Seeing Todd Dillon’s article and photos of Nickel Plate Road 765 at Vaughn Road on the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad at Jaite prompted me to look through my files for same location favorites.
Morning photos were preferred on the east side of the tracks and afternoon from the west side. All these photos as Todd’s were are from the east side.
This location is probably now the favored spot since the Ohio Route bridge in Brecksville is so grown in with trees and brush.
Looking through old photos the only photos I have of Grand Trunk Western 4070 are from the west side of the tracks.
From top to bottom, the images were made on Sept. 29,2012; Sept. 14, 2013; Sept. 7 2014, and Sept. 26, 2016.
Last Sunday Marty Surdyk and I were headed home after a day with the Oil Creek & Tutusville tourist railroad in Pennsylvania.
But we made a stop in Conneaut where we parked across the CSX tracks from the Conneaut Railroad Museum. It was just after 5 p.m. as we saw volunteers from the museum departing after closing for the day.
We were hoping to catch CSX No. 3194, the Spirit of Our Law Enforcement unit, which was on the point of the Q010.
What we didn’t know is that it had passed through Conneaut about an hour earlier.
Around 6 p.m. we heard horns coming from the southeast. It definitely was not CSX, but possibly Norfolk Southern or the former Bessemer & Lake Erie (now Canadian National). They sounded for two or three crossings then everything was silent.
About 15 minutes later on a hunch we drove to the Main Street crossing of the Bessemer and sure enough there was the rear of a CN empty ore train dropping into the harbor yard.
After it disappeared past the former Nickel Plate Trestle, we went back to staking out CSX by the museum.
Eventually we went back down to Main Street in case a CN train would come out before we had to head for home.
On a hunch we went down to the overlook on the west end of the Bessemer facilities. In a stroke of good luck we saw the train that arrived earlier was on a loop track loading iron ore. Here are a few photographs that I made of it.
Nickel Plate Road 2-8-4 No. 765 was a regular visitor to Ohio in summer 2012, pulling a series of employee appreciation excursions.
The Berkshire-type locomotive made a return visit to NS rails in 2013, this time pulling excursions for which the public could purchase tickets as well as heading some employee specials.
In May 2013 the 765 ran several trips in Ohio, including some in the Cleveland area.
Here is a sample of photographs made during those trips.
In the top image, the 765 is shown near Cleveland Hopkins Airport. The next three images were made on an excursion to Bellevue and include scenes in Rocky River, Vermilion and Bellevue.
Those are followed by the return trip from Bellevue at Kimball. Next up are two images of a ferry move to Pennsylvania at Bedford and by the Westinghouse bridge in Pittsburgh.
With Amtrak’s 50th anniversary being Saturday I’ve selected a small sample of Amtrak in each decade. Over the years I’ve ridden many trains throughout the country either myself or with family and friends. So many that I rode I also photographed trackside at some point.
For the 1970s, here is the westbound Lake Shore Limited at Madison in July 1977.
For the 1980s, I’ve chosen the Lake Shore Limited again, this time headed eastward in Cleveland on Aug. 29, 1984.
The 1990s tribute is the California Zephyr eastbound in Byers Canyon of Colorado on June 28, 1988. I also included the Vermonter northbound at Hartford, Vermont in fall 1998, and the eastbound Southwest Chief in Albuqerque on May 6, 1991.
For the 2000s I present the Empire Builder eastbound at Red Wing, Minnesota, on June 19, 2002; and the westbound Maple Leaf at St. Johnsville, New York, on Sept. 7, 2002.
For Amtrak’s fifth decade here is the eastbound Empire Builder at East Glacier, Montana, crossing Two Medicine Bridge on July 23, 2016, and the eastbound Pennsylvanian at Summerhill, Pennsylvania, on May 18, 2019.
Now, about that image of No. 49 made in Madison in 1977, yes, it has some flaws.
Here is how Ed explained those: “Believe it or not that is the only Amtrak photo I took in the ‘70s of an Amtrak train.
“Back then I used my Dad’s camera, which was not a 35 mm film camera. The shot was either the first or the last on the negative and when we got it back a giant staple was in it.
“I did not take many photos back then since I shot a lot with the regular 8 mm movie camera.
“I have more movies at that same location. What was always tough with the photos back then was when No. 49 came hrough Madison [I] was looking directly into the early morning sun.
“Amtrak had the early year flaws just like my photo.”
This week the Strasburg Rail Road announced that Norfolk & Western Class J No. 611 would return to the Pennsylvania tourist railroad in May and spend the summer and early fall there.
There won’t be any high speed running, but visitors will be able to take cab tours, blow the whistle and watch the locomotive be prepared for excursions.
Engineer for a half hour opportunities sold out the first day they were posted.
Here is a look back to fall 2019 when the 611 offered similar events on the Strasburg.
Our many vacations to New Hampshire always included visits to railroad attractions. I always shot photos while Ursula provided video coverage as seen in the photo at Bartlett, New Hampshire of Conway Scenic 0-6-0 ex-Canadian National No, 7470.
At North Woodstock, New Hampshire, we visited the Clark’s Trading Post, which is famous
for the trained bear shows and logging railroad steam collection.
We were fortunate to get a cab ride in Climax No. 6.
I’m sure Betty and Barney Hill would have made the same choice as we did.
The excursion they had the privilege to go on supposedly was just up the road from Clark’s 50 years previous.
Our adventures were September 2011. Betty & Barney’s was September 1961.
We started our railfanning expedition early on July 2, 2008. Looking through my photos, I see that we caught action on Norfolk Southern’s ex-Nickel Plate trestle in Ashtabula.
With Amtrak 48 running in those days on a slightly later schedule than it does today we were able to photograph it from the West Avenue bridge bridge overlooking the former ex- New York Central yard of CSX in Ashtabula.
Working our way to Conneaut we eventually caught and chased a Bessemer & Lake Erie train southbound to Greenville, Pennsylvania.
After our last photo of the Bessemer through Greenville, we visited the Greenville Railroad Park adjacent to the ex-Erie main and across the tracks from the ex-Erie station.
The featured display was the ex-Union Railroad 0-10-2 No. 304, which was one of the three steamers saved in Greenville’s B&LE roundhouse until it was donated to the city in 1985.
It was restored to a fantastic display and to this day it is still maintained as a beautiful display. What is unique with the locomotive is the engineer’s side is painted as Union Railroad No. 304, but the fireman’s side is painted as Duluth Missabe & Iron Range No. 604.
Both were U.S. Steel railroads as was the B&LE at one time.
The inside of Helmstetter’s Curve on the Helmstetter’s farm.
Over the years from 1989 to 2010, I visited the Western Maryland Scenic Railway at least 10 times with family and friends.
On six of those trips I was on Carl Franz photo specials. The visits were a variety of spring, summer and fall events.
The weather conditions were a combination of great, fair and lousy. I will highlight the best in four installments.
This report is the June 6, 1999 special I attended with Dave McKay and Marty Surdyk. The second in a couple of weeks will be the Oct. 18, 1999, fall special I attended with Jeff Troutman. Early next year I’ll continue with the best of the rest, then finally my favorite night photography photos.
All of thse images were made in 16 miles between Cumberland and Frostburg, Maryland.
Photographs by Edward Ribinskas
Out on the line at a location known by the photographers as the gravel pile.
Different angles on the outside of Helmstetter’s Curve.
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