My Dad Joe Farkas accompanied me to take railfan photos only rarely. This is one of his photos.
Norfolk & Western Alco RSD-12 No. 2331 EMD SD9 No. 2349 and Alco S-4 No. 2080 (ALCO are coupled together in Brewster in the late 1960s. The nose of N&W 2146, a Fairbanks-Morse H12-44, is visible to the left.
Photograph by Joe Farkas
A notable seller of railroad books and paper had died at age 76. Ron Rosenberg of Harrison, New York, died last Sunday.
He was the owner of Ron’s Books, which advertises in various railfan magazines and once had a table at Columbus train show.
Rosenberg specialized in locomotive builder catalogs and the Norfolk & Western Railway.
He authored the 1973 book Norfolk & Western Steam, the last 25 years, which sold 15,000 copies.
Although he worked in data processing, Rosenberg founded Ron’s Books as a second career.
His family, including his son Lee, plans to continue operating the business.
Although the Norfolk & Western never ordered F units of its own, it inherited Fs when it merged with the Wabash. Here are N&W Nos. 3697, 3717 and 3712 sitting in the early afternoon sun outside the Brewster shops. The N&W Fs were at Brewster in the late 1960s, but only for a short time.
I went to Deshler last weekend and stopped by Bellevue on my way back. The newest addition to the Mad River & NKP Railroad Museum is a former Nickel Plate Road SD9 painted in Norfolk & Western’s “Pevler blue” and numbered 2349.
This was the number that it originally wore after N&W merged with the NKP. It is fully restored to its 1960s appearance, including the mars light. The only thing missing are the number boards with No. 2349. Those still show No. 52, the last number it wore for Norfolk Southern.
It is posed next to a restored N&W wreck crane also in the “hamburger” scheme. Now if only NS would pose the 8103 next to these.
A bridge carrying Norfolk Southern’s Pocahontas Division over the Ohio River between South Point, Ohio, and Kenova, W.Va., observed this week the 100th anniversary of its rebuilding.
Construction crews met at the bridge’s midpoint on March 4, 1913, to connect the ends of the main channel truss.
The first train passed over the bridge on the morning of June 9 and construction wrapped up in September when workers finished painting the structure. At the time, the bridge was owned by the Norfolk & Western Railway.
The bridge was the longest structure on the N&W. Designed in 1892 as a single-track structure, burgeoning coal traffic led the N&W to rebuild and double-track the bridge. The renovations included pier modifications and new trusses that were built around the existing structure to allow rail traffic to continue during construction.
The project cost $1 million and required 21.6 tons of steel. When completed, the bridge was 4,000 feet long and stood 82 feet above the normal water level of the river.
“The bridge has undergone major upgrades several times over the past century and its excellent condition is a reflection of the industry’s continual investment – without taxpayer dollars – to give the nation an economic competitive edge,” said Jim Carter, an NS chief engineer based in Atlanta. “Like everything on the railroad, it is well-designed and systematically well-maintained. We fully expect it to be serviceable for another 100 years.”
The bridge has had some notable occurrences throughout its service history. During World War II, saboteurs were caught nearby and a Coast Guard unit was assigned to stand guard.
The world’s longest, heaviest freight train traversed the bridge on Nov. 15, 1967, when N&W operated 500 loaded coal cars and six locomotives as part of a contest with the Pennsylvania Railroad. The N&W train was five miles in length.
Today some 35 NS trains cross the bridge daily. The traffic includes intermodal, grain, coal, and general merchandise.
Much to my surprise the Norfolk & Western heritage locomotive passed by work on Friday on Norfolk Southern train RR 262.
I had finished switching and we had just sat down for a break in the yard office when I saw it was heading my way.
A quick check showed it only a couple miles away, so I grabbed my camera and walked out behind the yard office to photograph it. The clouds were thick, but at least it had stopped raining.
The Akron Railroad Club will be selling copies of Canton Area Railroads, which was written by club president Craig Sanders and recently released by Arcadia Publishing.
The book will be sold to club members for $15 and to non-members for $17. The book will be available at the ARRC table at Railfest 2009 this weekend (March 14 and 15) at Lakeland Community College in Kirtland, Ohio. The college is located on Ohio Route 306, just south of Interstate 90 (exit 193). Railfest 2009 is sponsored by Division 5 of the National Model Railroad Association.
Author Sanders will be available at the ARRC table on Saturday to autograph copies of the book.
Copies of Canton Area Railroads will also be available for sale at the next ARRC meeting, on March 27.
Canton Area Railroads has 128 pages and more than 200 black and white photographs, most of which were taken by or furnished by Akron Railroad Club members. The book covers railroad operations in Canton, Massillon, Alliance, Orrville, Navarre, Minerva, Dover, Brewster, Dennison and other communities in Stark, Carroll, Holmes, Wayne and Tuscarawas counties. Among the railroads covered by the book are the Pennsylvania, Baltimore & Ohio, Wheeling & Lake Erie, New York Central, Penn Central, Conrail, Norfolk & Western, CSX, Norfolk Southern, Ohio Central, R.J. Corman, Ohi-Rail, Amtrak and the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad.
Akron Railroad Club president Craig Sanders’ latest book, Canton Area Railroads, has been released by Arcadia Publishing. The book was written in cooperation with the Akron Railroad Club and features photographs from club members Richard Antibus, John Beach, Michael Boss, Peter Bowler, Richard Jacobs, Chris Lantz, James McMullen, Bob Redmond, Edward Ribinskas, Marty Surdyk and Paul Vernier.
The book chronicles the history and development of the railroads that served Stark, Wayne, Holmes, Carroll and Tuscarawas counties. Among the cities coverd are Canton, Massillon, Alliance, Orrville, Wooster, Dover, New Philadelphia, Dennison, Brewster, Navarre, Minerva and Sugar Creek.
Canton Area Railroads documents how railroad operations changed as the steel industry declined and railroad consolidations led to traffic shifts and route abandonments. Among the railroads that served this region were the Pennsylvania, Baltimore & Ohio, New York Central and Wheeling & Lake Erie. The book has images of these roads plus their sucessors Penn Central, Norfolk & Western, Conrail, CSX, Norfolk Southern, Ohio Central, R.J. Corman and OhiRail.
Also discussed are modern passenger operations Amtrak, the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad and the Orrville Railroad Heritage Society. The book is 128 pages and has more than 200 photographs.
Canton Area Railroads is the fifth railroad history book published by Sanders. His other works include Akron Railroads, Amtrak in the Heartland, Limiteds, Locals and Expresses in Indiana, 1838-1971, and Mattoon and Charleston Area Railroads.
The ARRC will be selling copies of Canton Area Railroads at train shows and at its monthly meetings. The book is also available from booksellers and the publisher (www.arcadiapublishing.com).
akronrrclub.wordpress.com 