For two for Tuesday we’ve asked the wayback machine to take us back to see some Chessie System motive power. In the top image we see Baltimore & Ohio No. 6614 in a Chessie livery and B&O No. 6558 in its original scheme. The train is in Akron on July 2, 1976. In the bottom image B&O No. 4331 is eastbound in Greenwich in the fall of 1986.
Photographs by Robert Farkas
I am standing east of both the Erie Lackawanna, and Baltimore & Ohio passenger stations in Akron in the late 1960s.
From left to right: A string of freight cars (mostly hoppers), what looks like a B&O baggage car or a mail car on what might be the B&O eastbound main; an eastbound B&O train sitting on what looks like the B&O westbound mainline perhaps waiting for the eastbound EL freight on the next track to clear the crossovers at JO Tower east of this location, and finally the boxcars on the upper track leading to Quaker Oats
This is the most congestion that I have seen at this location.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
It is the late 1960s, and I am standing on the platform of Akron Union Depot. Baltimore & Ohio No. 3693 is eastbound on the westbound main.
If you look closely in the distance to the left of the train, another locomotive is also eastbound with trailers on flat cars. Most likely the 3693 is on the westbound track is to let the other B&O eastbound pass it. That is the Erie Lackawanna passenger station on the right.
In the bottom image, B&O 7597 is leading an eastbound train in through Warwick Yard in Clinton on July 29, 1982.
Article and Photographs by Robert Farkas
A Baltimore & Ohio Alco S2 pauses in Akron in early 1971. The image was scanned from an Agfachrome slide and we don’t know the name of the photographer who made it.
Collection of Robert Farkas
This is a very early scan from an old computer. Baltimore & Ohio E9A No. 1456 leads the westbound Diplomat as it is about to stop at Akron Union Depot in the late 1960s. The train to its left is an eastbound Erie Lackawanna freight.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
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
Here are two images of locomotives carrying roster number 7598 taken at different times in Akron. In the top image Baltimore & Ohio SD40 No. 7598 is eastbound on May 5, 1979. In the bottom image CSX C40-8 is westbound on Aug. 2, 2010.
Photographs by Robert Farkas
Mike Ondecker photographed this Baltimore & Ohio locomotive at Akron Junction in Akron in the mid-1968. We couldn’t make out the roster number and were thus unable to determine the model of this unit.
Photograph by Mike Ondecker
Baltimore & Ohio GP40-2 No. 4114 is in Akron on May 18, 1977. The unit was built in September 1972. It would later become CSX 6014.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
Erie Lackawanna Nos. 819 and 818 are on the point of the approaching Lake Cities while Baltimore & Ohio No. 1440 is on the point of the Diplomat, which is already at the Akron Union Depot. It is the late 1960s, and it was not uncommon to have both westbound trains at their respective stations at the same time.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
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