An Alco in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula

Mike Ondecker and I were railfanning the upper peninsula of Michigan when I caught Lake Superior & Ishpeming 1604, an Alco RS3, in Marquette on June 11, 1974.

Photograph by Robert Farkas

Period Piece

The Alco RS2 in Lehigh Valley paint probably was the first thing you noticed about this image. But I see in this a nice period piece.

The grass growing between the tracks in the yard in Sayre, Pennsylvania, on July 24, 1973, says something about the lack of funds to do weed spraying.

Then again, maybe the railroad didn’t think grass and weeds growing in a yard was any big deal.

I also noticed the buildings across the street, which signify the type of working class neighborhoods that sprung up around railroad facilities or any other type of industrial facility.

Generations of railroads workers lived in those houses and patronized the stores, diners and taverns housed in commercial buildings in those neighborhoods.

Most of the tracks in this view appear empty although there may be cars out of view to the right or left.

Whatever the case, this suggests the state of railroads in the 1970s that would lead to the creation of Conrail just under two years after this image was made.

Lehigh Valley was among the bankrupt railroads folded into Conrail.

The story of the declining industrial base of the Northeast has been told many times and can be seen in its own way here.

Yet engine 213 goes about its business on this summer day because there are still cars to switch and trains to run even if there aren’t as many of them as their used to be here.

Photograph by Robert Farkas

An EL Monday at Brier Hill

Today’s Erie Lackawanna Monday takes us to Brier Hill Yard in Youngstown on Oct. 1, 1972.

In the top image, Alco RS3 No. 923 is getting some maintenance  in the diesel house. The bottom image was made at the engine facility and features Alco S2 No. 913 and EMD F7A No. 7101.

Photographs by Robert Farkas

An Ann Arbor Memory

The Ann Arbor Railroad had most of its track in Michigan, but it’s southern terminus was in Toledo.

The “Annie” as many called it, had 294 miles of track at its peak and a car ferry operation across Lake Michigan.

The AA filed for bankruptcy protection in 1973 and ceased operating in 1976 when Conrail took it over.

But soon the State of Michigan acquired the AA and later sold it in pieces to various short-line railroads.

Shown is Ann Arbor No. 301, an RS2 that was photographed in Toledo on June 21, 1983, during the time when it was operated by the Michigan Interstate Railway, a division of the Michigan Department of Transportation.

Photograph by Robert Farkas