It’s early 1969 in Brownsville, Pennsylvania. The Monongahela engine facility has two Baldwin switchers, including recently-purchased ex-New York Central 1210, a Baldwin RF16A. Also visible are small portions of two more Sharks.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
Penn Central No. 8123, a Baldwin S-12, was still in full Pennsylvania Railroad paint but had a PC roster number as it worked in Akron in the late 1960s.
It is late 1968 in Conway Yard neard Pittsburgh. It’s appropriate that this Baldwin DS44-660 switcher still has Pennsylvania Railroad markings because Conway way, after all, built by the Pennsy.
Baldwin Locomotive Works built S12 No. 27 new for the Akron & Barberton Belt in May 1951. The switcher would toil for the belt line railroad for two decades before being scraped in March 1972. It is shown working in Barberton in late 1967 or January 1968.
Penn Central 8075 is a Baldwin road switcher that is shown sitting in Sharonville, Ohio, near Cincinnati, in the late 1960s or early 1970s. Notice how the New York Central herald below the cab side window has been painted out. Either they did a poor job of it or some of that paint is peeling. Whatever the case, there is just enough of the herald showing through to identify the origin of this locomotive.
Bessemer &Lake Erie 406, a Baldwin DRS6-6-1500, is working the yard in Conneaut in 1968.
It is Sept. 8, 1968, in Conneaut. Nickel Plate Road 2-8-4 Berkshire type No. 759 has just left on its first trip after being restored and John Woodworth and I have gone to photograph the Bessemer & Lake Erie.
Here is some of what we saw and photographs that day.
B&LE 830 is outside the engine house.
B&LE 830 as seen from the other side.
We were given permission to get in the cab. I’m looking down the long hood at the engine house.
I’m on the walkway of the short hood looking the opposite way from the photo above.
B&LE 406, a Baldwin DRS6-6-1500, is working a string of hoppers.
B&LE 881 and 883 are working on a coal train.
Working beneath the Nickel Plate Road trestle over Conneaut Creek in a timeless scene.
B&LE 405, a Baldwin DRS6-6-1500,) is in the engine house.
A Penn Central freight is on the ex-New York Central bridge over the B&LE. Note the mixed motive consist of the PC train. The view is looking southward.
That was great news that the owner of Baldwin’s last two sharks says he will have them donated to a museum at his death. Here are a couple of shark photos.
In the top image it is late 1968 in Brownsville, Pennsylvania, where five ex-New York Central sharks plus several Baldwin switchers can be seen in the Monongahela engine facility.
The two units on the left, Nos. 1216 and 1205, are the survivors now being stored in Michigan.
In the bottom photograph it is June 13, 1977, and Delaware & Hudson Nos. 1205 and 1216 (the two survivors) are rounding a curve in Whitehall, New York.
The owner of a Michigan short line railroad plans to donate the only two surviving Baldwin RF-16 Sharknose diesel locomotives to a railroad museum.
John Larkin, owner of the Escanaba & Lake Superior Railroad, told Trains magazine he would donate the vintage locomotives to an unspecified museum after his death.
Larkin, 73, said during the interview he has not decided which museum would get the units, but he serves on the board of directors of the Lake Superior Railroad Museum and has assisted it with several restoration projects.
The two Sharknose locomotives are A units, Nos. Nos. 1205 and 1216, and have not operated in several years.
Both were bought in 1974 by the Delaware & Hudson and used in freight and passenger excursion service until late 1978.
The locomotives were later purchased by Illinois-based Castolite Corporation, which leased them to the Michigan Northern.
After the latter railroad ended operations Nos. 1205 and 1216 were moved to E&LS.
EL&S used No. 1216 for a short time in summer 1979.
It pulled a few trips in fall 1982 in Michigan between Wells and Channing but was sidelined when its crankshaft broke.
No. 1205 never operated on the EL&S due to mechanical issues.
Both sharknoses have been stored indoors and away from view of railfans.
Larkin told Trains that he also acquired Baldwin prime movers and other parts in the event the locomotives were ever restored.
But that never happened because it would cost too much. “But they are protected and out of the weather. They are inside so they are not further deteriorating,” he said.
Baldwin built 109 A units and 51 B-units between 1950 and 1953 for Baltimore & Ohio, New York Central, and the Pennsylvania Railroad. In 1967 the Monongahela Railway purchased seven As and two Bs from NYC, and operated them into the 1970s.
In the late 1960s a railfan in Northeast Ohio daily encountered what to us are now fallen flag railroads and fallen flag builders.
In the top image, Brewster, Ohio was “little Hagerstown” for several years because so many Western Maryland locomotives could be found there.
Up to 10 WM locomotives could be seen there on a given day. Here WM Nos. 3579 and 3578 occupy a service track in the late 1960s.
At the beginning of Penn Central, ex-New York Central Baldwin road switchers were common in the Canton-Massillon area.
In an early Penn Central view, NYC No. 8067 works the ex-Pennsylvania Railroad yard in Massillon north of MACE tower whose roof can be seen above the second gondola.
I recently realized I have been railfanning for slightly over 50 years.
For Christmas 1965 I received a Minoltina (Made by Minolta) 35 mm rangefinder to be used for a college photography class.
For about a year I shot only black and white. I took my first roll of 35 mm slide film late in 1966 with most of the slides being poor to acceptable. Still, a few came out well.
Here is Akron & Barberton Belt No. 27 (a Baldwin S12 purchased in 1951) heading toward the A&BB yard in Barberton in most-likely December 1966.
For those who know the area now, this is a completely different scene. The A&BB is now the ABC, A&BB 27 was scrapped over 40 years ago, the freight cars that can be identified are all fallen flags, the tracks have been removed, and there is no road crossing in this area now.
The cars would now be classics and Kodachrome is a fond memory.
What amazes me now is how few shots I took of the A&BB and AC&Y. These were the home railroads loaded with older rare power, but I can’t complain.
I had to learn what so many rail fans have had to learn that “far away places are fun, but don’t forget the home roads.”
