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St. Maarten PLAYER DEVELOPMENT
- TRAINS |
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Our
logo is a train engine.
The little ones start out reading Thomas the Tank engine. When they finish a book, they get to play with one of the four trains sets we have. Set one is a wooden Thomas that can be pushed around the track but also has a battery. As the reading level improves so does the quality and size of the train set. Set two is just an oval with a hand car with two railroaders pumping away to get to work. Set three is a double track O gauge set. We model the Long Island railroad passenger service but can sneak in a freight train if we pretend it is evening time. The last set is HO. There we have both steam engines and some diesel power. From the beginning, trains played a big part in encouraging the children to work. Originally, we thought of Thomas as our logo, but it is copyrighted. We did some research and found the GG1. A unique engine. Streamlined, first without rivets, and electric. Best of all it was a double ender so could change direction easily. The story we found said the engineers were working on building submarines. They were worried that after the war they would be out of a job, so they designed the GG1 in 1939. The war would not end till 1945. Now that is some advanced planning. Thus, we decided the GG1 should be our logo. We also had a suggestion of a baseball with crossed bat and pencil. You guessed it, the train won easily. We are fortunate that tourist have become friends and help us. Conductor Steve, yes a real conductor on the LIRR has taught the children all about ticket punching, making announcements and some safety rules on trains. Now when the children play trains, they have a dispatcher who uses a walkie-talkie to tell the engineer when he can proceed to the next stop. Then the conductor makes the announcement, closes the car doors and off they go. He is also the webmaster for the Oyster Bay Railroad Museum Facebook page. He lets the children write train stories and he posts one a week. The stories have to be well researched and about the Long Island Rail Road. We have Big Roger a modeler from Pennsylvania. He brings kits to the island and shows the children how to assemble them. He taught the children they could name their own railroad and helped design the P & D Railroad Logo and came up with the slogan Home of the Great Salt Pond Route. Mr. Don from Canada use to be in the railroad maintenance equipment production. He has visited several times and talked with the children about speeders and high rail trucks. Those are tracks that have both metal train wheels and rubber wheels. Using hydraulics to raise and lower the wheels the truck can drive on the road or the tracks. Forklift Gary is a volunteer at the Oyster Bay Railroad Museum. He drives the forklift to help set up outside displays. He sends us videos on the equipment there and how it was used. The children have raised more than $6,000 to help restore the museum's steam engine 35. Pilot John was a U.S. Navy pilot who landed on aircraft carriers.
He was also a manager of a race car team. He does not know a lot
about trains, but he reads a lot of magazines and sends us cool
stories about trains. More recently we have met Steven Lynch of Trains are fun website.
We found the site by doing research on the LIRR. Now we have become
friends. He has put up this Player Development Web Page and asked the
children to write stories to fill it. |
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Player Development is a committee under the Little League Baseball Association. Character, Courage and Loyalty is the motto of the Little League and thus the foundation of this program. We aim to provide a safe and fun learning environment outside school hours for kids in need. |
Coach Tom’s efforts, which began in 2002 as a high-performance team, focus on pulling children off the streets and providing them with a safe environment where they can have fun and learn basic life lessons. In 2012 PD changed direction and put more emphasis on the education and behavior. We had members certified to teach Aggression Replacement Training and we began working directly with the Court and SJIS to help get the children in the biggest need off the streets.
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 The
St. Maarten Carnival Development Foundation donated an old office to
be used as the reading area. One of the first set of books we
received was Thomas the Tank Engine. Thus a train set was
needed. |
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The SMRR started in
1928 as a freight carrier for harvested salt from the Great Salt Pond
to the Philipsburg and Marigot Ports for export shipment worldwide. |
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Research can be fun! by Isaiah The
Kids Herald 9/21/2022
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Long Island Rail Road first to offer piggy backs
by Malik, age 15 You
have probably seen someone carrying another person on their back.
Sometimes this is called riding piggyback. But if you think about
it…why? Can you imagine a farmer carrying his pig to market on his
back? Me neither. I wanted to know why we call it piggyback, so
I did some research. It turns out that way back in the 1600s carrying
someone on your back was called pick pack. Over time the words slowly
got changed to piggyback. No one seems to know why.In the old days, in 1885, the Long Island Rail Road used to run a farmer’s train. Horse drawn wagons hauled goods to market, including live animals like pigs. Everything got put onto the train for transportation to the cities. The goods were held in boxes still in the wagon and were loaded onto the railroad flat cars. The horses were put in the boxcars, and the farmers got to ride in a passenger cars. When they unloaded the train at the city, they would put the wagons, goods and horses back together to continue on to the market. The farmer chose to pay the railroad $4 to put his wooden cart on the train so he could get to the market in as little as two- and one-half hours. Otherwise, it would take the farmer and his horse nearly two days to reach the market. Back in the early days of the Long Island Rail Road, there were no bridges for the trains to get off the island. So, starting in 1880, train cars were loaded on barges and floated across to track connections. It would not be until 1917 when the Hells Gate bridge opened that Long Island trains could connect with the mainland without having to be shipped over on a boat.  This
all leads us back to the railroad’s use of the term piggyback, for
when the back half of a big truck, trailer carrying a container, is
placed right on the train’s flat car. It would later be called TOFC,
for Trailer on Flatcar. But most people still call it piggyback.
Nowadays, the railroads put whole containers on flat cars. They even
have longer cars with a well in the center, so the first car sits
lower almost right on top of the track. This allows the railroad to
stack a second container on top of the other and still pass through
tunnels and under bridges.It is easy to load and unload containers if a crane is available. But there are some drop off points that do not have a crane, so the container is left on the trailer and the trailer and container are loaded on the flat car. Some shippers choose to leave the container attached to the trailer even when the final destination has a crane. It is faster and thus cheaper to lift both the trailer and container at one time, place it on the ground, then have a truck connect to the pair and drive off. LIRR was the first railroad to offer piggyback transportation, but now they only transport people, they are out of the freight business. In 1997 they arranged for the New York & Atlantic Railway to carry their freight, using the tracks owned by LIRR. By the early 1900s the farmer’s train no longer hauled horses with wagons. The service switched over to boxcars. Yet the term piggyback remains. I know one thing for sure, if I ever called my sister a piggy, I would be in big trouble with Mom and I would not get dinner! |
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Long Island Rail Road helps prevent fatal accidents
with T.R.A.C.K.S.
by Malik, age 15 As bad as that sounds it used to be worse. In 1972 there were 12,000 collisions at highway-rail crossings. Fifty years ago, the state of Idaho started Operation Lifesaver. Just 12 months of educating people about train crossings and the dangers associated with being near train tracks led to a 43 percent decrease in accidents. Soon more states began the Operation Lifesaver. By 1986 the safety program had expanded national wide.
Founded in the west, Operation Lifesaver placed a lot of importance on safety at the crossings. Public service advertisements told people they should not try to beat the closing gates or drive around them trying to avoid long trains. Waits of 20 minutes or more are common. The adverts tell people that although the trains may appear to be going slowly, they are usually moving up to 50 miles per hour and that it takes a train nearly a mile to stop. In 1989, LIRR initiated the Together Railroads and Communities Keeping Safe (TRACKS) program, along with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Police Department.
"The TRACKS program provides
customized training to schools, camps, day cares, libraries, and
community groups, stressing the importance of safety at grade
crossings and on our platforms and trains." Not surprisingly, the
TRACKS program is geared toward children, educating them to stay away
from the red flashing lights and signal bells of a railroad crossing.
It offers age appropriate information on how to travel safely using
the system; and the hazards that exist on or near the tracks, this is
according to their website,
https://new.mta.info/agency/long-island-rail-road/lirr-tracks. The LIRR also has posted Emergency Notification Signs at crossings. The signs tell drivers if their vehicle gets stuck on the train tracks at a crossing, they should get out of the car and call the number on the sign. They should give the locator number to the operator. The locator number tells the railroad exactly which crossing is blocked, so the train engineers in the area can start to slow down the train. This way they can avoid a tragic accident before it occurs.
The LIRR and the MTA offer train
safety coloring books and videos. In addition, the LIRR gives to free
talks to students, usually involving the Metro Man Mascot (a silver
looking robot). Toy manufactures have even
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I used to think history was boring – nothing but dates, dates and more dates. So, when I was asked to do a story on the history of the Bangor and Aroostook Railroad, I was not too happy. But I like trains, so I thought that learning more about the history of railroads could be fun.
It was just the beginning – more dates to remember! I learned that BAR traces their origins to 1833. You see, they took over the Bangor and Piscataquis Railroad and the Bangor and Katahsin Iron Works Railway which were founded in 1833. I was almost ready to give up when I discovered that toys can be used to teach history! You see, the Bangor and Aroostook Railroad became famous around 1950. They shipped a lot of potatoes and paper from Maine to places all over the country. They decided they needed new box cars. They bought both new and used railroad cars and painted them – nearly 2,500 cars – red, white and blue. The high visibility cars put the small railroad in the public eye. You see BAR at its peak only operated about 800 miles of track. Yet with 2,500 boxcars to haul a seasonal potato crop, BAR had the second largest fleet of boxcars – second only to the famous Santa Fe line. When the cars were not needed in Maine for the potatoes, the extra cars were rented out to the mid-west to haul produce around the country and all the way to California. The cars were so nice looking, two toy makers made models. The toys ended up under Christmas trees in train sets. Soon other toy manufactures followed. The model red, white and blue boxcars are still available today more than 70 years after the original cars were made. The red, white and blue boxcar features three big horizontal stripes: one blue across the top, the white in the middle and red across the base. Painted in big bold letters on the blue line were the words “STATE OF MAINE.” In the white stripe, across the middle part were the words, “BANGOR AND AROOSTOOK RAILROAD.” In bottom stripe, across the red was just one word, “POTATOES” in all caps. And this is where history gets interesting: You see, after just a few cars were labeled Potatoes, the word was changed to Products. Adults argue a government law made BAR change the word to Products. Other adults claim it was a railroad association guideline, and others say it was just the cars would be used for more than potato hauling and that is why the word was changed to Products. But, come on, I think it was the toy manufactures. What kid wants to haul potatoes around the Christmas tree, when there are Legos and matchbox cars? As for me, I prefer cookies. That way, every time the car comes around, I stop it, open the door, grab a bit of cookies and send the car around again. And to close this history, the dates are still confusing. You see, BAR was sold in 1995 to Iron Road Railways. In 2002, the company went bankrupt (that means ran out of money), but the history people say BAR was no longer in 2003 when they were bought again this time by Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway. Go figure. As for me, I like history by toys not dates. It’s a lot more fun. Roger, age 10.
BARs on Long Island Railroad Research by Roger, age 10: Huh? A bar? I know the LIRR had parlor cars, and if you bought a drink and it came in a souvenir glass with Dottie the Dashing Commuter on it, and you got to keep the glass. But it didn't seem to me like there should be a bar in a locomotive. I am just a kid, but I was thinking that was a bad idea. Then I did some more reading, and I found out that BAR stands for Bangor and Aroostook Railroad, the trains from Maine. BAR was known for shipping potatoes, wood and paper. All that could be sent to Long Island, but most railroads kept their engines and just let the other railroads haul the freight cars with their own engines.
After the cooling off period, it was announced that an agreement had been reached. But both the LIRR and the Unions agreed to keep it secret. The Unions did say, “They got everything they asked for.” It was estimated about 10 percent of the commuting passengers never returned to the trains. They had found other ways to get to work and they stuck with their new routines. But the strike had caused another problem. Since the trains had been sitting idle for all those months, and they had not been well maintained during that time, when they tried to get it all back to full service, they found out that nine of their Alco switcher locomotives had frozen up. Their engine blocks had cracked. The locomotives could not be used. Long Island Metro, the official LIRR employee newspaper, reported in issue 29, February – March 1973, that all nine of the damaged engines were scraped. So LIRR asked the Bangor and Aroostook Railroad if they could rent some engines. And BAR said yes. In all, eight BAR engines saw service on Long Island. LIRR also rented engines from Precision National. Three Bangor and Aroostook locomotives were sent on January 21, 1973: the GP-7s BAR 66, BAR 72 and BAR 74. BAR 66 would stay until March 10, 1976 while 72 stayed until April 6, 1977 and 74 returned to Maine April 22, 1977. Engines 62 and 64 were sent to Long Island on January 23, 1973. Both would stay on the island until March 10, 1976. Engine 60 and 65 was sent to LIRR on April 1, 1974 and would stay until March 10, 1976. The last loaner engine, BAR 69, was sent on May 18, 1974 and it would stay in service until April 22, 1977. The Maine Railroad was happy, the lease was a good deal for BAR. They had bought a lot of powerful locomotives for their busy season which had been all about the shipping of potatoes during the winter. In 1969 BAR sent the potatoes in heated box cars to the interchange run by Penn Central. New York Central and the Pennsylvania Railroad had recently merged. In the past, the yard crews keep the box car heaters fueled and running until the cars continued their journey. This year not. The crop was ruined. It would be 40 years before Maine famers would once again ship potatoes by rail. Just to give you an idea of how important potatoes were to the railroad, the 1949 Maine harvest yielded 46,856 boxcar loads of crop. The potatoes were shipped all over the United States. Some were taken to the shipping port and sent off on cargo boats across the Atlantic to Europe. Belgium got 246 boxcars of potatoes and Germany got 1,458. Spain got a lot of Maine's potatoes too: 4,042 boxcars full! So when the potatoes business came to an end, BAR had extra engines. So they were glad to rent them out. But, do not worry they did not lay off the engineers or even rent the crew to the LIRR. I learned that when a train has a lot of cars it may take two, three or even four engines to pull the load, but they still just need one engine crew. The engines are connected together and operated from the lead unit. Oh and when I went back and looked at the book I realized I had seen several BAR engines but they were painted blue and I just thought they were LIRR. It's interesting to learn about all these things that happened back then. And just so you remember the LIRR did not have Bars in their engines.
When is
Number 1 not first? by Roger, age
10
I may be only 10 years old, but I can count. So let me ask you, when is number 1 not first? The answer is when it is a caboose on the Long Island Rail Road. Yep, all us kids know the story Of the Little Red Caboose. The children of Player Development After School Program also know that cabooses marked the end of a freight train for a long time. According to estimates, there were approximately 2,700 cabooses in use on American railroads in 1870. By 1900, there were more than 17,600 on the rails. Cabooses started to be replaced from the mid 1980s. The beloved caboose was replaced by a red flashing light called FRED. Which stands for flashing rear-end device. Anyway, back to my story. So, I was learning about cabooses of the LIRR and I discovered that LIRR Number 1 was a steel caboose that the LIRR got. And that was in 1928.
What? 1928? Impossible! The LIRR
waited until then to put a caboose
on their trains? Let's remember
that the LIRR is the oldest United
States railroad still operating
under its original name and
charter. The LIRR was chartered in
1834, and the first section of
track opened in 1836. I have to
solve this mystery. I went to the
Trains are fun website (http://www.trainsarefun.com/lirr/lirrcontents.htm)
and searched for caboose.
Jackpot! I discovered the LIRR
began replacing their 4-wheelers
with N52 Cabooses in 1916. They
started by making their own
8-wheelers with a steel
under-frame. The first three
caboose were numbered 33 to 35. In
1917 the LIRR built three more,
numbered 36, 37 and 38.
Wait one minute. The first steel caboose they make in 1916 start at number 33? Now I am more confused. They got number one in 1928. That is eight years after they started making their own caboose? And why did they start labeling the cars with 33? I continued searching the website. Then I discovered in the early days the LIRR called their 4-wheel caboose hacks. That's why they are not listed as cabooses. So I found a list of the hacks the LIRR had. The list starts at number 3 and says it was built in 1899. Also built that year were numbers 10, number 11, number 6 and 7. Get this, Number 2 was built in 1905. If I counted like this in school, I would get a bad report card!
In all, the LIRR had 24 hacks and
several of those lasted until
1927. So now we almost know why in
1916 the LIRR made their first
caboose and labeled it number 33.
Did you notice that number 3 was
the first Hack the LIRR reported
on their roster. No number one.
And two came six years later after
the car before it was 21 made in
1904. Anyway Number 1 was an old
Pennsylvania Railroad caboose. At
the time, PRR owned the LIRR and
sent old equipment to New York.
One last thing I have to tell you,
somewhere around 1950 the Long
Island Rail Road started painting
their cabooses ORANGE with black
letters.
The Long Island Rail Road got out
of the freight business 1997. LIRR
arranged for New York and Atlantic
Railway to handle the freight on
Long Island. But that does not
mean you cannot see a real Long
Island Railroad Caboose. Two are
located at the
Oyster Bay Railroad Museum.
Number
12 is an N-52A caboose built by the
American Car Foundry in 1927 and
was retired in 1961. It is painted
red.
Best of all the museum offers free tours of both cars online at YouTube. The link for Number 12 is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2i0Ozv5tsOs  Number 50 is an N-22 built by International Railway Car Co. in 1956 and did not retire until 1992. Caboose 50 is painted orange. The link for Number 50 is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAzlXq5iRgY  Mystery mostly solved, for now! |
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| 1971: NEW LOGO - NEW IMAGE by Isaiah, age 23 Maine Line Magazine - Winter 2022 Editor: Joseph T. “Joey” Kelley | |||
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Railroad Blue is the Strongest Color
by Malik, age 15
Traffic lights first appeared in the United States around 1920. Nearly 90 years before the traffic light, Railroads already saw the need for signals to safely control traffic. They devised a flag system to direct engineers when to stop or move the trains. It took a few years for the signals we know and use today to become standardized. Red means stop. Yellow means caution and Green means go. But blue means do not touch a thing. The term 'flag' was carried forward even after the signals became lights for night use. The railroads were not satisfied with red means stop and green go. They needed more. “Railroading is a very dangerous job and people are hurt or killed every year in simple accidents. Some of the worst used to come from fellow employees moving trains while people were working on them,” explained Steven Torborg a Conductor on the Long Island Rail Road who frequently visits St. Maarten.
Basically, there are two times workers go between cars. Workers have
to add cars to or take off cars from a train. This is called coupling
or uncoupling and is done with an engineer on the train who knows
workers are between the cars. The
second and potentially more dangerous situation is when work needs to
be done on a train before the engineer arrives.
Other signals included lanterns and then flashlights for night use. Some railroads used a piece of plastic on a metal rod that could be clipped to the track out in front of the engine. There were fold up and down blue barriers, like those used on St. Maarten for reserve parking.
“The Railroad motto is Safety is of the first importance in the discharge of duty," said Conductor Steve. That is why Blue is the strongest color on the railroad.
M7 interior cab with Employee blue flag ID: "DO NOT OPERATE - MY LIFE IS ON THE LINE"
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 Circus train Blue Flag at Garden City Secondary, Quentin-Roosevelt Blvd. - View NW 5/23/2017 Photo/Archive: Marc Glucksman. |
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| The Not So Red Caboose by Malik, age 15: | |||
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Diamonds Can Be Dangerous by Collis, age 12: |
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We first started reading Thomas the Tank
engine so the logo had to be a train. A little research led to the
GG1. It was one of the most innovative and long lasting engines made
in the United States. Trains are a fun way Player Development
encourages the children to work hard, learn and then play.
"Operation
Lifesaver has been committed to preventing collisions, injuries and
fatalities on and around railroad tracks and highway-rail grade
crossings, with the support of public education programs in states
across the U.S.,” according to their website
Toy history is
much more fun than dates
by Roger, age 10
