Colebrookedale Acquires ex-CN Steamer

A Pennsylvania tourist railroad has acquired a steam locomotive from a Tennessee museum.,

Former Canadian National 4-6-2 No. 5288 has been at the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum for two decades but will move within the coming weeks to the Colebrookedale Railroad.

Colebookedale officials say they hope to someday restore the 5288 to operating condition.

The railroad has two other steam locomotives in its collections that it also hopes to restore to operating condition.

The Colebrookedale is based in Boyertown, Pennsylvania, located northwest of Philadelphia.

The 5288 was built for the Grand Trunk in 1919 and later would up in the collection of Steamtown when it was owned and operated by F. Nelson Blount. The TVRM acquired the 5288 in 2001.

The other two steams in the Colebrookedale collection are Grand Trunk Western 4-6-2 No. 5030 and Lake Superior & Ishpeming 2-8-0 No. 18. 

Steam Saturday: En Route to the Valley

Former Canadian Pacific 4-6-2 No. 1293 was once a mainstay when Ohio Central used to operate steam excursions.

The Pacific-type locomotive sometimes ran as a CP steam and sometimes as an Ohio Central locomotive.

In 2012 it assumed another identity Central Ohio 1293. It is shown above on Sept. 6, 2012 on the Wheeling & Lake Erie Navarre en route to Akron.

The 1293 would pull a series of excursions on the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad that year.

Photograph by Robert Farkas

Some Favorites From the 1992 NRHS Convention

Espee 2472 at Santa Clara, California.

The 1992 National Railway Historical Society Convention was held in San Jose, California, and featured steam trains and commuter trains. One of the stars of the convention was Southern Pacific 4-6-2 No. 2472, which pulled excursions trains on the Peninsula. All of the images shown here were captured on July 23, 1992, between San Jose and San Francisco.

Photographs by Edward Ribinskas

Caltrain commuter train at Burlingame, California.

At the Paul Avenue Caltrain station at Bayview outside San Francisco. What was unique was the station was in between two tunnels. The station has since closed on Aug. 1, 2005.

The steam excursion heads toward San Francisco while the commuter train heads to San Jose.

R&N Steam Locomotive to Run in August

Reading & Northern plans to use 4-6-2 No. 425 to power the first weekend of tourist train service to Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, by its Lehigh Gorge Scenic Railway.

The trips will run on Aug. 14, 15 and 16.

Tickets are $17 for a standard coach seat and $20 for an open window coach. Children (ages 2 to 12) tickets for those accommodation s are $9 and $10.

Tickets can be purchased by calling 570-3258485. The trips are 70 minutes in duration.

Trains will depart at 11 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. on Friday; and at 11 a.m., 1 p.m., 3 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

No. 425 was built by Baldwin in 1982 for the Gulf, Mobile & Northern, and was purchased by the Reading & Northern in 1984. It began running for the R&N in 2007.

One Afternoon in Sugarcreek

The Ohio Central began running its steam-powered Sugarcreek-Baltic tourist train behind former Canadian National 4-6-0 No. 1551 in 1989.

Although I moved to Northeast Ohio in August 1993, it would more than four years before I ventured to Sugarcreek to see that tourist train in action.

However, my first encounter with the 1551 had occurred two years earlier when I rode behind it on an Orrville Railroad Heritage Society excursion that originated in Beech City and ran to Coschocton. A diesel pulled the return trip.

What would turn out to be the last time that I saw the 1551 in steam would be on a sun-splashed Saturday afternoon on Sept. 27, 1997.

I’m not sure how I learned about it, but the Ohio Central had two working steam locomotives in town that day.

The 1551 would be pulling the regularly-scheduled tourist train to Baltic and back. But also in town was the newest edition to the Ohio Central roundhouse, former Canadian Pacific 4-6-2 No. 1293.

OC owner Jerry Jacobson had acquired No. 1293 in 1996 from Steamtown and restored it to operating condition. It debuted in fall 1997 and would eventually take over the duties of pulling the Sugarcreek-Baltic tourist train.

My memory is a little hazy as to why the 1293 was in Sugarcreek on this day, but it probably had something to do with pulling an excursion train.

In the photograph above, the 1293 is idling on the siding as the 1551 prepares to depart for Baltic.

What is crystal clear in my memory was how I was thinking that on this day this was one of the few places in America that featured two operating steam locomotives. This remains one of my favorite Ohio Central steam memories.

Given that the Ohio Central steam program is a thing of the past, that makes those memories all the more special.