Grassroots Railroad Sports?

For Christmas I received a New York State Railways Utica Lines tie pin, which I have to imagine is a pretty rare piece, and too obscure to be something that is reproduced. As near as I can tell, this dates from some time between 1912 and 1941.

New York State Railways was a wholly-owned subsidiary of New York Central that controlled various trolley and interurban lines across New York. The New York Central took control of the Rochester Railway Company, the Rochester & Eastern Rapids Railways and the Rochester & Sodus Bay Railway in 1905, and the Mohawk Valley Company was formed by the railroad to manage these new acquisitions. New York State Railways was formed in 1909 when the properties controlled by the Mohawk Valley Company were merged, and in 1912 it added the Rochester & Suburban Railway, the Syracuse Rapid Transit, the Oneida Railway (a particularly interesting one, this was a third-rail interurban that ran on the West Shore), and the Utica & Mohawk Valley. The New York Central Railroad was interested in acquiring these lines in an effort to control the competition and, more importantly, to gain control of the lucrative electric utility companies that were behind many streetcar and interurban railways.The Utica Lines of New York State Railways was composed mainly of the city and suburban lines serving both Utica and Rome. The various streetcar lines serving Utica were consolidated into the Utica & Mohawk Valley in 1901. The Mohawk Valley Line was an interurban connecting Rome, Utica, and Little Falls, constructed between 1902 and 1903. This became the busiest route, with half-hourly service on its double-track main line. The Rome City Street Railroad was merged into the Utica and Mohawk Valley Railway in 1907.  The Mohawk Valley Line began to show significant losses starting in 1926, while the Rome city lines, which were never successful, had some of the first service suspensions, starting in 1927. All streetcar service in Rome was ended on December 7, 1930. In 1931, the North Utica line was closed, and the Eagle Street line followed in 1932. The Lenox, Lincoln, and Blandina routes closed in 1933, and the Mohawk Valley Line also shut down on June 30, 1933. The steel interurban cars that served on the Mohawk Valley Line, which were purchased new in 1916, were transferred to Rochester Lines in 1936.  In 1934 the South Street and Mohawk Street lines were closed, the same year New York State Railways emerged from receivership. The James Street and Clinton lines were shut down in 1936, while the Whitesboro and New York Mills lines were closed in the summer of 1938. The Capron line hung on until April 8, 1941. The last day for Utica Lines operation in Utica was May 12, 1941, when the New Hartford and Forest Park lines closed. The mayor of Utica was at the controls of Car #310, the last car to roll into the Forest Park carbarn.

The transit franchises formerly operated by the Utica Line streetcars in Rome were continued by the Copper City Bus Line and the Rome City Bus Line. It wasn't until 1948 that many parts of the former Utica Lines were reorganized as the Utica Transit Corporation. The city-owned Utica Transit Commission took over operations in 1965, which was succeeded by the Utica Transit Authority in 1974. In 2005, the transit operations transferred to the Central New York Regional Transportation Authority and its subsidiaries Centro Rome and Centro Utica.

Probably the biggest and most visible remaining part of the Utica Lines is this big, double-tracked concrete arch bridge in Herkimer, NY that was built for the Mohawk Valley Line of the Utica & Mohawk Valley

Strasburg Railroad is on final assembly of 2-10-0 #90, the largest engine on their roster and my personal favorite. 

It's too bad that she had to sit out her 100th birthday, but that's just how the boiler certifications fell. Also, I really liked the "Soon" chalked on the boiler. It's reminiscent of in the '90s, when they were restoring #475 and got tired of people asking when it would be done (#475 was in rough shape when they acquired it) and someone chalked "Don't Ask When!!" on it. 

I was fortunate enough to catch #90 running out her last couple service days on December 8th of last year, while on my trip to PA where I hit Strasburg, New Hope & Ivyland, and CNJ #113 on the R&N all in one weekend. And, of course, I also got to operate the #90 back in the summer of '21.

Strasburg has also been hammering away at restoring Southern 2-8-0 #722 to operation for Great Smokey Mountain Railroad. There was always a lot of wringing of hands over the fate of #722, which had been retired from Southern's excursion program, placed on display, and then purchased by GSMR for restoration, only to be torn apart and left rusting in the weeds for decades. GSMR launched an effort to get the #722 in service two years ago and lots of the major parts were shipped to Strasburg for rebuilding.

The #722's boiler on the gantry at Strasburg

The drivers as they arrived, then with freshly turned tires and axle journals, and then painted and ready to ship back to Dillsboro, NC.

Overhauled driver journal boxes and brass crowns. The journal boxes ride up and down in the frame, with leaf springs above them and the opening pointed down. Then the C-shaped pieces of brass, called crowns, are inserted into the journal box, also with the opening pointed down. The axle slides up in from below, and rides on the crowns, with lubrication provided by a grease cellar that goes on the bottom or a pressure lubricator. A lot of operations are going to pressure oil lubrication, and even lining the crowns with babbit, because the proper grease cakes for the grease cellars are hard to find, or there's been changes to the chemical makeup for environmental reasons that make them less effective. There's two crowns and journal boxes per axle, left and right. This is only for solid bearing locomotives, also referred to as "friction bearing", which was a derogatory term cooked up by Timken to sell their "frictionless" roller bearings.

New crankpins being machined. Check out the size of that billet, and the lathe jaw.

The shop crew inside the firebox (with the grates removed out of the bottom) cutting off staybolt caps, so that the boiler can be lifted off the firebox.

A mechanic laying in between the crown (top) sheet of the firebox and the boiler cutting out more staybolts.

And chiseling off the mud ring, which holds the inner and outer fire-box sheets in spaced relation. It's called a mud ring because it's ring-shaped and as the lowest poin of the boiler, a lot of mud and sediment accumulates there.

The shop cat inspecting the washout plugs

And then lifting the boiler off of the firebox. The rear of the boiler is called a firebox wrapper, for obvious reasons.

The smokebox, removed from the boiler. It must have had some pretty serious wear, since Strasburg has said it will be completely replaced instead of patched. You can usually patch smokeboxes, since they aren't pressurized themselves.

A pretty ingenious method of flipping the boiler with the overhead gantry and the drop pit.

The #722 as it will look once reassembled, although I don't know if it will be painted in the Southern passenger green and silver once restored. Southern Railway sold off two Ks-1 2-8-0s, #722 and #630, to the standard-gauge remnants of the East Tennessee & Western North Carolina after retiring them in 1952. Then, fifteen years later, Southern Railway, in what was an unprecedented deal, traded two Alco RS-3s to the ET&WNC for the pair of Consolidations to use on their steam excursion program. The #630 remained in workaday freight black, while the #722 was painted in passenger Sylvan Green with gold pinstriping and silvered smokebox, to match Southern 2-8-2 #4501. The #630 went right into service, while the #722 spent two years getting the firebox repaired before being put in service. The #722 always was overshadowed by the other engines in the Southern steam program, and was even leased out to the Wilmington & Western in Delaware and Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum in Chattanooga, TN, since it was basically deemed surplus power. It last ran in 1985, and NS then presented the locomotive to the Asheville Chapter of the NRHS in Asheville, North Carolina to be on display at the city's Biltmore section. In December 1999, NS sold the Biltmore property for redevelopment and moved the #722 from its display site to the Asheville roundhouse for storage.

In December 2000, the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad (purchased the locomotive with the hopes of restoring it to operating condition. GSMR really wanted the #722 because in 1952, the #722 hauled the last steam-powered freight over the Southern's Murphy Branch, which is the same line that GMSR now operates. However, after #722 torn down for overhaul, the plans were halted due to GSMR's other steam locomotive going out of service in 2005. GSMR ran without a steam locomotive for several years, and in 2012, GSMR announced their plan to restore both #1702 and #722 to operating condition with the restoration cost estimated at $700,000 per locomotives. In 2017, a year after #1702 was restored back to service, GSMR stated that the restoration work of #722 was put on indefinite hold, but they were still determined to restore it back to operating condition. It wasn't until last year that GSMR announced work was resuming on the #722, and parts were shipped to Strasburg, and the completion date they are shooting for is sometime in 2026.

Strasburg's shop is going to be busy, well, even more busy than usual, because in addition to the #722, overhauling their ex-ATSF SSB1200 diesel switcher, and keeping their own steam engines and passenger cars in service, C&O #614 will be moving up there sometime in the near future for restoration by their shop. 

Gotta imagine that with the #722 and #614 contract work, and everything else going on, that means that #31 remains on the back burner. The old Canadian National was what brought steam back to Strasburg Rail Road in '62, but it last ran in 2009 and has been a rainy day project ever since. I know that the old CMO said that the railroad wanted to get the #31 running again, partially for sentimental reasons, but that they were so busy and really were set on motive power with the #89, #90 and #475, that it was hard to justify making the #31 a priority. The #31 was also the hardest on the track, due to a lack of lead or trailing trucks, and also the size of the modern Strasburg train might be too much for the #31 to handle while keeping the tight schedule required by their busy timetable. The first time I ever visited Strasburg, had to have been with my father around 2003-2005 area, the #31 was the engine on duty.

In a press release put out this weekend, Reading & Northern is declaring 2025 to be "The Year of Steam." The first two years, #2102 ran three Iron Horse Rambles, all Reading Outer Station to Jim Thorpe, plus three Fall Foliage Excursions, also all Reading-Jim Thorpe. Last year, R&N shook things up by making the first Ramble from Reading to Jim Thorpe, but then the second was Nesquehoning to Tunkhannock (I rode that one) and the third was Nesquehoning to Pittston. Now this year, they are adding a fourth Ramble, also Reading-Jim Thorpe, and it's a first in that it will be run in early February with a possible chance at snow. Plus, for the first time, they're going to allow passengers to stay aboard and ride the wye move at Jim Thorpe if they desire. Now, I know I've said that I've seen #2102 run from Reading to Jim Thorpe enough, but, I might have to go down if there's actually going to be snow. Also kind of dependent on if East Broad Top is going to have a Winter Spectacular this year.

Also, very excited to see "anticipating the return to service of our 4-6-2 steam locomotive #425 in the latter half of 2025." I've missed the Four-and-a-Quarter, and I'd be very happy to see it running the Fall Foliage or Christmas trains this year. Especially the Fall Foliage trips, because, unlike the #2102, the #425 runs Saturday and Sunday, since it can be turned at Port Clinton.

NickD said:

 Now, I know I've said that I've seen #2102 run from Reading to Jim Thorpe enough, but, I might have to go down if there's actually going to be snow. Also kind of dependent on if East Broad Top is going to have a Winter Spectacular this year.

 And that now seems unlikely. They posted a photo of the yard covered in snow, and I asked about the chances of a 2025 Winter Spectacular and received the reply of "We look forward to welcoming the public back to the EBT on April 12th for Easter on the Rails - followed by our 2025 summer season on May 2nd!"

Great pictures from inside Strasburg's shop. I was there in September but they wouldn't let me take pictures of anything in that building at the time. We did see #90 but it wasn't ready to see daylight yet. We also got a look at #31 parked in the maintenance building. The comment was mostly the same as what's already been posted, there is no time line but the restoration is ongoing and, periodically, progresses. It was their first steam engine and they want it to run again. I may have a poor picture of #31 if you're interested, I can post it here. 

Lou Manglass 

In reply to TheMagicRatchet :

The photos are taken from the Strasburg Rail Road Mechanical Services page on Facebook, which is a wealth of cool photos from inside the locomotive and car shops.

They used to allow photos in the shop, because I remember taking photos the first time I went with my father. But again, that was 2005ish, so the internet wasn't quite the thing it was. From what an employee said, there were some customers who got pissed off over photos of their restorations that they contracted Strasburg to rebuild being posted on the internet.

That was, pretty much, the same thing they told me. They do not have regular shop tours any longer but I went with a friend who knew someone who arranged a private tour for us. I think we might have been allowed to take some pictures except there was another locomotive in there that was somebody else's top secret project. We weren't told who's it was, what they were doing to it, or taken anywhere near it. We did get to see an interesting piece of rolling stock in the rear of the car barn. They have a flatcar with a one piece cast iron chassis under restoration. They were still cleaning and checking for cracks when we looked at it. 

Lou

In reply to TheMagicRatchet :

The time I went 20 years ago or so, my father and I did the shop tour and it was both a miserable, rainy day and in the middle of the week, so we were the only two on the tour. The guide picked up on the fact that we knew more than the average tourist and took us into areas the tour didn't normally go as well. Part of that included going up into the enginehouse, and #90 and #475 were off-duty (I don't know where #89 was, under overhaul maybe?) and he took us up in the cab of #90 and had me sit in the engineer's seat. When Strasburg offered the In-Cab Experience to operate #90, I jumped at the chance. Come to think of it, I don't think they have done the In-Cab Experiences the past year or two. Too bad, I really wanted to run #89, since that one has eluded my camera lense.

So, on the last day of the year, time to look back at some of my big adventures:

First big trip of the year was to the Reading & Northern for a three day weekend, chasing NRFF from Reading to Pittson on Friday, then riding a rare mileage RDC charter from Port Clinton to Mt. Carmel on Saturday, and then chasing QASD and NRFF on Sunday. Pennsylvania mountain railroad at it's finest.

Then in June, it was out to the Finger Lakes Railway for an AAPRCO convention special from Canandaigua to Syracuse.

And a week later it was down to Nesquehoning with my father, to ride the Nesquehoning-Tunkhannock Ramble. It was a hot, humid, dirty experience, but still an awesome one.

And we stopped in Scranton at Steamtown and D-L's Von Storch shops on the way home.

In July, while out to the Finger Lakes to do Evolution Performance Driving School, I chased a Finger Lakes Railway GS-2.

In August, it was east to Corinth to see D&H RS-3s return to the D&H Adirondack Branch.

September I went further east to Vermont, for four days on Vermont Rail System. On Friday I chased their road freight, then the next two days were a Trains Magazine charter with ex-Rutland RS-1 #405 from Rutland to Riverside and Rutland to Burlington, and Monday I chased the ferry move back to North Walpole. While the charter was somewhat poorly run, it was still awesome to ride the majority of the contiguous remaining Rutland mainline behind a Rutland engine.

In early November it was up to New Hampshire for a trip on Conway Scenic Railroad with the 470 Railroad Club, stopping by the Batten Kill on the way up there. That trip was also kind of poorly run, with no photo ops of their recently-finished GP9 leading and odd runby locations. I hung around an extra day for regular Conway operations.

And then this month it was west to Gowanda for an incredibly successful session on the New York & Lake Erie

Oh, and through the year, there was lots of local Adirondack Railroad, Mohawk, Adirondack & Northern, and New York, Susquehanna & Western action.

Looking back at my yearly recap, it is pretty funny to see the total lack of Class I coverage. But Class Is, especially around here, just don't really interest me. The old New York Central mainline is certainly impressively-engineered, but it's flat, straight, and the NYC's grade crossing elimination program has made a good bit of it hard to access, so there isn't a lot of good photo opportunities around here, and even then, it's just an endless parade of grimy CSX "Dark Future"-painted wide-cab GEs with double-stacks and auto-racks. No local jobs, and very little variation in motive power. Watching NS at Horseshoe Curve last fall was pretty cool, but even then, when I'm in that region, I'd much rather chase R&N freight service.

My neighborhood is similar except we have NS lack of control managing to disprove Newton's law with three trains in one pile. This was about 2 miles west of me. Some interest if you prefer carnage.

I see people complaining about how modern railfanning is no fun and I'm like "Get away from the Class Is and go find shortlines and regionals." Vermont Rail System, Finger Lakes Railways, NYS&W's Utica Branch, and Reading & Northern aren't running particularly exotic power (GP38-2s, GP40s, SD40-2s, SD50s) but seeing Spartan Cab EMDs with a bunch of different paint schemes is still refreshing in an industry dominated by SD70ACes and ES44ACs.