It is 1967 or 1968 in Akron where Baltimore & Ohio E9A No. 1455 is adding or removing these head end cars to The Diplomat. I don’t remember which it was. In the top image is a short Diplomat with the two cars. In the bottom image is the switching operation. No. 1455 was built in May 1955 and would later join the Amtrak roster as No. 401.
Photographs by 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
It is the summer of 1968 in Akron. The westbound Baltimore & Ohio Diplomat with E8A No. 1452 leading is at Akron Union Depot. Across the tracks the westbound Erie Lackawanna Lake Cities is sitting at the EL station, which is partly visible in the background.
Photograph by Mike Ondecker
It is the late 1960s in Akron. After the arrival of Baltimore & Ohio’s Diplomat, B&O Alco S2 switcher No. 9074 is removing a mail car taken from it. The train has stopped east out of sight beyond the bridge, and the E units have cut off and pulled west of the train.
The 9074 has coupled onto the mail car and getting in the clear. Then the B&O E-units will back up, recouple, and the train will head west to Chicago.
B&O 9074 will cross a couple of tracks and put the mail car on a siding next to Akron Union Depot where the mail car will be unloaded.
Under the East Exchange Street bridge on the left is Erie Lackawanna No. 501, another Alco S2 switcher.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
It is a summer morning in the late 1960s in Akron. Baltimore & Ohio’s Diplomat has stopped at the Akron Union Depot, which is out of sight to the right.
The train stretches under the station’s concourse, which also connected to the Greyhound Bus depot.
The Erie Lackawanna passenger station is to the left of the B&O E9A locomotive.
The EL’s westbound Lake Cities is barely visible at the station. Soon the Diplomat will be headed west to Chicago.
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
Although I lived near Warwick, I only photographed one or two Baltimore & Ohio passenger trains through there. It is 1966 or 1967, and here is Baltimore & Ohio 3516 westbound. I really like the image of the trainman giving a friendly wave.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
Akron was a station where some Baltimore & Ohio passenger trains made set offs and pickups.
It might be a sleeping car or it could be head end cars carrying mail and express.
By the time this image was made the Akron set off sleepers were thing of the past but head end cars carrying mail were still interchanged.
B&O E8A No. 1444 and E8B No. 2415 are backing onto their train after picking up a mail car at Akron Union Depot.
It’s a morning in mid-1968 and this is the Diplomat bound from Washington to Chicago.
Model railroad building Walthers sells HO scale replicas of the 2415 so its memory continues to live on model railroad layouts even if the Diplomat has been gone for 50 years now.
The westbound Diplomat of the Baltimore & Ohio is making its station stop in Akron in 1968.
Leading No. 7 today is E8A No. 1446. In the background is the passenger station for the Erie Lackawanna.
The Diplomat is on the westbound B&O main line with the Akron Union Depot passenger platform between No. 1446 and the viewer.
The track between No. 7 and the platform was used for storing cars to be put on passenger trains or cars that were taken off passenger trains.
Baltimore & Ohio F7A No. 4550 is working at Akron Union Depot in the late 1960s. On the other track is B&O’s westbound Diplomat.
No. 4550 and F7B No. 5478 have cut off their train to add another car to the consist.
The Diplomat in this era typically had a coach, a food bar coach and two or more head end cars.
In early January 1970 the Diplomat and its eastbound counterpart, the Gateway, were discontinued west of Akron.
East of Akron they continued to operate to Washington using the name Shenandoah.
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