Grassroots Railroad Sports?

We were told by A&A employees that Pat Connors had the one engine house stall open to go see #14 if we wanted to, so I took the opportunity. While headed back there, I passed by #111, which is 6 years newer than the #110 and was also bought new from GE.  You can see the differences in the era, with the #111 having the grilles on the end of the hoods and a front walkway. Wikipedia lists the #111 as operational, but I don't believe that it's true, but I do think that A&A is hoping to get it running again.

Sleeping beauty. The #14 was acquired a year after the #18 (1963) and is a 1917-built 4-6-0 from the Escanaba & Lake Superior. When the #14 and #18 were both operational, the #14 was considered the more photogenic and was the one sought out by railfans, but she hasn't been operated since 1988. The engine is stored in this shed, rarely seen, and the tender frame is outside, with the tender body sitting on #18's cracked tender frame behind an ex-Frisco 2-8-0 displayed in Ohio. The smokebox is rotted out, and Pat Connors said that it needs a full firebox replacement, but the boiler is in good shape. He also says that the drive wheels wear tires intended for Pennsy GG1s, purchased when Amtrak was clearing out inventory after retiring the GG1s. They were the right size and diameter and were available for a good price. What's the future look like for #14? Probably just sitting here, inside. The A&A isn't a wealthy operation, they just put a ton of money into #18, and the #14 is pretty tired.

Everyone got checked in and the #18 was hooked onto a pair of covered hoppers, while the #114 shoved three coaches up past the panel track with the #110 to get southbound runbys of the freight and passenger consists over Cattaraugus Creek. They had brought in some classic cars for this event, with the drivers in period clothes, which included this '65 Thunderbird, a '48-53 Chevy 3100 truck, and a Model A Phaeton. The Thunderbird and the Chevy would follow us around all day but the Model A, after not really being in any angles I could work it into here, vanished once we left Arcade.

That whistle is a Canadian National 4-chime. Yes, four. Unusual piece, and pretty nice sounding. Pat Connors said they have the original whistle, some type of 5-chime, but that it was removed in the '60s because it had a very shrill note. At that time, A&A was sometimes running as many as 5 excursions a day (10am, noon, 2pm, 4pm, 6pm), and the townspeople complained about that five chime, so this unusual and very mellow 4-chime was installed and Arcadians were much happier. 

The #114 then shoved us up north over the bridge, where we disembarked again

The #18 making a runby down the grade here. There was a cool old yo-yo factory (no, seriously) off to the right when I was here two years ago, but it was sadly demolished this spring, to the sorrow of photographers.

And crossing Cattaraugus Creek.

Those hoppers look too new. This pic needs a couple of wooden box cars.

We then went back south of the depot and engine house and got a number of runbys on the west leg of the wye.

Then we proceeded further "south" (south by the railroad mileage, but actually northwest by the compass) towards Arcade Junction where the A&A interchanges with the Buffalo & Pittsburgh (a G&W property that uses the former B&O/Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburgh) and stopped for another set of runbys behind Koike Aronson, Inc. I've ridden the entire line north of Arcade to Reisdorf Brothers in North Java, and that's pretty rare mileage above Curriers, but this was all new territory and arguably even rarer mileage. Then our consist hooked together (three coaches, #114, two hopper cars, #18) and shoved all the way back to the depot at Arcade.

We stopped at Arcade so that the crew could water the #18, and the #114 and #18 could swap cars. The #114 was then to depart and head north to the spur at Empire Distributing and tie down there, while the #18 would head all the way to Currier's Depot. A lot of people went to get food or to watch the #18 be serviced, but I wanted to get some front photos of the #114. The #114 was original D&H RS-3 #4112, and in 1975 it was rebuilt into an RS-3u by Morrison-Knudsen, which included a 2000hp 12-251 and a chopped nose. After its rebuild in 1975, it was renumbered to #1976 and repainted into a red, white, and blue paint scheme for the bicentennial. It was renumbered again to 506 in #1979 and it remained in revenue service with the D&H until it was officially retired in 1988. It was eventually sold to the Tioga Central Railroad and then  was later sold again to the Western New York & Pennsylvania Railroad in 2014 and renumbered to WNY&P #406. In 2016, it was repainted into the WNY&P's corporate black and yellow paint scheme and it remained in freight service with the WNY&P until it was relegated to yard switching in 2022 and later officially retired from service and sold to the A&A in 2023. The herald that is worn on the cab sides is interesting, in that it's an official logo that was only used on internal company paperwork in the '30s, and this is the first piece of equipment to ever wear it. I don't care for the LED headlights and ditch lights, which were a WNY&P staple on everything for a while. As one rider of our charter remarked, "Yeah, no traffic and no money for raises, but the WNYP had money to burn on LED lighting."

The #18 then ran around and hooked to the front of our train and ran tender-first all the way to Currier's Depot.

At Curriers, the #18 then ran around our train to head south

Then it was back aboard for a short hop north of Curriers where we unloaded out in the woods for some more runbys

We met back up with the #114 at the siding at Empire Distributing and got more photos. I didn't love this location, and the weather was back to being pretty nasty

The group charter photo was taken here. I'm kind of near the center back row with the faded red hat

Our next stop was just above Arcade, in front of the fire department, with the Thunderbird back again.

We stopped back at Arcade for them to set up the lighting for the night session and to devour some pizza. I went and just stood and stared at the #18 as it sat there in the evening, hissing and sizzling and air pump thumping away. It was tough to get a photo that captured it, but it was just a neat ambience.

The night photo shoot on the bridge over Cattaraugus Creek. I departed after snapping these photos, since it was 9:30 and I had a 30 minute drive to Warsaw, NY for my hotel. Well, it should have been a 30 minute drive, but absolutely nightmarish visibility from insane fog meant I did the whole drive 10-15mph under the speed limit. Overall, it was a great experience, although I would have killed for some better weather. Even if it wasn't warmer, some sunshine would have been nice. The Dynamo guys ran a great event, and the A&A crews were as friendly and accomodating as two years ago.