Grassroots Railroad Sports?

As the year winds down, I figured I would take a quick look back at my big railfanning moments in 2021.

It started off with a trip north to Maine in February to ride the 2-foot gauge Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington Railroad for their Steam & Sleighs To SeaLyon Farm event. Was very impressed with the friendly staff, well-maintained equipment and all-around unique experience.

Then in July, I took a long weekend and went down to Strasburg. The big one was I not only got to see N&W #611, I also got to operate it, which was quite the experience, although I think I preferred operating Great Western of Colorado #90. I also stayed in the Red Caboose Motel, which was pretty cool. Then from there it was up to Altoona to make a pilgrimage to Horseshoe Curve, followed by swinging over to Hollidaysburg, PA to ride behind Everrett Railroad #11. The Everrett Railroad is a bit of a hidden gem of a railroad. People don't really talk about the Everrett much, but they have a beautiful locomotive, nicely maintained equipment, and a fairly long trip at 20-30mph.

In August, I returned to PA, this time to Reading, for a trip on the Reading & Northern's RDCs for some rare passenger mileage and access to some sites the public doesn't typically get access to. This included the Port Clinton steam shops, where R&N crews are hard at work on Reading #2102.

And in October, it was back to Reading again to ride behind R&N #425 from Reading to Jim Thorpe and back for one of their Fall Foliage Excursions. While the foliage was all still green, it was still great to see, and hear, #425 stretch her legs through some rugged and beautiful scenery.

Plans for 2022? Well, in today's environment it seems foolish to make definite plans or predictions, but I do have a few ideas that I'd like to try.

A big one is I really want to go to the triangle of tourist lines down southeast of here: Black River & Western, New Hope & Ivyland, and Wilmington & Western. The three of them are all under 2 hours from each other, all of them run steam (Great Western of Colorado #60 at BR&W, Lancaster & Chester #40 at NH&I, and Atlanta, Birmingham & Atlantic #58 and Mississippian Central #98 at W&W). BR&W is the nearest, at just over 4 hours away.

WW&F 2022 Summer Picnic. Last year I couldn't go up to Maine for the WW&F Summer Picnic, where they fire up all three of the operational Maine 2-footers for a day. If I miss this one this year though, there is always the chance that by 2023 the WW&F could have #10 fired up again or the Maine Narrow Gauge Museum will have Bridgton & Saco River #8 up and running.

Reading & Northern. I'm expecting that this year Reading #2102 should be up and running at some point, and I'm hoping that the R&N does an event similar to when they unveiled the new F-units where they did a full-day trip that covered the entirety of the R&N system. If they do, count me in. Even if they don't, it'll likely be run for one of the Fall Foliage Excursions, and this time I know to pick the date later in September. Or, I learned that the R&N offers cab rides on all their Lehigh Gorge trips, you just have to call ahead and ask, and I would definitely like to ride in the cab of #425 up through the Gorge.

Adirondack Railroad, either the Utica-Thendara trip or the new service north to Big Moose. I still feel guilty that the Adirondack's Utica terminus is less than 30 minutes away and yet I have never ridden.

A collection of New Haven power at Boston. An RDC, at least four DL-109s (and that's a conservative count), a PA-1, and an RS-2

Alco PA-1s at Providence, Rhode Island en route to NYC. The DL-109s failed to displace the I5 "Shoreliner" Hudsons, since they were slower accelerating. But the Alco PAs made the same horsepower as a DL-109 but with only one prime mover and one generator, making them much lighter and much quicker accelerating, and so they hammered the nails into New Haven steam power.

New Haven's Dan'l Webster at Union Station in Providence. The Dan'l Webster was the same as New York Central's Xplorer and used a Baldwin RP-210 engine with the same Maybach V12 and Mekydro hydraulic drive, but New Haven upped the complexity level by demanding the inclusion of third-rail electrical shoes so it could run into Grand Central Terminal. On it's very first test run, the Dan'l Webster had an issue with the third-rail shoe arcing and setting the grease on fire in one of the trucks and stranding passengers. Then when it was towed out of the way, it derailed and snarled up commuter traffic for several hours. A less than auspicious start.

One of the Erie's massive Berkshires rolls through Campbell Hall, having departed Maybrook Yard not long before. Lima invented the Berkshire, Boston & Albany bought the first Berkshires, Nickel Plate had the most famous, C&O had the heaviest and L&N had the most expensive, but Erie was the first to order them with the 69" drivers that took advantage of the larger firebox's steaming capacities, and with 105 on the roster, Erie also owned the most. Erie was also the only railroad to purchase Berkshires from all three major locomotive manufacturers.

An Erie 2-10-2 and a 2-8-4 dig in on the front of a 100 car train at Lanesboro, while another 2-10-2 shoves at the rear. Such scenes as this largely went unrecorded on the Anthracite Roads. Due to their proximity to the New York Central and the Pennsylvania, steam on the DL&W, Erie, Lehigh Valley, and D&H was largely passed over, especially the later more modern engines. The earlier Camelbacks drew their share of attention. The NYO&W seemed to get a disproportionate amount of attention in comparison to it's importance to the industry. And of them all, the Erie seemed to come in dead last in a popularity contest.

Blessed with generous clearances, a holdover from the Erie's days as a 6-foot broad gauge railroad, later Erie steam locomotives were large in dimension but cleanly in appearance.

An elderly Erie K-1 Pacific, replete with high-mounted headlight and Vanderbilt tender at Elmwood Park. Erie went through a phase where they used lots of Vanderbilt tenders, only to go back to conventional rectangular tenders later on.

One of the Erie's many Russian Decapods. During Erie's ownership of the New York, Susquehanna & Western, a number of these little Decapods were leased to the NYS&W.

An Erie K-4-A Pacific in use as a fast freight engine at Elmwood Park. They were delivered from Baldwin in '23 with 69" drivers and Vanderbilt tenders, and were actually intended for use as a fast freight locomotive. As the Berkshires marched onto the property, the K-4-As were refitted with 75" drivers and a larger tender and had their cylinders bored out a 1/4" and were shuffled into passenger service.

A low-angle view of one of the Berkshires highlights the huge diameter of the boiler

A veritable armada of Pacifics of all eras was kept on hand for the commuter rush out of the Erie's Pavonia Terminal at Jersey City.

An N-2 Mikado wheels a freight train through Ramapo.

A genuine USRA Heavy Pacific taking on water at Port Jervis. Note the Boxpok main driver, for better strength and balancing, versus the spoked drivers on the front and rear drive axle. The Erie was the only recipient of USRA Heavy Pacifics, with their twenty Class K-5s. After USRA control, they bought another 11 based off the USRA blueprint, classes K-5-A (10) and K-5-B (1). The design was loosely adapted for the B&O's P-7s, Southern's Ps-4s, and Atlanta and West Point's P-74s. The B&O's had had larger 80 inch drivers (versus 79"), higher tractive effort, and increased boiler pressure, while Southern's and A&WP's were a USRA Heavy Pacific boiler with the running gear from a USRA Light Pacific.

One of the K-5s with a rather dirty exhaust and what looks like a mixed train at Allendale, NJ. The front two or three cars are dairy cars, and I'm not sure what the fourth car is, followed by a string of passenger cars.

A K-5-A at Oxford, NY with eastbound train no. 1, the Erie Limited, kicking up a light dusting of snow.

An Erie Berkshire at Tuxedo, NY. Long nicknamed "the Weary Erie" for its outdated power, pokey schedules, and poor financial health, a lot of the laughs were stifled when these big 2-8-4s arrived on the scene and in 2 years time turned the Erie around into a fast freight hauler. Unfortunately it still had to deal with it's oddly routed mainline that, while double-tracked the whole way, was described as "from Nowhere-In-Particular to Nowhere-At-All." The mainline managed to miss every major city along the way. Binghamton, New York and Akron, Ohio were the biggest cities on the mainline between New York and Chicago. Buffalo, Rochester, Youngstown, Cleveland, Dayton, and Cincinnati were all at the end of branches from the mainline. Some said that “you could forget how much unpopulated land there was in the Northeast until you rode the Erie.”

Two Erie Mikados at the head of this freight train, which despite the different appearances are both the same class. The class N-1, #3143, in the lead has a single cross-compound air compressor mounted on the fireman's side of the pilot deck and a Worthington feedwater heater tucked under the running board, while the N-1, #3040, behind it has two cross-compound air compressors slung under the running board and an Elesco feedwater heater draped across the smokebox top.

A Fairbanks-Morse H-15-44 demonstrator on an Erie passenger train. Clearly it failed to impress the Erie, since they didn't buy an H-15-44s, or any other F-M products for that matter. 

I'm curious what the circumstances of events were that resulted in this Pacific being placed in helper duty along with one of the Erie's Berkshires.