Grassroots Railroad Sports?

The #3372 in it's early revenue days, running in "push" mode as well (the red lamp on the hood is lit up as an End Of Train light, rather than the headlamp if it were moving forward). The U34CHs and the Comet I coaches were purchased in 1972, financed by NJDOT for the Erie-Lackawanna's commuter operations. The U34CH was a U36C, but with a HEP generator driven off of the prime mover as well. This meant that when providing HEP,  the FDL-16 prime mover ran at a constant 900 RPM, so traction horsepower was 3430 minus whatever was going into HEP, and speed was controlled by field excitation. This meant that the U34CHs were extremely loud when providing head end power, since they were running nearly in Run 8 constantly. The Comet I coaches were built by Pullman-Standard and were pretty state-of-the-art, with all-aluminum body shell construction, use of head-end power, and cabs for push-pull configuration. The U34CHs would also be utilized by Erie-Lackawanna in freight service for runs to Binghamton and Buffalo on the weekends, since E-L wasn't running commuter service on those days.

On the track to the left is a steam locomotive, which would be Florida East Coast 4-6-2 #148, when she was owned by Sam Freeman and operating on the Morristown & Erie for their "Whippany Toonerville" excursion service. The #148 was lettered for Whippany River Railroad, a predecessor of the M&E, since Sam Freeman hated the "Whippany Toonerville" name and refused to let it be applied to his locomotive. M&E management tried to cash in on the good will and following that Earle Gil had built up with the Morris County Central operation, which had previously run on the M&E and then moved up to a disused segment of the NYS&W in Newfoundland, NJ. The PR guy (NOT a railroader) that ran the operation for the M&E decided that the name "Whippany Toonerville" would tell the public where the train was, and the Toonerville part would be associated with having fun. And what a fun, scenic, ride it was, featuring the back ends of paper mills, and all sorts of green slime in the mill's settling ponds. The M&E threw in the towel on the passenger steam excursions in 1977, after failing to generate the ridership, or money that they had hoped.

U34CH #4157 at Hoboken, NJ in 1981. When Conrail took over in 1976, they inherited the E-L's New Jersey commuter operations, as well as the U34CHs, which were renumbered into the 4100-series and had the E-L logo on the nose painted over. They remained owned and operated by Conrail, and were still snuck into the freight pool on weekends, until 1983, when NJ DOT founded New Jersey Transit and transferred all equipment and operations to them. Some retained the "Bluebird" livery with NJT lettering, while others did receive the NJT disco stripe.

U34CHs congregated at Hoboken Terminal. This was the old DL&W facilities, with the Erie having used Pavonia Terminal prior to 1954. As part of the leadup to the Erie-Lackawanna merger, Erie abandoned Pavonia Terminal and shifted all their passenger traffic into Hoboken Terminal.

NJT had their 40th birthday this weekend, and apparently all went well. After Saturday's excursion, hosted by URHS of NJ and NJT, they had a collection of power on display at Hoboken Terminal yesterday, including Bennett Levin's ex-PRR E8 #5711, URHS of NJ ex-Erie-Lackawanna U34CH #3372, NJT "bluebird" heritage unit GP40P #4101, NJT CNJ heritage unit GP40P #4109, the two remaining NJT F40PH #4119 and #4190, NJT PRR heritage unit ALP-46A #4636, and NJT 40th anniversary ALP-46A #4640.

On Saturday, NJT had run a special excursion from New York Penn Station down to South Amboy, then back to Hoboken. The consist included five regular Comet V coaches, Bennett Levin's two private cars, and URHS of NJ's stainless steel ex-NYC tavern lounge and painted smoothside ex-NYC round-end observation Hickory Creek. On the run out, they used two ALP-46As, the 40th anniversary unit and the PRR heritage unit, and then at Bay Head they simulated the original PRR engine change from electric to diesel, and had the last two remaining NJT F40PHs take over the run.

The Railroad Museum of New England announced today, on 10/3, that they are beginning fundraising to restore Sumter & Choctaw 2-6-2 #103 for an eventual return to operation. Sumter & Choctaw was a small logging railroad in Alabama and owned a pair of 1925 Baldwin-built logger Prairies with 44" drive wheels. The pair were run until 1962, at which point the pair were retired, the #102 with a cracked boiler went to Mid-Continent Railway Museum, while the operational #103 was sold to the Empire State Railroad Museum, which was trying to operate excursions over the Middletown & New Jersey in Middletown, NY. It ran there between 1962 and 1966, and then deteriorating conditions on the M&NJ forced them to stop in 1966.

In 1970, a lot of the members of the Empire State Railway Museum acquired the old Valley Line from Penn Central/New Haven, which dated back to the original Valley Railroad from 1871. The #103 and a bunch of the ESRM equipment was moved to Essex, Connecticut and they began running excursions there. By 1975, the trains had grown to four and five cars in length, and the #103 was found to have insufficient power to haul those trains. The Valley Railroad had acquired an ex-Birmingham Southeastern 2-8-0 in 1973 and gotten it operational and the decision was made to take the #103 out of service. It sat on display from 1975 until 2009, at which point it was moved to Thomaston, CT to the Railroad Museum of New England, where it has spent another 14 years on display.

In February of 2020, the #103 was evaluated by a team of experienced steam locomotive restorers during a week inside the Thomaston Shop.  During its 50-year service life, #103 never received a complete overhaul and while the locomotive is in good condition overall, this will be the most extensive work it has had since 1925.  It will need repairs to boiler and firebox, cylinders and driving gear, wheels and axles.  The tender will also be completely rebuilt, and in a common move for today's environment, the locomotive will burn oil instead of coal.

The preliminary restoration plan calls for work to start on the smaller parts of #103, at the Thomaston Shop, and major work will start once major goals are reached in the fundraising campaign.  Boiler repairs will be done off-site by Maine Locomotive & Machine, an experienced locomotive boiler contractor, with RMNE volunteers assisting.  Frame, cylinders and wheels will be worked on at Thomaston and at Western Maryland Scenic Railroad shops, with contractor and volunteer participation.  The tender work will be done at Thomaston.

She's definitely a neat little engine, although I'm sure RMNE/Naugatuck Railroad will likely have to use one of their diesels on the other end to give her an assist. I know that the guys at RMNE have said they've wanted to run some steam operations after hosting the Gramling's Lehigh Valley Coal Company 0-6-0ST a couple years back, and that's part of why they inked a deal to host C&O 2-8-4 #2716 when her restoration is done. RMNE also has Canadian Pacific #1246, which had been part of Nelson Blount's collection at Bellows Falls and was one of Steamtown USA's engines that they ran pretty frequently. After Steamtown moved to Scranton in 1984, it was then bought by RMNE and moved back to New England in 1988. People have asked about them restoring the #1246, but from what one of the RMNE honchos says, the ol' Steamtown USA "cold boiler to lifting the safeties in 45 minutes" warmup procedure wrought unholy havoc on the #1246's firebox and would require pretty much complete reconstruction.

Mono Rail switching station in Japan is pretty cool.