Here are two Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad photos for a Tuesday. The images show an early CVSR locomotive livery.
In the top image, CVSR FPA-4 No. 15 is southbound in Brecksville in August 1996. On the north end is CVSR Alco RS3 No. 4099 (cx-Delaware & Hudson 4099).
The same train is shown in the bottom image in Peninsula.
CVSR trains are currently on hiatus but will return starting in February. A notice posted on the CVSR website said the Cleveland Dinner and Event train will resume running on Feb. 3. The National Park Scenic will return on weekends starting March 4.
The notice did not say of much of the CVSR those trains will cover. Much of the CVSR south of Fitzwater maintenance yard is out of service due to erosion issues along the Cuyahoga River.
Here are three images made in Akron on July 30, 2022. In the top image, Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad FPA-4 No. 6771 is southbound approaching Akron Northside Station as the train crosses over the remains of the Ohio and Erie Canal.
In the middle image, the 6777 is is being towed south and will be the lead unit on the northbound trip.
In the bottom image Wheeling & Lake Erie SD40-2 No. 7006 is on the connecting track between CSX and the W&LE. In a few minutes the former CEFX unit will pull forward bringing its train onto the Wheeling. Then it will back down to Brittain Yard.
The Wheeling acquired the 7006 in December 2015 and quickly pressed it into revenue service.
Locomotive issues have prompted the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad to cancel some trips of the National Park Scenic on Friday and all trips of the Fall Flyer on Saturday and Sunday.
A notice on the railroad’s website attributed the cancellations to “unforeseen circumstances regarding our locomotive fleet.”
The affected National Park Scenic departures on Friday depart Peninsula northbound at 11:45 a.m., southbound from Rockside Road station in Independence at 1 p.m., and southbound from Peninsula at 1:45 p.m.
The website notice said passengers who have purchased tickets for the affected cancelled trips will be automatically refunded to their original credit card, which generally takes three to five business days to process.
Tickets are still available for other scheduled National Park Scenic departures, either online or at the station in the hour prior to each departure.
Comments made on the CVSR Facebook page indicated that the locomotives having mechanical issues are AlcoC420 No. 365 and FPA-4 No. 6780, which formerly operated as Baltimore & Ohio No. 800.
A poster offered a screen shot of an email he received from CVSR staff saying a replacement locomotive is expected to arrive next week.
The email didn’t provide any details, but in recent years CVSR has leased locomotive power from Cleveland-based Horizon Rail.
Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad RS18u No. 1822 is shown being towed north in Akron on May 23, 2015. The unit was built for the Canadian Pacific but has been a CVSR mainstay for several years. It was named for Fred Daigneau in November 2021 upon his retirement from the railroad’s mechanical staff after a 17-year career there. Daigneau has since agreed to serve as a volunteer locomotive engineer.
Here is a pair of Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad FPA-4 No. 800, better known for its Baltimore & Ohio livery. The photographs were made on Sept. 6, 2013.
The views include passing under the Ohio Route 82 bridge in Brecksville and near Akron.
Last Sunday I did a quick chase of the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad.
After a major snowstorm Thursday and Friday things were pretty much cleared out by Sunday.
CVSR ran a plow train on Friday and with the regular runs of the National Park Scenic on Saturday I did not expect to have any snow buildup at crossings.
Imagine my surprise when the train hit a snow bank at Boston Mills. It was not a very large one but it still made for a nice photo.
The train itself was covered in ice and snow reminding me of Snowpiercer, a dystopian novel in which the earth has been covered in a global freeze and the last survivors ride a train that circles the planet once a year.
This has been adopted into a movie and most recently a TV show. As with most sci-fi works you must suspend disbelief (like who maintains the track for instance?) but otherwise are enjoyable programs.
In honor of the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad launching its 2022 season today (Jan. 21) we present two views of northbound FPA-4 No. VSR 6771 in Akron on March 22, 2014. The train is on the bridge over the remains of the Ohio & Erie Canal. The unit once worked for Canadian National. The first train of 2022 likely won’t make it as far as Akron, but the National Park Scenic will return to the rubber city on Saturday.
Let’s take a trip back to September 2010. Nickel Plate Road 2-8-4 No. 765 has arrived on the property of the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad for the first of what has turned out be an almost annual ritual.
Someone – I don’t remember who – arranged with CVSR officials for a night photo shoot of the 765 at the CVSR’s Fitzwater Shops, where the Berkshire-type locomotive spends its time between excursions.
Night photo shoots used to be a thing with some railfan photographers back in the day.
The photographers would set up their cameras on tripods and one member of the party would run around the object of the photographs – usually a locomotive – firing off a series of flashbulbs while the camera shutters were held open on the bulb setting.
The late O. Winston Link is well-known for having used a similar technique to record the final years of steam operations on the Norfolk & Western.
The Forest City Division of the Railroad Enthusiasts used to engage in night photo shoots here and there. One memorable one occurred in Youngstown on Jan. 14, 1977, to mark the end of the Cleveland-Youngstown commuter train on the former Erie Lackawanna route.
That photo shoot is remembered in Trackside Around Cleveland 1965-1979 with Dave McKay.
Another memorable night photo shoot occurred Sept. 10, 1988, in Brecksville when the then-named Cuyahoga Valley Line staged Grand Trunk Western 2-8-2 No. 4070 along the Cuyahoga River with the iconic Ohio Route 82 bridge in the background.
That night is recalled in my book Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad in an Edward Ribinskas photograph.
Fast forward 22 year to the evening of Sept. 16, 2010. RRE and Akron Railroad Club members brought their cameras and tripods to Fitzwater at dusk to photograph the 765 with two CVSR FPA-4 locomotives.
There was a small fee charged for the event with the proceeds going to the CVSR if I remember correctly.
CVSR trainmaster and director of operations Larry Blanchard brought the 6777 and 800 out of the shop and posed them with the 765, which was not in steam on this evening.
We picked our spots and set up our cameras and awaited the command of “open them up.” Then someone ran around firing off a flash gun a few times.
I was still a slide film shooter in 2010 and although my results were satisfactory not all of the images I made were necessarily top quality. In some instances light from the open shop doors cast a yellow glow over the scene despite the use of daylight balanced flash bulbs.
It was my first and thus far only night photo shoot in which flash bulbs were used.
The night photo shoot at Fitzwater would be the last of its kind staged by the RRE.
There are still photographers out there who use flash to create night photographs but they use strobes rather than flashbulbs.
During the most recent visit of the 765 to the CVSR, a night photo shoot was staged at Northside Station in Akron, but the lighting was provided by floodlights rather than flashes.
I’m not sure that the CVSR would allow the RRE/ARRC to replicate today what happened on that September 2010 evening at Fitzwater. Whatever the case, nothing like it has happened since, which makes these images all the more valuable and memorable.
Here are four photos I made at Brecksville station on July16. All the bikers came on the path over the Station Road bridge over the Cuyahoga River shortly before train time at 1:20 p.m. The baggage car definitely is needed for this popular option on the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad. Note that the locomotives on both ends of the train are leases from Horizon Rail.
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