TOM WILLS PRODUCTIONS: No. 348: "Hudson" -- A Train For Christmas

No.348, "Hudson" by Tom Wills, November 2016

I always had trouble sleeping on Christmas Eve, because I couldn't wait to see what new pieces would be under the tree for my Lionel train set. And I'll bet my younger brother was wide awake, too, as he plotted new additions to his HO-scale layout.
Mom and dad also likely were awake, wondering how they were going to pay for all of that stuff. Train toys are expensive!
So worth it, though.

Boys -- big or small -- love trains, big or small. Our dad, uncle and grandpa did, too. And we chased a lot of the real ones, taking pictures and recording railroad sounds.

The original front wheel drive.

Even my daughters liked model trains, having grown up with an attic full of them until we sold the old house and the trains along with it. We moved to more modern digs, leaving the rails behind.
There's a parallel there to railroading: Technologies change, transportation demands shift, and the signals turn to red.

4-6-4 (the configuration of the wheels)

The dinosaur of the railroad industry became the steam locomotive, which fed the scrap heaps of America more than 60 years ago. All of those wheels and rods and pistons worked together to move the beasts forward with steam before diesel power became the standard.
Most of our model trains were diesels but our dad had a few steamers, which made chugging sounds and even smoked when you dropped an oily concoction into the smokestack. These were made of metal and I still have one. But sadly boys sometimes run their old trains to death and they become paperweights.

Childhood's end.

Steam engines are fun to watch but a nightmare to draw. My first attempt was an art class project in high school, in 1977. The perspective is a little off, and the rails look bent, and the smoke looks fake. I was 15 years old.
But my dad kept it (in a closet), and then passed it on to me, and I have it up in the rafters. I just can't throw it out.

Emil Perunko, thank you for teaching me.

The second attempt, now, is better even though my hands are now slower and my eyes are worse. Perhaps I have gained more patience over the years. (That will make people who know me laugh.) Truly doing this piece made my hand and shoulder ache, trying to capture the locomotive's essential grime and steam.

One big mother.

Meet "Hudson," or "one of the Hudsons," actually.

According to Richard Leonard's Steam Locomotive Archive, the New York Central's Hudson Type 4-6-4s (the configuration of the wheels) handled passenger trains throughout the system, regularly hauling heavy main line trains at speeds of more than 90 miles per hour on level track. "The Central's Hudsons were the prototype for countless model trains which delighted boys — and men — across the continent," Leonard wrote.

A puff of smoke.

The vast majority of New York Central's locomotives were built by the American Locomotive Company and the Lima Locomotive Works from 1927 to 1938.
Named after the Hudson River, the 4-6-4 wheel arrangement came to be known as the "Hudson" type and these were built for high-speed passenger train work. But with the onset of diesel locomotives, all 275 Hudsons owned by the New York Central System were retired and scrapped by the late 1950s.

Shading adds dimension and depth.

But their magnificence lives on in tens of thousands of photographs, films, paintings and drawings. This one, of New York Central 5310, is No. 348 for me. My new train, for Christmas. Or yours.
All aboard.