Leading in Willard

Baltimore & Ohio GP35 No. 3511 is shown leading a train in Willard on Sept. 2, 1978. The unit was built in April 1964

Photograph by Robert Farkas

B&O Two for Tuesday

Today’s two for Tuesday focuses on the Baltimore & Ohio in the 1970s. In the top image, B&O GP35 No. 3559 leads an eastbound near Kent. The bottom image was made in Youngstown. Leading a train through the area is B&O GP40-2 No. 4161. The unit has already received Chessie System paint unlike its two running mates in this gritty industrial scene that captures well railroading in the Mahoning Valley when steelmaking was still king.

Photographs by Robert Farkas

Conrail Two for Tuesday on Fort Wayne Line

Let’s go out on the Fort Wayne Line during the Conrail era to see trains captured a decade apart. In the top image GP35 No. 2340 is in Massillon on June 24, 1978. The unit was built for the Pennsylvania Railroad in February 1965.

In the bottom image, B40-8 No. 5060 is leading an eastbound through Sebring in October 1988. This unit was built for Conrail in April 1988 and later worked for CSX.

Photographs by Robert Farkas

EL Monday: A Duo of GP35s in Akron

A pair of Erie Lackawanna GP35s, Nos. 2563 and 2560, lead a westbound manifest freight in Akron in the late 1960s/early 1970s. The train is passing beneath the concourse of Akron Union Depot. Passengers would descend from here to the boarding platforms. At one time, the concourse led to the Greyhound bus station on the north side of the tracks.

Photograph by Robert Farkas

EL Monday: Still Showing the EL Look

Erie Lackawanna GP35 No. 2581 is westbound in early Conrail times in Akron. My notes say I made this image in June 1978, but that seems too late for these two locomotives to be operating without a CR stencil somewhere.

Photograph by Robert Farkas

EL Monday: A GP35 in Akron

Erie Lackawanna GP35 No. 2560 and F7A No. 6311 are westbound in Akron on Jan. 14, 1973, near Voris Street at the far west end of the yard. Such motive power consists like this were common during the 1970s.

Photograph by Robert Farkas

Catching Some ‘Annie’ in Toledo

Ann Arbor GP35 No. 393 is in Toledo on Aug. 24, 1977. It was built in June 1964 and later worked for the Tuscola & Saginaw Bay as well as the Great Lakes Central.

Photograph by Robert Farkas

EL Monday: Check Out This Lineup

The late Mike Ondecker and I were at the Erie Lackawanna Kent yard in 1967 or 1968 where I photographed this eastbound during a crew change. The units include 2554 (EMD GP35), (unidentified) (EMD F7B), 7063 (EMD F3), 2501 (GE U25), 7081 (EMD F3A), and 7254 (Alco FALCO FA-1).

Photographs by Robert Farkas

An Intermodal Train in Akron for EL Monday

That’s quite an interesting locomotive consist pulling this eastbound intermodal train on the Erie Lackawanna in Akron in mid 1972.

On the point is GP35 No. 2571. The trailing unit is E8A 812, which a little over two years earlier might have been seen in Akron pulling the Lake Cities.

The image was made at Voris Street, a favorite Akron railfan hangout location.

Photograph by Robert Farkas

Railroading as it Once Was: EL and PC Soulmates

Here is another one from an October 1976 visit that I made to Scranton, Pennsylvania. The Erie Lackawanna units are no strangers to this former Delaware, Lackawanna & Western shop, but that Penn Central (ex New York Central) GP35 is there courtesy of the Conrail merger a few months earlier. Those non-dynamic braking GP7s looked sharp in the Erie Lackawanna colors with those silver spark arrestors topping it off.

Photograph by Roger Durfee