Look What We Found

The late Mike Ondecker and I found this Alco switcher on the Lehigh Valley in Coxton, Pennsylvania, on Aug. 12, 1973.

Photograph by Robert Farkas

Something Different in Cleveland

These are Conrail locomotives although they don’t look like them. No. 6724 is an ex-Lehigh Valley Alco 628), No. 6754 is a former Reading Alco 630 while the 6731 is an ex-LV Alco C-628. The units were photographed in Cleveland on May 14, 1977.

Photograph by Robert Farkas

If Only You Could

If you could take your digital camera and go back in time to anywhere for one day where would it be? There are thousands of possibilities but Sayre, Pennsylvania, on the Lehigh Valley might be a good choice.

This photograph wasn’t made through time travel but during an earlier time when LV Alco C628 was reposing at the engine service facility along with fellow Alco 635 wearing a different livery.

The date is July 24, 1973. What an era that was to be out and about making photographs.

Photograph by Robert Farkas

Lehigh Valley Alcos in Sayre

Yesterday on Akron Railroads, Ed Ribinskas described how he thought he was going to get double heritage unit combination of the Lehigh Valley and Reading heritage units of Norfolk Southern.

But the LV H unit was pulled off the motive power consist in Bellevue so Ed had to settle for just getting the Reading.

Let’s use the wayback machine to not only take a trip back in time but also across the border into Pennsylvania in search of actual LV heritage.

In the top photograph, we’ve arrived in Sayre, Pennsylvania, which is near the border with New York and 18 miles away from Elmira.

Sayre was an important point on the Lehigh Valley, which built a large locomotive shop there in 1904.

A pair of Alco C420s, Nos. 405 and 414, sit at the engine facility on July 24, 1973.

In the bottom image, we moved down the line to find LV EMD SW8 No. 262 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, on Aug. 12, 1973.

Photograph by Robert Farkas

Variety of Lehigh Valley Motive Power

A variety of Lehigh Valley motive power sits in Sayre, Pennsylvania, on July 24, 1973. In the background is the bridge over the yard, and further back the LV shop complex can be seen.

Photograph by Robert Farkas

An Alco Treat

With digital technology, a 35mm slide can have a small portion cropped out and enlarged to make a “second” into an acceptable image.

Three six-axle ALCO Centuries are eastbound through Akron in July 1976. Reading 5305 and her two Lehigh Valley companions certainly made early Conrail more interesting to Akron-area railfans.

Photograph and Article by Robert Farkas

Railroading as it Once Was: Mixing The Motive Power Heritage of Conrail’s Many Components

Although in the end it would all homogenize into blue, Conrail’s first few years were interesting with the mixing of power from the component railroads.

With only four on the roster, these Lehigh Valley GP38ACs were always a nice catch.

Two months into Conrail, this westbound is drifting down Wooster hill with one of these Cornell red units leading two Penn Central GE U25Bs over this former Pennsylvania Railroad mainline.

In the distant future, Norfolk Southern’s LV heritage unit would wear a close version of this paint scheme, but would get its nose repainted into the more popular white stripe with large diamond look before the 2012 Spencer (North Carolina) celebration of Norfolk Southern heritage units event.

Article and Photograph by Roger Durfee

Railroading as it Once Was: Overcast Skies Didn’t Dampen Enthusiasm of Seeing LV Engine Pit

An overcast day couldn’t dampen my excitement of seeing the Lehigh Valley engine service tracks in Sayre, Pennsylvania, for the first time.

For an Ohio kid often surrounded by Penn Central, this was pretty cool.

The steam era shops can be seen in the background as well as some switchers in need of attention.

The LV was living on borrowed time by late 1975 just like my beloved Erie Lackawanna was back home.

Many of the units in this photo would go to the D&H instead of the new Conrail to help with the expanded D&H network.

Regardless, all was right with the world as I stood on that bridge all those years ago, taking in the sights, sounds, and smells (EMD and Alco smoke mixed together, what a concoction!) of a railroad I had only known through photos in magazines and books.

Article and Photograph by Roger Durfee