EL Monday: Train Time in Kent

It is 1967-1968 in Kent. An eastbound Erie Lackawanna freight train whose lead unit is at West Main Street has just passed the passenger station hidden to the back right of the train.

Photographs by Robert Farkas

EL Monday: F Units in Akron

Erie Lackawanna Nos. 7091, 7092, and two more F-units are in Akron in the late 1960s/early 1970s. You won’t see this today, but it was common at one time. Fortunately, we have the wayback machine to remind us.

Photograph by Robert Farkas

EL Monday: F3 and an F7

An F3A, F3B, F7B set of Erie Lackawanna F units is westbound in Kent in the late 1960s/early 1970s. The train also has an EL boxcar right behind the power. That tie at the end of the stub track on the left might not stop a unit but it will knock it off the rails.

Photograph by Robert Farkas

EL Monday: You Can’t Get This Anymore

Here is a scene that can’t be repeated. Erie Lackawanna F7A No. 6331 is leading a westbound train past EL’s McCoy Street Yard in Akron on Jan. 14, 1973. Everything railroad-related, including the walk bridge, is gone now except for two CSX mainline tracks.

Photograph by Robert Farkas

Dialing Up Another Erie Lackawanna Monday

Courtesy of the wayback machine we’ve been transported back a few decades to another time when the Erie Lackawanna was still a vibrant railroad.

In the top image, a westbound EL freight is in Akron in the late 1960s/early 1970s. Notice the interesting signal mast.

In the next image, EL Alco C424 No. 2408 is in the yard in Kent in the late 1960s. Trailing in the motive power consist is GE U25B No. 2515.

Below that we see four EL E8A locomotives in Kent in the late 1960s/early 1970s.

Finally in the bottom image the photographer is standing beneath the overhand of the Kent passenger station to capture an eastbound train.

Photographs by Robert Farkas

Help Solve the Mystery of This Train’s Location

Here is an Erie Lackawanna F3A, F7A, and BLW DS44-1000 taken in an unknown location most likely from 1967-1970. It is on a two-track line, quite possibly the main line. One of the trucks reads Fisher Foods. Thanks for any help on the location.

Photograph From Robert Farkas

Bob Cranks up His Wayback Machine Again

Erie Lackawanna 2512, a GE U25B

Akron Railroad Club member Bob Farkas has invited us over to his house for a party to celebrate the new year and to remember an old year.

After some socializing and snacks, he’s brought out his Wayback Machine and taken us back on the Erie Lackawanna on a winter day in Kent in the 1960s for a “from the same roll of film” show.

He said the images are from the same afternoon and are not in any particular order. Pass the popcorn and enjoy the show.

Photographs by Robert Farkas

Louisiana & North-West 6036 boxcar

Erie R28 being used as a rider car

EL 3613, 3609, both EMD SD45s

Pittsburgh & Lake Erie 24260 and Milwaukee Road boxcars.

EL 2452, an Alco C425; 2553, an EMD GP 35; and 6321, an EMD F7A

CB&Q 28402 boxcar

EL 6321, an EMD F7A

This is my favorite image from the afternoon. EL 1051 and its train head west through the east end of the yard.

 

Railroading as it Once Was: Waiting in the Weeds in Scranton to be Rescued, Sold or Scrapped

An October 1976 trip to Scranton, Pennsylvania, yielded this photo of some stored former Erie Lackawanna F units.

Although the new Conrail was only a few months old, many former EL units had already been renumbered.

Unused junkers tucked away on some weed-infested siding didn’t rate the attention active units did, so here they sat still “untouched.”

Some of these units would get put back into service and renumbered into the Conrail system, but from what I can see the 7091 got shipped off to Altoona in ‘77 and never ran again.

She more than likely went to the scrapper proudly carrying the EL diamond on her nose.

Article and Photograph by Roger Durfee