We are at the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad’s Steam in the Valley event of 2016. Here are a couple of photos of Nickel Plate Road 2-8-4 No. 765 on Sept. 24. For that year the locomotive ran with roster number 767.
In the top image the 767 is at Boston Mill before performing a southbound runby. The bottom image was made in Peninsula and the 767 is being towed north past the regular CVSR excursion train.
Photographs by Robert Farkas
Over the past several years the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad has supplemented its motive power fleet by leasing locomotives from leasing firms LTEX and Horizon Rail.
Those units typically operate on the CVSR in whatever livery they came in and at best have a CVSR emblem attached to them.
Shown is a former BNSF GP30u leased from LTEX and that ran on the CVSR in 2013. Built for the Santa Fe as a GP30, BNSF never repainted this locomotive into its own colors or painted over the Santa Fe markings.
By the time LTEX 2436 reached the CVSR, those Santa Fe markings and heralds had been painted over. But otherwise, the 2436 still looked like a former Santa Fe engine.
This image was made on March 3, 2013, during a snow shower at Boston Mill station as the 2436 pulled a northbound National Park Scenic, running long hood forward.
On the south end of the train was LTEX GP15-1 No. 1420, which railfan photographers loved to hate because of its solid black livery. The 1420 would have a longer tenure on the CVSR than the 2436 and was still in service more than a year later.
Article and Photograph by Craig Sanders
Nickel Plate Road 2-8-4 No. 765 will conclude its visit to the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad this weekend with a series of excursions on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
It arrived on the CVSR during the first week of the month and has already pulled several trips that drew hundreds of passengers and spectators.
For many, the attraction of watching the big Berkshire-type locomotive in action is scenes like the one above of the 765 putting on a show for a photo runby.
This image was made on Sept. 14, 2014, at Boston Mill. That used to be where the photo runbys were staged.
Boston Mill has changed in the past two years with the CVSR station having been moved further south and a new visitors center having opened in a former apartment building.
If you’ve been following the story line this week of Ed Ribinskas’ series about steam at Boston Mill you’ve seen and read about those changes.
The 765 will be moving on soon although not before spending some time in Bellevue at the Mad River & NKP Railroad Museum later this month.
We probably can expect to see the 765 back in the Valley next year but those things are never guaranteed. Every time the 765 comes back you need to approach its visit as though it might be the last.
But, oh, the memories and photographs you’ll make that will always stay with you.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
Last Saturday the weather was ideal as I made my way to the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad to make the final series of images that would conclude my series on steam motive power at Boston Mill.
I talked with several people who had no idea what was coming and they did wait around for the Nickel Plate Road 765 to arrive.
There were no white chains, no “keep out” or “no parking signs,”; it was just the normal signs that are always up.
Cars were parked at spots on Riverview Road like the old days and they were not bothered.
The top image shows the 765 passing through Boston Mill at 10:30 a.m. The middle image shows the afternoon trip at 2:37 p.m.
Both of these excursions had originated at Rockside Road station in Independence.
The third image shows FPA-4 No. 6777, which provided motive power when the train was operating northbound.
Photographs by Edward Ribinskas
Nickel Plate Road 2-8-4 No. 765 has been a September visitor to the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad since from 2010 except for 2012 and 2020.
What will become the Cuyahoga Valley Visitor Center in late 2019, was still apartments when these photographs were made in September 2013.
Note the Boston Mill station/shelter on the northwest corner of the road crossing, the former site of Cleveland-Akron Bag Company.
Photographs by Edward Ribinskas
Following the 1990 operating season, steam motive power was absent from the Cuyahoga Valley Line until 2007.
In the interim the CVL renamed itself the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad and acquired a fleet of diesel locomotives.
It also opened a station at Boston Mill on the site of a former factory.
September 2007 saw the return of steam operations when former Canadian Pacific 4-6-2 No. 1293, owned by Jerry Jacobson, pulled some excursions.
The 1293 returned returned the next year and again in September 2012.
The top image shows the 1293 passing through Boston Mill on Sept. 18, 2007. The middle image shows the former general store that at the time this image was made on Sept. 29, 2012, had been converted into apartments.
The final image was made by the CVSR station on Sept. 30, 2012.
Photographs by Edward Ribinskas
Earlier this summer I visited the recently opened Cuyahoga Valley Visitor Center in Boston Mill with Marty Surdyk and more recently with my wife, Ursula.
The history of the area is fascinating and to this day still changing.
The photos in this post are all on the site of the former Cleveland-Akron Bag Company factory.
Workers made flour sacks and roofing paper from 1905-1923. The factory closed and was torn down.
The Visitor Center is housed in what once was the company general store.
Long after those events this location is still changing. Between 1975 and 1990 when I was riding and volunteering on the Cuyahoga Valley Line I’ve been able to see changes still.
These photos are from that time period, all at the location of that factory.
As you know this was the location of the Boston Mill station stop for the CVSR for many years until recently.
Aside from former Grand Trunk Western 4070 made in 1984, 1989 and 1990, we also see the Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey circus train when it was here for shows at the former Richfield Coliseum in November 1985.
Article and Photographs by Edward Ribinskas
Here is the newest station on the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad. Ed Ribinskas and Marty Surdyk were on their way to a baseball game in Akron when they got “stopped” by a train here.
Of course they didn’t mind and they got their cameras out to record it.
You will recall that there has long been a Boston Mill station, but it was located further north of the present location. The currently location is opposite of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park visitor’s center.
After getting their photographs, Ed and Marty continued to Canal Park to watch the Akron Rubberducks defeat the Reading Fightin Phils 13-1.
That’s not a bad way to spend a Sunday afternoon in May.
Photographs by Edward Ribinskas
This week the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad received a new set of power just in time for the Polar Express trains. Horizon Rail Nos. 6421 and 2328, a former CSX slug set, are on lease to the CVSR. I caught up with the southbound ferry move at Boston Mills and again at Peninsula.
For the Boston Mill photo runbys of the last excursion of Nickel Plate Road 2-8-4 No. 765 during its two-week visit to the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad, the photographers were given a treat.
FPA-4 No. 6777, which was coupled on the north end of the train to the Silver Solarium dome-observation car, was dropped off and the train ran past the crowd with the observation car uncovered.
It was the first time to my knowledge that the CVSR did that during the 765’s visit since the first excursion a week earlier for CVSR volunteers and members.
CVSR trains operate in pull-pull fashion with motive power on both ends of the train. Thus sightings of the Silver Solarium operating uncovered are bound to be rare.
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