Chessie System 4-8-4 Greenbrier type No. 614 is heading west out of Pittsburgh on June 27, 1981, with the Chessie Safety Express. The locomotive was built for the Chesapeake & Ohio. The trip had originated in Akron and was trip 17 of the 1981 season. The next day the train made a one way ferry move from Akron to Pittsburgh to get into position for two weekends of trips out of Pittsburgh in mid July.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
It’s the morning of June 27, 1981, in Lowellville, Ohio, on the Baltimore & Ohio mainline. The Chessie Safety Express is running today from Akron to Pittsburgh and return.
On the point is former Chesapeake & Ohio 4-8-4 No. 614. The Greenbrier-type locomotive was the mainstay for the Safety Express trains in 1980 and 1981.
If you didn’t get enough of the 614 on this date, it pulled another Akron-Pittsburgh roundtrip the next day.
To the left of the 614 are the tracks of the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie. Today those tracks are no longer here.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
Here’s a memory for some of you. It is Sept. 21, 1980, in Connellsville, Pennsylvania. Chessie 4-8-4 No. 614 is westbound during a one-way ferry move from Cumberland, Maryland to Pittsburgh. The excursion was part of the first season of the Chessie Safety Express program. This was the fifth trip of 20 that the 614 and its train made this year. Another season followed in 1981.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
Chessie System 4-8-4 No. 614 is eastbound in Lowellville on June 27, 1981, during the second season of the Chessie Safety Express series of excursions. This particular excursion originated in Akron and made a roundtrip to Pittsburgh. It ran a one-way Akron to Pittsburgh ferry move the next day. The excursions were coordinated with The Whistle Stop in Cuyahoga Falls.
In cooperation with New Jersey Transit, Ross Rowland was able to run Chesapeake & Ohio 614 on passenger excursions during two weekends in June 1997.
The train ran from Hoboken, New Jersey to Port Jervis, New York.
We were greeted at the ex-Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Hoboken terminal by the robot from Lost in Space, who was promoting passenger safety and, possibly, to be aware of space aliens. Rowland also greeted passengers.
After departure we soon were on ex-Erie Railroad trackage. Even though the NJT was on a weekend schedule, the excursion did not interfere with commuter trains with 614 able to stretch its legs with running at track speed.
During the layover in Port Jervis, Rowland had a surprise arranged. With this day being
Fathers Day, a group photo of the fathers aboard was staged in the turntable pit with C&O 614.
Chessie System 614 is in Akron on June 23, 1981. The 4-8-4 locomotive pulled two Chessie Safety Express excursions that the photographer recalls as having operated to Pittsburgh.
The Greenbrier-type locomotive was built in Lima, Ohio, in June 1948 for the Chesapeake & Ohio.
It is shown on the connecting track from the Valley Line to the Chicago-Pittsburgh mainline.
This looks more like a painting than a slide. Chessie 4-8-4 No. 614 is westbound near Mance, Pennsylvania, on July 11, 1981. The Greenbrier-type locomotive was built for the Chesapeake & Ohio in June 1948 by Lima Locomotive Works.
Chesapeake & Ohio 4-8-4 leads a Chessie Safety Express special at Myersdale, Pennsylvania, on July 11, 1981 (top photograph). The excursion operated in cooperation with Operation Lifesaver to promote grade crossing safety.
The 614 and the Chessie Safety Express operated in 1980 and 1981 with the last excursion running in November 1981.
This particular trip operated between Pittsburgh and Meyersdale and was coordinated with the Pittsburgh Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society.
In the bottom image, the Safety Express is westbound in the Pittsburgh area on July 27, 1981.
Steam impresario Ross Rowland is once again pushing his idea to operate a national steam locomotive tour to be called the Yellow Ribbon Express.
Ross Rowland
Trains magazine reported that Rowland wants the touring train to visit 125 cities and raise money for injured veterans, particularly those who have been wounded since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Rowland proposed the three-year tour in 2015 and told the magazine that he is seeking corporate sponsors to fund the construction and operation of the train.
He has dubbed it “the American Freedom Train 2.0.”
The costs of operating the Yellow Ribbon Express are expected to be $100 million, Rowland said. All money raised exhibit ticket sales will go to veterans charities.
Rowland was hesitant to name a date for when the veteran’s charity train would hit rails. Two years ago he had said he wanted it operating by 2017.
Motive power for the Yellow Ribbon Express will be two main line steam locomotives, including his own Chesapeake & Ohio 4-8-4 No. 614.
After hearing from Jack Norris last week about AC Tower in Waldwick, New Jersey, I sent him an email saying that the Akron Railroad Club would love to make a trip out to New Jersey to see the restored tower if we could ride the Lake Cities of the Erie Lackawanna. But the Lake Cities didn’t stop in Waldwick in the late 1960s and much of the ex-Erie is out of service in Ohio east of Ravenna. He responded to say how we could have gotten to Waldwick back in 1969.
After the Erie Lackawanna merger, all mainline trains went on the Lackawanna side via Scranton, Pennsylvania.
You could take a connecting train on the Erie side via Port Jervis and Binghamton, New York, and switch to the mainline train at Binghamton for the remainder of the trip to your area.
The connecting service stopped at Ridgewood, New Jersey, which is about two miles from Waldwick.
Today, one can ride the Lackawanna side to Hackettstown, New Jersey, and ride the Erie side as far as Port Jervis, New York.
Port Jervis is home to Erie 833 and in the late ‘90s was the destination of Chesapeake & Ohio 614.
[Former ARRC President] Dave McKay stayed with me and we rode a 614 trip. Here is a recent picture (eight months ago) of Erie 833 on the operational Port Jervis 115-foot turntable as well as some 614 pictures.
Alas, the old coaling towers were torn down in the early 2000s.
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