Grassroots Railroad Sports?

So I'm waiting at Thendara, all ready to get a photo of the #2400 approaching. I hear them blowing the horn, get ready, and, wait, what the...? The #2456 is leading. Did they swap the locomotives at Tupper Lake? Now, wait, the #2400 isn't even behind it. What's going on?

Then I looked and see the #2400 on the tail end of the train and remembered that the tracks at the station in Tupper Lake are all torn up currently for a construction project to add an enginehouse and a storage spur, as well as reconstruct the Tupper Lake wye. That means they can't run power around the train at Tupper Lake, and the next closest runaround track is 15 miles south, at Sabattis. To avoid having to make a 15 mile shove move, they unhooked the #2400 and ran it to the back of the train and led it into Tupper Lake with the #2400 and then had the #2456 pull the train south from Tupper Lake. Since they are going mostly downhill and don't need the power M.U.ed, they just left the #2400 on the tail end. It also explains why they had two crews aboard at Utica: they needed a crew on both the #2400 and #2456 for this maneuver. 

So, I grabbed some shots of the #2456 sitting alongside the depot. I looked back and saw that the brakemen were unhooking the #2400, so my hope was that they were going to put #2400 back on the front for the trip south. While waiting, Deandre Walters, one of the Adirondack's engineers that I haven't met before, came up and introduced himself. We've seen each other's names online, but it was nice to put faces to names. His remark on the lashup that he was running was "not the power I was expecting today". According to him, the #3573 had been acting up the day before, so they'd left the #3573 at Thendara and brought the #2400 south, and then the mechanical department had fixed whatever was wrong with the #3573 on Saturday morning and gotten it running to handle the Explorer services.

It started getting near departure time, and they still hadn't run around the #2400, but I was thinking that maybe they wanted to get everybody on and off first, so that the risk of running someone over was mitigated. Well, the next thing I knew, everyone swung aboard and the High Peaks Limited headed south with just the #2456. They left the #2400 up just above the station, with it shut down. I guess they figured they'd leave it up there, to maybe handle the Explorers next week and get the #3573 back to Utica some other time. This made me decide to scratch my plan to catch the train going along the Moose River, since it wouldn't have the #2400 leading like I wanted.

And creeping back by the Forestport Great Stationhouse, again slowing to manually flag the crossing.

NickD said:

Today, Carter is mostly just a dot on a map with a couple camps. Despite one having a sign that says "Carter Station" on it, this is not, nor was it ever, the station at Carter. The union station looked similar to the Great Stationhouses but smaller and with a large awning. It was also A) about a tenth of a mile north of this camp's location, and B) was torn down during WWII and replaced with a little, open-faced shanty with three walls, since by that point the RLRy was gone and Carter was a dwindling settlement. Today that shanty is even gone. Now, the general store building does exist, it's one of the handful of a camps along Carter Road, although I'm not sure which one.

So, I checked back through my copy of Silver Rails Through The Heart Of The Park by John Taibi and while this wasn't the station at Carter, it was railroad related. This was the Carter Station Section Forman's house. Also, I thought that the second "station" was gone, but according to Matt Giardino it sill exists as an outbuilding at one of the camps. Yup, this is it. Supposedly the interior has wainscoting, just like the interior of the station would, just it's a tiny little shack.

Also, I found this old postcard of the original union station at Carter. Now, if you look close, it looks kind of funky and that's because the crowd has been added in from other photos, in a 1911 version of Photoshop. The women at the far left really stand out, since they appear to be about 3 feet tall. If you look to the left under the awning you can see a card on the other side, and that's the Raquette Lake Railway.

Where the entire Alco empire started: Genesee Valley Transportation's two ex-Central Vermont Alco RS-11s, #3600 and #3604, sit at the feedmill district on a January night in Buffalo in 1991. Genesee Valley Transportation was founded in 1985 as a holding company to take over ex-DL&W and ex-LV rails in the Buffalo area, and began operation with the Depew, Lancaster & Western in 1989. At the time, Alco locomotives were fairly cheap, there was still a decent parts supply, they were comparatively easy on fuel, and they were known luggers, so they purchased two RS-11s from CN and began operation. The RS-11s had actually been built for Duluth, Winnipeg & Pacific but CN had an odd habit of shuffling power around every couple of years between their various holdings and the DW&P RS-11s bounced back and forth between the DW&P and Central Vermont several times. When GVT took ownership, some clever paint work on the CV "noodle" logo turned it into GV, for Genesee Valley.  Genesee Valley would pick up several operations over the coming years; the Lowville & Beaver River in 1990, ex-NYC St. Lawrence Division for the Mohawk, Adirondack & Northern in 1991, a mix of DL&W, D&H and L&WV lines in Pennsylvania for the Delaware-Lackawanna in 1993, and the old New York Central Falls Road Branch for the Falls Road Railroad in 1996.

Switching the big ConAgra facility in Buffalo in 1993.

The #3604, after being repainted into GVT corporate colors and being renumbered to #1804. The ex-DW&P RS-11s were kind of odd beasts, a weird mix of Alco and MLW features. While early Alco/MLW product lines were pretty close up to the RS-3, they diverged afterwards, when MLW introduced the RS-10 that had no US companion model and looked completely different than anything Alco offered. While Alco had the flat-topped, notched-end, 1800hp 12-251 RS-11s, MLW's offering was the RS-18, which had the same 1800hp 12-251, but a rounded roof on the carbody and angled numberboards that stuck out past the body. 

The DW&P RS-11s were built by Alco and used the RS-11 carbody, but had the dynamic braking equipment mounted in the short hood (hence all the louvers) like an MLW product, instead of in the long hood behind the cab like an Alco product, and they also were optioned with the MLW-specific lightweight version of the AAR type-B truck. No clue why these locomotives were built as such a weird mash-up of features. These days the #3604/#1804 hangs out down in PA on the Delaware-Lackawanna, stil in DLWR lettering, while the other one, the #1800, remains on the DLWR.

DLWR #1800 spotting a car at Shuman Plastics in Depew, NY

The DLWR also has a pretty uncommon Alco S-6 on their roster, which was the last of the end-cab Alco switchers. It was rated at 900hp from an inline-6 251, and was behind the horsepower curve when they were introduced, with 1200hp kind of the sweet spot at the time. The S6 never really took off, only selling 126 units, and with SP the major buyer with 70 of those units.

The DLWR's ex-Roberval & Saguenay MLW RS-18. You can see the difference between the RS-11 and the RS-18. The RS-11 has more squared off ends with the notches for the numberboards, while the RS-18's ends are more rounded and have angled numberboards that protrude.

The #3604, while still working for the Central Vermont, operating on some street-running on Commercial Street in Portland, Maine on August 20, 1981. 

Those RS-11s, as they looked while working for the Duluth, Winnipeg & Pacific.

 street-running on Commercial Street in Portland, Maine...Best name ever for a rail track street.

TurnerX19 said:

 street-running on Commercial Street in Portland, Maine...Best name ever for a rail track street.

Railroad Street would have been even better. It's funny how almost every town has a Railroad Street that ran parallel to tracks, but I can't think of any Railroad Streets with street-running. I think the closest would be the MA&N shared-use bridge here in Rome.

The road jogs to the right just for the bridge and then jogs back left. When there's no train, it's a dual-lane bridge, and when there is a train it's single-lane. Also, note the two grooves in the grate decking. The story I heard was that MA&N was plowing the line in the winter and their V-plow rode up on some ice in the flangeways and derailed. Sadly, this bridge hasn't seen a train in a while, since they don't go to west Rome anymore. At the time, they used the stub-ended RW&O line on the west side to store cars and Rome Strip Steel was a customer that they delivered coil cars too. But Rome Strip Steel changed hands and the new owners stopped handling deliveries by rail, and then MA&N expanded the Rome and Utica yards and yanked up the tracks that went past Rome Strip Steel to the west side of town. So, the Railroad Street bridge hasn't seen a train in 3 or 4 years now, sadly.

What's the story behind these human powered rail carts?

VolvoHeretic said:

What's the story behind these human powered rail carts?

Railbikes. Really taken off in popularity the past decade or so. You rent them out and you and four friends pedal them along. It gives a better look at the scenery, since you're going at lower speed, and the railroad usually has a guide with you to talk about some of the stuff along the way. Adirondack started running them a few years ago, and they run south from the northern terminus at Tupper Lake as well as north and south out of Thendara. What days they're using them depends on what the train departure schedules are, since the line is all single-track. They are being used on other active tourist lines (Western Maryland Scenic comes to mind) and also some companies and groups are using otherwise out-of-service line as railbike lines (Revolution Rail is a big one for that and is using the north end of the ex-D&H Adirondack Branch and is trying to get the Maine Central Mountain Division). While I would prefer actual trains running over some lines, like the Corinth-North Creek portion of the D&H Adirondack Branch, at least railbikes keep the line active and keep it from getting ripped up for more trails.

I feel bad for Alco over the RS-11. It was a genuinely good locomotive, probably their best that they had ever built when introduced, but just never found it's footing when it came to sales. Introduced in February of 1956, it was the replacement for the 12-244 powered 1600hp Alco RS-3. It moved to a new carbody style that was a bit more similar to a GP7 or GP9, with hoods that were the same height as the cab, but it did have a low-nose option, and it introduced the notched numberboards that would become an Alco trademark. The RS-3, and to a lesser degree the RS-2, had both been pretty well liked by railroads, aside from the issues with the 12-244, which were mostly ironed out by the end of the RS-3 production. They had good visibility, accelerated fast, could get down and lug at lower speeds than the competition, used less fuel than their EMD competitors, and were also quite adept in passenger service as well.

The RS-11 kept the good parts of the RS-3, notably the GE GT-581 main generator and GE 752 traction motors that were far superior to EMD's offerings, while replacing the trouble-prone 12-244 engine with the new and improved 1800hp 12-251B engine. Again, here was a machine that accelerated faster than the comparable EMD, used less fuel while making equal horsepower thanks to a turbo 4-stroke V12 versus EMD's Roots-blown 2-stroke V16s, offered more tractive effort, could be lugged down to 6mph at WOT without burning up traction motors compared to the 10mph minimum speed of an EMD, and was more powerful and reliable than the beloved RS-3. And yet, while the RS-3 sold 1418 units and the EMD's GP7s and GP9s sold 2729 units and 4272 units respectively, Alco struggled to move just 431 over a 5 year window. And some of those sales were because railroads would rather have had GP9s, but EMD was so backlogged on orders that railroads turned to Alco simply because they could build them RS-11s in a more immediate fashion. Most railroads were so wary of Alco products after the problems with the earlier 244 engines that they just weren't interested in their products, even though the new 251 was leagues better.

Probably the first sign of trouble for RS-11 sales came when Alco built six RS-11s for the New York Central purely on speculation. NYC had been a big purchaser of Alco steam locomotives, and had also gone in pretty heavy on Alco diesel locomotives. They had been the biggest purchaser of RS-3s, S-1s, S-2s and FAs and had also owned been among the top three purchasers of RS-1s and RS-2s, although they had only dabbled in the Alco PA. So, building the ten RS-11s and painting them in NYC lightning stripe paint without an actual order didn't seem like that big of a risk, since it seemed likely that NYC would order some, or at the very least buy the ones built on speculation. Instead, when Alco had them delivered to NYC's Selkirk Yard, NYC refused to take delivery of them. They sat at Selkirk for over a year, until the D&H was in the market for new Alcos and Alco salesmen took D&H staff over to look at the undelivered RS-11s. The D&H ended up buying them and was so impressed with the NYC livery that they designed their own spin on it, ending up with the classic D&H blue, gray and yellow. NYC would end up buying nine RS-11s of their own later on, nowhere near the one hundred and thirty five RS-3s they had purchased earlier.

The D&H #5000 was the first of the RS-11s built for NYC that the D&H ended up with. D&H liked them so much, they bought another six, although they optioned theirs with the new-for-the-RS-11 low nose. The RS-11s hung around for a long time on the D&H, working pretty much every type of service.

The New Haven was the sole railroad to opt for steam generators on their RS-11s, checking that option box for all fifteen of their RS-11s, although photos of them actually in passenger service seem nonexistent. Either they never actually pinch-hit in passenger service or no one ever recorded it. But again, indicative of the loss of faith in Alco, since a lot of RS-1s, RS-2s and RS-3s were optioned with steam generators and could be pretty frequently caught hauling passenger cars. The NH's RS-11s were pretty sharp in the McGinnis paint, with the black hoods, orange cab, and orange and white NH lettering, although they were pretty grubby by the time this photo was taken in 1969, right at the end of the New Haven.

The biggest buyers of RS-11s? Oddly, it was N&W, with 99 of 'em, almost a quarter of total production. Of course, it's worth noting that for most other railroads, RS-11s would have been replacing other diesels, so it became a question of "Are they enough of an improvement over existing diesels to justify the expense?" But for N&W, they were some of the first diesels, and were replacing steam locomotives, so N&W went in for a bunch of them. N&W also added another 34 to their roster in 1964, when they took over the Nickel Plate and ended up with their 34 RS-11s as well. Despite such a sizable fleet, photos of the N&W RS-11s, or at least good ones, are surprisingly rare.

 In this photo, two RS-11 led trains  on the N&W meet at Pounding Mills, VA on N&W's Clinch Valley line between Bluefield, WA and Norton, VA. Eastbound RS-11 #312 waits in the siding for #329 and its mates to head westward.

An N&W RS-11 in "Pevler Blue" and an SD35 lead an eastbound at Park Street in Roanoke in this February 1973 scene.

One of the D&H's low-nose RS-11s in the final "Altschul Blue" livery at the Bevier St. yard in Binghamton. The low-nose RS-11s weren't terribly popular, but then again, most GP9s ordered were also high-nose with SP getting the only low-nose GP9s, if I recall.

All four of Lehigh Valley's RS-11s that they purchased pass under East Hamilton Ave in Allentown, as they enter Allentown Yard. The LV purchased just four RS-11s, #400-#4003, which they optioned with low noses. In 1964, PRR, who owned over 85% of the Lehigh Valley's stocks, leased five of their own RS-11s to the LV and all were upgraded to 2000hp by the PRR shortly prior to the LVRR lease, which made them technically RS11u units. Those units were easy to distinguish from the original LV RS-11s in two ways: one, they were all numbered in the 764x range, and, two, they were all equipped with high hoods.

One of the ex-PRR RS11us. They were sent to the LV in Pennsy Tuscan Red with a gold stripe but were later on repainted into LV Cornell Red. Quite an interesting pair here at Bath, PA, since the unit behind it is another ex-PRR Alco, "hammerhead" RS-3 #211. The RS-3 put either the steam generator or the dynamic brakes in the short hood, and typically most railroads ordered one option or another. But for whatever reason, PRR had a need for RS-3s with steam generators and dynamic brakes and the result was to make an extra tall short hood, giving them an odd appearance that was nicknamed a "hammerhead". Western Maryland also had some "hammerhead" RS-3s and C&NW had even stranger "hammerhead" RSD-5s, which were the 6-axle companion to the RS-3. In 1970 Penn Central was getting ready to trade in a bunch of ex-PRR RS-3s to General Electric but LV realized they were in better shape than some of their motive power, so PC-controlled LV traded old RS-2s to PC for a handful of RS-3s, which included one of the hammerhead RS-3s.

The entire roster of Maine Central RS-11s is present in this photo taken by Chuck Schwesinger at South Orrington, ME on the MEC Bucksport Branch. For whatever reason, MEC bought two, and only two, RS-11s and while they never bought anymore, they did seem pretty long-lived, hanging around until the mid-1980s. I have to wonder how much of that is due to the frugality of New England railroads, since they kept a lot of first-generation power around into the '80s and beyond (BAR was still using F3s and BL2s in the '90s!). By this point, which was May of 1981, they had been repainted from the old dark green and yellow into the Harvest Gold with green stripes. As far as I know, the #801 and #802 never wore Guilford charcoal gray and orange either.

An unusual sight in BN Cascade Green and white. Northern Pacific was the only component road of Burlington Northern that bought RS-11s, and several of them hung on long enough for the BN merger to go through and for them to be repainted into green and white.