Two ATSF FT sets pass under a signal bridge just west of Dalies, New Mexico in 1946. The EMD 567 engine was adapted to other uses in WWII and production for railroad use was severely restricted, but ATSF got permission from the War Production Board to purchase EMD FTs on account of the water supply issues they had through New Mexico and Arizona.
An A-B-A FT set at Littleton, Colorado on the Joint Line. How is that possible? Well, ATSF worked with EMD to add couplers to the rear of A-units and the front of B-units, allowing them to split up their sets and create A-B-A and A-B-B sets for greater flexibility of operation. EMD would end up doing this for several other customers and also integrated this change into the F3.
Some news that broke yesterday that I did not expect, but I'm quite happy about, is that Adirondack Railroad has purchased Western New York & Pennsylvania Alco C430 #430 and hopes to have it in service this summer. As WNY&P winds down Alco operations, and operations in general, it seems that the 4-axle Alcos will be departing soon. The #430 will be the most powerful unit on the Adirondack, and will come in handy for the longer runs. There's also a neat neat historical precedent, since the NYC tested C430, GP40, and U30B demonstrators on the Adirondack Division near Big Moose in 1967, although, sadly that test didn't work out in the C430s favor. The NYC was looking at more power for the hilly Boston & Albany Division in 1967, and figured rather than tie up the mainline, they would use the Adirondack Division, since that had been idled in the spring of '65. The three demonstrators from the three manufacturers were all tested, and I have to imagine that Alco's inclusion was begrudging, since the NYC hadn't bought any Alco power since the RS-32s. The C430 would have issues with the wheel slip control systems and would perform poorly, and the GE would have sander issues. A later second test was performed, with the C430 fixed, and it pulled the same tonnage at a higher speed than both the GP40 and U30B. The damage was done though, and NYC purchased 105 GP40s, 58 U30Bs and just 10 C430s. I've heard that the NYC, who was moving towards strictly EMD and GE power, actually didn't want any of the C430s, but PRR's mechanical department (the PC merger was impending) pressured them into a token order. NYC was also not impressed with the new Hi-Ad truck and wanted conventional trucks, but had nothing equipped with them to trade in and Alco didn't have any on-hand either. The #430 was NYC #2050, the first of the NYC's 10, and it would keep that number through the PC and Conrail days. It was then sold to the New York, Susquehanna & Western as their #3000, before later becoming WNY&P #430. Under NYC, PC, Conrail and Susquehanna ownership, it traveled through Utica probably fairly regularly.
Neat old article on the testing at Big Moose.
The C430 was one of the final nails in Alcos coffin, a sales disaster that only sold 16 units. To add insult to injury, of those 16, the only C430s that were actually wanted by the purchaser were the Reading's two, which were also the only two on conventional trucks, while the other 14 rode on Alco's Hi-Ad trucks. GB&W wanted another C424 to add to their existing fleet, but the C424 had been replaced by the C425, which had been replaced by the C430. They were never happy with the sold C430, since the electrical system was completely different (AC alternator with DC traction motors). NYC's ten were allgedly only bought under pressure from PRR, and Seaboard Air Line bought the three demonstrators after Alco left the locomotive-building business because they were available for cheap during the liquidation sale.
The type of streetcar, known as a reversible horse car, could actually rotate 360 degrees on its undercarriage utilizing a single pin, so when the trolley needed to go in the reverse direction along the rails, the horse and the cab would just rotate around.
Lumbering through Bainbridge Georgia
The #430, as NYS&W #3000, at Utica, NY on the Erie-Lackawanna side of Utica Yard, proving she's no stranger to Utica.
A comparison of Conrail C430s. The #2049, in Conrail blue, is an ex-Reading unit. The NYC/PR units kept their original numbers (#2050-#2059) while the two Reading units were renumbered under them, to #2048 and #2049. The V-shaped rail rail over the cab window is another indicator of it's Reading heritage, as are the regular AAR trucks, with the U-shaped frame and four small coil springs. Alco talked Reading into tacking two C430s onto their first order of C630s, and while Reading came back for more C630s (a miracle in itself), they declined any more C430s.
The #2057 is ex-NYC/PC and has the Alco Hi-Ad trucks with the two big centrally-located coil springs. Opinions on the Hi-Ad truck, available in 2 and 3 axle versions, are all over the place and I'm curious what the actual truth is. Some say they didn't add any traction, but rode like absolute garbage. Others swear they rode just great, it was the condition of the roadbeds that was the problem.
The #430/#3000/#2050 also is no stranger to hauling passengers, as shown in this image of the #3000 leading an NYS&W excursion with SD45 #3632 at Oak Ridge, New Jersey on October 21, 1990
The Hi-Adhesion truck was an attempt to remain competitive by Alco, and was available in 2- and 3-axle variants to replace the old AAR Type B 2-axle truck and the General Steel Castings "Trimount" 3-axle truck that they had used since the beginning of road switcher diesel production. The AAR Type B was a pretty good truck, but the Hi-Ad was supposed to improve traction to matching rising horsepower levels. Whether it actually did or not is the subject of debate, with some like the NYC thinking that it offered no improvement.
The GSC "Trimount" on the other hand had a pretty poor reputation. The tri-mount trucks, recognizable by their swoopy W-shaped side frames and uneven axle spacing, had an uneven weight distribution that put more weight on the outboard truck’s lead axle due to an off-center kingpin. It wasn't a huge issue on the lighter smaller stuff, like RSD-4s or RSD-5s, although they were always remarked as being rough riding. But when you got up to the big RSD-15s and C628s, when one of these brutes went into a poorly maintained facing point switch it was anyone’s guess as to what would happen. Also, on curves, the lead axle would slam into the outside rail on a curve and either break it, or roll it over if it was not well maintained and in good condition. In any event, the result was the same, a derailment. One of Don Ball's books also talks about how, while riding in a set of RSD-12s in helper service at Horseshoe Curve, the Pennsy engineer claimed that wheel profile had to be carefully maintained or the wheels would climb the rails in curves.
The Hi-Ads were introduced on the C630 in '65 and C430 in '66 as an option. They weren't a unanimous choice by every railroad. SP, PRR, ACL, N&W, L&N and UP ordered all their C630s with Trimounts, while C&O ordered their four with Hi-Ads, and Reading ordered their first 7 with Trimounts and their second batch of 5 with Hi-Ads. With the 16 C430s, all but two had Hi-Ads, although NYC had really wanted AAR Type Bs. The C636, introduced in 1967, was only offered with Hi-Ad trucks, which is a spotting feature to tell it apart from an M636, which used a Dofasco truck. Granted, C636s and pretty much any Alco 6-axle Century, are so much rarer than MLW M636s, chances are that if you're looking at a 6-axle Alco/MLW, it's probably an M636. The 4-axle Hi-Ad was also installed on 8 C420s for the Long Island Rail Road in 1968, and it was offered on the T-6 transfer switcher, but Monongahela Connecting Railroad was the only one to choose that option and they purchased exactly one. And the Hi-Ad was also offered on the folly that was the C415, but only 5 were purchased with that option, with the other 21 using the AAR trucks.
Over the weekend, American Steam Railroad Preservation Association (ASR) successfully test-fired Reading T-1 #2100, which will be debut next year, hopefully, as American Freedom Train #250. This marks over a decade of hard work on overhauling and rebuilding the big T-1 in Cleveland, OH. No word on where she'll run once ready, but I would guess that at the very least she'll be visiting Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad.
I saw an announcement by Saratoga, Corinth & Hudson regarding them holding a Railfan Day this spring:
Spend the entire day on the former D&H Adirondack Branch and enjoy the rumble of a pair of original D&H ALCO RS3 locomotives in full D&H black and yellow paint! D&H RS3s 4103 and 4118 will be the stars of the day, which involves demonstrations, excursions, photo runbys, dinner, and a night photo shoot! All of the day’s events are based out of the railroad’s station at 9 Railroad Place in Corinth, New York.
You can attend the entire day, or mix-and-match any of the events by purchasing them individually. Please click below to book your tickets – and remember, D&HRHS members get a 10% discount off all event pricing!
Schedule for the day:
· 8:00 AM – Coffee (FREE!): Enjoy coffee and shop talk with the SC&H crew as they prep the locomotives for the day’s work.
· 9:30 AM – Work Train Side Dump Demonstration ($30): Ride a working maintenance-of-way train powered by an ALCO end-cab switcher. Watch and photograph as a side dump car of fill is dumped along the right-of-way before taking the siding at White Sands. Either ride the work train back to Corinth or hop on the 11AM excursion as it passes White Sands.
· 11:00 AM – Scenic Train Ride with Photo Runbys ($65): Ride the “Corinthian” along some rare mileage on the D&H Adirondack Branch to Danials Station behind both D&H RS3s! This trip will feature multiple photo runbys and plenty of opportunities for riders to experience the RS3s in action at otherwise inaccessible locations along the remote portions of the branch – including the famous rock cut! A boxed lunch is available on board as an optional $15 add-on (selected at the time of booking), or you may bring your own lunch on the train.
· 5:30 PM – Dinner Train ($65): Enjoy a pasta dinner aboard the SC&H’s classic 1950s-era passenger fleet as you ride along the D&H Adirondack Branch to Mud Pond! Price includes food.
· 8:30 PM – Night Photo Shoot ($100): As darkness falls, the SC&H’s all-ALCO roster – and perhaps some other surprise pieces of freight equipment – will be posed for photographs at both Corinth and Hanfields. Photographers must bring their own tripods and cameras, but lighting will be provided!
Sounds great, and I would love to go. Except that May 17th I have an autocross and cannot make it. Really unfortunate date.
After three years of planning and fundraising, the Friends of the East Broad Top and the EBT Foundation broke ground on April 5th for the new East Broad Top Railroad station in Saltillo, PA, the current goal of track-reopening efforts by the two organizations. Once complete, the new structure will look almost identical to the original Saltillo station, which was constructed in 1892 and demolished in 2004 after nearly 50 years of disuse.
Before it was razed, volunteers from the Friends took detailed measurements and removed a number of interior details, including the ticket window. A preservation architect and FEBT member, John Bowie, then made a series of drawings for the Library of Congress’s Historic American Engineering Record. Bowie returned to draw up plans for the new station, which will meet current building-code and accessibility requirements while matching the dimensions and appearance of the original. It will also be in the same location, at the intersection of Railroad Street and Route 655.
The contractor for the new station is Jeff Swope of J.L. Swope Construction. His crews will complete the station’s exterior and make the building weathertight, after which FEBT volunteers will complete the interior. G&H Anderson Excavating has done initial clearing and grading work at the site.
The Saltillo station as it looked, two years before being torn down. Remember, at the time it was torn down, no trains had run south of Orbisonia/Rockhill Furnace in 48 years and any restoration of service on that line looked like a pipe dream.
The station as it looked in 1960, four years after cessation of service.
And the current day site. And, yes, there are still rails in the weeds there.
NickD said:Also, Duke, I see there's been a bit of ruckus down your way, with Wilmington & Western announcing on Monday that they would be indefinitely halting all operations. Now, they have released a statement today:
Dear Friends and Supporters of the Wilmington & Western Railroad,
For over 60 years, our organization has proudly shared the rich history of the Red Clay Valley and the legacy of the railroad with you. Our volunteers and staff have dedicated their time and energy to preserving and interpreting the cultural, natural, and railroad heritage of northern Delaware for the enjoyment of the public. We're incredibly grateful for your support and enthusiasm throughout this journey.
As our historic trains continue to age, the time has come for us to take a proactive step in ensuring their long-term viability. We’ve made the decision to pause our operations for the 2025 season to conduct important maintenance and repairs to our beloved equipment. While our historic trains have stood the test of time, it’s crucial that we focus on restoring and maintaining them for the future.
While we do not have an exact date for when we’ll resume our excursions, rest assured that we are working hard to ensure the railroad is stronger than ever. Your ongoing support means the world to us as we take these important steps toward preserving the Wilmington & Western Railroad’s legacy for generations to come.
We look forward to welcoming you back aboard soon and appreciate your understanding and patience during this time of necessary restoration.
Thank you for being a part of our journey.
With gratitude,
The Wilmington & Western RailroadNice sentiment, but it begs the question of: isn't winter the season when you're supposed to do all your maintenance (Most places shut down between Christmas and Easter for that reason)? If you're either that far behind on maintenance or that short on workforce that you can't catch up in that timespan, and don't know when you'll get caught up, you've got a serious issue.
Now, doing some reading in places, it paints a pretty ugly picture. Word is that the W&W has NO motive power at the moment up to the job of running trains, due to mismanagement of mechanical resources. Their 0-6-0 #58 needs repairs, again (It was in and out of service all year with issues and band-aird repairs), and SW1s #8408 and #114 have both become so unreliable that supposedly the winter Santa trips were "topped and tailed" by both SW1s because neither could be counted on to make the trip solo. Their 4-4-0, #98, is still under repair/overhaul as well, and while the railroad previously expected to have it in service again in the spring, all bets are off. One person claims that if the FRA gave a close inspection, all of the equipment would be out of service. There are decades of maintenance issues, and some issues with the steam locomotives could have been catastrophic in nature. Whenever someone new gets involved, they make the mistake of trying to fix things and they end up getting forced out.
As others are saying, this should be of no surprise to anyone who has had the slightest glimpse behind the curtain. Zero maintenance on equipment, inadequate facilities, complete dismissal of dedicated volunteer staff who were the only reason equipment turned a wheel, all overseen by a board of directors that are frequently cited as being corrupt and/or inept. The board is said to have changed the by-laws eliminating the membership's ability to elect the board, totally without input from the membership. As a result, they have an ironclad lock on the organization and dozens of hard-working volunteers have left. When people speak up the board sends letters from their lawyers threatening to sue for releasing information. The board fired two executive directors who tried the run the organization like a proper non-profit. Since then, they decided to only have a GM with all the decisions and marching orders coming from the board. There are a fair number of thoroughly disgruntled ex-W&W folks for a variety of reasons, enough that at least one entire excursion line is thought of somewhat as a "spite railroad," even using a former W&W locomotive.
Man, this situation continues to develop, and it's getting kind of ugly.
First, this comes from volunteers of the W&W themselves:
"Today, the General Manager, Account Manager (who worked 30+ years with the Railroad), and Volunteer Program Manager of the Wilmington and Western Railroad were directed to vacate both their positions, as well as their physical offices, at a moment's notice. Citing a "reduction in operational needs of the organization", this comes following a months-long shutdown. This shutdown has been attributed by the Board of Directors to "defective equipment," implying that there is a lack of willing skilled labor to keep the railroad operating, warranting a now four-month long cease of income.
As the majority of volunteers will corroborate, nearly all of the volunteer workforce in the backshop greatly attributed with keeping the railroad running through the end of 2024 has had their volunteer activities in the backshop indefinitely paused, effective in early January. If the Board really cared about reopening, the entire volunteer base would have been tapped upon to continue their work in the backstop, rather than limiting access of the space and its functions to the special few.
The self-appointing and self-electing Board of Directors has, since January, imposed a long-term shutdown, enabled widespread disinclusion of volunteers, and now terminated all but one of their full-time employees."
Now the volunteers appear to be taking legal action against the Historic Red Clay Valley BoD.
Now, just to play devil’s advocate: If the equipment was in deplorable condition and the paperwork and maintenance was being pencil-whipped, why were volunteers willfully operating it?
To begin with, if the guy whose mission it is to maintain these relics says it's ready to run, you should be able to trust that you can take it out for a run. Most places have some degree of hierarchy, with some person ultimately declaring a piece of equipment ready to go or off-limits. Even as a trained crew member, are you really in a position to criticize the performance of that streetcar throttle or brake, or how much slack is in the coupler?
The other aspect to consider is that if everything is as alleged, the railroad has experienced a VAST turnover of volunteers and operating staff. Places that go through a lot of staff in this fashion end up with NO institutional memory and experience from which to draw on how equipment is really supposed to operate when in good condition, and are at grave danger from crews being bamboozled into unsafe operation or unfit equipment because they think it's normal for the age. To put it in car terms, if you had never driven a car with manual 4-wheel drums, and you hop in one with a failing master cylinder and found that it sucks at stopping, you would likely think, "Oh, that's just how manual 4-wheel drum brakes on an old car are." Everybody knows that they aren't terrific to begin with, so you wouldn't necessarily suspect there was an issue. Similarly you end up in the same situation of, "Did that coach always rock this much? Was this loco always so hard to stop?" "Yeah, that's the way they were in the good ol' days!"
And now we have W&W volunteers apparently protesting outside of the W&W yesterday. Sounds like they are acting to take the board of directors to court in Delaware as "stockholders" in the operation, something that supposedly is permitted under Delaware law. I'm not sure if they would be able to be able to depose the current BOD in a "shareholder takeover" or not.
According to one volunteer engineer, regarding the maintenance issue that shut operations down, "It's a bit puzzling, because I'd been involved in the maintenance crew, and that wasn't readily apparent." Of course that could go back to that lack of institutional memory that I mentioned before.
Their head of social media does make the point of, "If we're not running, not only are we not making money, but people aren't going to enjoy the trains, and our fear is that they're going to forget about us because we're not running trains, and we're not on social media promoting events."
The big headscratcher here is, reportedly everything is in poor shape and needs an overhaul and rehabilitation, and that's why the board has shut down the entire railroad for at least a year. Sure, you can't do major track maintenance programs or equipment overhauls if it always has to be ready for operation the next weekend. But that also means that you have no revenue coming in. So why would you be locking out the volunteers, your free workforce, when you need a bunch of work done and now have no revenue?
NickD said:Their head of social media does make the point of, "If we're not running, not only are we not making money, but people aren't going to enjoy the trains, and our fear is that they're going to forget about us because we're not running trains, and we're not on social media promoting events."
Honestly, this sentiment is a worry I have about the Delaware & Ulster Railroad in Arkville, NY. They last ran in 2019, when they decided to undertake major maintenance on the equipment and roadbed. It's been over 5 years since they ran a train and every year is just "We hope to be running later this year" in the spring and "We hope to be running next year" in the fall. Five years is a long time to basically be out of the public conscious.
I thought this might be an interesting update to the Grafton & Upton railroad discussion on the previous page; found this earlier and thought others might enjoy it too. I saw #250 many times as a teenager when the Wolfeboro Railroad was active. We always walked back to check the engine out when we took the boat into Wolfeboro, only the raliroad station remains now. I hope they get it running again, at least we know where it ended up.
In reply to 11GTCS :
Not saying it's not going to be restored, but it wouldn't surprise me if G&U is just providing temporary storage until the owners, Maine Locomotive & Machine Works, can find a new home for it. The G&U's owner, Jon Delli Prescolli, had also owned Edaville and appointed the owners of Maine Locomotive & Machine Works, Shervin B. Hawley and Brian Fanslau, as the operators of the park back in 2022. The #250 had long been on static display at Edaville, along with an ex-MBTA FP10 and a caboose, and now that Edaville's new owners are booting most of the Edaville stuff off to move the King Richard's Faire onto the property, the static display standard gauge stuff has to go. Considering the relationship between Prescolli and Hawley and Fanslau, I could see him providing a place to store the #250 for the time being.
The plot at Wilmington & Western continues to thicken.
This weekend there was a post describing how they valued the railroad's volunteers and stating that the railroad needed to make repairs to Trestle 9C and the wheels and axles of ex-B&O SW-1 #8408. Shortly after that post was a made, a number of volunteers made some negative comments on the post, and the entire official W&W Railroad Facebook page has apparently been deleted. Yikes.
Some good news: Strasburg Rail Road 2-10-0 #90 is back in service after spending last year undergoing a 1472, and she's wearing the '80s-'90s paint scheme, with gold striping and borders on the tender and cab sides. I like it much better than the plain white lettering on the cab and tender that it's worn in more recent decades. And it's certainly better than the '60s era paint scheme with the "egg" on the tender.
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