A Portal Into My Past

It is July 3, 1972, in Brewster. I had just purchased my first single lens reflex camera, a Nikormat by Nikon, and was taking my first few rolls of Agfachrome slide film. In less than a year, I would move on to Kodachrome.

Back then a release was easy to get, and Brewster was filled with locomotives built by Fairbanks-Morse, Alco and the Electro Motive Division of General Motors.

I took this slide and have looked at it perhaps two or three times since 1972. 

A few days ago, I discovered this slide in one of my boxes. Now I can appreciate the scene. It is not a far away FM H12-44 image as much as a portal into my past.

I’m looking east. The big building in the background is the Norfolk & Western office building which was built by the original Wheeling & Lake Erie and is now used as the main offices of the modern W&LE.

As long as I did not cross tracks, go into the shops, or wander into the yard, I was free to photograph where I wanted. I even had permission to cross tracks to photograph in the engine facility.

Such freedom is almost unheard of now. I can truly say that I have been blessed.

Article and Photograph by Robert Farkas

Around the Turntable in Brewster

The wayback machine has landed us in the late 1960s at the Norfolk & Western engine facility in Brewster. Around the turntable can be found EMD F7As, EMD SDs, Fairbanks-Morse switchers, and a single FM road switcher. Second generation power can be seen behind these treasures.

Photograph by Robert Farkas

W&LE SD40-2 Two for Tuesday

Here is a pair of Wheeling & Lake Erie SD40-2 working east of the Brewster Yard. Nos. WE 6312 and 6316 are east are shown on Feb. 24, 2017, approaching the signal for the W&LE/RJ Corman crossing, and about to cross the Corman.

Photographs by Robert Farkas

Just Another Day on the Wheeling in Brewster

It is the morning of March 17, 2012, in Wheeling & Lake Erie’s Brewster Yard. BNSF 9933 will be eastbound later in the day, but WE SD40-3 No. 3049 is switching the yard now.

Photograph by Robert Farkas

W&LE Two for Tuesday

The Wheeling & Lake Erie provides our two for Tuesday this week. It is Oct. 1, 2021, and we are in Brewster. GP35-3 No. 103 and GP9R No. 4602 are leaving eastbound for the Gambrinus, Yard near Canton. These view show the duo coming and going.

Photographs by Robert Farkas.

‘Wild Mary’ Two for Tuesday

Today we feature Western Maryland GP40 3797 in Brewster on the Norfolk & Western. In the top image, the 3797 is at the engine facility by the turntable in October 1972. The bottom image was made on May 5, 1974, of the 3797 leading an eastbound train. on the N&W in Brewster.

Photographs by Robert Farkas

N&W Power Idling in Brewster

Norfolk & Western Alco C425 No. 1004, G:P9 No. 746. SD9, No. 2350 and another EMD SD series locomotive are sitting outside the shops in Brewster on July 3,1972. The two SDs to the right are in the engine facility.

Photograph by Robert Farkas

Shades of the Illinois Terminal

If this appears to be an Illinois Terminal locomotive, well it is, sort of. This train has a pair of former IT units pulling it in Brewster in April 1982. That’s a long way from the service territory of the IT, but by now the Norfolk & Western has absorbed the one time Illinois Traction System. The two ex-IT units, Nos. 2963 and 2966 are SD39s, and two of six that IT had on its roster at one time.

Photograph by Robert Farkas

Where the Corman Crosses the Wheeling

A northbound R.J. Corman train crosses the mainline of the Wheeling & Lake Erie near Brewster on May 19, 2021. The Corman train is on a former Baltimore & Ohio line that once went to Wheeling, West Virginia, and served the southeast Ohio coal fields.

Photograph by Robert Farkas

On the N&W in Brewster

The wayback machine has landed us in Brewster on Sept. 3, 1980. This was Norfolk & Western territory then after having been in the domain of the Nickel Plate Road for more than a decade and of the original Wheeling & Lake Erie for several decades before that. Laid out before us is a nice array of N&W motive power of the early 1980s. Note that this was during the transition between N&W heralds.

Photograph by Robert Farkas