Grassroots Railroad Sports?

Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) said:

Just watched an NBC segment on the Amtrak derailment. They had a pic from the rear that showed the train had just passed through a switch & it sure looked like the 2nd to last car didn't make it through the switch, pulling the last car off & tossing it onto its side. 

A switch that wasn't locked in all the way, or a thin wheel flange that picked the switch, maybe. 

While its obviously awful that it happened, this is Amtrak's first accident with fatalities since that mess up in Washington in 2017. That's honestly a pretty good safety track record when you consider the amount of miles Amtrak trains cover each year and the age of their equipment. 

Back in 2015, Cumbres & Toltec almost acquired a K-28, which would have given representation of all four D&RGW narrow-gauge Mikados at one operation. The plan was that Cumbres & Toltec was going to trade their K-36 #483 to Durango & Silverton for their K-28 #378.

Of the two engines, neither was operational or in particularly good shape. The #483 had hauled the last revenue freight on the D&RGW narrow-gauge in 1968 before the narrow-gauge lines were retired, and had hauled the first trains on the Cumbres & Toltec in 1970, before being retired in 1977. In the years since, it had sat outside and had many parts borrowed off it to keep Cumbres & Toltec's four other K-36s running. The #478 had been assigned to the Silverton Branch due to several light bridges, and was inherited by Durango & Silverton when they took ownership of the Silverton Branch in 1981. It was restored to operation by Durango & Silverton in 1981 and ran well into the 2000s but was in need of a pretty extensive overhaul from years of running.

The swap was advantageous to both groups: The Cumbres & Toltec already had four running K-36s (#484, #487, #488 and #489) and really did not require a fifth. Five operational K-38s likely would have spread the work load out so far between them that they wouldn't have gotten full use out of the engines between their 1472s. They would be getting a locomotive that was not represented at the Cumbres & Toltec in exchange, meaning that all four classes of D&RGW Mikados would be represented on one location and fulfilling a preservation objective. While lighter, it could be used to run charter trains, off-peak trains or to doublehead with K-27 #463 on longer trains. Durango & Silverton had upgraded their bridges to be able to operate the bigger engines, and was starting to run longer trains, so they needed more powerful engines. At the time, the K-37's were believed to essentially be off-limits due to a poor experience with #497 that was falsely attributed to the entire class, and there were concerns about FRA-compliance regarding the older boilers on them. The D&S would be getting another K-36 to run and cut down on the need for double-heading K-28s, plus it would bring all nine of the nine surviving K-36s into operation

The swap ended up getting shot down by people on both sides though: Some C&T folks weren't a fan of trading off the #483, due to the fact that it hauled the last train on the D&RGW narrow gauge and it was the first engine to operate on the Cumbres & Toltec in 1970 and had 50+ years history on the Chama-Antonito line. Although you have to question where all that historical sentimentality was in 1991, when C&T had allowed Durango & Silverton to take a lot of parts off of the #483 in order to get the #482 up and running (C&T had traded #482 for D&S's #497 at the same time, and allowed D&S to cannibalize the #483). On the Durango & Silverton side, they were reluctant to let go of the K-28s, which had been long-term residents of the Silverton Branch for most of their career and had significant history there. I've also heard that the D&S has the only existing set of blueprints for the K-28s and has guarded them more closely than KFC's chicken recipe and that the trade would require them to give C&T a copy of the blueprints, which they were not enthused about, as C&T might be more willing to lend them out and allow the construction of replicas.

As it sits these days, the #483 still sits apart outdoors at Chama, NM, receiving a slow cosmetic restoration, with no plans to operate it unless some sort of unforeseen issue knocks any of their K-36s out of service. The #478 was taken out of service shortly after the failed attempt at a swap and has been on display at the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Museum in Durango Silverton, also receiving a cosmetic restoration awaiting a possible future overhaul

In addition to all the more modern Mikados, some of the older D&RGW narrow-gauge equipment is still represented as well

D&RGW #168 is one of their T-12s (Ten-wheeler and 12,000lbs tractive effort) built in 1883 by Baldwin. They had 46" drivers, which were the tallest used on any D&RGW narrow gauge engines, and these engines were reportedly good for 50mph. Most of the #168's career is unknown but it did haul a special train with President Howard Taft aboard for the opening of the Gunnison Tunnel in 1909, and was leased to the Rio Grande Southern multiple times. It was retired in 1938 and donated to the city of Colorado Springs and was nominated to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. In 2016, it was removed from Colorado Springs and moved to Chama, NM, where it was restored to operation by Cumbres & Toltec and first hit the rails in 2019.

D&RGW #169 is another one of the T-12 Ten-Wheelers. During its career, it was used on all of the major D&RGW lines before being retired in 1938. It was refurbished in 1939 and taken to the 1939 New York World's Fair and then two years later it was donated to the city of Alamosa, where it has remained on cosmetic display ever since.

Rio Grande Southern #41 was a C-19 Consolidation built in 1881 by Baldwin for the Denver & Rio Grande as their #409. In 1916, it was sold to the Rio Grande Southern, which was a subsidiary of the D&RG/D&RGW, where it was renumbered to #41. It was purchased by Walter Knott in 1951 and is currently operational in its RGS guise at Knott's Berry Farm.

Similar to the #41, Rio Grande Southern #42 was built for the Denver & Rio Grande in 1887 as C-17 Consolidation #420. It was sold to the RGS in 1916, where it was renumbered to #42. It was retired and purchased by Robert Richardson in 1953 for the Narrow Gauge Motel in Alamosa. When the motel was moved to later moved to Golden, CO and became the Colorado Railroad Museum, the #42 was sold to Magic Mountain to fund the move of equipment to Golden. The #42 was later sold to the Durango & Silverton in 1989, and has been on static display in their museum since.

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D&RGW #223 is a C-16 Consolidation that was built in 1881 by Grant Locomotive Works in Paterson, NJ. It is one of two surviving locomotives from Grant. It survived two roundhouse fires, one in 1892 and one in 1905, and was leased to the RGS from 1907 to 1922. On return to the D&RGW, it operated on the Baldwin Branch, which was originally built by the Denver, South Park & Pacific (later the Colorado Southern) and retained its original wooden bridges, meaning the C16s were one of the engines light enough to traverse them. It was retired in 1941 and leased to Salt Lake City until 1952, at which point it was donated to Salt Lake City. It was moved to Ogden in 1979 and a group of volunteers began restoring it in 1992, with plans to return it to the C&TS after it was operational again. Unfortunately, Ogden wasn't happy to relinquish the engine they owned, and eventually locked the restoration team out of the facilities, resulting in the #223 currently sitting in many pieces, outdoors and exposed to the elements.

D&RGW #268, nicknamed Bumblebee or Little Buttercup, was built by Baldwin in 1882 as a C-16 Consolidation. Because of its light weight, #268 operated on the railroads branches to Crested Butte, Baldwin and Lake City, and on the main line to Montrose. As the railroad's oldest locomotive #268 became part of a rolling exhibit, commemorating the D&RGW's 75th anniversary, which toured the system in 1945. It was repainted into the silver and yellow colors and and fitted with diamond stack and large headlight, it was carried on a standard-gauge flatcar. It later appeared at the 1949 Chicago Railroad Fair, where it steamed daily with Colorado & Southern #9, and then in 1952 was appeared in the movie Denver and Rio Grande, a romanticised history of the building of the Denver & Rio Grande filmed on the railroad’s Silverton Branch. In 1954, it hauled the last revenue train west of Gunnison prior to removal of the track and in 1955 it hauled the scrapping train that dismantled the Crested Butte Branch tracks. It was then donated to the City of Gunnison, where it has remained on display ever since.

D&RGW #278 is the third surviving C-16 Consolidation, again an 1882 Baldwin product. It was retired in 1952 and gifted by the D&RGW to the City of Montrose. It remained there until 1973, when it was leased to the National Park Service. The NPS moved #278 to Cimarron, Colorado, where they posed it, along with a boxcar and caboose, on a remaining segment of the Cimarron Trestle over the Gunnison River. This is the last remaining portion of a trestle on the Montrose-Gunnison line after abandonment of the section in 1952. The #278, boxcar and caboose were removed from the site in 2010 for cosmetic restoration and have since been returned.

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D&RGW #315 was originally built for the Florence & Cripple Creek as #3 "Elkton" in 1895 by Baldwin. It was sold to the D&RG in 1917 as #425 and classed as a C-18 Consolidation, and then was renumbered to #315 in 1921, as well as being leased to the RGS from 1926 to 1927. It made some silver screen roles, appearing both in 1948's Colorado Territory and 1956's Around The World in 80 Days (in the latter, it was pushed by a US Army GE diesel off-frame). The #315 was officially leased as a static display, presented to the City of Durango at Brookside Park on the 22nd of September, 1950. The D&RGW would later on end up donating No. 315 to the Durango Chamber of Commerce in June 1968 while other efforts related to disposing most of the Narrow Gauge System took place. In 1986, the Chamber of Commerce moved to Gateway Park (now known as Santa Rita park) and No. 315 was moved with it. Ownership was then transferred to the City of Durango in December, 2000. Starting in 2002, it was given a 5 year long operational restoration and has since operated on both Durango & Silverton and Cumbres & Toltec. Next year it is due for it's 1472, which will be performed by the Cumbres & Toltec shop crew.

D&RGW #340 was an 1881 Baldwin-built C-19 Consolidation. History on the #340 is pretty scarce, although it is likely to have been leased to the Rio Grande Southern at some point in its life. It was also purchased by Walter Knott and is operational at Knott's Berry Farm. It's appearance isn't historically accurate, with dark green boiler jacketing and brass boiler bands in a more 1880s look, but with a later straight stack and electric lighting and speed lettering. 

D&RGW #346 was built for the D&RG as #406 "Cumbres" in 1881 by Baldwin, as a C-19 2-8-0 Consolidation It was renumbered to #346 in 1921, was leased to the RGS at one point in time, as well as being leased to the Colorado & Southern from 1935 to 1937, before being sold to the Montezuma Lumber Company railroad in 1947. It was purchased by Robert Richardson in 1950 for the Narrow Gauge Motel in Alamosa, then later moved with the motel and the rest of the equipment to Golden, Colorado in 1959 and rebranded as the Colorado Railroad Museum. While previously operational, it is currently undergoing a rebuild.

This weekend is my ride on the Reading & Northern from Reading to Jim Thorpe behind #425. No clue what the foliage looks like currently, but at least the weather is looking good: 74 degrees and sunny.

The foliage here near Reading is all green still.   Have fun!

In reply to Sonic :

Yeah, I botched the planning. They were running steam trips on the 2nd, 3rd, 23rd, 24th, 30th, and 31st. The 23rd/24th seemed too late to me, and I saw photos from last year's trip on October 15th and the trees were nearly bare, so I bought tickets for the 2nd and got everything planned. Then I was talking to a photographer friend of mine and she goes "Did you check the foliage forecast?" Uhhhhhh.... Checked it and peak foliage is...October 23rd. D'oh. Too late to reschedule. If I had picked the Oct. 23rd trip, I could have gone and raced at the FLR SCCA "Not-A-Tour" this weekend as well.

While there is all sorts of D&RGW narrow gauge steam locomotives preserved, there is only one D&RGW steam locomotive preserved, D&RGW #583, a C-28 Consolidation built in 1890. All other D&RGW steam locomotives, the huge 2-8-8-2 and 4-6-6-4 articulateds and 4-8-4 "Westerns" and 4-8-2 Mountains, are all gone. A large part of that is because the VP of D&RGW in the early '50s was Alfred Perlmann, who would eventually go to New York Central and take over after Robert R. Young's suicide. Perlmann is the man who (in)famously led NYC to an early dieselization that saw the rapid wholesale scrappings of Hudsons and Niagaras and Mohawks. Well, before he did that at the NYC, he did it first at the D&RGW. He had good reason though, as diesels are much better performers in the mountains than steam locomotives (a steam locomotive generates more power the faster it goes, whereas a diesel-electric makes its most power at start and tapers off slightly as speed increases), and the D&RGW certainly had plenty of mountains. They were also safer for crews in the many, many tunnels that the D&RGW had. 

So how did so much narrow gauge stuff survive then? The D&RGW wanted to abandon most of the narrow gauge empire, and so wasn't going to spend the money for custom-order narrow gauge diesels, but the ICC refused to allow the abandonment of the Silverton Branch when filed for in 1959 (due to a tourist boom and a spurt of freight traffic from the opening of the Sunnyside Mine/American Tunnel) and the Farmington branch of the San Juan extension had a revival in the late '50s and early '60s when oil/gas drilling started up in Farmington and the D&RGW was the best-posed to haul equipment and materials in and out. The Farmington Branch petered out in 1969 and the tracks from Chama to Durango to Farmington were all pulled up. The Chama-Antonito stretch of the San Juan extension was jointly sold to Colorado and New Mexico in 1969, who started it up as the Cumbres & Toltec, and the Silverton Branch continued to operate, still owned by the D&RGW and still strictly steam-powered until 1980(!), when D&RGW sold it off to the Bradshaw Family, who opened it as the Durango & Silverton in 1981. The D&RGW got the most out of the narrow gauge steam power they had, keeping them running and repairing them after numerous collisions, derailments, wrecks and roundhouse fires, since they didn't want to pay to replace them. Its honestly amazing that that 9 out of 10 K-36s still exist and that 8 of them are operated.

Today is Canada's first annual National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews/news-wire/canadian-pacific-debuts-commemorative-locomotive-for-truth-and-reconciliation-day/

In reply to Sidewayze :

I saw something about that yesterday, I had no idea what Truth and Reconciliation Day was though. The only thing I think of when I hear Truth And Reconciliation is the level from Halo: Combat Evolved.

There appears to be an 0-6-0 tucked behind that F-unit in the background (the tender looks very similar to Strasburg #31/Canadian National #7312) but at first glance it looks like the tender is hooked to the F-Unit.

My copy of Ron Ziel's Twilight Of The Steam Locomotive arrived finally and I started reading it. There is a part where he is at Union Pacific's Green River facilities watching the retiring of Big Boys and Challengers and Northerns and he makes a curious remark that I've never heard anywhere else. He says that Union Pacific #4005 was in the process of being disassembled so that it could be shipped to Argentina, but that the Argentinian purchasers were unable to pay the bill and so it was staying in the US. I've never heard of such a thing, and I'm curious if the buyers were purchasing it for a museum or if a railroad down there actually had plans to operate a Big Boy. Doing a Google search for "UP 4005 Argentina" just returns references to Ziel's book with people saying this rumor has never been verified.

Was Ziel telling a tall tale to his readers? It's possible. There was a writer for one of the railroad mags who began telling a story of a Clinchfield 2-8-2 that was entombed at one of the TVA facilities as a stationary boiler and gave monthly updates about how he was getting closer to getting access to it and then after one breathless update of how he was going to get to see it, there was never anymore updates. I don't know much about Ziel as a person, so hard to say.

Or perhaps a UP crew saw the photographer/writer and decided to feed him a yarn just for their own amusement and see if it grew legs. I've read where one person accidentally started a long-running rumor of a steam locomotive tucked away at a local mill. He and some friends were eating lunch at a diner and a bunch of railfan types who weren't local walked in. They had barely sat down to eat and heard a steam whistle and the storyteller saw their ears perk up, so he told the railfans that the mill still used an old steam switcher to shuffle cars around the mill (this was the sometime in the mid '60s, early '70s) and the railfans forgot all about their food they and ordered and went tearing out of the diner and headed down to the mill. It was really a whistle off a steam locomotive hooked into the mill steam boiler and used to signal the noon shift change. The guy who told this story said he encountered people years later who had been told second- and third-hand of a steam switcher still operating in this town and had gone there to search without ever catching it operating.

Or maybe it was actually supposed to go to Argentina and the deal fell through at an early point, so there were few people involved and no documentation. There are clear photos of it being taken apart in the shops while other engines next to it are being torched. It's certainly odd that UP carefully disassembled it as they were retiring Big Boys left and right, and then reassembled it afterwards and donated it to the Forney Museum in Colorado. Since it was already disassembled, why not just cut that one up and then donate one of the other assembled ones instead? And if there was any Big Boy that was going to leave the US, it'd be #4005. That was always the adventurous engine of the bunch. It was converted to oil-firing in 1946 and then back to coal-fired shortly afterwards. Contrary to what is commonly told, it was not because it didn't function right as oil-fired, it was because UP did the conversion to call the bluff of coal mine workers who were threatening to strike, and then when they failed to strike, there was no reason to convert the rest or to leave one engine unique. Also, in 1953, the #4005 was the only Big Boy to suffer a serious accident after a green switchman struggled to close a switch while the #4005 approached, tossing it on it's side and killing the head end crew and a large number of pigs in stock cars. It was righted and repaired, but still carries a large gouge in the tender side from the incident.

Also, while being moved into the Forney Museum, it rolled a rail over while being moved on the sharp curvature track. It's also rumored to have kinked and damaged the steam delivery pipes while being moved on this track that exceeded it's minimum curvature.

4005 is tucked away indoors, nice and cozy.

In reply to LS_BC8 :

It's amazing that 8 Big Boys out of 25 built exist, but only two Challengers out of 105 (and neither of them from the earlier CSA-1 and CSA-2 classes), only one 9000-series 4-12-2 out of 88, only one 2-10-2 out of a total 144 and not a single 2-8-8-0 "Bullmoose".

In reply to NickD :

Not that Penn Central was small, but compared to our current Class-1's it sure seems that way in hindsight. 

In reply to Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) :

Largest merger ever at the time. Shortly filed by largest bankruptcy ever at the time. Its also funny that PRR and NYC ended up with the companies they originally wanted to merge with. Alfred Perlmann had pushed hard for a B&O/C&O/NYC merger and PRR had wanted to get in on the impending N&W/NKP/Wabash merger, and both those mergers were turned down by the ICC. After Conrail was split up, CSX ended up with the majority of the NYC's tracks, while Norfolk Southern ended up with the majority of the PRR. Almost like the ICC should have let those mergers go through 30+ years earlier.

In reply to NickD :

It would be interesting to go back & do a case study as though those mergers were allowed to proceed, and extrapolate what 1979's US railroading through today would have looked like. I wonder if the end result would be much different? 

In reply to Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) :

It probably would have been the same result, with a bit less heartache in between. You still would have needed something to do about Reading, Lehigh & Hudson River, Erie-Lackawanna, CNJ, New Haven, and D&H. Lehigh Valley was basically a division of the PRR at that point, they owned something like 85% of LV, and it was planned to be incorporated into the N&W merger. Lehigh & Hudson River probably would have just been full-on abandoned, since it was barely holding on before the Penn Central merger and the Poughkeepsie Bridge burning, and is almost entirely abandoned today. New Haven should have been let wither and die, since it really was in incredibly poor shape and is largely abandoned today, and just let MBTA and other transit authorities be formed earlier using NH trackage. Same with CNJ, leave bits and pieces for transit and dump the rest. Reading would have probably been sold off to Chessie Systems, since Chessie was making overtures of acquiring the Reading into it and was investing into it before the government rolled it up into Conrail.

Erie-Lackawanna and D&H are the interesting ones. Erie and DL&W saw what was coming in the early '50s and started consolidating back then, when Erie passenger trains shifted from its Jersey City terminal to DL&W's Hoboken terminal and DL&W started using Erie's main line between Johnson City, NY and Corning, NY, a distance of about 75 miles. The incredibly profitable D&H was also supposed to be included in the E-L merger, since DL&W and Erie both used the as a bridge route into New England and lower Canada, which would make it all be done under one roof. The D&H, the rich kid in a poor neighborhood, bailed on the merger though, seeing the DL&W and Erie's finances. Pretty short-sighted, because while the D&H was a moneymaker then, but as businesses migrated out of New England, it eroded the D&H's customer base and left the D&H all alone. Shortly after the October 17, 1960 EL merger, DL&W's Corning - Buffalo mainline was downgraded from main line status in favor of Erie's largely parallel line between Hornell  and Buffalo (they couldn't abandon the DL&W line because there were on-line customers). DL&W's considerable Scranton area traffic base also gaineda direct single RR route to Chicago.

The E-L was originally burdened with crushing debt, poor management and massive commuter obligations in the New Jersey area that bled cash. But as the '60s progressed, it began to turn things around. It was placed under the ownership of Dereco, which was a N&W formed company, operating both the E-L and the D&H, essentially making the Erie-DL&W-D&H merger a reality. New Jersey began picking up the bill on the commuter operations, eventually taking things over entirely, and the E-L carved out a healthy niche running non-stop high-speed Trailer-On-Flat-Car trains. The E-L was showing a profit at the beginning of the '70s and was showing an operating ratio (percentage of income spent on overhead) of 79% which was acceptable for the era. The government was looking at leaving the E-L out of Conrail, since it seemed to be coming back around and they had to leave one railroad out of Conrail to not create a monopoly, and incorporating the D&H in instead. ATSF was even looking at purchasing the E-L which would give it a coast-to-coast reach through a connection at Chicago.

And then along came Hurricane Agnes, which flattened most of the North East and the E-L in particular. The N&W asked the government if it could dump the E-L and D&H and was given permission, and so they were cast adrift. The E-L ended up in worse shape, and so it was rolled up into Conrail, while D&H was given trackage rights over Conrail that nearly doubled itse length overnight and was given permission to raid the cookie jar for new locomotives.

So, a summary of what might have worked better:

NYC: merge with B&O and C&O to form Chessie Systems

PRR: merge with N&W/Wabash/NKP

Reading: bought by Chessie Systems

Lehigh Valley: merged into N&W as a subsidiary of PRR

L&HR: abandoned

New Haven: portions saved for transit, the rest abandoned.

CNJ: portions saved for transit, the rest abandoned.

Erie-Lackawanna: left standalone, provided Hurricane Agnes never showed up and the ATSF merger neer materialized. Without deep pockets, it eventually would have collapsed though, and probably been split between Chessie and N&W. The N&W would have looked to use the NKP to Buffalo and west of Hornell would have been dropped,  Chessie would have wanted from Sterling, OH east. The condition of the EL main go much worse west of Marion and using the B&O line solved this problem. From Sterling to Akron, all trains would be moved to the EL and this would allow the B&O to get off of the PC track-age rights.  At Akron, the Baltimore trains would have gone east on the B&O and the New York/New England trains would have used the EL.

D&H: merged with E-L as intended, or held onto by N&W. If N&W had kept D&H, it would have held onto a link into New England and avoided the whole jerry-rigged Pan Am Southern deal. D&H also would have been spared the indignity of Guildford Systems.

Time also mentioned a proposed merger in 1958, as a response to the beginning of the Penn Central merger (remember, it started in '58, was announced in '63, and finalized in '68) that would have put seven railroads together as a response: Erie, Baltimore & Ohio, Chesapeake & Ohio, Reading, Delaware & Hudson, Nickel Plate, and the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western. It was Delaware & Hudson President William White who called all of the presidents together to meet at Cleveland, and the D&H, Erie and DL&W were already deep in talks of their merger. The Reading was included because the B&O owned a huge share of the RDG, and the NKP was there because the DL&W owned a huge share of the NKP.

Also interesting is that the same article includes this bit: "Last week another merger was well past the talk stage. The Norfolk & Western and the Virginian Railway, which share the profitable soft-coal Pocahontas region with the Chesapeake & Ohio, announced that they had started studies for a merger that would add "strength to strength." Both lines are efficient operators but could profit by merging. Their merger would create a new system having 2,695 miles of main track in the South and combined assets of more than $900 million." So the C&O was really hedging their bets, looking at two separate mergers at the time. Pretty shocking that the C&O was even considering merging with the N&W, which was it's chief competitor.

Some other proposed mergers that never happened:

PRR/LV: The PRR owned 85% of the LV's stocks and wished to merge it into the PRR, but the ICC refused the merger request. So the PRR just continued to run the LV as a division, even when it was supposed to sell it off as part of the Penn Central merger. The merger and continued ownership of LV stocks was probably not a great move by the PRR, since the Lehigh Valley was, sadly, not a great railroad. 

DT&I/VIR: A pretty obscure one. During Henry Ford's "vertical integration" era he owned the Detroit, Toledo & Ironton and turned it into a highway funneling supplies for his factories. He had a grand 3-phase vision for the DT&I: #1 was full electrification of the DT&I, #2 was building a connection between the DT&I and the Virginian, #3 was the eventual merger of the DT&I and Virginian. It would have given a fully electric railroad funneling coal from Virginia to Detroit and automobiles from Detroit to Atlantic ports. This didn't get really far, the electrification he started on the DT&I was incompatible with the VIR, and he became aware that the ICC wasn't going to let him run the railroad like he wanted, so he sold it off to the PRR before the connection was even started between the DT&I and Virginian.

N&W/DT&I: The N&W had a strange soft spot for the DT&I and made offers to purchase it from the PRR in the '50s. The offer was well over what the DT&I was worth (the DT&I was never quite the performer it was under Henry Ford after he sold it off) and the PRR was bleeding cash at the time. The PRR turned down the sale, foolishly, and held onto it until the Penn Central went bankrupt and it was spun off to private investors and then later bought up by the Grand Trunk Western.

SLSF/CofG: The Saint Louis-San Francisco (better known as the Frisco) applied to merge with the Central of Georgia in 1963 and was actually granted permission for the merger by the ICC initially. The ICC much preferred end-to-end mergers rather than parallel mergers (less risk of market monopolies) and the Frisco and CoG only connected at Birmingham. Then the ICC discovered that Frisco had bought up over 70% of the CoG stocks since 1956 and got irritated that Frisco had jumped the gun. The ICC denied the merger and ordered the Frisco to divest themselves of the stocks. Its unlikely that this merger really would have changed the course of railroading. The two railroads had only one common point, Birmingham and the only destinations of note that CofG reached on its own were Atlanta and Savannah. Yes there was online industry in places like Columbus, Macon, Albany, and Augusta but reaching the major ports in Florida would still have required interchange with two unfriendlies, Southern and ACL, nor did CofG reach into the Carolinas. The Frisco was later scooped up by Burlington Northern, while the CofG ended up as part of Southern.

UP/CRI&P: This one made a lot of sense but was ultimately botched by the ICC. The Union Pacific was interchanging its trains onto the Milwaukee Road to get them into Chicago and wanted its own route into Chicago instead. The Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific had been ailing since post-WWII as a result of an overbuilt Mid-West (the Rock Island went everywhere the Burlington did, but took longer to get there) and was looking for a savior. The merger was applied for in 1964, with the UP proposal for the UP to get the line from Omaha to Chicago, while the the Kansas City-Tucumcari "Golden State Route" would be sold to the Southern Pacific and the Memphis-Amarillo "Choctaw Route" would be sold to the Santa Fe Railway. The Rio Grande would have an option to purchase the Denver-Kansas City line. This was done to keep the SP, ATSF and D&RGW from protesting the merger, although the D&RGW probably would have been unhappy about losing a friendly interchange partner. As the merger proceedings dragged on, the Rock Island deferred maintenance for two reasons: one, it left more money in their bank account and made them look a better merger partner, two, why spend money on maintenance when Uncle Pete is going to take over and fix everything up? The proceedings took over 10 years, as the C&NW pitched an unholy fit and the ICC tried to use the merger as a hammer to reshape the western railroading scene. By the time it was given the ICC's blessing, UP took one look at the now-decrepit Rock Island and said no thank you, estimating it would take $250 million to get it back in shape. Within 5 years, the Rock Island was abandoned largely at the behest of the Crown family (they were a major bondholder and pushed long and hard for liquidation to get their money back, since secured bondholders are first in line). Ironically, UP ended up with most of what they wanted and more: an even better line across Iowa to Chicago in the "Spine Line" and it got the Golden State Route. What it didn't get: a fast KC - Chicago route.

MILW/CRI&P: It's unknown how far this actually got, but it apparently was discussed. Thank god this didn't go through, it would have made Penn Central look like a military drill. Take the two weakest granger lines and cram them together.

MILW/C&NW: With the GN/NP/SP&S/CB&Q merger in the process and UP and CRI&P in talks, Milwaukee Road saw the writing on the wall and turned to C&NW with the proposal for a merger. The MILW had actually been searching for a merger partner since 1957, sacrificing any sort of management or forward-thinking since then, and now archrival C&NW was the only dance partner left. The MILW and the C&NW drew up a merger agreement that would form the new "Chicago, Milwaukee and Northwestern Transportation Company" and in March of 1965 the two railroad's Boards of Directors approved the creation of the new 21,000 mile railroad, and, after the approval of the shareholders, it was sent on to the ICC in May, 1966. In 1969, the ICC recommended the combination of the two lines, but then it all fell apart. C&NW stocks dipped sharply and there was no way to reconcile the difference. The MILW was caught flat-footed, as they had not pressed for any concessions to the Burlington Northern merger, and now had no Plan B. Later in 1970, the C&NW offered to sell out completely to the MILW with no shared management but MILW declined, saying that it had to be part of a larger system to survive, not merge with a smaller line. MILW then started lobbying to be included in the UP/CRI&P merger but got nowhere. By that point in time, decades of deferred maintenance were catching up, with 4000 miles of track under slow orders, a derailment a day on the mainline through Montana and locomotives being parked for any failure due to inability to fix them. After MILW abandoned in 1980, C&NW actually bid for what was left, but its high bid over Soo was viewed with skepticism and the MILW's remains were awarded to Soo instead. The MILW/C&NW merger is highly debated. Many point out that there was so much duplicate trackage and facilities, that it would have been unable to pare them down fast enough. Both C&NW and MILW had been putting off maintenance to look better to each other, which meant both were in rough shape. They had a tall order of rationalizing excess midwestern plant, redundant lines and unprofitable branch lines. Others argue that if they could have overcome regulatory hurdles to rationalize the huge low-density midwestern network into a grain unit train network, coupled with a PNW-Chicago-Louisville & KC transcontinental line and the Powder River coal hauling line, it could have been a great success although it is unclear/unlikely if they could have amassed sufficient capital to pull it off

So cool:

https://www.govdeals.com/index.cfm?fa=Main.Item&itemid=4769&acctid=237

https://www.govdeals.com/index.cfm?fa=Main.Item&itemid=4791&acctid=237

Oh, to be super rich and drop a couple hundred grand on a railroad to run around my property...

From this weekend's trip. These are from Saturday, when we rode the fall foliage excursion from Reading to Jim Thorpe, with a stop to pick up passengers at Port Clinton. I arrived early, hoping to get some photos of the #425, but she was still up in Port Clinton when they started boarding. I grabbed a seat as far forward as possible, which was the fourth car back. Right behind the SD50 diesel helper was an old NYC baggage car, converted to a HEP power car, and then two coaches that were reserved for passengers getting on at Jim Thorpe. Since this was a long trip, the #425 was also towing her auxiliary water canteen, which I've heard was built from the tender of a PRR E6 heavy Atlantic (and supposedly a stoker-equipped one at that, which means it was a rare beast). The train had a number of old clerestory roof coaches and converted DL&W EMU cars, an ex-Milwaukee Super Dome, a heavyweight Pullman and two private cars, including the Black Diamond observation car.

While the diesel was present, it sure sounded like #425 was doing most of the work. Four cars back, the gunshot exhaust was a pretty solid roar and there were plenty of cinders and loose leaves in the air. The SD50 was largely used for dynamic braking but it likely was helping on some of the grades as well, since 14 cars is a lot of weight for a little Pacific.

At Hometown, PA we crossed the Hometown High Bridge. It's 168 feet and 1186 feet long with a great view out over the valley. Also its in a bit of a bowl, so when they reduce speed on the bridge for sightseeing, there is then a terrific grade on either side that they have to climb without much momentum in their favor, resulting in the #425 digging in and barking up the hill. You could hear the engineer just barely managing the wheelslip the whole way up.

Then it was a three hour layover at the beautiful Jim Thorpe. I walked around, appreciated the architecture and scenery, poked my head in a few shops, ate an excellent chicken sandwich with bacon, bacon jam and onions, and tried some mead for the first time.

The public library.

I like how this one's dormers looked as if the architect just didn't know when to stop. 

The old Mauch Chunk jail. This was where accused members of the Molly Maguires were held and executed. So now I've seen the Hibernian House at Girardsville where Jack Kehoe was arrested, and the jail where he was held and executed.

This house has some intriguing architecture, and some wild color choices. Its a bar these days.

Mauch Chunk/Jim Thorpe had something like 9 different denomations of religions, and their according churches, due to the fact that the miners in Mauch Chunk were not of all one region. There were Polish, Irish, Hungarians, Italians, etc.

This is a stone-line culvert for a creek. Just past where I took this photo, it heads under ground and runs under the cellars of all the houses on the streets.

The Hotel Switzerland, now the Molly Maguire's Bar. The original name was a reference to Mauch Chunk's nickname of "The Little Switzerland of America"

The old Central Railroad of New Jersey station. The CNJ liked these turreted, pointy-roofed stations. The freight house at Scranton exhibits similar architecture cues.

While we were in the city, they backed the train up over the bridge at Coalport and wyed the whole train and then backed down in. This car, the Black Diamond, was a wedding gift from Jay Gould to his daughter. Yeah, lot of history there. I overheard a conductor saying that Andy Muller, R&N president, was aboard the train on the Black Diamond and I'm pretty sure that the gentleman on the left side is Andy Muller himself.

The Milwaukee Super Dome. R&N just purchased a second Super Dome from the IOU Pacific bankruptcy auctions.

And then it was back to Reading. At Reading, they pulled the train in to let us off in a way that #425 was way up past the station, so no photos then either. 

The view out my coach window as #425 crosses the Hometown High Bridge and then roars up the grade. This was on the return trip to Reading. 

The next morning I drove to Leesport to catch #425 come through. This is at the end of a looooong straight stretch so you can see and hear it coming a ways out.

Then I jumped in the Yaris and hauled ass up to Port Clinton to catch some photos of #425 while they were loading passengers and watch her depart.

The ex-NS executive F-units

Some of the Iowa Pacific cars have started to arrive on property.

Off-duty EMDs

#425's thunderous departure from Port Clinton, with that sharp stack talk and a bit of wheelslip