Grassroots Railroad Sports?

NickD said:

NickD said:

I've bought tickets for a special event out on the Arcade & Attica Railroad in western New York. A group is doing a special charter on Friday July 14th and Saturday July 15th. The photo charter on Friday is with their two GE center-cab switchers, 65-tonner #112 and 80-tonner #113, pulling a freight train. It'll include rare mileage between Curriers. NY and North Java, NY, which they typically do not carry passengers over. That's the southern end of the line that handles the freight interchange with the Buffalo & Pittsburgh RR (a G&W line that runs on the old Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburgh). The event is to commemorate the end of doubleheaded center-cab operations on the A&A. For years they've made do with the 65-tonner and 80-tonner (they also have two 44-tonners, neither of which are operational anymore) handling freight, but since most of those small GEs lack M.U. capability, they have to pay two crews. They're also less than 500hp each, and they're quite old and the parts support isn't the greatest, so the A&A is finally buying its first road switcher to take over.

Then Saturday is to be a morning photo/video session with the replacement for the old GE center cabs. Fortunately, A&A isn't replacing the old center-cabs with something like a GP38-2. No, they purchased an Alco RS-3u from the Western New York & Pennsylvania, formerly Delaware & Hudson #506, which was also D&H bicentennial unit #1976 at one point in it's life too. The 251-swapped, chop-nosed RS-3 rebuild, the sole survivor of D&H's eight RS-3us in fact, is to be the new primary freight power for the Arcade & Attica, while the center cabs will still haul passengers, although likely not doubleheaded anymore.

Well, I got a phonecall last night that the second day of this charter is off. The RS-3u needs to come from the Western New York & Pennsylvania to the Arcade & Attica via the Buffalo & Pittsburgh (A Genesee & Wyoming operation over the old B&O/Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburgh). Well, the B&P is doing trackwork on their system and so they haven't moved the RS-3u to Arcade Junction yet, and while the ad originally mentioned that they would reschedule the charter if it hadn't arrived by them, they said the timeline is in so much flux that they just decided to scratch the second day because they have no clue when it will ultimately arrive. So, I'm going out there Friday for the charter, and I hoped to go see the NY&LE and their MLW FPA-4 and FPA-2u on Sunday, which leaves me trying to figure out something to do on Saturday.

Well, E36 M3, today I'm on Facebook and scrolling through my feed, and there's a video posted by Arcade & Attica of ex-WNY&P #406 rolling onto their rails with a Jordan spreader in tow. So apparently it would have been there in time for the second half of the charter. But I can't blame them for cancelling it, when they really had no clue when it would arrive. Well, at least I'll get to see it, if not ride behind it and get photo runbys of it.

Someone asked the organizers this morning if, with the RS-3u arriving yesterday, there was any chance of making tomorrow happen. He said that they asked the railroad but were given a hard no. With it just arriving, they have to get it FRA "blue carded", which is a basic safety inspection.  Yes, it was operational on WNY&P. Yes, it was run in over the Buffalo & Pittsburg under its own power. But federal agencies are gonna be federal agencies.

Alright, here we go. Today was the charter trip on the Arcade & Attica with GE 65-tonner #112 and GE 80-tonner #113 hauling a mixed train with multiple photo stops. 

But let's kick thing off with a photo of a different GE center cab. This is Arcade & Attica #110, which was the A&A's very first diesel locomotive that they purchased in 1941, and kicked off their reputation of being the home of GE center cabs. This 44-tonner was credited as saving the railroad from bankruptcy and began the end of steam on the A&A. It was retired in 1984, and languished for a number of years before being restored cosmetically and placed on a panel track in the parking lot, along with one of the ex-B&O boxcars that A&A purchased for shipping Borden's Dairy Cremora dairy-less creamer (the Borden's factory in Arcade was the only place it was manufactured at the time) and an ex-Susquehanna & New York (no relation to the New York, Susquehanna & Western) caboose. 

Arcade & Attica 65-tonner #112 hooks up to the empty freight cars down at the Arcade depot while people arrive. Built in 1945 by General Electric at its Erie, Pennsylvania plant, for the United States Navy. After used in the Navyz, #112 went out to Colorado for switching work before being acquired by the ARA in 1988

The engineer aboard the #112 stares into the distance while the charter briefing was going on.

Our trip actually didn't start off with us getting aboard the train. Instead, we hiked across the road and up a hill to catch A&A #112 leading three empty covered hoppers up over Cataraugus Creek, passing by A&A #110. The GE 65-tonner was heavily based on the 44-tonner, just made larger and more powerful, and the family resemblance is definitely there. A&A #113, their industrial 80-tonner (a 50-tonner with ballasted frames and trucks) was on the back end, running push pull.

A&A #113 as they go up past our photo line and then come back down. The #113, as a newer built machine, definitely has more of a straight-edged, industrial vibe than. 

I then shuffled over farther left to a second freight runby with #112 and #113 in push-pull over Cataraugus Creek.

Also pretty neat that the really rusty covered hopper still had an old C&NW logo on it. Barely visible, but it's there.

They then backed down to the depot, unhooked the locomotives and shuffled them around, with #112 leading and #113 following, and coupled the freight cars on ahead of a combine and a coach. We've got three different models of GE center cabs in this photo; 44-tonner #110, 65-tonner #112, and 80-tonner #113. It's really funny that the 80-tonner is the physically smallest of the bunch, but that's because it was built as an industrial 50-tonner, for reduced clearances in factories, and then was ballasted up to an 80-tonner,. 

The twin center cabs crossing Cataraugus Creek. While big road switcher locomotives sound unique, these smaller GE critters use dual Cummins engines, which makes them sound like over-the-road dump trucks. They even have exhaust stacks with flapper valves on them.

We then boarded the train and backed down through downtown Arcade, past the depot. There was a prety good curve and I was able to take this photo.

We backed down past the engine house to the wye at Arcade Junction, where we got photos of it traversing one leg of the wye. The other legs were full of empty freight cars and MoW equipment, so it only ran over this leg.

They backed up along the wye, giving us time to relocate on top of a huge gravel pile, and then made a second runby.

There was also this crazy, burned old building on the outside of that leg of the wye.

We then reboarded, and went north through Arcade and our next stop was up by the fire department. The A&A's old retired V-plow is set off on a section of panel track up there.

Hey, is that the Windows XP background?

Along the way, we passed by the Curriers depot, which is where passenger service normally runs as far as, as well as the old depot in Java Center. The organizers were hammering that they wanted to get to Ghost Pond in North Java (fun fact, it's apparently pronounced Jay-vuh, and not Jah-vuh in this area) on time. And the urgency was well-placed. The passengers in one car were led around the back side of the pond to shoot across the pond, while the other car took shots close up. They did two runbys and then swapped locations.

They unhooked the passenger cars on the south side of the pond and proceeded to make the runbys as a freight train.

And, easily my best photo of the whole trip:

We then proceeded north to the end of the line in North Java. The line used to continue on to Johnsonburgh and Attica, but the line north of North Java was abandoned in 1957 due to numerous washouts from flooding of Tonawanda Creek. At North Java is the Reisdorf Brother's feed mill, which is their largest, and I believe only, freight customer, and recent increases in traffic are why the A&A had to buy the RS-3u. They unhooked both locomotives, ran them around to the other end, and then split the freight cars and passenger cars behind #112 and #113, respectively, for photo ops.

Also somewhere between Ghost Pond and Reisdorf Brothers, as if to hammer home the reason for their replacement, one of the prime movers aboard the #112 developed a mechanical issue that resulted in it needing to be idled for the remainder of the tip. Thanks to the exhaust flappers, you could see that the rear prime mover was running all-out, but the front prime mover was idling. The A&A crew said that they prefer for #112 to lead north, since it's mostly downgrade, and have #113 lead south because it's easier on the #112.

We then went back south to the south side of Ghost Pond.

We then stopped by the old depot in Java Center.

The old Java Center depot is now part of Conroy Ford, which is the oldest Ford dealership in NY, founded in 1911.

We then stopped at the depot in Curriers, NY. This is far north as they run passenger service, which means that ironically they miss some of the most scenic bits of the line. It also means that, when they get 2-8-0 #18 running again, the only way you'll see steam passing through Ghost Pond is either a charter or the rare steam freight move that they occasionally do. They again split the #112 off with freight cars and the #113 with passenger cars.

We made our last stop at Empire Distributing in Arcade, NY before returning to the depot.

Arriving back in Arcade.