Other news coming out of the Reading & Northern is that they have purchased several more RDCs, which are listed as ex-Maryland Area Rail Commuter. No clue what their original heritage is or where they've been since MARC retired them back in '95. Adding more RDCs to the fleet makes sense though, since R&N keeps theirs running pretty much non-stop on Reading/Tamaqua-Jim Thorpe service. The theory is that these will be used for the long-rumored Pittston/Wilkes-Barre-Jim Thorpe service.
I was slightly disappointed to hear today that Reading & Northern has cut back #425's fall foliage runs from November 5th and 6th to just November 5th, with #2102 taking over the Sunday run to make up for it's failure last Saturday. November 5th and 6th were to be the last runs of #425 before she goes down for her 1472 and I was looking forward to spending two days chasing her. Feels kind of sad that her last hurrah has now been cut back to a single day. It also means that #425 only operated three times this year: once on the Mountain Top Rotary trip, once on the doubleheader Iron Horse Ramble in August, and then a single fall foliage trip on November 5th. I was really hoping she'd pull some of the Lehigh Gorge Scenic trips for a weekend, but they never assigned her to that.
I'm really hoping that next Friday when I drive up to North Conway the Batten Kill Railroad is going to be active. I'll be heading in close proximity to Shushan/Cambridge/Eagle Bridge where the Batten Kill runs, but the BKRR runs on a really erratic basis. People recommend calling in advance to see if they're going to be running because they don't operate on a daily basis or set schedule.
Why do I want to see the Batten Kill Railroad? Well, it operates over the old Greenwich & Johnsonville Railroad, which became a subsidiary of the Delaware & Hudson, and uses a pair of Alco RS-3s, one ex-L&HR and one ex-D&H, and an ex-D&H Alco S2, as well as leasing a pair of RS-36s from Southern New England Railroad in D&H colors.
Yesterday was the Adirondack Railroad's first Utica-Tupper Lake trip that was open to the public. It's a 250 mile, 11 hour roundtrip, and was the first time that a passenger train ran to Tupper Lake since 1981.
The train at the Alvord Road crossing in Holland Patent. Motive power consisted of borrowed Mohawk, Adirondack & Northern MLW M420W #2042, Adirondack Railroad Alco C424 #2400 and Adirondack Railroad MLW RS-18u #1845. The #2042 is still in British Columbia Rail colors, and semi-famously starred in a TV movie, Atomic Train, with Rob Lowe. It also has a really unusual sounding horn on it.
The trip was supposedly at capacity, with 8 passenger cars, including the dome car and an open-air car. Those 40 cylinders and 6200hp of 251 Alco made a hell of a racket climbing Remsen Hill. I will admit to being confused why they didn't have #2400, new kid on the block and wearing the new corporate look, positioned so it could lead the train in one of the directions. I stead, they ran north with #2042 on point and ran south with #1845 running long-hood forward.
All three units cough smoke as they clear Forestport, NY
Arriving in Thendara at the old NYC depot. This was formerly the northernmost terminal. They made a quick stop to take on some crew and let others off, and then it was on to New territory.
I got a photo of #2400 in tow. The nose was facing southbound so at least if they had swapped it with #1845, they could have had a unit running short nose forward AND had the new face of the railroad leading.
The bridge over Route 28 at Thendara, restored in New York Central paint
They were really wheeling as they passed by Big Moose Station. Big Moose is now the turning point for the local runs out of Thendara. Previously they ran south to Otter Lake, now they run north to Beaver River (between Thendara and Big Moose) or Big Moose. Yeah, the Adirondack region really leans into the nature names: Beaver River, Big Moose, Eagle Bay, Otter Lake, Bear River, Black Bear Mountain, Moose River. It's kind of comical. The other half of the towns are unpronounceable Native American: Oswegatchie, Thendara, Wannakeena, Minnehaha, etc. I did see a hiking trail called Death Brook, and, man, that seems like a hard sell. "Hey, wanna hike into Death Brook?" "....No."
Arriving at Tupper Lake for the first time in 41 years. I didn't hang around for the southbound trip. They had a couple hours layover at Tupper Lake, and by the time they headed south, the sun would have been going down. As it was, I had a 3 hour drive from Tupper Lake to home.
Now, my honest and candid thoughts on the Utica-Tupper Lake service:
I honestly believe it's a bridge too far, so to speak. Eleven hours is a helluva long time to be on the train for all but the most diehard railfans, and they don't tend to pay the bills. I heard a lot of people at Tupper Lake saying "Eleven hours?! No way I'd ride a train that long."
The other common complaint: "It's $150 a person! It'd cost $750 to take my whole family." Now, on a per mile basis, $150 for a 250 mile round trip isn't that outrageous or out of line. After all, Reading & Northern charges $70 for a 120 mile round trip from Reading to Jim Thorpe. But $150 a person is still a pretty hard pill to swallow.
The big thing I noticed, and my father had said this when they announced that Tupper Lake would be the new northern terminus after the removal of the Saranac Lake-Lake Placid trackage, is that Lake Placid really isn't a destination. I had never been to Tupper Lake, but on arrival, I noticed that really the only things within walking distance of the depot is a couple of greasy spoons. That's it. It's not like, say, Silverton or Jim Thorpe or even Thendara, which is a stone's throw from Old Forge, the ultimate tourist trap of the Adirondacks.
Now, the first trip was sold out, but that was because of it being the inaugural trip. I really don't see it being a continuous sell-out, except maybe in fall when the leaves are at peak (Unfortunate that the inaugural run was over two weeks after the peak). That's not to say that the stretch from Thendara to Tupper Lake is without merit. Man, once it gets north of Thendara, it gets into some extremely remote territory that you are not going to see unless you are an ungodly avid hiker. Also, Old Forge (just north of Thendara) is a huge tourist destination and has only one road through it, and in the summer it can take over two hour to clear the town. Riding by rail can let you completely skip that traffic jame. My guess is that the Utica-Thendara and Utica-Tupper Lake services will get consolidated. You get on at Utica, and they make a stop at Thendara. You can get off there and have a layover to go into Old Forge, and people can get on who didn't want to ride up from Utica, and then it continues on to Tupper Lake. Then it returns to Thendara, picks up those who got off for the layover and drops off those who don't want to go to Utica, and then heads south to Utica.
My return trip went the other route, through Croghan and Lowville. While passing through Croghan, I stopped by the old Lowville & Beaver River depot, where the Railroad Historical Society of Northern New York has their old two-truck Shay and wooden V-plow on display. The Shay ran back in the '90s but is unlikely to ever run again due to the sheer amount of work it needs. I know they have an ex-Rutland combine that O. Winston Link owned, but I'm not sure where it is. The RRHSNNY has wanted to reactivate the old L&BR as a tourist line, and the L&BR is a sweet little shortline, but there is a sigh rails-to-trails group trying to get the rails ripped up
The rebuilding of the 92 miles between Snow Junction and Tupper Lake was performed by Tartaglia Railroad Services and involved:
- Replacing 83,951 ties
- Replacing 2,743 feet of rail
- Replacing 82,580 bolts
- Placing 65,630 tons of ballast
- Surfacing 447,278 feet of track
- Replacing three public grade crossings
- Replacing 17 private crossings
- Cleaning over 28,000 feet of ditches
- Miscellaneous turnout and siding work
The track is now rated for 60mph in many locations and is as good, if not better, than it was during the heyday of the Adirondack Division under New York Central. I've seen people making disparaging remarks of "Oh, another train poking along at 15mph through the weeds." Clearly they haven't actually ridden or chased the train, because they absolutely fly headed up there. There are also plans to add an engine house at Tupper Lake, as well as a wye in the next year or so. As someone pointed out, with the high quality roadbed and the future wye, you could run a steam locomotive over the line easily. Of course, due to state rules about the Adirondack nature preserve, it would have to be oil-fired. And it would require twisting CSX's arm to move it to Utica, so it seems highly unlikely.
Someone else's excellent photo of the first High Peaks Limited, running along Bog River and Low’s Ridge. I did learn that the reason #2400 wasn't leading in either direction is that, according to Bill Moll, they are "waiting on a part for the #2400. Until it arrives and is installed, it can't lead at more than 25mph." I'm not sure what that part could be.
I can't link from this silly chrome book, but the original Orient Express is returning with 17 refurbished carriages.
914Driver said:I can't link from this silly chrome book, but the original Orient Express is returning with 17 refurbished carriages.
I looked it up and it's amazing that the cars still exist, let alone are so intact inside. Progress is the enemy of passenger cars. Interiors get gutted and rearranged and redecorated frequently. I forget which configuration it was, but there was a fairly common Pullman car setup that there is now believed to be only one in as-built configuration, because pretty much every one of them was "tunneled" and rebuilt into standard coaches. Even stuff in private ownership isn't safe. There are plenty of passenger cars that ended up in private hands that were gutted with intent on a makeover and then the project was aborted halfway through and the original furnishings were trashed.
I'm contemplating getting tickets to ride the Colebrookdale Railroad when I go down to PA on the first weekend of November, and they operate a fleet of heavyweight passenger cars exclusively from the Gothic Era. They are something to behold just in photos.
Right now, the Colebrookdale pulls them with early Geeps, which are a bit incongruous with the cars, but they have LS&I 2-8-0 #20 on the property getting it's 1472, and they are also in talks to purchase GTW 4-6-2 #5030 from Jackson, Michigan and restore it to operation, although the locals are mad that "their engine" is getting moved after 60+ years of them neglecting it and letting it rust away and doing nothing to preserve it.
Then, on the other end of the interior dector spectrum, you have the zany CB&Q/GN "Ranch Car' diners used on the Empire Builder. No, this car has not been rebuilt by some tourist operation or converted into a hokey Western-themed restaurant. This is exactly how these cars were delivered for use, Palomino seating, wrought iron GN ranch logo, varished wood inserts designed to look like slab siding and branded leather inserts. Definitely an unusual look. GN had six of the Ranch Cars, and five survive, although I believe only the one at the Minnesota Transportation Museum retains the original interior. The rest were redecorated during the Amtrak era.
The weather is looking excellent for this weekend's trip on the Conway Scenic. Forecast is 65 degrees and sunny. I was worried it was going to be 38 degrees, cloudy and pouring rain. Or, ugh, snow.
A rather unique old passenger car was spotted out in the wild this week. Northern Pacific observation car #391 was being moved through Logan, Montana by the soon-to-be defunct Montana Rail Link to a new owner, and will be trucked from the end of track at Harrison. NP #391, originally named Arlington Club, was one of six lightweight streamlined sleeper/lounge observations built by Pullman-Standard in 1948 for Northern Pacific’s North Coast Limited. The car included four double bedrooms, one compartment, a buffet-kitchen and a 26-seat observation lounge, kind of an unusual configuration.
Grabbed this southbound Amtrak Empire Service on the Hudson Line while taking a short walk on campus between classes yesterday.
It looks like CP had a bad day earlier this week.
https://www.wabi.tv/2022/10/19/authorities-scene-train-derailment-orneville/
I made the drive north to Eaton, NH today. I made a slight detour to try and catch the Batten Kill Railroad in operation, which I'm told is quite difficult. Unfortunately I had no success.
I went to the office in the old depot at Greenwich and no motive power or personnel was present there. In fact, I don't think anything goes down the line to Greenwich with any frequency, judging by the roadbed and rails.
I then swung over to Eagle Bridge, which is where they interchange with CP. I read that the CP interchange is the driving factor of they operate and that they often tie down motive power wherever they are done for the day. No sign of life there.
Finally I swung north to Salem, where the main customer for the BK is. There were cars there, but no power or activity. There was a nearby engine house for the railroad but I didn't see any one around to ask permission to poke around and I didn't feel like trespassing.
I did see a railroad contractor rebuilding the crossing for the line that runs west of Salem. That seems a good sign, since that line has been listed as out of service, so overhauling the crossing with new guards and a new concrete pad would indicate it being revived.
Doing some research, tomorrow is the 40th anniversary of the Batten Kill, and they are doing a nighttime photo shoot at Cambridge depot with the ex-D&H RS-36s leased from Southern New England Rail and the ex-D&H S-2 that Raven Rail has on site. Maybe they had the engines in the Salem engine house cleaning them for tomorrow?
I also swung through Bennington, VT to check out the Hemmings garage, which I've heard is very cool. But, according to the people there, the garage is still closed to the public due to Covid
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