She is a 1901 product of the Altoona shops.
Click here to go to a tiny photo on Dr. Smith's page 7 and here for his
color photo of the B4a.
What's so odd about this engine, other than that it survived at all and still steams, is that it is almost impossible to find on the great Websites devoted to the Pennsy!
Thomas J. von Trott has a current write-up and color photo on his 643 page.
In Paul Carleton's early (ca. 1970) book "Pennsy, A to T", he notes that #643 "was found at an abandoned steel mill in Harrisburg, Pa., and was bought by
enthusiasts". Now, THAT's enthusiasm!
Well, she's not operating now! I was at Steam Fair on Labor Day 2003 (01 Sep) and #643 is stripped down (photos are on PRR page 0);
they are operating with a tiny Whitcomb diesel sporting #643's whistle (or one like it). Seems that not having any public highway crossings, they are not covered
by the NRA Boiler Code but, rather, by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's DoT, whose boiler inspection is more rigorous and she flunked! Her backhead has some
thin spots and her rating was dropped to 80#, which is enough for their minimal operation but NOT enough for the air brakes! So, down she went and the smokebox
was found to be a rusted disaster; it was almost rotted through where the spark arrestor screen support meets the smokebox barrel (just above where the the steam pipes
enter the valve chambers) and those areas have been cut out. They'll be rebuilt and a new backhead will be fabricated and fitted.
PRR Modeling - moved on 25 Nov 2004 to PRR Modeling (including Penn Line and Cary)
[Cary was Don Stromberg's Cary Locomotive Works of Cary, Illinois, which was sold out to Bowser ca. 1980-85.]
I may not be a confirmed Pennsy "nut" but my sister (who lives in Enola) sure had me pegged on my 57th birthday (lo, these many moons ago):
(Photo by and © 2000 - S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
(O.K. - why 21 bolts?)
PRR LINKS
If you are reading this page, you are most likely a Pennsy fan, in which case here are just a few major linked Pennsy sites (in no particular order, except the PRRT&HS):
For me, the première site must always be that of the
The Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania.
The Altoona Railroaders Memorial Museum.
Allegheny Portage Railroad National Historic Site.
Dr. D. Mark Bej's Pennsylvania Railroad - PRR home page.
(Mark also happens to have a great HTML guide!)
Robert Schoenberg's Rob's PRR page, with most of the PRR Equipment
Diagrams! These include diagrams for:
-
Revenue freight equipment (Boxcars, Flat cars, Hopper cars, Gondolas, Stock cars, Containers, Freight car trucks),
Maintenance of way equipment (Tank cars, Test weight cars, Polling cars, Cranes, Derricks, Side dump cars, Hand cars, Tower cars, Cabin cars),
Locomotives (Electrics,
Diesels,
Steam, Tenders), Passenger cars (Baggage, Baggage dormitory, Passenger dormitory
baggage, Baggage mail, Business, Coaches, Head end power, Mail (RPOs), Passenger baggage, Passenger baggage mail, Passenger cafe, Passenger lounge, Cafe observation,
Sleeper, Sleeper observation, Parlor, Diners, Motor passenger, Motor passenger baggage, Motor baggage, and Motor baggage mail).
B. F. Smith's Pennsylvania Railroad Page (PRR).
Chris Brandt's (PRR) Homepage.
Jerry Britton's P.R.R. Pages.
Mike's Pennsy's Home Pages (from Australia).
The PENNSYLVANIA Pages... Links.
George Elwood's great PRR Photos site.
and, last but not least,
Author Lorraine Diehl's The Late, Great Pennsylvania Station site; see the write up about Lorraine Diehl's
fantastic ode to "The Late, Great Pennsylvania Station" on my NRHS/LIST page.
There is also a photo of a ca. 1923 Pennsy double-ended crane for tunnel service, rated at only 50 tons at 17 foot boom extension on my Big Cranes
page, which I have reproduced here:
(Photo from pg. 997, Car Builders' Cyclopedia of American Practice, 11th ed., 1925,
Simmons-Boardman Publishing Co., New York)
There are endless other sites for you to surf; one that really got me, however, is Rob Schoenberg's,
on which he has a PRR station sign maker, which allows you to assemble a Pennsy-style
station sign in color, letter by letter. I was trying to go Rob one better by adding a space, a hyphen, and an apostrophe, and by superimposing a
keystone outline (ya gotta have a keystone to make it a REAL make-believe Pennsy station sign!). Aha! Rob has added a keystone!
Artist and fellow NRHS/Long Island Sunrise Trail Chapter member George L. Wybenga is so taken with cabooses (cabeese? - hacks, crummys,
cabin cars, etc.) that he specializes in limning them and has a Website, cabooseart.com where you can see his vast array of
cabooses from many varied roads, among them the PRR. Here, by his specific permission, is his painting of LIRR hack #14, just as an example of his work:
[painting by and © G. L. Wybenga, by permission - all rights reserved]
You can see all George's paintings on his site, where you can order copies in various sizes and formats. Scroll through to page 7 for some PRR paintings
(page 5 for LIRR cabins).
For tall tales of the Berlinerwerke and its equipment and such (much of which is PRR or PRR-ish,
visit the Berlinerwerke Apocrypha page, et seq.
You will specially appreciate (or hate)
the PRR Class Z6s Arctic 4-2-2,
the PRR Class V Rocky 4-14-2,
the PRR Genesis Engine (unlikely!), and
the PRR Centipede Engine 4-D-D-4 (even more unlikely, but oh, 'tis true, 'tis true!).
Because of former page size limitations, this page is now continued on PRR Continuation Pages 0, et seq.
You may wish to visit the Railroad Page, et seq.
of this series of Pennsylvania Railroad pages.
LEGACY
What happens to all this when I DIE or (heaven forfend!)
lose interest? See LEGACY.
COPYRIGHT NOTICE
See Copyright Notice on primary home page.
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Contact S. Berliner, III
(Junk and unsigned e-mail and blind telephone messages will NOT be answered)
© Copyright S. Berliner, III -
1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005,
2011
- all rights reserved.
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- The vast bulk of my massive Web presence (over 485 pages) had been hosted by AT&T's WorldNet service since 30 May 1996;
they dropped WorldNet effective 31 Mar 2010 and I have been scrambling to transfer everything. Everything's saved but all the links have to be changed,
mostly by hand. See my sbiii.com Transfer Page for any updates on this tedious process.
