Grassroots Railroad Sports?

Q-4 Pocono #1634 and P-5 three-cylinder Mountain #2228 work a freight westbound at Buttzville, NJ 

A Q-3 Pocono on the front, with a Mikado shoving on the rear, and 55 freight cars in between climbs the grade at Paradise Cut in Mount Pocono. 

I honestly did not expect to hear this:

https://spotlightnews.com/towns/bethlehem/2021/12/20/the-wind-has-to-wait-for-history-historic-trains-have-to-move-before-wind-tower-factory-in-glenmont-can-break-ground-video/?fbclid=IwAR29HycY-7eNL0kiKlh0sapnQf2grvV64kRP0WrR0458S9gGJNjIoU7IdIQ

The first New York Central S-Motor and the sole surviving NYC T-Motor, both stored on a spur down near Albany, have apparently gained a new lease on life, along with the Alco RS-3 and GE U25B stored there. For years, there has been much wringing of hands over what was going to happen to these historically priceless pieces, and the general consensus was that there was basically no other fate in store for them other than being scrapped.

The two electrics and the two diesels had been purchased by the Mohawk & Hudson chapter of the NRHS and had been placed in a couple different locations as cosmetically-restored display pieces, and were supposedly still capable of operation with the right infrastructure. They then eventually all moved to the D&H's Colonie Shops, only to be basically evicted when Guilford Rail Systems bought up the D&H and became concerned over a couple vandalism incidents. The four locomotives and five passenger cars, including two 2 ex-D&RGW, ex-D&H lightweight Pullman-Standard 1950 diner with very unusual center kitchens that had ran on the Prospector while in Rio Grande service. They were then moved to a spur on Beacon Island between the Port of Albany and the power plant at Glenmont.

They've been stuck there ever since, because one end of the spur they were parked on was fenced off for the Niagara Mohawk coal-fired power plant at Glenmont, while the other end had a bridge that was embargoed and later removed. The Glenmont power plant was not receptive to taking down the fence and moving the equipment out through their property, and the land around the rail was a swamp in the middle of a forest, so dismantling them, craning them onto flatbeds and trucking them out was not really an option either. Over the years, the equipment passed hands, first to Berkshire Scenic, and then to Danbury Railway Museum, but there never seemed to be a future for the stuff.

Well, now a windmill factory is being built on the property that the equipment is stored at and it needs to be moved out of the way. The good news is, because they are going to be building in there, they are filling the land to build a road to move construction and materials in and out. The move is going to be complicated though. They can't be moved from where they are by rail, because of the end of the spur being removed at the power plant and the bridge being out at the other end. They can't be loaded onto a flatcar and moved by rail on a flatcar to Danbury because they will be too tall for the bridges. And they can't be trucked into Danbury, because it is in the center of town and no trucks over 40 feet long can make it there, but there is rail access to Danbury.

So, they are going to be disassemble them where they are and then truck them to the Port Of Albany. There is a drop pit there, so they will go through the wheels and axles to make sure everything rolls and is safe to move, then continue trucking them to the Berkshire Scenic Railway Museum in Lenox. There they will be reassembled on the rails and then moved by the Houstatonic Railroad to Danbury.

For years this stuff has wasted away at the hands of the elements and vandals and pretty much was determined that there was no other fate for it than being scrapped. It's all pretty historically important stuff, being the very first electric locomotive, the only surviving T-Motor and a fairly rare U-boat. The RS-3 is the least rare piece, and even those don't grow on trees anymore.

In reply to NickD :

Danbury is pretty close to me. I'd like to try to catch them moving down the Housatonic if possible - let me know if you hear anything about the schedule.

Frankly, I'm surprised Housatonic is cooperating in this. I've heard from both Danbury RR Museum and Berkshire Scenic that Housatonic was very uncooperative in any effort to use their rails.

In reply to 02Pilot :

Maybe they are allowing it because the RJ Corman Group is handling the actual move? Those guys are pros, which might help smooth things over. Or the guys at the Houstatonic realize the historical importance of these pieces? Not sure. From what it sounds like, the Houstatonic stopped allowing excursions because the track conditions got too bad, so it was likely a liability reason that they won't play baall. This will be a one-time, low-speed move with no passengers aboard. As for the timetable, they want to have the stuff off Beacon Island in 4-6 weeks. It's probably going to spend quite a bit of time at the Port of Albany having all the axles, bearings and wheelsets checked out.

In reply to NickD :

It very well could be that the condition of the tracks isn't up to what's necessary, but the rumor floating around the places I mentioned was far more cynical: that Housatonic was exploring their own excursion service from Danbury to the Berkshires, and they didn't want the amateurs getting in the way and providing unwanted competition. There's evidence that this might be the case, though the page hasn't been updated in a long time, and I haven't heard anything about progress on it.

Edit: This article is more recent and lays out some of the issues with the proposed passenger service.

While the equipment at Beacon Island is escaping the scrappers torch, it sounds like the ax is about to fall on some Iowa Pacific passenger cars, some of which are pretty significant.

Ex-PRR heavyweight Pullman 6-6 Sleeper (6 standard open berths, called sections, 6 double bedrooms) "Poplar Summit" will be scrapped. Car is essentially a skeletal frame with a roof, off of its original trucks. The interior furnishings from the car however have been saved and are for sale as a lot. It is at the Lake Shore Railway Museum in North East, PA.

The ex-PRR heavyweight Pullman 12-1-1 (12 sections, 1 drawing room, 1 open compartment) Eupolis and University Club heavyweight Pullman 8 Section Sleeper - Buffet Lounge - Sun Room, currently reside in a Genesee and Wyoming controlled freight yard in Buffalo. Unless a successful purchaser is prepared to immediately remove those cars after closing, G&W will not give any buyer any amount of reasonable time to relocate those railcars off their property. Basically, once you "close" on the sale with the Bankruptcy Trustee, you will be expected to immediately to remove the railcars. Allegedly the G&W wants those railcars removed with 10 business days (or less) of the closing date with the Trustee. That's going to be difficult to pull off for anyone with a pair of old Pullman cars that haven't traveled in a long time. The Eupolis is believed to be the only surviving 12-1-1 Pullman in as-built configuration (later in life, a lot of Pullman cars got reconfigured inside).

Probably the saddest is NYC #519/D&H #154/Lion Gardiner, the very last NYC heavyweight diner left. It was at the Empire State Railway Museum in Kingston, NY, rotting away out in a field, and Colebrookdale Railroad was very interested in it, since they run a full set of "Gothic Era" heavyweight passenger cars. It would have been a very good home for it, but Iowa Pacific scooped it up instead and shipped it out to Bensenville, Iowa. From what I've heard, it's in very sad condition with extensive rot in the sides and sills and pretty much everyone is amazed at the fact that it survived the move, since it was pretty decrepit back in the 1960s. It most likely would not survive another move, based on the condition, and Colebrookdale has moved on to purchasing a pair of steam locomotives and likely doesn't have the money or interest in the Lion Gardiner anymore.

The Lion Gardiner, a name given to it much later on.life, was built in 1914 for the New York Central and it was a standard 48 seat diner with a fully functioning kitchen that used presto logs and charcoal for cooking. It had air-conditioning added to it in the late 1930s and had the interior modernized and the clerestory roof lowered at the same time. Then sometime in the mid- to late-1950s, it was sold to the D&H, along with at least one other Pullman heavyweight diner, to replace some old composite steel/wood dining cars that the D&H was still using. The D&H retired it in the '60s, probably when they bought a bunch of lightweight cars from the D&RGW, and it was sold to the Empire State Railway Museum.

It was borrowed by Ross Rowland's High Iron Company for the 1966-1967 trips over the CNJ , powered by CPR G-5s 1278, 1286 and 1238 borrowed from Steamtown USA. William Whitehead, one of the founders of the Black River & Western, and his family ran the diner and actually served 160 authentic three-course railroad diner meals to the passengers. According to Rowland, even then the car was showing signs of extensive body rust and clearly needed tons of TLC.

After High Iron Co.'s use of the car, ESRM sent it to Essex, CT in 1969, where it joined other ESRM equipment as part of the newly-founded Valley Railroad Company. In 1971, the car was painted dark green and lettered "Connecticut Valley", numbered 154, and named Lion Gardiner, after the early settler of Gardiner's Island in Long Island Sound. An early use in that set-up was for a publishing party for Michael Koch's "The Shay Locomotive" book in 1972 and one volunteer at the Valley still remembers loading, by hand and ladder, block ice into the roof hatches over the kitchen ice bunker. The car was getting quite rusty around the edges, as early steel cars that had been air-conditioned tend to get and, it suffered from the usual kitchen floor rot syndrome. While everything was there and intact, it was going to be a hell of a costly project to fix the car up, and more of the car fell on the ground every time that they coupled onto it, so it was shoved into the deadline at Essex about 1976 or so. A frozen water pipe ended up bursting and wetting down the interior sometime after that.

The car was ultimately sent to the current ESRM at Kingston, NY in about 1986, as part of a negotiated between ESRM, the Valley Railroad, and Railroad Museum of New England in a deal for ESRM's various assets. It was pretty much shoved out in a field with a DL&W and two CNJ EMU cars, a gondola and an open top hopper car east of Kingston NY on the Catskill Mountain Railroad main, due to out of service track including a weak bridge (that was eventually wiped out by Sandy) between there and the other CMRR operation at Phoenicia, which is where the ESRM was located. Iowa Pacific purchased the Lion Gardiner from the ESRM at some point, but then they defaulted on the purchase agreement when they failed to remove it from the property in time.

By 2013 CMRR had replaced the timbers on a long bridge just east of Kingston and was restoring track toward Phoenicia, and needed the car out of the way. At the same time CMRR was being harassed by the county, who owned the track, and the Kingston mayor, both of whom wanted to evict CMRR so as to get bike trail funds from the state. Lion Gardiner was included in this harassment, with the mayor claiming that CMRR wanted to bring it in to town and sandblast it, potentially spreading lead paint everywhere in his telling, and culminating with the infamous dump truck on the track, until the mayor found out he was violating federal law and removed it.

So, CMRR needed to find someone interested in the Lion Gardiner or they were going to scrap it. At that point, the Colebrookdale Railroad, which uses a roster of passenger cars completely composed of Gothic era Pullman heavyweights became interested in it. They began fundraising to move the Gardiner and restore it. As Colebrookdale began to raise awareness and funds to move the car, IPH took notice and prevailed upon ESRM that even though they had defaulted on their agreement, they should nonetheless be afforded an opportunity to cure. ESRM afforded them that opportunity, believing that the Lion Gardiner would be better suited to IPH's planned long-distance trains. IPH loaded it up on dollies and then towed it west to wait for restoration (IPH purchased a number of older cars in need of restoration, and never actually did any restoration work to them, and was responsible for the destruction of Poplar Summit). As one person who had inspected the Gardiner in 2010 for possible purchase said "In truth, I am shocked it survived the trucking out west as I really expected the roof and walls to collapse over the center sill."

Westbound Erie-Lackawanna SDP45s lean into a curve at Hancock, NY with a long string of TOFCs. The E-L was a big fan of the SD45, owning three separate variants of them. The SDP45 was intended as a passenger variant of the SD45, with a stretched frame and long hood to accomodate a steam generator and water tanks, plus high-speed gearing. E-L ordered theirs though without the steam generator or the water tanks, and instead slung a larger fuel tank between the trucks, allowing the SDP45s to handle long-distance piggyback trains without stopping for fuel.

This angle shows how the long hood was extended behind the big radiator flares and was squared off, instead of the usual V, which is where the steam generator would have been located, had they been installed on the E-L's SDP45s.

Unlike most railroads, the Erie-Lackawanna held onto their E-units after handing over passenger operations to Amtrak, and they were regeared and placed into freight usage for the final years of their lives.

EMDs and GEs pass each other by at Marion, Ohio.

Eastbound E-units at Griffith, Indiana

Passing the shuttered Galion, Ohio station

F-unit helpers pushing on an old wooden caboose across the Starrucca Viaduct at Lanesboro, PA.

CNJ power sneaking in on the right at Scranton

Reading #2102, in it's disguise as D&H #302, leads an excursion over E-L rails at Hankins, NY

An E-L RS-3 in fresh paint leads old Erie Stillwell coaches at Rutherford, NJ. The Manhattan skyline is visible in the background.

Erie-Lackawanna E-units still in passenger service in '65, with the Phoebe Snow