Some Orange in Warwick

BNSF motive power is not necessarily a rare sight in Northeast Ohio but it’s still pleasant to see it when you find it.

Here are a couple of images of a westbound CSX train passing through Warwick on March 1 being pulled by two BNSF pumpkins.

Photographs by Robert Farkas

4-Axle Power

CSX often uses four-axle locomotives for local train service and yard work.

Shown above is No. 2000, a GP38-3 currently assigned to CSX local D750.

It was captured at work on Jan. 14, 2020 at Warwick on the New Castle Subdivision.

Photograph by Robert Farkas

Get It While You Can

It is the afternoon of May 15, 1998, in Clinton (Warwick).

Ohio Central has sent its coiled-steel train to Warwick where it has been put in the eastbound siding.

Now the OHCR power is waiting on R.J. Corman tracks for the CSX train bringing back the empty coiled-steel cars to be taken south.

In the top photograph, the view is looking south at OHCR GP9 No. 91and OHCR GP38AC No. 2175 with its Operation Lifesaver lettering with Warwick Tower in the background.

The tower was out of service as an interlocking tower but used by maintenance of way workers.

The bottom photograph shows a side view of both locomotives with the roof of Warwick shower showing above the 2175.

Today OHCR no longer interchanges with CSX at Warwick, and OHCR is no longer owned by Jerry Jacobson.

This is just another reminder to photograph the familiar while there is time.

Article and Photographs by Robert Farkas

CSX in Warwick

Here are three images taken in Warwick on Nov. 6, 2019.

In the top image CSX GP38-2 No. 2707 is westbound with train D750.

When D750 works Jones Chemical on Vanderhoof Road in New Franklin, the single track and therefore the whole CSX New Castle Subdivision mainline is blocked until the D750 is done.

In the middle image, CSX AC44CW No. 411 has Q277 westbound through the small park in Warwick.

In the bottom image CSX SD70MAC No. 784 is eastbound near the former Warwick Tower. This unit was built for Conrail in May 1998.

Article and Photographs by Robert Farkas

Back When We Still Were Wearing Shorts

Remember last July? Remember the day of the Akron Railroad Club picnic? It was warm that day and most of us had shorts on with t-shirts or short sleeve shirts.

CSX cooperated and ran some trains. Nothing out of the ordinary came past that day. Unlike at the 2016 picnic, a report of a heritage unit on the Fort Wayne Line of Norfolk Southern didn’t send several of us scurrying to intercept it at Massillon or some other point.

As is typical of the CSX New Castle Subdivision, there were some long lulls between trains.

The action picked up some late in the day. Those of us still there even walked down the street and stood next to the easternmost building in “downtown” Warwick to catch the K182 as it rolled into the nice early evening light.

About 15 minutes earlier, the photo line had captured local D750 returning to its home base after working in Akron and Barberton.

It remains to be determined if the ARRC will return to Warwick in 2018 for its annual picnic or go elsewhere. The officers will hash that out in January.

In the meantime, here are a few memories of this year’s picnic.

The K182 had a hopper car still wearing the Family Lines markings.

After a long day, the D750 returns to its home base in Warwick.

The rear of the U700 lumbering eastbound.

Westbound train Q375 makes an appearance.

The westbound Q299 had a road slug in its motive power consist.

Here comes the Q299 making some smoke as it accelerates.

The Q235 rolls around the curve and into Warwick. It was one of two auto rack trains that came through town during the late morning hours.

SEPTA, MARC Motors Pass Through Region

Last Friday CSX train W991 was a complete surprise. When it hit the detector west of Warwick, the detector said there were 22 axles.

Needless to say, I expected something like a work train with a few gondolas. Instead I was able to photograph CSX 340 eastbound with one SEPTA and three MARC locomotives. The number on the SEPTA unit looks like 90 while the MARC units appear to be 82, 81, and 80. While the detector said 22 axles, there appears to be an extra locomotive at the end. That would give 26 axles.

Also shown are CSX 1513 and its partner are the power for CSX train D750.

The locomotives are ACS-64 electrics that left the Siemens factory in Sacramento, California.

The SEPTA unit is the first ACS-64 to be delivered to the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, which serves the Philadelphia region.

SEPTA awarded Siemens a $118 million contract in 2015 to supply 13 ACS-64s to replace its eight AEM-7 and ALP-44 locomotives on Lansdale-Doylestown, Paoli-Thorndale, and Wilmington-Newark commuter services, and expand the electric locomotive fleet to meet additional ridership demand.

The ACS-64s will operate with SEPTA Regional Rail’s existing fleet of 36 Bombardier double-deck coaches as well as 45 new coaches ordered last year from CRRC Tangshan, which are due to be delivered from 2019 onwards.

The motors are expected to begin revenue service in early 2018.

Photographs by Robert Farkas

3 From the 1960s

Here are three local photos that show long-gone pieces of Northeast Ohio history from December 1966 and January 1967.

In the top images are boxcars on the now-removed Pennsylvania Railroad line to Orrville crossing the southbound Baltimore & Ohio tracks at Warwick.

Looking down the string of boxcars, the main road is there, but the railroad crossing cross bucks and the side road aren’t. Also, there is a bridge under Ohio Route 21 in this photo. How quickly the past is removed.

In the middle is Akron, Canton & Youngstown X991 big hook in Akron.

The bottom image shows Erie No. 21576 at the north end of the A&BB yard that served Columbia Chemical and PPG.

Photographs by Robert Farkas

Warwick Moment Not Likely to be Repeated on Sunday

Here is a Warwick memory that won’t be repeated for Sunday’s picnic. A late-running eastbound Amtrak train lit by the early morning sun approaches Warwick Tower on July 1, 2004. The train is the Chicago-New York Three Rivers, which was discontinued in March 2005. Under ordinary circumstances, Nos. 40 and 41 were scheduled to pass through Warwick during darkness hours.

Photograph by Robert Farkas

 

An Early Foray Into Digital Photography

Do you remember your first digital camera? I inherited my Dad’s 3MP Kodak when he passed away in April 2004. I had bought it for him for Christmas 2003 not knowing he had so little time left.

Warwick has really changed since 2004 as can be seen here. Norfolk Southern 8410 leads a two-unit lash up eastbound through Warwick on April 23, 2004.

This was one of my very first digital photos. Since the Kodak didn’t have manual controls, I upgraded to a 4MP Olympus. I felt I was at the head of the digital revolution!

Article and photograph by Robert Farkas

Railroading as it Once Was: Finding a Pure Erie Lackawanna Power Set Passing Warwick Tower

Right from the get go Conrail started routing trains off the former Erie Lackawanna main, using a connection built between the Penn Central and EL in Akron to access the former PC Ft Wayne Line in Orrville using the Cleveland-Akron-Columbus between the two.

As power was being mixed up real fast, one of my early goals was to catch a set of EL power passing the Penn Central tower at Warwick (Clinton) along that CA&C route.

I figured that would show the merger as good as anything.

Anyway, after several tries and trains in the first couple weeks of April 1976 I got lucky and caught a pure set of EL power passing the former PC tower. Mission accomplished.

Today the tower still stands and is used by CSX signal people, but the track the train is on is long gone. Photograph scanned from a Kodacolor negative.

Article and Photograph by Roger Durfee