Grassroots Railroad Sports?

Crossing Molino Road in Orwigsburg, right near Port Clinto. Frustratingly, the field and the tracks were well lit not 1 minute before the train arrived, and then the sun dropped just below the hillside behind me right as the train came around the corner and threw everything into shade.

Crossing the road on it's way into the yard at Port Clinton.

Sitting at Port Clinton while passengers disembark.

Waiting on the other end of the signal stand was the North Reading Fast Freight with the other 40th anniversary unit, SD40-2 #1983, on the point. They had to let the passenger train go by and head towards Reading before they could make their run up to Pittston. A guy I was talking to yesterday said that the paint color on the #1983, an homage to the SW1 and CF7s that Blue Mountain & Reading began with, was actually mixed by color-matching a sample off of a sheetmetal part from one of the CF7s that was found kicking around in the Port Clinton shops.

For all the Engineer wannabees.

Age of Steam Roundhouse recently announced that they have acquired Sugar Pine Lumber/The Pacific Lumber Company 2-8-2T #37 from the Timber Heritage Association. The big logging tank came east in the late '60s and ran on the short-lived Wawa & Concordville and then later on the Wilmington & Western, then traded hands a few times before the California-based THA ended up with it. THA had it moved to Strasburg and was having it restored, albeit very slowly. They would raise a little money, and when Strasburg had the time they would move it in the shop and tinker with it. Well, THA came to the conclusion, after over a decade, that restoring the #37 was not financially feasible, nor was moving it from PA to CA after said restoration was hypothetically completed. They have decided to sell the engine to Age of Steam Roundhouse in Sugarcreek, OH instead. This makes the second long-neglected steam locomotive at Strasburg to be rescued by Age of Steam, after Reading 0-4-0 Camelback #1187.

While #37 will be leaving Strasburg, Southern #722, or at least quite a few components of it, have arrived at Strasburg. The 2-8-0 was once part of the Southern corporate excursion program, then was sidelined by the need for bigger and faster power, and then in later years ended up at Great Smokey Mountain Railroad..GMSR tore it down for an operational restoration, but work never progressed, leaving the pieces scattered around at Dillsboro, NC. There's been much wringing of hands over the fate of #722, but this year GSMR announced Ed they are finally moving forward with restoring the #722, and this is the first major step.

Southern #722 as she looked back in her Southern excursion days, painted in Southern Railway "Sylvan Green" with gold leaf and silver smokebox like the #4501. This was not applied to freight engines during the steam era on the Southern, but since they couldn't get Ps-4 4-6-2 #1401 back from the Smithsonian, they made do with applying it to the #4501 and #722 (the #630 always wore standard black). The important thing about the #722 being restored by the Great Smoky Mountains Railway is that it's the old Southern Railway Murphy Branch and there are historical records indicating that the #722 was mainstay power over that branch, so it'll be nice for her to be back on home rails.

Some other big news yesterday was that the B&O Railroad Museum has announced that they will be moving Reading #2101/American Freedom Train #1 this coming weekend from their front parking lot to their restoration facility, with the goal to cosmetically restore the AFT #1 in time for the 250th anniversary of the United States in 2026 and the 200th anniversary of American Railroading in 2027. The #2101 was pulled from a junkyard where it had been sitting for almost a decade and restored in 30 days to handle the northeastern leg of the AFT, after it was discovered that SP #4449 couldn't fit in northeastern clearances. After the AFT was over, it ran excursions over Chessie System as the Chessie Steam Express, until a roundhouse fire damaged it in 1979. Ross Rowland and Chessie System organized a trade with the B&O Railroad Museum where they would trade the #2101, cosmetically restored in AFT colors, to the museum for C&O #614. Part of the deal was the condition that was that they would keep her in her AFT livery,  and in " good repair cosmetically". They've fallen down on the second part of that deal, and the #2101 was looking pretty rough in recent years, so its good to see her getting restored (although personally I'd prefer the Chessie Steam Express livery myself)

Durango & Silverton has announced that, due to continually increasing ridership, they are planning on reviving D&RGW K-28 Mikado #478. The #478 has been out of service since 2016 and stored in the Durango roundhouse as a display piece, and they hope to have it running by 2025. Once the #478 is operational, D&S will have all three of the surviving K-28s up and running, which is awesome, especially since the K-28s spent most of their operational career on the Silverton line. The odd, asymmetrical K-28s are my favorite of the D&RGW narrow-gauge locomotives. They have said that the #478 will be coming back as an oil-burning locomotive, and they've also announced that K-36 #481, the last coal-burning engine on the D&S will also be getting an oil-burning conversion. They had originally planned to leave the #481 as the sole coal burner, but have come to the conclusion that it just doesn't make sense logistically and financially to have all the fueling and servicing facilities just for a single locomotive.

Snapped this one for Nick today:

Something local that I wish I could have caught; New York, Susquehanna & Western was using Mohawk, Adirondack & Northern's ex-BCRail M420W #2042 along with their own GP40 #3040 on a run over the NYS&W Utica Branch. Nobody is quite sure what the reason for, since the tonnage they were hauling didn't really require a GP40 and an M420W, but it was certainly an odd sight. Some people are theorizing that NYS&W might be looking at offloading the Utica Branch and MA&N was test-running crews and locomotives over it (possible, since NYS&W has just kinda been coasting along with the Utica Branch and doesn't really pursue any customers). Others are saying that the #3040 is possibly due for it's 93-day inspection and they're going to be borrowing the #2042 to make due and this was a test-run. My personal theory is that, being fall, NYS&W was leery of rain and leaves causing slippery conditions and decided to play it safe and over-power the train to make sure it got over the road (there is the 1.8%, multi-mile grade known as Paris Hill). They need 4-axle power on the NYS&W, due to some of the lighter trackage and sharp curves on the New Hartford Industrial Track, and NYS&W has no other 4-axle units other than the #3040, and while they borrow power from CSX, 4-axle stuff is getting rarer on Class Is.

Livestream of the AFT #1 move

Found a vid for Nick with quite a bit of odd RR bits in an abandoned mansion and I have yet to get there, but the click bait is some sort of Brit concept car:

EDIT: I wanted to get this posted here before I finished the vid so I would not forget. I am a bit tipped over as my little bud has his last vet appointment tomorrow and I cannot say goodbye since I am on a work trip. Tribute tomorrow in the Just a Cat thread.

The car is an AC 2500M and they also found a "hidden" room for of train lights and whistles and such.

Bummed to hear that Genesee Valley Transportation has filed for abandonment of the Lowville & Beaver River and part of the the northern division of the Mohawk, Adirondack & Northern from Carthage down to Lowville (The MA&N connects with CSX at Carthage, heads south to Lowville, and then connects with the L&BR and the L&BR heads northeast to Croghan). The MA&N hasn't run any traffic over either segment, as well as the other segment from Carthage east to Newton Falls (not up for abandonment....yet) due to a loss of customers and some embargoed bridges on the L&BR. The paper mill at Lowville either closed or stopped moving by rail, I can't recall, and the paper mill in Newton Falls and Benson Mine in Star Lake both folded up. There's been attempts to sell off the L&BR to become a trail, as well as those who have wanted to revive it to become a tourist line, but it seems like the trail folks will likely get their way. Too bad, because the L&BR was a neat picturesque little line with lots of long low bridges that meandered across Lewis County, and one of the L&BR 44-tonners is still in Lowville and is capable of operating.

As for right now, the line east across the north, from Carthage to Newton Falls seems to be escaping the axe. After the paper mill and Benson Mines closed down, the state hoped to lure customers back in, since those are the only industrial-zoned properties in the Adirondacks, and hoped that improved rail service might coax buyers. So the state spent a fortune rehabilitating that whole line east out of Carthage to allow 30mph operation....and then nothing ever materialized. There's been cars stored up there, but never a revenue move in the 12 years since the paper mill closed. That actually used to be the most profitable line on the entire New York Central according to John Taibi's book on the NYC's Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburg Division. The NYC dispatched 10,000 ton iron ore trains from Benson Mines regularly and they were a high-priority move. What's really crazy is that trying to find any sort of photos of NYC operating over that line is incredibly hard to find. 

Also, this Saturday, at West Leyden, NY, they're holding a presentation on the Glenfield & Western Railroad that my father and I are attending. The "Ol' Gee Whiz" as it was nicknamed, is a subject that is hard to find pretty much any information on. It interchanged with the New York Central Railroad at Glenfield and then headed east up the steep sides of the Tug Hill Plateau to Page, Michigan Mills, and other locations, eventually reaching 32 miles of tracks. It was designed to haul out timber from the Tug Hill Plateau for Page & Fairchild and Gould Paper. There was also a Glenfield & Eastern which went to Brantingham Lake, and is even harder to find any information on. That's tough territory up there, between the geography and severe winters, and they both went bankrupt in '32 and were abandoned, although the G&W remains an active snowmobile trail. I've scarcely been able to find any photos on the G&W, and this guy doing the presentation supposedly has a bunch, so it should be some rare material. Especially interesting is that the Glenfield & Western used some of the right of way, mostly some cuts that were blasted out north of Houseville, that were part of the stillborn Ogdensburg, Clayton & Rome, which was an attempt to compete with Black River & Utica, and was entirely graded before laying any rail, and went bankrupt as a result.

A rare photo of the Ol' Gee Whiz showing either 100% or 66%, depending who you talk to, of their roster. They had a Heisler and at least one rod engine, a 2-6-0, and maybe one other.

A posed photo of the G&W's side-rod locomotive at "Big Spring Curve" with the side-rod locomotive.

This is the cut near Houseville that was originally part of the stillborn Ogdensburg, Clayton & Rome that was repurposed for the Glenfield & Western. I've seen where the OG&R roadbed went through the now-flooded village of Delta (they built Delta Dam and the village became Delta Lake), and there's supposedly a tunnel up north of there near Pixley Falls State Park that was part of the OC&R that I would love to try and find.

This photo on the Lyons Falls Historical Society's page may well be that cut. They're trying to clear it of snow with a V-plow, which seems a futile operation. The Tug Hill Plateau gets some absolutely gnarly winters, which is why it's such a hotspot for snowmobiles, and was reported to hinder G&W operations to the point that later in the railroad's life, they ceased operations during the winter.

So, I'm planning another trip for December to catch a couple of steam locomotives in operation that I've never seen.

The plan is, drive down early the morning of Friday December 8th and head to Strasburg and hopefully catch the #89 in operation, which has evaded me, since it'll be off peak season during a weekday it might be more likely to be running. Or maybe it'll be #90 operating, although that's been in reserve power and has scarcely run this year due to being low on operational days on it's boiler ticket and is due for overhaul next year. I'm hoping that it won't be the #475, since I've caught that multiple times.

Then head east to New Hope, PA for the old Reading New Hope Branch, which is now the New Hope & Ivyland Railroad. That weekend they are running their ex-Lancaster & Chester 2-8-0, the #40, on their Santa Steam Trains every other hour. The NH&I has become one of those operations that fires up their steam locomotive pretty much only at Christmas time and a couple other weekends a year, so it's a bit of a rare catch. I've also never seen the NH&I, period, and this will give the opportunity to photograph the #40 multiple times in one day.

And then finally, head north to Minersville for Sunday, and maybe a couple other spots on the Reading & Northern. The R&N is running their Christmas trains that weekend, and while they're all over the system (Tamaqua, Reading Outer Station, Minersville, Tunkhannock), the ones out of Minersville are the only steam-powered ones. They're being hauled by CNJ 0-6-0 #113, a real monster of a switch engine and the unofficial third steam engine on the R&N. It's owned by a separate group, but is stored on R&N rails and is paired up with R&N passenger equipment for excursions. I've seen the #113 in person, and even been in the cab and blown the whistle, but I've never seen it operational. They run from Minersville down to Cressona, I believe, and then tow it back to Minersville with an R&N diesel.

They actually just did a night photo session with the #113 last weekend. It was originally scheduled for the night of October 14th, which was when I was down there to see Reading #2102, and I was considering signing up and going. Then they pushed it back a week due to the bad weather, and I can't blame them because it was miserable that night, so I definitely couldn't go. 

I love this video of the #113 accelerating to track speed. Short drivers make her accelerate pretty quick, and you can see how without a lead truck she gets bobbing and weaving pretty good.

New Hope & Ivyland is a railroad that is treated with a little bit of suspicion, or distrust, by those who have been around for a while in the railfanning community. Part of that is because they have stopped running steam as much as they used to, as I mentioned above. The #40 really only comes out mostly for fall foliage and Christmas and that's about it. But part of it also comes down to some other decisions that they made over the years that people haven't agreed with.

When they first took over the New Hope Branch from the Reading, they had a really nice little Canadian National 4-6-0, the #1533, which they bought in 1962. They ran that until around 1975, when it was taken out of service for an overhaul. In 1966, NH&I had acquired an ex-USATC/ex-Virginia Blue Ridge 0-6-0, the #9, and moved it to the property. They had been working on the #9 and had it near operation, and hoped to have the #1533 and the #9 both running for the US Bicentennial. The #1533 was found to need more work than could be accomplished in time and it was parked and never restored. Eventually the #40 became primary power, and they had issues with the #40's tapered-seat boiler washout plugs perpetually leaking, so the decision was made to cut the threaded Huron washout plugs out of the boiler of the #1533 with an oxyacetylene torch and then weld them into the #40. It's sat out behind the NH&I shops since 1975, and had parts borrowed from the spring rigging and the running gear and the backhead, and it's now a pretty rough-looking engine, with trees growing off the running boards. According to someone at SMS Rail Lines, when they approached NH&I about buying a steam locomotive, they wanted the #1533 but were stone-walled with the ol' "It means to much to us to sell" line and were rebuffed. SMS instead ended up with the 0-6-0 #9, also dormant for decades, and has been restoring that. The "means to much to sell but not enough to do something with it" mentality isn't just beholden to car guys.

NH&I #7 is a real sore spot with some, although not necessarily the fault of NH&I. When the Virginia Blue Ridge dieselized in 1963, they had two of the ex-USATC 0-6-0s, the #7 and the #9 still on the property. Steam Trains Inc., the operators of the NH&I in the early days, bought the #9, while a private individual who was part of Steam Trains Inc. bought the #7 for himself. The #7 and the #9 were moved up to the NH&I in 1966. The owner of the #7 was eventually forced out of Steam Trains Inc., for reasons I can't find, and it sat on a spur on the NH&I, while the #9 was being worked on to restore to operation. In 1970, #7 was sold to yet another private individual, who, like the person before him, did not have a good relationship with the NH&I management, and as the 1970s progressed, the locomotive could be found sitting derelict on a remote siding in the woods between Lahaska and Buckingham Valley, PA. In June 1976, the owner of #7 directed his attorney to sell the locomotive to the Menair-Fetzer Company with the provision that #7 had to be scrapped and not resold as a “complete locomotive” that could be restored. A private agreement was made between the Frank Menair and Jimmy McHugh (who was president of the NH&I at the time and owner of McHugh Company) for #7's driving wheels, complete running gear, driving boxes, throttle, air compressor and reversing gear. The McHugh Company then supplied a crane for the disassembly of #7. The parts to be saved were weighed and then scrap iron of the same weight was loaded into two Conrail gondolas along with the remains of #7 to make up the gross scrap weight needed. Most of the rescued parts were used on #9 when it was rebuilt in 1976. The sole reason for #7's unfortunate scrapping was because the private owner could not afford to make the necessary repairs to the locomotive to have it moved off the NH&I and he also did not want the NH&I (or anyone else for that matter) to have it as an operating locomotive.

The #9, after it's return to service in 1976 using the parts of the scrapped #7, ran about 5 years and then was parked in 1981. Again, like the #1533, it was parked out in the elements partially dismantled and sat there for almost three decades. It took numerous attempts by SMS Rail Services, after being rebuffed in their attempts to purchase the #1533, to get the NH&I to sell them the #9 and its been undergoing an exhaustive overhaul since 2008 and is getting near being ready to run again.

There was also a pretty decent-looking GE C30-7 that was running as late as 2017 that they cut up without any warning or offer for preservation a few years ago. The GE C30-7 isn't as loved by railfans as say, an EMD F7 or a GP30, but they were once a pretty common unit and are now practically endangered with very few preserved (and I don't think any of the preserved ones are operational).