#8223 working the Big Moose grade. The Adirondack Scenic RR has an uncertain future, as the state wishes to tear up 34 miles of track to build more snowmobile trails, after previously designating the ASRR as a historic land mark. After the Supreme Court ruled in the railroads favor, the state has been changing the Adirondack Park State Land Master Plan and trying to redefine "travel corridor" to make their plan legal.
In reply to stuart in mn :
The Hiawatha was a high point in design for passenger trains. I didn't realize any of it was still around.
T.J. said:In reply to stuart in mn :
The Hiawatha was a high point in design for passenger trains. I didn't realize any of it was still around.
Here's a link to the Friends of the 261 website, the group that owns the Cedar Rapids car: https://261.com/fleet/cedar-rapids/ If you look at their Roster page, they have quite a bit of rolling stock as well as a couple locomotives.
stuart in mn said:T.J. said:In reply to stuart in mn :
The Hiawatha was a high point in design for passenger trains. I didn't realize any of it was still around.
Here's a link to the Friends of the 261 website, the group that owns the Cedar Rapids car: https://261.com/fleet/cedar-rapids/ If you look at their Roster page, they have quite a bit of rolling stock as well as a couple locomotives.
It's unfortunate that the Milwaukee Road didn't hold onto any of their streamlined Atlantics and Hudsons. Or even their Fairbanks-Morse "Erie-Builts"
Ahhh, Fairbanks-Morse and their wacky 2-stroke vertically-opposed piston diesel engines.
Arguably Fairbanks-Morse's greatest locomotive, the hulking H24-66 "Train Master", built from 1954-1957. While EMD was producing the 1800hp 4-axle GP9 and 6-axle SD9, Fairbanks-Morse produced their 2400hp, 6-axle locomotive which they called the "Train Master." Fairbanks-Morse boasted it would outpull and out-accelerate any other locomotive on the market, and they were right. It was a beast of an engine. But railroads weren't quite ready for 2400hp locomotives, and Fairbanks-Morse's general weirdness scared off a lot of buyers as well. Both Reading and Virginian ran theirs into the ground hauling heavy coal and Southern Pacific, one of FM's biggest proponents, kept theirs running in commuter service long after they had been displaced from main line freight use as other manufacturers caught up. It wouldn't be until 1966 when EMD would eclipse the Train Master's horsepower ratings.
There’s a short-line that runs just a couple miles outside our hometown called the Kankakee, Beaverville & Southern that ran old Alcoas right up until around 2000, when apparently parts availability became a problem.
The railroad museum in town had a couple speeders, and as a kid on Sundays during the summer we’d take trips on the KB&S with them, since they don’t run any trains that day.
Seems like a good time to post this.
Pete Gossett said:There’s a short-line that runs just a couple miles outside our hometown called the Kankakee, Beaverville & Southern that ran old Alcoas right up until around 2000, when apparently parts availability became a problem.
As far as railroad names that flow off the tongue, that one doesn't. It's sad that Alcos are slowly vanishing from the railroad landscape, but I guess understandable since Alco has been gone since 1969 and their Canadian wing, Montreal Locomotive Works, closed down in 1985. I know that Western New York & Pennsylvania Railroad finally retired their M630s and M636s (Canadian version of a C630 and C636) this summer.
Reading, Blue Mountain & Northern #425 pulling the last Santa Train of 2019. That Central Railroad of New Jersey 3-chime whistle is a mournful-sounding.
Norfolk & Western #611 and Norfolk & Western #475 (reconfigured and renumbered to her '50s guise as #382) operating for a photo shoot at Strasburg.
A few years back Amtrak brought a number of private restored cars into Grand Central for an exhibit. Stretched out in the observation car with a book and a scotch seems like the ideal way to travel. I don't have any pictures handy but my wife had a grandfather was a fireman on the New York Central out of Albany. One of my grandfathers ran the Lynbrook substation for the Long Island Railroad.
NickD said:Pete Gossett said:There’s a short-line that runs just a couple miles outside our hometown called the Kankakee, Beaverville & Southern that ran old Alcoas right up until around 2000, when apparently parts availability became a problem.
As far as railroad names that flow off the tongue, that one doesn't. It's sad that Alcos are slowly vanishing from the railroad landscape, but I guess understandable since Alco has been gone since 1969 and their Canadian wing, Montreal Locomotive Works, closed down in 1985. I know that Western New York & Pennsylvania Railroad finally retired their M630s and M636s (Canadian version of a C630 and C636) this summer.
I can tell you that Beaverville isn’t nearly as exciting a town as it’s name might suggest.
On the topics of Virginia tunnels, this one is getting ready to reopen as a park.
Blue Ridge Tunnel in Afton almost complete
If you're ever in Portland OR, there's a good free (donation only) mesuem there right off one of the light rail stops that's worth checking out. A good brewery across the street too.
Oregon Rail Heritage Center
Donebrokeit said:Seems like a good time to post this.
Their claim of "Drifting off to sleep in the quiet privacy of your room..." is a bit much but the rocking did induce a not great but fairly pleasant sleep. My favorite part about the Pullmans was the shoe drawer. Put your shoes in there at night and the porter would open it from his side and your shoes would be polished the next morning when you woke up. The next car had swivel chairs that turned 360 degrees - really cool.
Because he traveled so much by rail, my dad knew every porter on the entire NYC railroad and most of the engineers. I was often allowed to ride in the locomotive for a short amount of the trip between two stops. That was truly amazing for a little kid.
Hasbro said:Donebrokeit said:Seems like a good time to post this.
Their claim of "Drifting off to sleep in the quiet privacy of your room..." is a bit much but the rocking did induce a not great but fairly pleasant sleep. My favorite part about the Pullmans was the shoe drawer. Put your shoes in there at night and the porter would open it from his side and your shoes would be polished the next morning when you woke up. The next car had swivel chairs that turned 360 degrees - really cool.
Because he traveled so much by rail, my dad knew every porter on the entire NYC railroad and most of the engineers. I was often allowed to ride in the locomotive for a short amount of the trip between two stops. That was truly amazing for a little kid.
That's awesome. What years was that?
A little #1225 for 12/25
NickD said:Hasbro said;Their claim of "Drifting off to sleep in the quiet privacy of your room..." is a bit much but the rocking did induce a not great but fairly pleasant sleep. My favorite part about the Pullmans was the shoe drawer. Put your shoes in there at night and the porter would open it from his side and your shoes would be polished the next morning when you woke up. The next car had swivel chairs that turned 360 degrees - really cool.
Because he traveled so much by rail, my dad knew every porter on the entire NYC railroad and most of the engineers. I was often allowed to ride in the locomotive for a short amount of the trip between two stops. That was truly amazing for a little kid.
That's awesome. What years was that?
I had to think about that for a while. Born in '55, lived in DeWitt outside of Syracuse/Utica till I was 3 and don't remember trains that far back. That was my third house because Dad was moved around a lot. We move from Boston to a new location and Dad was relocated a month later to Syracuse. My Mom handled the moving and house selling/buying. Lived outside of NYC from '58 - '68. Traveled the rails a lot during that period. Mostly to the midwest, Boston, sometimes to Washington or Florida. Dad started in the Boston yard and I think that's where I walked across a roundtable. I remember it being pretty scary but not sure if it was moving or not. I could ramble forever, lot's of great memories.
Burlington Northern E9s in Chicago
BN E9s in the Aurora, Illinois yard
Built between '54 and '64, BN's E9s operated in commuter service into the '90s
Was in Utica yesterday, so swung by Union Station to see if I could catch a few trains. In the roughly hour and a half I was there, I saw three westbound CSX freight trains (1 coal, 1 container and 1 auto-rack) as well as 1 eastbound and 1 westbound Amtrak passenger train.
As soon as I parked, I spotted old NYC #6721 (a B-11k class 0-6-0) pulled way up from the station where she had always been on display, although her tender was there. So I hiked up through the weeds and under the bridge to get a look at it, and was dismayed to see her
The locomotive had been looking shabby before, but now her pilot was missing and her numberplate was damaged. Turns out, 4 years back some kids had released the brakes on a parked NYS&W hopper car up track. Gravity had then kicked in and rolled the hopper car towards the station and down the #6721's spur and slammed it ino her, shattering the pilot, shoving the engine back into her tender and driving the tender back into the building.
So, now the #6721 sits waiting for her fate. The plan is apparently to get her cosmetically repaired, and the tender has been all repainted and cleaned up. From what I've read, there had been considerations to get the #6721 operating, as she is just one of a very small handful of NYC locomotives, but this accident has pretty much killed any hope of her getting fixed now, due to the frame on the tender and locomotive both being sprung/bent, and concerns about underlying damage that would require a teardown to the very last nut and bolt to make certain.
#6721 pre-wreck. She was looking scruffy there, but still intact.
Adirondack Scenic Railroad's FP10 #1502 was sitting at Utica station on an off day.
Adirondack #1845 is pretty spotless. It's a Montreal Locomotive Works (Canadian Alco) RS-18u that is one of their most recent locomotive purchase, and their newest piece of equipment. They also have another RS-18u, #1835, that was a bit farther down the yard, but I couldn't get a photo of it.
#8223 was also present, although looking a bit shabby in person. My guess is that Adirondack is holding off on equipment repaints until they determine what their future is.
Santa Fe #3751, dubbed "The Cadillac of the Rails" running down the middle of the freeway between Los Angeles and San Berdoo
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