BN-3 paired up with #9908 at IRM.
BN-3 paired up with #9908 at IRM.
The gorgeous Illinois Central executive E-units were also old BN E9Ams.
Some excellent news; work has finally begun on the renovation of the old NYO&W Middletown station, which was also the company headquarters in later years, and is the largest surviving NYO&W structure. The station saw passenger service up until the end of O&W passenger service in 1953, and city took ownership of the building through tax default after the O&W ended operations in 1957. From then on, the building was used by a number of businesses, including a restaurant and night club, up until 2004, when a fire damaged the south tower (This is the north tower shown here). Since then, restoration of the building has been an on-again, off-again affair that's been talked about for two decades, but never actually went anywhere. There's always been an impending sense of dread, with a lot of people feeling that the building would fall in before any work was ever done, or would be outright demolished, but last spring the mayor of Middletown, announced that the community had secured the funds to bring the structure back to its former glory.
The burnt-out south tower that closed the station.
The station actually went through a couple iterations. As-built, t was designed by Bradford Lee Gilbert and built in 1892-1893 by the NYO&W (not predecessor New York & Oswego Midland) as is a three-story Richardsonian Romanesque-style pressed brick and sandstone building. It measured approximately 237 feet long and had just the towers at the north end.
In 1904, the tower was added at the south end.
And in 1924 a third story was added between the two towers. I'm unsure of when the train order board sprouted from the awning as well.
And this photo is sometime post-'53 cessation of passenger services, but pre-'57 abandonment. Since there was no longer any passenger trains calling at the station, the O&W removed the track nearest the platform. The staton became the company headquarters as a cost-savings measure as well, abandoning their expensive offices in New York City and relocating them to Middletown.
NickD said:Yesterday, the Railroad Museum of Long Island posted a video on their Steam Up LIRR #39 page, talking about how LIRR #39, a PRR G5 4-6-0, is the largest 4-6-0 built and "is being restored for the 200th Anniversary of Strasburg Rail Road." I honestly don't really know what this is about. Back in 2013, RMLI announced a partnership with Strasburg Rail Road, where if RMLI raised a certain amount of money in 15 years from 2012, then the #39 would be moved to Strasburg, Strasburg would put up the remainder of the money to restore it, and the #39 would then be leased to Strasburg for 49 years to operate. It was a good deal for Strasburg, since they would get a PRR design (the only major difference between a PRR G5 and an LIRR G5 was that the LIRR engines used a larger tender) that was commonly used on branch lines and has relatively short drivers that make it well suited to their operations, which are also in the heart of PRR territory. Fundraising reception was honestly pretty tepid though, maybe PRR fans were in a cynical mood after the #1361 debacle, and neither Strasburg nor RMLI really marketed it much. There was also not much local (Long Island) support to the plan, since it really would boil down to "Help us raise money so this engine can take off 150 miles east for the next 50 years." The plan called for the amount needed to increase by 5% every year to match inflation, and fundraising was slower than inflation, so the engine literally got further from it's fundraising goals.
I had just assumed the plan was silently called off. Steam Up LIRR #39 hasn't made a post since July of '23 and that was just a notification for the flea market at at the museum. The last actual fundraising post was all the way back in July of '21, almost 4 years ago now, when they were selling commemorative coins. As someone on Facebook pointed out, the video seems a little disingenuous: "The most powerful ten wheeler is coming back", "The Long Island 39 is being restored", all makes it sounds like funding is secured and the restoration is greenlit, when in reality they've have raised $287,000 in 13 years and have about over a milliion to go in 2 years. Unless some white knight has ridden in with a $1 million check, it seems unlikely it's going ahead, and if that's the case, why are they asking for our help in the video. Again, as a Facebook pointed out, in addition to not a single post, message, or update in 2024, it feels like everything is being done by someone who learned how to video edit yesterday, and the poor website looks, and functions, like it was designed in 2009 with no easy way to donate on the website. You have to really search for it. The whole thing has no direction, no momentum, no plans, no presence, no reach, and very little time. It also doesn't help that this engine has been under restoration in one form or another since 1980, with really nothing tangible to show for it. Ron Ziel led a group that moved it to the LIRR's Riverhead Yard in 1980, and they worked on it for some time, but that group was dissolved in 1993. The New York Supreme Court then awarded ownership to the new RMLI, and they secured a Federal ISTEA grant of $800,000 to complete the restoration work at Riverhead, but the federal grant meant that it fell under government oversight and volunteers could not work on it, so it wasn't until 2005 when work began again, and some work was done on the firebox and tender before A) the funds were exhausted and B) the #1361 restoration brought to light that PRR boiler design required complete re-engineering of the boiler and firebox to meet modern standards. So I can see the mentality of some older fans who go, "Jeez, I've been donating to this thing for almost 45 years and it's still not done, why should I keep throwing money at it?"
So, RMLI has announced that they've negotiated a three-year extension to the “Steam Up LIRR 39” Fundraising Agreement. The museum will continue to raise funds for its portion of the restoration cost for another five years, March 13, 2025 through March 13, 2030.
"We have five years to git‘er done and get our Historic G5s Commuter Steam Locomotive to Strasburg! Our goal is to have Engine 39 operational in time for the 200th Anniversary of the Strasburg Rail Road – 2032. We are celebrating this coming Sunday - March 9th as - “$39 on 3/9 for #39 Day!" A day for donating $39.39 to the "Steam Up LIRR 39" restoration fund. Go now to our website and HIT the "Donate #39 Here" button to make your contribution today!"
Now, interestingly, it was Strasburg that approached the RMLI about the extension and reinvigorating this restoration and fundraising project. The #39 fits the size of engine in their business model since they apparently are moving way from shorter two-train operations (unfortunately) during their busy seasons, except Christmas, and moved to longer single train ops. Naturally this requires larger engines and #39 fits the bill almost perfectly.
SRC will be putting forth efforts in fundraising in different methods, and they have layed out a new marketing and fundraising plan that is said to be pretty aggressive, in hopes of raising the money faster than the 5 years on the contract. In the name of complete transparency for the year 2026, Strasburg says that RMLI would be responsible for just a hair over $1.7 million with SRC's portion of the restoration at just over $2.1 million. It's an aggressive fundraising plan, since so far RMLI has only raised $300k, but Strasburg seems hopeful.
It seems strange to me that SRC would put forth that much effort for an engine they won't even own. IMO they should look around and see if they can't find another ten wheeler that they can own outright and get that running instead.
In reply to Frosty_Nimiko :
I mean, it's a 50 year lease, so it's theirs for a long time.
One of the big things is that it's a PRR/LIRR engine. They've wanted a PRR or Reading steamer since they resumed operation in '60, which is why they acquired Reading 0-4-0 #1187, even though it was too small for their operations even back then, and they leased PRR #1223 (the "#7002" is a whole different case). But the issue is that of the preserved Reading power, the #1187 was too small, the T-1s are too big and there are already going to be two running, and the 0-6-0T #1251 is entombed at Railroad Museum of PA. Of PRR power, almost everything is at RRMoPA, other than the two LIRR G5s, an extremely rough 0-6-0 in Delaware, the 2-10-0 that is far too big in Hamburg, NY, and K4s #1361 that's already spoken for. Strasburg has expressed interest in the G5s a long time ago and tried to get the #39 and #35 before.
Also, by partnering with RMLI, they don't have to spend money purchasing a locomotive, and they're splitting the restoration cost with RMLI. So it's a fair bit cheaper. Consider if they were purchasing the #39, that $3.8 million restoration cost would be all SRC's to shoulder, on top of whatever they would have to spend to buy it.
Strasburg does actually own another steam locomotive, and a 4-6-0 at that, and that's CPR D-10 4-6-0 #972. They received it in exchange for debts that George Hart owed them for work they had done to it. And at one point, they did start tinkering with it, even going as far as to knock the firebox and wrapper off to build a new Belpaire firebox for it (not to make it PRR-styled, but because it's easier to make and uses uniform length staybolts.) But once they got into it, they found that that engine was a mechanical disaster and their old CMO described it as needing every nut, bolt, washer, rivet and cotter pin. Far more work than they wanted to perform on an engine that they really hadn't even wanted to begin with. Also, a CPR D-10, while a fine engine, is a pretty light little machine, making only 33,320lbs of tractive effort, while a PRR G5 is a bruiser of an engine, making 41,328lbs of tractive effort. That's more than N&W 4-8-0 #475, which is rated at 40,163lbs.
The G5s are a masterpiece in the presentation of "More wheels doesn't always equal more power"
Personally I'm quite fond of them because of their stature, I've made a 3D model of them before and my friends would always refer to them as "Friend Sized" because they're smaller engines than say, a pacific, but still pack quite a punch like a mikado. I suppose the nearest comparison to a G5 in the automotive world would be a Mazda Mx-5, small cars but still surprises a lot of people with how versatile they are. Your explanation as to why they would persue the #39 so desperately makes complete sense to me, with that said, I wonder where all the parts for #39 are, some pictures online say the boiler is there, but where's the rest of it?
In reply to Frosty_Nimiko :
I believe the running gear and tender are at the museum still. They had done a bunch of running gear work to it as far back as the '80s, although some of that needs to be renewed from sitting for decades since. According to a comment I found from 20 years ago, "the #39's frame has been raised off the drive axles and the front pilot wheels have been moved forward. We have discovered pitting and excessive corrosion on the "new" journal boxes that were installed more than twenty years ago." The tender frame has been scraped and painted and the overhauled tender body was done and painted and just needed reinstallation on the frame, and the brakes on the tender trucks need overhaul.
Really, RMLI is seemingly getting the worse end of the deal with this restoration effort, since they're raising a bunch of money to restore an engine that will then head 200+ miles east for the next 49 years. And that's been an issue they've had with fundraising; how do you get a bunch of local folks to donate money for a restoration on an engine that will then berkeley off five hours away for half a century? There were a lot of people in Suffolk County who basically said, "We'd rather it be cosmetically restored and back in our hometown, then be running but be somewhere a lot of us will never see it?"
I have to wonder how much further the #39 restoration would have gotten if RMLI hadn't spent a bunch of money getting a 40"-gauge H.K. Porter 0-4-0T overhauled and operational by Strasburg so that they could fire it up on a trailer once in a blue moon to blow #39's whistle as "as an educational ambassador to the “Steam Up LIRR #39” restoration effort." Keep in mind, they can't run it on the property because they don't have 40"-gauge tracks (and really only have some panel track for the collection to be displayed on) and it's not even historically relevant to the museum's preservation efforts, since it was built for the Defiance Coal Company in Mentmore, New Mexico. They could have done the same concept by bringing in a steam tractor or leasing the whistle to other railroad to run fundraising trips.
Cool to see: Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum has acquired Bath & Hammondsport Alco S-1 #5 from Livonia, Avon & Lakeville. The Alco was built for New York Central in 1950, then was assigned to their freight car manufacturing and repair facility known as Despatch Shops in East Rochester, NY, in January 1965, where it was renumbered #5, and then was sold off in 1970 when Penn Central closed down the Despatch Shops. Steuben County purchased it for use on "The Champagne Trail" to replace the old 44-tonners, and it's been there ever since, including when LA&L took over the B&H in 1996 and expanded the line to Painted Post, NY through purchase of the old Erie line from NS. It's been mostly parked in recent years, with the expansion to Painted Post resulting in the LA&L moving C424ms, C425s and RS-18us onto the property to handle the heavier trains and longer runs.
The slogan "The Champagne Trail" comes from the fact that the Finger Lakes are prime grape-growing territory, and when the B&H badly damaged by a flood in '35, five local vineyard owners joined together to purchase the B&H from the Erie, who was planning to instead abandon it, and return it to local control. Since the B&H's primary customers, inbound and outbound, were vineyards, it was given the nickname "The Champagne Trail", which has stuck.
Less cool, apparently the GP15s that are to replace the 4-axle Alcos on LA&L's other subsidiary, Western New York & Pennsylvania, have been repainted and placed into service.
LA&L #14 working with B&H #5 back in February of 2020. The #14 wore Lehigh Valley paint despite never working for the LV, being xx-Tioga Central #14, exx-Ontario Midland #46, exxx-New York & Lake Erie #46, exxxx-Conrail #9662, neé-Buffalo Creek #46. Fortunately the #14 has also been saved by Flour-by-Rail Project to be restored to it's original Buffalo Creek number and paint scheme.
The more typical power on the B&H these days are ex-D&H C424ms (C424 rebuilt by GE with a 2000hp 12-251). LA&L doesn't typically reletter equipment when it moves between their operations, so some wear LA&L or WNY&P lettering, but the #422 at least is lettered for Bath & Hammondsport
B&H #422 with LA&L C424m #424, handling a southbound high-and-wide movement consisting of 2 trams manufactured at the Bombardier Transportation, USA facility in Bath, NY.
Of course, when it comes to surviving B&H equipment, my favorite is still 2-6-0 #11 at the Everett Railroad.
Amtrak is out here taking shots at Southwest Airlines.
I almost forgot about the very neat B&H caboose that is preserved at the Glen Curtiss museum in Hammondsport, NY. It was purchased from the Erie, who had control of the B&H until '36, and had a sliding side door added to handle less-than-carload freight. It wears the great "The Champagne Trail" slogan and logo, and is open to tour. The Glen Curtiss Museum is also an awesome place to explore, covering both his career building motorcycles and airplanes.
Another short line with an amusing slogan; Bevier & Southern with "Have Train - Will Haul" emblazoned on the tenders of their engines.
I wish more railroad's still had snappy slogans. The current Class Is are all very boring corporate regurgitations:
Blah, blah, blah, those all suck. They're all practically the same handful of words blended and rearranged. Meanwhile, for older ones you had:
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