edit