Our June 18, 2014 outing had a game plan in place. Craig Sanders and I set out to start with eastbound Amtrak No. 48 and then focus on the Bessemer & Lake Erie knowing that solid Bessemer motive power was nearing the end.
We were fortunate with our catches on this day, and our predictions were correct because the following year the majority of Bessemer motive power was transferred elsewhere on the Canadian National system.
We began early in Conneaut to set up for the Lake Shore Limited if it was on time which would be about 6:50 a.m. Soon we found out it was running close to three hours behind schedule.
We saw a CSX and a Norfolk Southern train and then put Plan B into place.
We kept a sharp ear on the scanner for the Bessemer since that was our main objective, but worked our way to Lake City, Pennsylvania, knowing we could get back to intercept the Bessemer once we heard radio chatter on its frequency.
At Lake City we photographed five trains on CSX, including Amtrak. Once we heard the Bessemer squawking we worked our way to intercept a train coming out of the Conneaut harbor.
The top image is an eastbound CSX stack train led by BNSF motive power at 10:17 a.m. in Lake City.
Next up is the Lake Shore Limited at 11:02 a.m. Note that it still had Heritage Fleet baggage cars.
Our first shot of the Bessemer after its Conneaut departure was at Pond Road in Pennsylvania at 11:55 a.m. The same train is seen at 12:38 p.m. passing the site of the location of the B&LE passenger station in Albion, Pennsylvania. I’ll continue describing our good fortune in Part 2.
Article and Photographs by Edward Ribinskas
Tags: Albion Pennsylvania, Amtrak's Lake Shore Limited, B&LE locomotives, Bessemer & Lake Erie, Bessemer & Lake Erie locomotives, BNSF locomotives, BNSF motive power, Canadian National, CSX Erie West Subdivision, Edward Ribinskas photograhs, Lake City Pennsylvania, Lake Shore Limited
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