We’ve traveled back to Aug. 1, 2004, in Orrville. Former Pennsylvania Railroad E8A Nos. 5711 and 5809, both owned by Bennett Levine, are heading eastbound home to Philadelphia on the Fort Wayne Line of Norfolk Southern.
In the top image, the train is about to cross Ohio Route 57. In the bottom image it is passing the restored Orrville Union Depot along with the former tower and a PRR cabin car on static display.
When these photographs were taken the Pennsylvania Railroad name had been gone for more than 30 years.
There are still times when ghosts of the Pennsy can still be seen roaming. These photographs, for example, appear to show PRR passenger trains on a Pennsy route.
But in one instance the train is actually wearing a PRR-inspired paint scheme on Ohio Central’s Columbus & Ohio River subsidiary, which uses former PRR rails.
These images were taken on the same photo special from Oct. 5, 2002. They were made just west of West Lafayette and crossing the Tuscarawas River just west of Newcomerstown
Some images were made in Bedford on Norfolk Southern’s Cleveland Line, a former PRR route between Cleveland and Pittsburgh.
The train is being pulled by Bennett Levin’s Juniata Terminals E7A, which is an actual former Pennsy locomotive.
These images were made on May 8, 2011.
For the longest time the Bessemer & Lake Erie maintained its identity even after the Canadian National takeover in 2004.
During my many visits to the B&LE I was greeted with the Bessemer orange such as the image on top that I made on July 6, 2007.
However on Aug. 20, 2001, a strange but more than welcome visitor appeared.
The Bennett Levin Pennsylvania Railroad E8A locomotives pulled a private car excursion over the Bessemer. That train had arrived in Erie, Pennsylvania, the previous day
On Monday, Aug. 20, 2001, the special departed Erie on CSX and got onto the Bessemer for a rare mileage trip and is shown above in a view made from the U.S. Route 20 bridge in Conneaut as the train snakes along Conneaut Creek and passes beneath the Nickel Plate trestle.
Bennett Levin’s former Pennsylvania Railroad E8s powered a rare mileage private car excursion on Aug. 19, 2001, on a former Pennsy route from Harrisburg to Erie, Pennsylvania.
From Emporium, Pennsylvania, to Erie the railroad was operated as the Allegheny & Eastern and since it was a secondary route for the Pennsy the operating speeds were more relaxed.
Marty Surdyk and his brother Robert studied that route and that was where we focused our photography of the excursion.
Listening to the scanner on our trek eastward we set up initially at St. Marys (top photograph) in pouring rain.
As the day went on the rain let up but the weather mainly remained overcast. We were able to find 12 photo locations. Five of the best are here in this story.
They included crossing the Allegheny River in Warren, Pennsylvania; Garland, Pennsylvania; and passing a mural of a Climax steam locomotive in Corry, Pennsylvania, the home of Climax Manufacturing, which built the famous logging locomotives.
Our final photo location was in Erie where the excursion train arrived at the Erie Union Station, which today is still used by Amtrak’s Lake Shore Limited.
Photographs by Edward Ribinskas
With the cancellation of the excursion from Philadelphia to Altoona, Pennsylvania, I would like to share some pictures that I did of the two Pennsylvania Railroad E8As during happier times out that way.
The cancelled trip was to have helped the Pennsylvania Railroad Technical & Historical Society celebrate its 50th anniversary during a convention in Altoona.
The train was to have run to Altoona on May 9 and return four days later.
It might have been the last mainline excursion of the Pennsy passenger locomotives because owner Bennett Levin has said he does not plan to give the engines a positive train control apparatus.
The images in this series were made at Altoona, Horseshoe Curve, Gallitzin and Cassandra.
A planned excursion train in Pennsylvania in conjunction with the 50th anniversary celebration of the Pennsylvania Railroad Technical and Historical Society has been canceled, a victim of a recent Amtrak policy change banning most special moves and charters.
The train, which would have featured the PRR E8A passenger locomotives and former Pennsy passenger cars owned by Bennett Levin, had initially been approved by Amtrak.
But Levin received a phone call from an Amtrak official saying Amtrak CEO Richard Anderson had ordered an end to special trains.
Although the Amtrak policy change had allowed for exceptions in narrow circumstances, a recent clarification of the policy indicated that Amtrak will not approve excursions that operate on lines not used by the carrier’s scheduled trains.
The PRRT&HS excursion was to operate from Philadelphia to Altoona, Pennsylvania, on May 9 via the Buffalo Line of Norfolk Southern and the Nittany & Bald Eagle short line railroad using former PRR routes via Williamsport and Tyrone.
Levin had submitted a detailed request to Amtrak in December to operate the excursion and he agreed to Amtrak’s price for the trip in early February.
As late as early April Amtrak was still agreeing to operate the trip before backing out in mid April.
Two former Pennsylvania Railroad E8A passenger locomotives are likely to be sidelined once positive train control systems are switched on.
Bennett Levin, who owns Tuscan red Nos. 5711 and 5809 told Trains magazine that the cost of PTC to prohibitive for two diesels that are used only about twice a year.
“Based on what we know at this time, there’s no practical way to continue,” he said.
Levin estimated the cost of installing PTC at six figures per unit. “Nobody is going to spend that kind of money,” Levin said in reference to mainline passenger excursions.
He also said another potential stumbling block is uncertainty about the future of private car operations on Amtrak.
The last road trip for the Pennsy units may be this May when they pull an excursion being sponsored by the Pennsylvania Railroad Technical & Historical Society.
That trip will run from Philadelphia to Altoona, Pennsylvania, on May 9 for the group’s 50th annual convention. The train of parlor cars will return on May 13.
Congress in 2008 mandated that railroad lines hosting passengers service and/or hazardous cargo must have a PTC system. The deadline for installing the systems is Dec. 31.
Levin described that mandate as “unfortunate and untimely.”
Calling it an unfunded Congressional mandate, Levin said it would not exist had the locomotive engineer of a California commuter train that collided with a Union Pacific locomotive been doing his job and not using his cell phone just before the collision. That crash helped to prompt the 2008 legislation mandating PTC installation.
The PRR E8A units have passed through Northeast Ohio a handful of times in the past decade and pulled a private car train on the Ohio Central on July 31, 2004, from Dennison to Sugar Creek and return.
Wisconsin-based High Iron Travel has announced a private passenger car trip on freight-only tracks in southwestern Pennsylvania that were once owned by the Pennsylvania Railroad.
The trip, named “Coal Goes To War,” will operate on July 28 between Pittsburgh and the West Virginia border on a route that primarily handles Norfolk Southern coal trains today.
The trip is a fund-raising venture to help pay for the restoration of Alto Tower in Altoona, Pa.
The special will be pulled by Bennett Levine’s Pennsy E units and feature an all private cars consist.
More details about the trip will be release once final approval is granted by NS and pricing is worked out with Amtrak.
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