Mangold to Present at February ARRC Meeting

The Feb. 24 meeting of the Akron Railroad Club will feature a program by longtime member David Mangold.

The program is titled Everything Else and will present images made in Colorado and, well, everything else. With Dave you never quite know what you will see.

Much of the program content will be on photographs Dave made between 2019 and 2020 with some images from 2022 thrown in.

The images were made before Dave began working as a locomotive engineer for the Rocky Mountaineer excursion train.

The meeting will begin at 8 p.m. in the social hall of the New Horizons Christian Church, 290 Darrow Road in Akron.

After the business meeting the program will get underway at approximately 8:30 p.m.

If Dave is unable to present, the program will be given by Ron McElrath and show footage of his first Ohio experiences in the early 1980s with a Super 8 mm camera and then a Panasonic video camera in 1987.

48 Years of Berea Railfanning to be the Program at February Railroad Enthusiasts Meeting

The February meeting of the Forest City Division of the Railroad Enthusiasts will feature a program by Mark Demaline.

Titled Six Decades of Change at Berea, Ohio,1974-2022, the program will feature trains of Penn Central, Conrail, Amtrak, Norfolk Southern and CSX.

There will be images of trailers on flat car trains with cabooses, double-stacked container trains, Detroit Edison coal trains and trains with distributed motive power.

Also featured will be right-of-way views, vintage freight cars and more.

The meeting will begin at approximately 8:15 p.m. on Friday (Feb. 17) at the Church of the Redeemer, 23500 Center Ridge Road in Westlake.

D&GV Sets Rail Photo Heritage Event

West Virginia-based Durbin & Greenbrier Valley Railroad is selling tickets for its 2023 Rail Heritage Photography Weekend May 6-7.

The two-day event will be limited to 70 attendees. Tickets are $350 per person plus taxes and fees.

It will include a night photo shoot, photo opportunities at remote locations, and other activities.

The event is being staged to mark the 60th anniversary of the Cass Scenic Railroad and will feature locomotives pulling vintage freight trains plying the Cass Scenic Railroad and Greenbrier River lines.

A night photo session will be included; a full schedule of events will be sent to tickets holders before the event.

Tickets and additional information is available at https://mountainrailwv.com/tour/rail-heritage-weekend/?fbclid=IwAR1YqG3SWvhGYtDXSLbX2mxrzsmyvuA42z-cqRNOX7YLhyj4sWQeJ9-O16M

Marion Rail Group to Meet on Saturday

The Marion Railfan Society will meet on Saturday at 7 p.m. at Marion Union Station.

The program is movies made by John Edminson. This includes footage made around Dayton in the 1970s and on the Pennsylvania Railroad’s line through Bradford, Ohio, in the 1950s.

The latter film includes scene of Pennsy J1 steam locomotives hauling trains.

Following the movies, there will be an open projector for attendees to show slides or digital images.

MRS also said long-time member Gary Salzgaber died on Nov 14.  He was a fan of the PRR and modeled it on a layout that was featured in Model Railroader magazine.

Events Set at Cass Scenic Railroad in W.Va.

The Cass Scenic Railroad has set a number of events on the heritage railroad for later this year.

They include a Steam Rail Heritage weekend on Nov. 4-6 and winter excursions in December. The winter train rides have been set for Dec. 2-4 and Dec. 9-11.

During the heritage weekend, steam locomotives will pull vintage freight cars, including some rebuilt and repainted by Cass shop forces.

Officials said some of the rail cars that will operate during this event will running for the first time since being restored.

The trains will run up Cheat Mountain and along the Greenbrier River.

Tickets are $500 per person and must be purchased in advance. They will not be available on the days of the event, which will be limited to 55 participants.

The winter excursions are making a return after an absence of a few years. Tickets are $35 and $50 but currently are sold out. Cass officials said they will provide information on their website if additional tickets become available.

The winter trips will operate over the former Chesapeake & Ohio Greenbrier Subdivision between Cass and Durbin, West Virginia. Trains will have heated coaches and cabooses.

Next year the West Virginia Central Railroad will resume excursions behind diesel locomotives.

Trains will operate on Fridays and Saturdays between Jan. 13 and March 18, 2023, between Elkins and Tygart Junction.

The  4-hour, 40-mile round trips through the Tygart Valley River canyon ended in 2000. Tickets range from $57 to $92, depending on age and accommodations chosen.

Nostalgia in Store at July ARRC Meeting

It will be nostalgia time when the Akron Railroad Club holds its July meeting this Friday.

The July 22 meeting will feature a program by Blaine Hays of Cleveland showing slides of railroad operations in Northern Ohio in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.

The program will showcase steam excursions as well as diesels and cabooses that are seldom seen in revenue service today.

The meeting will begin at 8 p.m. in the social hall of the New Horizons Christian Church, 290 Darrow Road, in Akron.

After the business meeting the program will get underway at approximately 8:30 p.m.

ARRC Picnic is Sunday in Cuyahoga Falls

The annual Akron Railroad Club picnic will be held this Sunday (July 17) at Waterworks Park in Cuyahoga Falls at the Little Stone Shelter.

The park is located at 2025 Monroe Falls Avenue and is adjacent to the CSX New Castle Subdivision.

ARRC has reserved the shelter between 6 a.m. and 9 p.m. It is located on the west end of the park, close to the dog park, children’s playground, boat launch, and to restrooms with running water.

Hamburgers and hot dogs will be provided by the club and grilled by Marty Surdyk, a.k.a. Chef Marté. He will fire up the grill around noon.

Also being provided will be some beverages and condiments. Members are asked to bring desserts, snacks, beverages, and/or covered dishes. Although there is no refrigeration the pavilion has ample electrical outlets for crock pots or roasters. However, you may need an extension cord.

Trees block the view of the CSX tracks from the pavilion, which is located north of the rails, but two photo locations are within two to three minutes of the park.

They include the Ohio Route 91 crossing to the east, which is especially good for eastbound trains in the morning, and the Bailey Road crossing to the west. The latter offers good morning views of eastbound trains and exceptional images of westbound trains in the mid-afternoon.

The next ARRC meeting will be held July 22 at the New Horizons Christian Church in Akron.

The program will be presented by Blaine Hayes, who will be showing images made during fan trips from the 1970s and 1980s.

Marion Railfan Society to Meet Saturday

The Marion Railfan Society will meet on Saturday (July 16) at Marion Union Station at approximately 7 p.m.

Cory Behrendt will show digitized movies and videos made by Todd Miller inside Conrail and Chessie System towers in Ohio that he visited between the late 1970s through the middle 1990s.

Also to be shown are some digitized Super 8 sound movies made by Ken Bealer of Allentown, Pennsylvania, of the Tri-State Railway Historical Society’s Farewell to the CNJ excursion in northern New Jersey in November 1985.  It was the last train on the CNJ main in western New Jersey before it was severed for the construction of Interstate 78.

Following the program there will be an open projector for attendees to show some of their railroad images.

All railfans are welcome to attend MRS meetings.

ARRC Longest Day Outing to be in Ravenna

The Akron Railroad Club’s annual longest day outing will be held this year in Ravenna.

The outing on Sunday, June 26 will feature trains on the Cleveland Line of Norfolk Southern and the New Castle Subdivision of CSX. The NS tracks cross over CSX in Ravenna on a bridge.

Attendees will observe the action at Diamond Street, Lake Street and other points nearby.

Some members plan to have breakfast that morning at Megan’s Family Restaurant at 266 W. Main St. in Ravenna.

The Ravenna outing is a first for the ARRC. Previous longest day outings have been held in Alliance, Bellevue, Marion, Fostoria and Deshler.

RRE to Railfan in Bellevue on Saturday

The Forest City Division of the Railroad Enthusiasts will be holding an outing in Bellevue this month in place of its regular meeting.

The outing will be held at the Kemper Railfan Pavilion on Saturday and has no set time to begin or end.

As in the past, the event is considered to have begun when the first person arrives and ends when the last person leaves.

The pavilion is located between the NS Toledo and Sandusky district tracks and sees most of the Norfolk Southern and Wheeling & Lake Erie trains that operate in Bellevue.

The next meeting of the FCD-RRE will be July 15 with a program by Bram Bailey.

The club is undecided as to whether to hold a regular meeting in August or to instead conduct a picnic.