Rare Find on the B&O in Akron

In 1968, my friend Mike Ondecker had his aunt’s 120 roll film (2-by-1/4 inch square negatives) camera when he made this image.

It took him around four or five seconds to take a photo, wind the film manually to the next number while looking through a red window on the back of the camera to check the film’s advance, cock the shutter, and then take the next photo.

I was blessed to have a 120 roll film camera that was more modern and took about three seconds to take a photo, manually turn a crank on the side of the camera, cock the shutter, and take the next photo.

Needless to say, sometimes you had to make a choice as to what to photograph since you often got only one shot.

Mike could have taken a shot of the whole eastbound Baltimore & Ohio lash-up as it came under the bridge in Akron that day.

He would have had at least one of the trailing F units in dark shadows under the bridge. Instead, he chose this shot.

Even then, capturing an F-unit in the old paint scheme was uncommon. Finding two together was really rare.

Mike made the right decision taking the last three units this way. Here we have B&O 3818 (GP38), 5442 (F7B), and an F7A with an unreadable number.

Article by Robert Farkas, Photograph by Mike Ondecker

Tags: Baltimore & Ohio, Baltimore & Ohio in Akron, Baltimore & Ohio in Akron Ohio, Baltimore & Ohio locomotives, Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, Mike Ondecker photographs, Photographs of Akron railroads, Railroads of Akron Ohio