The crew struggles to bend the iron so that they can back #1835 down to the front of the train. Probably should have gone up there and shoveled it off and thawed it out before they needed it. I was kind of curious to see what would happen if they couldn't get the switch flipped. Send up one of MA&N's big Alcos or the new #3573 to tow the train back or get an MA&N track crew up there with a torch.
A low-angle shot of #1835 leaving Remsen and heading south
Charging through Barneveld at Milepost 16. In the background you can see the start of the Remsen Hill grade.
Holland Patent depot.
#1835 arriving back in Utica and passing the new kid on the block.
Utica was a busy place on the main line too. I was there about 30 minutes and saw 6 freight trains. There were 3 eastbound and 3 westbound, 4 container trains, a tanker train, and a garbage train. One had Union Pacific motive power, a pooled power agreement likely, but I didn't get a photo of it sadly. There was also a westbound Amtrak Empire Service train with a Phase II painted dual-mode Genesis.
The MLW RS-18 was mechanically the Canadian version of an Alco RS-11, although the carbody was actually different. In the early years of MLW diesel production, they were identical to Alco products. MLW produced the S1, S2, S3, and S4 switchers, the RS-1, RS-2, RSC-3, and RS-3 road switchers, and the FA and FPA cab units. Canadian railroads didn't care for A1A-truck twin-engine passenger units, with even EMD's E-units only selling 3 E8s to Canadian Pacific, and so there were never any MLW PA-1s or PA-2s produced.
In 1954, MLW and Alco model lines started to diverge when MLW introduced the RS-10. This was essentially an RS-3 running gear (1600hp 244 V12) in a new carbody which was closer in appearance to a Fairbanks-Morse product, with tall long and short hoods that had a domed top and number boards that were affixed at an angle. They did not have the hood notches that characterized later Alco/MLW products.
Then in 1956, while Alco introduced the RS-11 in the US, MLW instead introduced the RS-18. Similar to the RS-11, it was 4-axle road switcher with an 1800hp 251 V12, and it also offered tall and low front hoods along with a choice of Long Hood Forward or Short Hood Forward options. But, unlike the RS-11 with the boxier carbody with notched hood ends, the RS-18 had the domed roof line and running boards mounted at an angle. Canadian Pacific and Canadian National ordered all of their RS-18s with high hoods, but while CN preferred them configured to run Long Hood Forward, CP ordered theirs to run Short Hood Forward. Other customers, like Pacific Great Eastern, Roberval & Saguenay, and Cartier Mining ordered theirs with the low front hood, which gave them a look similar to the later C420s.
Canadian Pacific later ran a bunch of their RS-18s through the shop (can't find an exact date) and chopped the nose down and called the resulting machine an RS-18u. At first blush, it looks exactly like a factory low-nose RS-18, but there are a few differences. The RS-18u has the numberboards mounted up above the windshield in a V-shaped box that sticks up over the cab roofline, along with the classification lights, instead of down in the hood, the dual headlamps are stacked vertically instead of side-by-side, and it still has the handbrake recessed into the nose.
The MLW lineup continued to diverge from the Alco lineup, with offerings like the 251-powered FPA-4, the RS-23, the RSC-13, the RSC-14, and the RSC-24, only for their product lines to then begin to resemble Alco's once again once the Century series was introduced.
One of the most famous and beloved MLW products was CPR #8921, nicknamed "Empress Of Agincourt". The #8921 was the sole MLW RSD-17 produced. The RSD-17 was the Canadian equivalent of the Alco RSD-15, which was a 2400hp 6-axle road switcher with a V16 251 engine with the carbody style similar to the RS-10 and RS-18. The RSD-17 was offered as a competitor to the Canadian Locomotive Company (Fairbanks-Morse's Canadian branch) H-24-66 "Train Master", and it was sent around Canada on a demonstration tour on Canadian National, Canadian Pacific, and Pacific Great Eastern in 1957, being painted in each railroad's colors during it's stay. After a couple years touring, it failed to generate any orders whatsoever, because Canadian railroads found a pair of 1600-1800hp units was the perfect match for their typical train sizes developed in the late steam era. A single 2400hp unit was an awkward size, since it meant they were either running shorter trains with one unit or over-powering their trains with two units. The 4-axle units also were better suited for much of the track structure across the systems, and so even the 2400hp F-M/CLCs that they had lived pretty short lives, being outlived by the 1600hp F-M/CLC units that they owned. The lone RSD-17 was sold to Canadian Pacific for a firesale rate in 1959 and became CPR #8921.
Canadian Pacific placed it in transfer service, shuffling cars between yards in Toronto, and so it was nicknamed "The Empress Of Agincourt" and became sought out by railfans. In the late-'80s, Canadian Pacific gave it an overhaul and chopped the noise on it and when it was painted they actually applied the diagonal stripes on the short hood in the opposite direction of standard. It's not known whether this was an accident or to draw attention to it's non-standard status.
The "Empress" was retired in 1996 when one of it's tri-mount trucks developed a crack and CPR could no longer source a replacement. They stripped the prime mover out of it for a rebuildable core, but fortunately did not scrap what remained, instead donating the locomotive as a preservation piece in St. Thomas.
I also finally found out why New York state refuses to allow 6-axle locomotives over the state-owned trackage north of Remsen. And I knew that it was probably going to be a stupid reason, because it's New York we're talking about, but, wow, is it dumb. Units with more than 2-axles per truck were banned on the Remsen-Lake Placid trackage because back in the 1978-1981 Adirondack Railway days, Alco RSC-2 #25 was prone to derailing so the state threw a blanket ban on all 6-axle units.
Really the reason for the derailments was a combination of the track not having had any real maintenance since the late-'40s/early-'50s and considerable wear on the running gear of #25 that resulted in some weird tracking behavior. The irony is that, ignoring track manglers like SD45s or C636s or extreme track curvature, 6-axle units are typically easier on the track than a comparable 4-axle unit. When EMD introduced the SD7, the SD stood for Special Duty, and it was intended for usage on branch lines with light rails because they spread the weight out over more axles. For right now though, with Adirondack apparently committing to Alco/MLW power, the 6-axle ban isn't a huge issue because 6-axle Alcos fall into two categories: rare old dinosaurs like RSD-5s and RSD-12s, or ballast bruisers like C630s and M636s. Alco never built any light 6-axle units in the later years: the RSD-33 and C620 were stillborn and the C624 evolved into the C628 before it hit the market. But on the EMD side of things, it writes off a lot of good stuff like SD38s or SD40s.
New York is also dropping $74 million on various rail projects around the city "to reaffirm it's commitment to rail" as I saw elsewhere. Rings a little hollow after New York made the Adirondack Railroad rip up their tracks from Big Moose to Lake Placid, but whatever. Locally, the big winners are Mohawk, Adirondack & Northern, who is getting $1.18 million for rehabilitation of their yard in Utica and rehabilitation of the line from Remsen to Lyons Falls and another $1.01 million for overhauling the tracks up on the Griffiss Business Park, and Cooperstown & Charlotte Valley, who is getting $460,000 for rehabilitation and expansion and another $201,000 toward the replacement of locomotive wheels. I can get behind this use of my money a bit more than, say, a multi-million movie studio that will never be used to make even a second of film and then be sold back to the county for $1.
In reply to 914Driver :
That's both impressive and terrifying.
I've heard that Remsen Hill was the stiffest grade that the Adirondack Railroad runs on, but Remsen Hill doesn't appear on a map. I learned it was around milepost 17, but I wasn't exactly sure where that was, only that it was before the Sand Road grade crossing. On my one Facebook post of a train crossing Sand Road, one of the guys who volunteers as an engineer said "Sand Road is the tipping point. If we can make it there, we're good the rest of the way."
Last weekend's photo gave me a clue though. The photos I took at Trenton Station Liquor were at milepost 16, and if you look in the background of this photo of the train headed southbound you can see where the grade starts. Taking to Google Maps, the next closest area is Old Poland Road, where the road actually goes under the tracks through a stone, single-lane underpass.
It seems like if I parked there, I could climb the embankment and catch them climbing the grade. Certainly a shot you have to commit to, with the hiking. You aren't going to catch them at Holland Patent and then have time to get here and climb the embankment in time, or catch it here on the hill and then run down and catch it at Sand Road.
Well, Amtrak was all hyped to send their new ALC-42s out on the front of the Empire Builder today for their debut run. They were to leave Chicago with the A-Day heritage livery ALC-42 #301, Phase VI livery ALC-42 #302 and a Phase I heritage Genesis P42. Embarrassingly, the PTC systems onboard the new ALC-42s was not functioning properly, so Amtrak ended up having to go grab another P42, in generic Phase V livery and put it on the front of the train. There was also supposedly some other mechanical issue before it reached it's first stop, causing another delay. Not exactly an auspicious debut.
NYS&W ran a plow special up the Utica Branch with CSX #2651 for power (#3040 and #3618 are apparently still out of action). NYS&W has an O.F. Jordan plow that's a bit of an oddity in that it is a one-way plow instead of the more frequently seen V-plow.
Pine Creek RR plow extra. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DkgpAVO-as
After a four-year restoration undertaken by a single man, Maine Central #470's stoker motor is functional. Shown here operating on compressed air. The rest of the big MEC Pacific is still continuing it's return to operational condition.
Another big piece of recently-announced preservation news is that FMW Solutions, the same folks undertaking the restorations on Atlantic Coast Line #1504 and PRR #1361 and Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis #576 and Florida East Coast #148, will be doing some major running gear work to Pere Marquette #1225. The big Van Sweringen Berkshire is going to have the boiler lifted off the running gear for the first time since before it's 1951 retirement and have a major overhaul performed. From what some have said, she's got some drive wheels that are pretty far out of round and some other issues that really need addressing, and this should give her the maintenance she needs for many more years of trouble-free service.
Another big one is that Buffalo Creek & Gauley #4 will be receiving an all-new, all-welded boiler constructed by Sistersville Tank Works. The shortline Consolidation was purchased by Durbin & Greenbrier Valley to operate over the Durbin-Cass line as soon as the bridge Trout River bridge is repaired. Previously operated at North Carolina Transportation Museum in Spencer, NC wearing a faux Southern disguise, the boiler on the #4 is apparently completely used up. Someone familiar with the engine stated "Spencer had already put a new crown sheet in it, and the throat sheet hips have been replaced. It needed side sheets, door sheet, a major backhead patch, and firebox wrapper sheet repaired. The dome course had a crack where in the past one of the air pump mounting studs had leaked. A big gob of weld had been applied. A nice crack grew out of the weld going forward, that a ever-lengthening weld had been applied. The front course was paper thin at the bottom, the front tube sheet was cracked, the bottom portion rotted to nothing."
Sistersville previously built the current boiler for Cass Scenic Railroad Heisler No. 6, which has given the railroad excellent service for nearly two decades since it debuted in 2004, so this will not be a repeat of the new boiler woes experienced at Texas State Railroad.
The Buffalo Creek & Gauley is one of those now-defunct shortlines spoken about in warm and reverent tones. It started at Dundon, West Virginia, where it interchanged with the B&O, then ran 18 miles along the Elk River through Avoca, Sand Fork, Cressmont, Swandale, Eakle and terminated at Widen. There was a sawmill at Swandale operated by the Elk River Coal and Lumber Company and there was a small dairy at Cressmont, along with the Rich Run Coal Mine at Widen and nine miles of Elk River Coal and Lumber Company logging rails at Avoca. In addition to it's quaint, remote locales that it served, the BC&G was famed for running steam locomotives right up until 1965, with a largely secondhand roster of 0-6-0s, 2-8-0s, and 2-8-2s from such sources as B&O, C&O, Aberdeen & Rockfish, Savannah & Atlanta and the equally revered Kelly's Creek & Northwestern. The #4 was noteworthy for being one of the only locomotives purchased brand new by the BC&G, although it had originally been built for a railroad down in Mexico, which failed to purchase it. Elk River Coal and Lumber Company also operated a roster of Shay and Climax geared steam locomotives.
Ex-Aberdeen & Rockfish 2-8-2, now BC&G #11, at Cressmont. As the fires were dropped across the US, railfans sought out the BC&G for one last chance at seeing active steam locomotives in a revenue-hauling setting.
Buffalo Creek & Gauley #4 at Widen, VA with a cut of hopper cars in the spring of 1963.
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