No. 10473 Baldwin Class I-5 "Shoreliner" Streamlined 4-6-4 "Hudson" Type Steam Locomotive, heading up the "Bay State" Mixed Heavyweight and Lightweight Passenger Train

 New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad

The Baldwin-built I-5 was the only streamlined steam power in New England and represented the final steam locomotives purchased by the New Haven railroad. Although the American Locomotive Company (ALCO) was the traditional locomotive builder for the New Haven, the railroad chose Baldwin in this instance to supply the ten streamlined Class I-5 "Hudsons" (promoted as "Shoreliners"  by the New Haven) at a price of $110,000 each, delivered early in 1937. Their assignment: 12 eastbound and 12 westbound trains per day on the 157-mile route between New Haven and Boston. The New York to New Haven segments of New York-Boston trains were headed up by electric locomotives such as the EP-3 (1930s see No. 10421) and the EF-3b (1940s see No. 10271), the New York-New Haven segment of the railroad having been electrified between 1907 and 1914.  Electrification was not continued past New Haven to Boston until 2000, for the "Acela Express" on Amtrak (see No. 10638).

The ten I-5 "Hudsons" delivered to the New Haven were numbered #1400 to #1409 and put to work immediately on the road's top trains, such as the extra-fare "Merchants Limited" between New York City and Boston (see No. 10271), the "Colonial" (Boston- Washington, DC) (see No. 10438), and the"Bay State" (New York-Boston). A locomotive change was required in New Haven, as we have seen.

It was the 1948 arrival of the Alco PA diesel-electric locomotives that were responsible for the end of the I-5 steam engines, part of the diesel revolution sweeping the country at the time. In January, 1951, all ten I-5s were sold for scrap.

Between 1934 and 1938, the New Haven took delivery of 205 new lightweight riveted high tensile smooth-sided Cor-Ten steel passenger coaches and grill cars from Pullman-Standard, painted Hunter green, manufactured at Pullman's former Osgood Bradley plant in Worcester, Massachusetts (Pullman-Bradley Car Corporation).  The cars featured clean, modern interiors, lots of leg room, reversible seats, and big picture windows to view the sights along the railroad's shore-hugging right-of-way. Industrial designer Walter Teague was hired to design the cars' exteriors and interiors in 1934. These were Pullman-Bradley's non-articulated semi-streamlined "American Flyer" cars, nicknamed after New Haven-based toy manufacturer A. C. Gilbert's line of American Flyer electric trains, which featured these cars from 1938 on. The cars were notable because they were 25 tons lighter than the traditional 85-ton heavyweight Pullmans, and they ushered in the era of lightweight streamlined trains.

No. 10473 represents an accurate scale model of New Haven's Baldwin Class I-5 streamlined 4-6-4 "Hudson"-type steam locomotive, heading up the semi-streamlined 7-car passenger train, the "Bay State" (Nos. 10475, 10812, and 10813), as it would have been seen on New Haven's tracks between Boston and New Haven 1937-1950. The train is in "O" Gauge by Weaver. The "Bay State" includes five heavyweight cars - three Parlor Cars, Dining Car, and Observation Car - along with two "American Flyer" lightweight semi-streamlined coaches. Trip time on the 231-mile Boston-New York route was about 5 hours, including the locomotive change in New Haven.