It was the late 1960s when Mike Ondecker and I found westbound Baltimore & Ohio E8A No. 1447 with The Diplomat at the Akron Union Depot. The train on the left is an eastbound Erie Lackawanna freight. No. 1447 was built by EMD in October 1953 as B&O 26A. It would later work for Amtrak wearing roster numbers 203 and 353.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
How strange, especially at this time of year, to think that the mail once moved by train. For a long while special cars had postal agents picking up the mail, sorting the mail and getting it ready to drop off at other cities.
When manned mail cars were no longer used, mail trains that just carried already-sorted mail from city to city could still be found.
This is Penn Central’s Mail 9. The PC found a good use for some of their E-units that were no longer needed after Amtrak took over the nation’s passenger trains.
Leading the Mail 9 is PC E8A No. 4246 westbound past Fairhope Tower in Canton around July) 1973.
The motive power consist includes an E8A, E8A, E7A, E7B, E8A, and another E7A.
Article and Photograph by Robert Farkas
It is 1967 or 1968 in what looks to be Painesville. New York Central E8A No. 4079 is on the point of this westbound passenger train. Care to take a ride?
Photograph by Robert Farkas
Baltimore & Ohio E8A No. 1449 is heading the westbound Diplomat near Ravenna, Ohio in the late 1960s/early 1970s.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
Erie Lackawanna U25C No. 2526 and E8A No. 827 pull an eastbound intermodal train in Akron in April 1973. The train is passing the former Erie passenger station. The 827 probably arrived here with the Lake Cities many times until that train was discontinued in early 1970.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
I’ve long thought my favorite E8As are Southern Railway E8As. The Erie Lackawanna had my second favorite E8As. EL 830 is getting fueled as it stops at the EL passenger station in Kent in the late 1960s. Soon, it and the Lake Cities will be westbound for Chicago. The man seen on the left is Mike Ondecker and the worker is unidentified.
Article and Photograph by Robert Farkas
Sometimes you don’t have time to get into position to create a photograph. The photographer reports that he probably had just changed film while inside his 1967 Volkswagon when a passenger train began leaving Toledo Central Union Terminal on Nov. 29, 1968. It’s a Penn Central train but led by former New York Central E8A No. 4062.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
Erie Lackawanna E8A No. 826 works in Akron in 1973. By then passenger service had been gone for three years and passenger locomotives had been redeployed into freight service. The 826 was built in February 1951 for the Erie Railroad and carried the same roster number. If you look around the edges you can see tiny slivers of the Erie passenger and freight stations.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
The Lorain & West Virginia is a tourist railroad based in Wellington where this photograph was made on Sept. 12, 2017. E8A No. 101 was built for the Chicago & North Western in 1950.
The railroad ran Easter trips in April and its website shows several dates for which tickets are available in October. Santa Claus trains are slated to run in November and December.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
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.
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