You can’t see all of the locomotives on this westbound Erie Lackawanna train in Kent. But the photographer’s notes show the train is powered by the 1052, an Alco RS3. Also in the consist are an EMD F3B, EMD F3A and a GE U25B. The image was made in the late 1960s. In the cut below are the Baltimore & Ohio tracks that today are the CSX New Castle Subdivision.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
Pennsylvania Railroad DS44 No. 7851 is switching in the yard behind or next to Firestone Tire in Akron in late 1966 or January 1967.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
For several years in late January or early February, I would get together with Ed Ribinskas and Marty Surdyk for a day of railfanning in Lake County. Sometimes Jeff Troutman would join us.
We would spend much of the day on the CSX Erie West Subdivision and the Lake Erie District of Norfolk Southern in and near Perry.
This being Northeast Ohio, we always expected winter weather. By that I mean snow. But not every year saw bountiful snow on the ground despite Lake County being in a region of Ohio known for heavy snow.
During a few of those outings, the day was dark and dreary with little evidence of the beauty of winter.
That was not the case, though, during our outing of Feb. 2, 2014.
Overnight it had rained and then snow fell as the temperatures dropped.
The wet conditions meant that snow clung to just about everything in sight and pretty much stayed that way all day.
The result was one of the best winter railfanning outings I’ve ever had.
Several image from that day I’ve posted on this site before and Marty has shown during Akron Railroad Club programs some of the slides he made that day.
Ed won a monthly “best photograph” contest at Dodd Camera and received a free framed enlargement of that image that he has hanging on a wall of the dining room of his house.
That winning image was made late in the afternoon of westbound NS manifest freight 145 crossing the trestle over the Grand River in Painesville.
Last week I was rummaging through some of my digital file folders from early 2014 when I came across the images I made on Feb. 2.
Much to my surprise, I’ve only posted a few of those images on my Flickr page.
So I spent a couple days selecting and processing in Photoshop some images that had never been processed.
Shown above is a three-image sequence of the 145 crossing the now replaced Grand River trestle.
We were standing just beyond the west end of the bridge with all of us taking slightly different angles. What I liked about this series is how each image offers a different perspective.
The sequence begins with the train approaching the trestle from the east end, which captures that sense of anticipation that something memorable is about to happen.
It continues with an image of the train about halfway across the trestle and offers that compressed view common with images made with a telephoto lens.
The final image is what many would consider the money shot. Ed won the photo contest with an image similar to this one.
The train has reached the west edge of the bridge but is not yet off of it. The image combines the elements of a close train with a wide scenic view in a sort of convergence.
When I originally processed that image nearly eight years ago I converted it to black and white. There wasn’t much color in the scene and the conditions just seemed to say “black and white world.”
But after working with the image in color I decided it looks good in that form, too.
This day was one of the very few times I ever photographed NS operations on the Painesville trestle at the west end. I have numerous images from the east end, but rarely sought to do the west end.
The trestle had been built decades earlier by the Nickel Plate Road and was one of those structures that was always there even though ownership of the railroad changed to Norfolk & Western and then to Norfolk Southern.
It was always there even after the steam locomotives were retired, after the passenger trains were discontinued and after one generation of diesel locomotives had made way for another.
Generations of railroaders hired out and later retired after having crossed this bridge countless times during their long careers.
And then, so it seemed, one day the trestle was gone, replaced by a bridge that seems nondescript by comparison.
When viewed in this context, I’m even more pleased that we took the time in 2014 to get the photographs that we did of the 145 crossing the trestle.
Interestingly, that day was the only time I ever photographed an NS train crossing the trestle from ground level. But that is a story for another day.
Article and Photographs by Craig Sanders
Chessie System 4-8-4 Greenbrier type No. 614 is heading west out of Pittsburgh on June 27, 1981, with the Chessie Safety Express. The locomotive was built for the Chesapeake & Ohio. The trip had originated in Akron and was trip 17 of the 1981 season. The next day the train made a one way ferry move from Akron to Pittsburgh to get into position for two weekends of trips out of Pittsburgh in mid July.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
Amtrak announced Friday afternoon widespread service cancellations ahead of a winter storm expected to hit the Northeast today and dump up to two feet of snow in some areas.
Although most of the cancellations involve Eastern corridor services, some long-distance trains are affected, including the Lake Shore Limited.
Nos. 48 and 448 did not depart Chicago on Friday night. Combined with a scheduled cancellation of the Capitol Limited, this meant that no Amtrak trains for the East Coast departed Chicago on Friday.
Through late March, the Capitol is scheduled to skip departing Chicago and Washington on Fridays and Saturdays.
Amtrak’s website shows the Lake Shore still scheduled to leave Chicago Saturday night.
However, the westbound Lake Shore Limited from New York and Boston on Saturday has been cancelled, meaning there will be no Amtrak service from the East Coast to Chicago leaving today.
In a service advisory, Amtrak said the northbound New York-Charlotte Carolinian will terminate in Washington on Saturday. The southbound Carolinian will originate in Washington on Sunday.
The same plan is in effect for the New York-Savannah, Georgia Palmetto.
The New York-Pittsburgh Pennsylvania is thus far unaffected by the service cuts, but Keystone Service between New York and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, via Philadelphia, will be limited. No Keystone trains will operate between Philadelphia and New York.
The Vermonter will be canceled Saturday the length of its route.
Empire Corridor service will be limited between New York and Albany-Rensselaer, New York, but the Maple Leaf and other trains to Niagara Falls, New York, are still scheduled to operate.
All service between New York and Boston, as well as the shuttle trains between Springfield, Massachusetts, and New Haven, Connecticut, are canceled on Saturday.
Also canceled are all Acela trains between Washington and New York. Four Northeast Regional trains, including two that operate into Virginia, have been scrubbed. Downeaster service between Boston and Maine will be limited.
On Sunday Northeast Regional Nos. 150 and 160 (Boston-New York) are cancelled as is Downeaster No. 690.
Northeast Regional No. 195 (Boston-Richmond, Virginia) will originate in New York as will No. 195 (Boston-Newport News, Virginia).
Amtrak plans to place its new ALC-42 Charger locomotives into regular revenue service on the Empire Builder in the coming months.
Railfan & Railroad magazine reported on its website that the Chargers are being moved to the route so that operating crews can become familiar with them.
Amtrak plans to eventually use the ALC-42 to replace the P42DC locomotives that have been national network mainstays since the 1990s.
The magazine said Amtrak has been placing a Charger in the various crew bases for the Empire Builder as part of the familiarity process.
Initially, the report said, Amtrak plans to par ALC-42 units with P42s in revenue service.
No date has been set for the first revenue service run of an ALC-42. Amtrak thus far has taken delivery of five ALC-42 units and expects to receive two more in February.
Eventually, Amtrak will operate 75 of the units, which are being assembled in Sacramento, California.
The report can be read at https://railfan.com/amtraks-new-chargers-will-debut-on-empire-builder/
The U.S. Department of Transportation is taking applications for Rebuilding American Infrastructure With Sustainability and Equity grants.
The agency said $1.5 billion is available in RAISE grants for federal fiscal year 2022.
Funding is available for projects involving rail, transit, road and port infrastructure projects.
The application deadline is April 14 with grant winner to be announced no later than Aug. 12.
The RAISE program is the first discretionary funding program to accept applications as directed by the infrastructure program approved by Congress last year.
In a news release, USDOT said the funding for RAISE grants is 50 percent higher than it was for FY 2021.
At least $75 million will be awarded to planning projects and at least $15 million in funding is guaranteed for projects located in areas of persistent poverty or historically disadvantaged communities.
The U.S. Surface Transportation Board has denied a request by the Association of American Railroads to delay the proceedings in a reciprocal switching inquiry.
The STB said on Friday it would continue its planned schedule for the review, including public hearings that begin on March 15.
AAR had sought to extend the schedule for the proceeding by 75 days.
In its decision, the STB said it found “that the amount of notice and time for preparation provided was sufficient and that AAR’s alternative request for extension of the comment deadline would hinder the ability of the Board and the hearing participants to review parties’ submissions before the hearing.”
Amtrak received a rating of 90 percent on the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s Corporate Equality Index for 2022.
Union Pacific scored 100 percent and Norfolk Southern received a 75 percent score.
The index is described as a national bench-marking tool on corporate policies, practices and benefits pertinent to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer employees. It is scored out of 100 with the rating assessing LGBTQ+ workplace equality.
To earn high marks, companies must meet the CEI’s criteria in four categories: Workforce protections of sexual orientation and gender identity and expression; inclusive benefits and health plans; supporting an inclusive culture and corporate social responsibility; and responsible citizenship.
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