Steam Saturday: My First A&A Visit

I made my first visit to the Arcade & Attica short line railroad in New York State on July 17, 2010. It was part of an outing held by the Forest City Division of the Railroad Enthusiasts.

I was in a party that traveled in a van that stopped at Bort Road near North East, Pennsylvania, while en route to Arcade, New York. That was my first visit there. We drove along the GE Erie test track but nothing was out running at the time.

We wrapped up the outing by driving up to Amtrak’s station in Depew, New York, which serves Buffalo.

The star attraction on the A&A was 2-8-0 No. 18, which had been built by Alco in 1920. We rode the first excursion of the day from Arcade to Curriers, and stuck around to photograph No. 18 leaving town for its second trip.

In both images No. 18 is pulling up to couple onto its train and will run tender first back to Arcade.

The two images above were made at Curriers during the layover. There is not much to see there, but the locomotive’s runaround move proved to be of interest to some passengers.

Article and Photographs by Craig Sanders

A&A Seeking Money to Repair Steam Locomotive

Arcade & Attica No. 18 rolls into Arcade, New York, with an excursion train in July 2017.

The Arcade & Attica is seeking funds to pay for repair to its 2-8-0 steam locomotive, which was removed from service after an inspection found mechanical defects.

No. 18 was found to have broken staybolts near its boiler and cracks near the rivet line.

The locomotive’s boiler has been removed and sent to a shop in Syracuse, New York, for inspection.

Other repair work is being done at the A&A shops in Arcade, New York.

Repair and restoration work is estimated to cost $250,000 and the Arcade Historical Society is leading a fund-raising drive.

The Society and the railroad hope to be able to raise the money in time for No. 18 to operate by November 2020 when the steamer will marks its 100^th birthday.

Built for a Cuba sugar mill by Cooke Locomotive Works in Patterson, New Jersey, No. 18 never went to Cuba. Instead, it was sold to the Boyne City, Gaylord & Alpena Railroad in Michigan.

The A&A began steam excursions in 1962. In the meantime, the A&A will use GE center cab switchers for freight and excursion service.

Catching Up With Arcade & Attica No. 18

Arcade & Attica No. 18 approaches Genesee Road near Arcade, New York, during its last run of the day.

For years the Arcade & Attica has operated its 2-8-0 Alco steam locomotive with its nose facing northward on its excursion from Arcade to Curriers.

The engine runs around the train at Curriers and returns to Arcade with its tender leading.

But on two weekends this year the New York-based tourist railroad has reversed that.

It turned No. 18 on a wye behind its shop in Arcade and ran tender first to Curriers and had the nose pointed southward for the 7.16-mile return trip.

From a photography standpoint, it is better to have the locomotive nose pointed southward because the lighting is better.

One of those weekends when the nose was pointed southward preceded Independence Day. Ed Ribinskas and I piled into Marty Surdyk’s Jeep Patriot to make the trek to Arcade for a day of steam locomotive chasing.

It had been 25 years since Marty had been to the A&A. My last visit had been in September 2012. Ed saw No. 18 pointed southward just over a month ago during Memorial Day weekend.

By the time we caught up with No. 18 it was in Curriers where the A&A excursion train has a layover.

Chasing the A&A is easy because it travels at about 10 miles per hour.

But there aren’t that many places to photograph a train en route because most of the grade crossings are in Arcade.

There is Genesee Road, but not much else. Marty thought he remembered there being two crossings, but other than Genesee Road all other crossings are on private roads outside of Arcade.

Our primary concern in chasing the first return trip of the day to Arcade was cloudy skies. Large, puffy clouds filled the sky and sun breaks were infrequent and short-lived.

Trips leave Arcade at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. After chasing the first of those, we headed for a Subway in a shopping center located next to a Topps grocery store.

Subway is Marty’s official railfanning restaurant so of course that was where we would go. He also got to eat his entire foot-long meatball sandwich.

During the Akron Railroad Club longest day outing in Bellevue Marty had ordered a foot-long meatball sub. He placed half of it on his vehicle as he was eating the other half back at the mini plant.

But the wind blew it onto the ground. In Arcade, we ate inside the restaurant and there was no danger of half of Marty’s sandwich being blown by the wind onto the floor.

Photographing at Genesee Road had reminded me of Genesee beer, a brand I’ve heard about but never tasted.

As Ed and Marty were finishing their sandwiches, I walked over to the Tops grocery store to see if I could buy a couple of “Gennies.” But Genesee beer wasn’t being sold by the bottle there or, or that matter, by the six pack.

I ended up instead buying two bottles of IPA beer from two different Buffalo craft breweries and some large chocolate chip cookies for the guys.

The A&A had already left Arcade by the time we got rolling after lunch.

By now the weather had much improved with the clouds breaking up and ushering in mostly sunny skies.

There had been a pack of railfans chasing and photographing No. 18 earlier in the day, but they were mostly nowhere to be found during the afternoon trip when the locomotive was bathed in sunlight.

We got to Curriers just ahead of the train and got photographs of it coming and going.

Then it was off to do some across the field shots from along Curriers Road.

That was followed by stops at Genesee Road, the Arcade fire station and the street south of the depot where we caught No. 18 going back to the shop.

It was an easy chase that yielded some quite pleasing images.

The train was in the station at Curriers when we first encountered it.

The first photo op at Genesee Road occurred as the sun hid behind a cloud.

Crossing Cattaraugus Creek in Arcade during the return trip.

Doing the runaround move in Arcade. After getting this image it was Subway time.

Patrons are lined up to make a visit to the cab of No. 18 during the layover in Curriers.

A baggage cart load of flowers, a depot and a steam locomotive make for a pleasing sight.

Getting underway at Curriers to return to Arcade while blowing the whistle for Chaffee Road.

Leaving behind a trail of smoke.

Yonder comes a steam train in a view that could have been made several decades earlier.

Skirting the driveway of the fire station.

The train at Curriers as seen in the sunglasses of a trainman wearing a Penn Central conductor hat.

Watching the tracks ahead from the engineer’s seat.

Back in Arcade the locomotive has cut away from its trains as passengers disembark at the station platform.

Heading back to the shop at the end of the last trip.

Yes, it’s an Alco.

At the end of the day at the shop in Arcade.

 

Celebrating 100 Years of Arcade & Attica

The New York State-based shortline railroad Arcade & Attica recently celebrated the 100th anniversary of its founding under that name by hosting a series of steam excursions.

The A&A routinely runs tourist trains on weekends, including many runs behind its 2-8-0 No. 18.

But what made these trips out of the ordinary is that the nose of No. 18 faced west rather than its customary eastward direction.

Akron Railroad Club members Edward Ribinskas and Jeff Troutman got up early and drove to Arcade, New York, to chase the first trip of the day and hung around for the second one as well.

Ed sent along a few of his images to share of A&A No. 18 and its train. He noted that No. 18 will be facing westward again during trips on July 1 and 2.