Grassroots Railroad Sports?

In reply to lrrs :

lrrs said:

 Essex steam train, CT. Rolling real coal.I n

I need to get out to that operation someday. It's really not that far from me. 

The 40 at Essex originally belonged to the Aberdeen & Rockfish in North Carolina.

LS_BC8 said:

The 40 at Essex originally belonged to the Aberdeen & Rockfish in North Carolina.

It was originally built for the Portland, Astoria & Pacific, but was never actually delivered to them. Which is funny, because one of their other steam locomotives, the #97, was built for sale to an operator in Cuba, and was never delivered there either. The #40 went to Minarets & Western, then was purchased by broker Birmingham Rail & Locomotive, and then sold to Aberdeen & Rockfish. From what someone said, when this locomotive was stored on the A&R it was used to hold diesel fuel in its boiler. The A&R would buy as much diesel as they could to get a lower price, and then stored it in two army tank cars and the boiler and tender of #40. Several people on the A&R still hate to this day hate they got rid of her, since the machine shop where she was stored is still the exact same as it was in 1977, with all the overhead shaft belt-driven machinery. 

The #97 instead went to Birmingham & Southeastern Railroad, and then was purchased by a private owner in '63 and ran on the Vermont Railroad. It came to the Valley Railroad in '70.

They also have a Chinese SY 2-8-2 that they bought after the Knox & Kane folded up and have dolled up as a New Haven 2-8-2. And they were trying to buy the Bonhomie & Hattiesburg Southern 2-8-2 that's in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, but that's gotten mired down in a legal argument over who actually owns her and whether they had the authority to sell the engine.

The Waterloo Central Railroad in St. Jacobs, Ontario is fundraising to try and acquire Canadian Pacific G5c 4-6-3 #1238 from the Prairie Dog Central in Winnipeg, Manitoba and eventually restore it to operation. Reportedly once it is operational again, it will become the second largest operating steam locomotive in Canada, which is kind of mind-boggling, since a G5 Pacific is really not that big (if I had to guess, CPR 4-6-4 #2816 is the largest).

CPR #1238, and sister G5c #1286, were purchased from Canadian Pacific in 1964 by George Hart for his Rail Tours Inc. operation that he was running on the Maryland & Pennsylvania, as well as occasional excursions over the Western Maryland, CNJ, and Lehigh & Hudson River. In the winter of '68, the two Pacifics were used to heat Reading, Pa when the Reading Steam Heat and Power Company's boilers broke down. That was when they were supposed to be used for the ill-fated High Iron Co. doubleheader excursion, and CPR #1278 and Strasburg #90 were used instead.  In August 1968, without much sentiment to keep his G5 locomotives any longer, Hart sold the #1238 and #1286 to the Historic Red Clay Valley Railway Equipment and Leasing Company, which leased them to Ross Rowland for more of his High Iron Co. excursions.

In 1973, the Historic Red Clay Valley Railway Equipment and Leasing Company sold off the pair of G5s, this time to a gentleman by the name of Jack Showalter. Showalter moved them to Covington, VA and performed an overhaul on them to run over the C&O's Hot Springs Branch, between Covington and Intervale, VA, on his new tourist operation called the Alleghany Central Railroad. Between 1975 and 1984, the #1238 and the #1286 ran excursions over the branch, as well as the occasional jaunt over the mainline, and even being briefly leased by Southern Railway for three trips out of Alexandria, VA. But by 1984, the C&O wanted to rid themselves of the branch, which hadn't seen regular C&O service in a decade, and Showalter got the boot so that C&O could tear the branch up.

In 1988, Showalter struck a deal with the Scenic Railroad Development Corporation to operate over their freshly rehabilitated ex-Western Maryland trackage between Frotsburg, MD and Cumberland, MD, and moved the #1238 and #1286 and his collection of passenger cars to Cumberland. He also renamed his Alleghany Central Railroad operations to Allegany Central Railroad (yes, that's different). This operation didn't last long, however, since in February 1991, the contract that allowed Showalter to operate on the SRDC's trackage was close to expiring, and disputes prevented him from renewing it. The Allegany Central operated their last train between Cumberland and Frostburg on December 8, 1990, before the SRDC changed their name to the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad and began operating their own trains with their own locomotives.

During the spring of 1992, Showalter again ferried the #1238, #1286 and passenger cars to a new location in Gordonsville, VA while he tried to find another home for his equipment. Showalter changed the name to Virginia Central Railroad and struck up a deal with CSX to operate excursions for Staunton, Virginia to Clifton Forge, VA. Again, this was ultimately short-lived when, as a result of incidences on the Norfolk Southern and the Sunset Limited derailment on CSX rails, CSX decided to essentially ban steam excursions over their rails by way of requiring insurance that would cover $250 million (no insurance company offers such a policy). The Virginia Central ran it's last train of the season in October of 1993, and CSX announced their new insurance policy the very next month.

The #1238 and #1286 were subsequently moved to the Shenandoah Valley Railroad, covered up and stored there, with Showalter actually living onsite, in a trailer next to the locomotives and passenger cars to discourage vandals. Those who knew him, said that Jack Showalter never gave up on trying to find another home to run his steam locomotives on. He also offered the advice of "Own the rails you run on, so the sonzabitches can't throw you out" to anyone thinking of getting into the tourist railroad business. Sadly, Showalter never found a railroad willing to host his equipment, and he passed away in 2014. In 2015, his equipment was sold off, and although I can't find what happened to the passenger cars, the two locomotives were returned to Canadian soil by a private owner who stored them at the Prairie Dog Central in Manitoba. While Waterloo Central is attempting to purchase the #1238, the #1286 is still owned by the same private owner.

A relatively rare photo of CPR #1238 leaving Cumberland on the old Western Maryland line. Despite Showalter's CP G5s running for a significant amount of time (4 years under George Hart's ownership, 5 years under HRCV's ownership, 9 years at Alleghany Central, 2 years at Allegany Central, and 2 years on Virginia Central) photos of them in action are relatively rare. 

Jack Showalter, by all accounts, was a great guy. A lot of stories of folks saying that they showed up at one of his operations and him going "You ever fired a steam locomotive? No? Want to change that?" and having people ride up in the cab to fire, or even take the throttle, on the locomotives.

The two Pacifics, with #1286 leading, storm along the Penn Central's Port Road at Marietta, PA in 1969. This was during the era where they were owned by The Historic Red Clay Valley Railway Equipment and Leasing Co Inc.  HRCVRE&LC (even the acronym is a mouthful) was comprised four members of Historic Red Clay Valley who wanted to run mainline steam.  They had been outbid by Streigel Supply & Equipment Corp, a scrapyard in Baltimore, on the Reading T-1s that had just been retired from the Iron Horse Rambles, so they bought George Hart's two Pacifics  that he was no longer interested in. 

This was a Baltimore Chapter NRHS "circle trip' special in 1969 over the former main line of the Pennsylvania Railroad from Baltimore up the Northeast Corridor to Perryville, where they then hopped on the old Columbia & Port Deposit "Port Road" branch along the Susquehanna River all the way to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. At Harrisburg, the train was to turn, and then return to Baltimore over the old Northern Central Railroad, which was constructed in 1858 and had been essentially a division of the PRR since 1861. 

While headed north, the #1286 burned out a grate in the firebox due to an unskilled or sloppy fireman, and was operating at substantially reduced power, and then not long after, the #1238 blew out the cylinder packing on one cylinder. The train limped into Harrisburg, arriving significantly later than planned, and Penn Central, seeing that neither locomotive was fully operational, hooked a diesel locomotive to the lead to help them get home.

The trip wound up being the last steam engines to travel over the historic Northern Central, unbeknownst at the time, and returned to Baltimore well after dawn. Three years later Hurricane Agnes came along and flooding wiped out huge sections of the Northern Central, and Penn Central, who was completely bankrupt at the time, decided not to repair the line.  The line saw service only on the north side from Sunbury to as far south as York, and from Baltimore up to Cockeysville, Maryland for the industries located on these parts. 

The two Pacifics on that same trip crossing the Rockville Bridge at Maryville, Pennsylvania. You can tell just by looking at the stacks that the #1238 appears to be mostly along for the ride at this point, likely having blown the cylinder packing out.

On the subject of steam and the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad, WMSR #1309 should (hopefully) be back up and running sometime next week. While normally steam season on the WMSR starts early in the summer, and there as no major announcement, folks were discovering that when they were buying tickets, WMSR was warning them that the trains were going to be pulled by diesels. Some people theorized that it may have something to do with mitigating wildfire risks, while others spread unsubstantiated rumors about the locomotive being operated with a damaged or inoperative lubricator on one of the engines. In the end, the chief mechanical officer at WMSR came forward and made a statement on the situation. The WMSR had been under financial obligations from some donors and grants to have the #1309 up and running by a certain date, and so had to prioritize what they felt was most necessary to get the engine up and running. There was some wear on the pistons, but it was determined to be acceptable, but after putting the engine into service and running it a whopping 180 days last year (for the record, that's a pretty impressive number), they decided it did need addressing. They studied the ridership numbers and figured out that ridership behind the steam locomotive through the summer is lower than any other time of the year, with it starting to pick up after September 1st, so they decided to put #1309 in service later this year, tear it down, and have the pistons machined true again.

The change in management has done wonders for Western Maryland Scenic, I'll say that. A couple years ago, WMSR was the source of a lot of boneheaded moves and broken promises, and the #1309 was a topic pretty much on par with PRR #1361. Now, they've got the #1309 running, they've done a bunch of track maintenance, they've got the (ugly) F40PH and the B32-8 to add to their diesel roster, they're doing photo charters, they're transparent with what is going on, it all seems pretty good. To add to that, they have an ex-Western Pacific California Zephyr dome car on the way. Friends of Milwaukee Road #261 bought it back in 2017, did quite a bit of work to it, and now have sold it off to Railexco, who is moving it to WMSR and leasing it to them.

I am curious to see how, or if, WMSR solves the whole turntable conundrum at Frostburg. WMSR uses the old Western Maryland car shops at Ridgely, West Virginia (just across the river, and state line, from Cumberland) and maintains a wye there for turning equipment when trains return to Cumberland. But at the eastern end of the line in Frostburg, MD, they use a turntable that was installed when the line was reopened in the 1980s when Jack Showalter began running the Allegany Central over the line.

The line runs out of Cumberland on the former Western Maryland mainline, which ran to Connellsville, but then at a location known as Switch No. 9, it hops on the old Cumberland & Pennsylvania, which the WM acquired in 1944, to go east to Frostburg. The C&P passed under Frostburg through a tunnel, and then continued on south to a connection with the B&O at Piedmont, WV. In short order, the WM abandoned a lot of the old C&P, since quite a bit of it was redundant, and closed the tunnel in Frostburg, which was just east of the depot.

When the Scenic Railroad Development Corporation worked out a lease with Jack Showalter, Showalter needed a location to turn his locomotives at the east end of the run. They were using the depot to load and unload passengers, and then once you crossed Depot St. you had maybe 200 feet before you hit the old, closed Frostburg Tunnel. Making things worse, there is a curve in the trackage there, as well as a passing siding, and the entire thing is on a grade headed into and through Frostburg. Here's Google Maps, to make things easier to understand.

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.6568412,-78.9245008,166m/data=!3m1!1e3?authuser=0&entry=ttu

The problem is that the track comes into Frostburg, is still curved and on a grade, crosses Depot St., and then you have the turntable right there. And the turntable has to be mounted perfectly flat and level. You go from an uphill grade to a flat turntable with no tapering off of the grade at any point, it just crests right there at the edge of the pit. Folks talk about Jack Showalter standing there anxiously watching the suspension on his CPR G5s as they tried to negotiate their way onto the turntable. He expressed his great concern over the wear and tear on his engines dropping across the gap no matter how slow he went, and at one point asked the FRA official who was looking over things why there was no regulation on the books to prevent this situation. The FRA inspector's answer was "We didn't think anybody was that stupid!"

But they didn't have any other options. It was all downgrade to the west of Frostburg, so they couldn't unhook the train, back it west of Frostburg and then back it up east to the train. And there was no way they could reactivate the tunnel under Frostburg and put the turntable on the western end of the tunnel and turn it there, because the tunnel had been closed for 30+ years and the area around the western portal had been built up.

So, they made do under the Allegany Central era and under Western Maryland, when they were running #734, with lots of caution and care. And turning the locomotive up there was a big deal, with viewing platforms built around the hillsides so that passengers could disembark and watch them turn the #734. But the #1309 has a longer wheelbase, and while it's flexible in a horizontal aspect, it's not as flexible in a vertical direction. On top of that, the approach to the turntable has a 22 degree curve, and the C&O H-9 2-6-6-2 was only rated for a 20 degree minimum curve. Now, the manufacturer's recommendations were often a bit conservative, but there's still concern over the ramp onto the turntable.

For the time being, they use #1309 to pull the train to Frostburg, with a diesel or two on the other end, and then they go back to Cumberland with the diesels leading and the #1309 in tow. It works, because then the diesels are leading and can use dynamic braking, rather than burning up locomotive and car brake shoes, but it kind of defeats the point of the #1309. The WMSR management said part of why they were retiring #734 was because increasing train lengths and weights exceeded the #734's pulling capacity and it required a diesel helper, and they didn't like having to pay for two crews. But, with them having to run push-pull operations with the #1309 until the situation with the turntable can be sorted out, they're still having to use two crews.

The problem is that, there really is no good option. What if you lower the track at the road to be level? Now the turntable pit is too high and you have to dig the turntable pit down, not to mention make alterations to the road that Frostburg might not be receptive to. If you just make it level 100 feet out from the table, that part is simple enough, but now the track is a whopping 3 feet higher than before in the station area. It's going to take you quite a distance to run off that 3 feet since the grade entering Frostburg is already 3%, so that's a lot of raising, and it messes up the station platforms. 

Kentucky Steam Heritage Corp., the Ravenna, KY-based group restoring C&O Kanawha 2-8-4 #2716, has announced that progress will be making a major leap forward. They will be receiving the fully-overhauled Worthington feedwater heater assembly off of ATSF 4-8-4 #2912 in Pueblo, NM. The #2912 had an operational restoration began on it back in the early 2000s by it's owners, the Pueblo Railway Museum, but they discovered that the #2912 need some pretty extensive firebox and boiler work that pushed the expected costs up into the mega-dollars range, and decided that it was out of their reach, economically. They then pivoted towards a cosmetic restoration, but had had a number of appliances, including the Worthington feedwater heater, overhauled before then. Kentucky Steam Heritage Corp. worked out a deal to trade their feedwater heater off the #2716, which is cosmetically complete but needs a total rebuild, for the rebuilt but never used feedwater heater off of the #2912.

KSHC has been doing a great job of saving money where they can on this restoration. A year ago, they struck a similar deal with Pueblo Railway Museum to do a similar swap of the #2912's rebuilt air pumps with those on the #2716. And they also worked out a deal with Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum for a set of tubes, which the HVRM had purchased for the aborted operational restoration of their own C&O Kanawha, #2789. These moves have not only saved large amounts of money, they also have saved considerable amounts of time. I remember hearing that lead time on a set of tubes is 6 months or more. 

The Monon Railroad Historical-Technical Society has announced that they are donating two ex-Monon cars to the Hoosier Valley Railway Museum as part of a partnership between the groups. The first is Monon business car #2, Lynne, originally built by Pullman Standard for the Great Northern Railway on their flagship train, The Oriental Limited. By 1949, the car was stored in the Calumet Shops storage yard and in 1953, the Monon needed another business car and purchased it from the Pullman Corporation. Warren Brown, President of the Monon Railroad, was pleased with the updated changes to the car and named it Lynne after his two-year-old granddaughter, Lynne Marie Chambers. In 1958, Lynne was removed from the car, and it became the number 2 car, used primarily by the law department. Just prior to the Monon’s merger with the Louisville & Nashville, the car was sold to businessman Leonard Brown of Michigan City, Indiana. In November 2011, the Leonard Brown family donated the car to the Monon Railroad Historical-Technical Society.

The other car is wide-vision caboose #81532 was built in 1956 by the Monon in their shops in Lafayette, Indiana. It was one of eight wide vision cabooses constructed by the railroad. The caboose eventually joined the Louisville & Nashville roster and later the Seaboard System. The Seaboard donated the caboose to the Monon Railroad Historical-Technical Society in 1985. 

The plan includes operating the business car in excursion service as an upscale experience with portions of the ticket sales supporting the society.  The Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum already houses three pieces of Monon equipment: EMD SW-1 DS-50, boxcar #1220, and transfer caboose #81551.

Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum has also been hard at work trying to get their BL-2s up and running. Iowa Pacific Holdings had acquired a pair of the ex-Bangor & Aroostook BL-2s and painted them in a D&H-inspired livery for their use on the Saratoga & North Creek, which used the old D&H line to Tahawus. After IOU Pacific imploded back in 2019, the BL-2s, along with some other equipment, sat dormant in North Creek until IPH's assets were liquidated, and HVRM grabbed the two BL-2s and had them moved to North Judson. The units had some wear and tear and electrical gremlins from their old age, and also had some freeze damage to the cooling system, since IPH closed up shop so quickly they never had time to winterize the units. According to the museum, the #52 is almost ready to begin operating, and then they'll turn their focus over to the #56. Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum has a number of Monon pieces, and the Monon was one of the operators of BL-2s, so I have to wonder if the pair will eventually be repainted to Monon colors, maybe one in the "Thoroughbred" red, gray and white, and one in the gold and black freight colors. Or, since they do operate C&O trackage and C&O also had BL-2s, maybe one will get the C&O treatment.

A Monon black and gold BL2 on the lead of a freight, along with a handful of EMD F3s. Of the seven surviving BL2s, one of them them actually is an ex-Monon unit, the #32 at Kentucky Railway Museum, while two are ex-Western Maryland, and the reminder are ex-BAR.

Two of the Monon's BL2s lead a transfer freight through Chicago from Clearing Yard to Hammond in 1969. Despite how poorly received the BL2 was, they sure did seem to live long lives.

Monon F3s loom in the darkness of the Lafayette, Indiana shops.

Monon F3A #82A with train #6, the northbound Louisville-Chicago Thoroughbred, rolls down the middle of 5th Street in Lafayette, IN on June 7th, 1961.  The Lahr Hotel on the left actually had a Monon ticket agent and waiting room in the lobby.

The Thoroughbred behind F3A #84B waits at the depot in Lafayette, Indiana.

A pair of railfans jogs towards the head end of the train at Bloomington. This is the remnants of the Thoroughbred, reduced to just a baggage car and two coaches, with just four months to live. The final run of the Thoroughbred, and actually all Monon passenger service, would be on September 30th, 1967. On the head end is high-hood, steam generator-equipped Alco C420 #502. The Monon purchased six Alco C420s in August of 1966, but only two, the #501 and the #502, were equipped with steam generators, which required the high hood.

A third of Monon's short-lived fleet of C628s rolls through New Albany, Indiana on June 26th, 1964. These were purchased as part of a plan for the Monon to haul Appalachian coal, transported from West Virginia down the Ohio River, north from Louisville to waiting Great Lakes steamers at Michigan City and to power plants in the Chicago area. The preliminary study showed that the proposal would be incredibly profitable, paying back construction costs within the first couple years and allowing the Monon to double track the whole line shortly after.

The first steps were coal unloading facilities on the Ohio River and a Great Lakes dock at Michigan City, which the Monon applied for a $3.5 million federal-guaranteed loan for in the spring of 1961. The amount was soon increased to $5 million, with $4 million earmarked for construction of the docks. In August 1961, the loan was guaranteed by the ICC and in October the Monon applied to the ICC for permission to build new trackage necessary at Louisville. 

Opposition from eastern coal-hauling railroads, fearful of lost traffic and revenues, soon appeared at the ICC's doors. Any meaningful progress stalled out while the subject went under consideration by the ICC. On October 15, 1963, an ICC hearing examiner issued his report from the April hearings on the Monon's proposed coal facilities and the report recommended approval of the plan. Even before the report was formally issued the, Monon in September of 1963, placed its order for for nine big six-axle Alco C628s to be used for this coal-hauling service. These locomotives were nothing more than lines on blueprints at Alco when the Monon placed their order. The C-628 had been announced by Alco in January 1963 and the Monon's order was the second taken for this model.

The Monon's dream for the coal facility came to an end on January 28, 1965. On that day the ICC ruled on the Monon proposal and in a 6 to 5 decision, turned down the proposal. The ICC decision indicated that "public and convenience and necessity" had not been shown and indicated that competitive service over all rail routes was readily available. The decision was a controversial one. In fact, one ICC Commissioner, Virginia Mae Brown, the first female member of the ICC, issued a stinging rebuttal to the 6 members who voted down the Monon plan. Also among the votes for the Monon was that of ICC Chairman Charles A. Webb. The following March, the Monon would issue a request for reconsideration of the ICC's decision, but the Monon's plan for the coal facility was dead.

Not long after, it was discovered that the big C628s were tearing up the rails on the Monon. The Monon was notoriously stingy on track maintenance, and the C628, big and heavy and equipped with those Tri-Mount trucks, were notoriously hard on the degrading roadbeds of railroads of the 1960s. With no reason to need such big power anyways, Monon sent them back to Alco in trade for eleven brand new C420s in August of 1967. Alco then turned around and sold the nine C628s to Lehigh Valley, who already owned a sizable fleet of C628s, and was quite fond of them.

Two of the big C628s rumble out of the yard in Hammond, Indiana in September of 1967. That L&N boxcar directly behind the power seems like an omen of things to come. In March of 1968 it was announced that, to placate the Monon's fear of lost business due to L&N's acquisition of a competing route in the Chicago & Eastern Illinois, the L&N would also merge with the Monon.

Monon C420 #503 with a sleeper car and business car #2 Lynne at Chicago, Illinois in May of 1971. Since passenger service on the Monon ended in September of '67, this was obviously some sort of executive special, and with the merger with the L&N only three months away, this was likely some sort of pre-merger inspection trip.

NickD said:

N&W #611 made the move down to Virginia last weekend, and I'm pretty sure that I guessed right on where it is going. For a couple days, searching "611 Steam Train" pulled up an incomplete webpage with the Buckingham Branch/Virginia Scenic Railway heading on it. The website has since vanished, likely because other people had found it as well, and there hasn't been an official announcement. That should be a nice place for her to run, with some longer trips to stretch her legs.

Well, got that one right. They announced today that #611 will be pulling excursions over the Buckingham Branch Railroad under the Virginia Scenic Railway umbrella in October and November of this year.  Passengers will board the train in Goshen (kind of weird that they're boarding in remote Goshen and not right in Staunton off of I-81), travel east through the fall foliage of the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests and into the Shenandoah Valley. The whole consist will then be towed back to Goshen by diesels, since they lack turning provisions.

I'm curious what the trainset they're bringing in to tow behind #611 is. The VSR, at the moment, has a single standard coach and that's it for their passenger fleet, so the fact that tickets for dome cars are available must mean they're borrowing or leasing cars from somewhere for the operation. 

CSX freights and Amtrak's Cardinal run over this line, so presumably the track is pretty good condition and theoretically they should see some pretty good speeds, certainly better than when they were at Strasburg at the least.