Merry Christmas to all the Akron Railroad Club members. Here is Baltimore & Ohio No. 1455 at the Akron Union Station. It is the fall of 1968 and the Diplomat will soon head west.
Posts Tagged ‘Railroads in 1960s’
Merry Christmas From Bob Farkas
December 24, 2017When Pennsy Had a Yard in Akron
April 7, 2017
Perhaps you will have the same feeling of disbelief as I had when I looked at these two Mike Ondecker images.
Where was this heavily industrialized area? I didn’t know, but the sign on one of the factories matched a company in Cleveland, so I labeled this as Cleveland.
Much to my surprise, several railfans said this was Akron!
It was only upon close observation that I realized this was taken from a Firestone building.
On the left where a stone company now is located was once the Pennsylvania Railroad yard in Akron.
The building on the left is part of the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company. Erie No. 517 is most likely bringing a cut of cars back to the Erie Lackawanna McCoy Street Yard.
This Akron of the early 1960s is totally unlike today’s railroad/industrial scene, but thanks to Mike these memories come alive again.
Article by Robert Farkas, Photographs by Mike Ondecker
Bob Cranks up His Wayback Machine Again
January 10, 2017
Erie Lackawanna 2512, a GE U25B
Akron Railroad Club member Bob Farkas has invited us over to his house for a party to celebrate the new year and to remember an old year.
After some socializing and snacks, he’s brought out his Wayback Machine and taken us back on the Erie Lackawanna on a winter day in Kent in the 1960s for a “from the same roll of film” show.
He said the images are from the same afternoon and are not in any particular order. Pass the popcorn and enjoy the show.
Photographs by Robert Farkas
Louisiana & North-West 6036 boxcar
Erie R28 being used as a rider car
EL 3613, 3609, both EMD SD45s
Pittsburgh & Lake Erie 24260 and Milwaukee Road boxcars.
EL 2452, an Alco C425; 2553, an EMD GP 35; and 6321, an EMD F7A
CB&Q 28402 boxcar
EL 6321, an EMD F7A
This is my favorite image from the afternoon. EL 1051 and its train head west through the east end of the yard.
Just Another Day on NYC, N&W in late ’60s
October 1, 2016
Here are two more black and white images from Northeast Ohio. This series will try to capture day-to-day scenes from 1967 to no later than 1972.
In the top image, New York Central No. 1810 heads east on the NYC mainline east of Cleveland sometime in 1968 or 1969. The GE behind 1810 looks like it has Penn Central on its side.
In the other image, Norfolk & Western No. 2047 sits dead around the turntable at the N&W Brewster engine facility. She is more than likely being parted out as I believe she was in the scrap line later on in 1967 or 1968.
Photographs by Robert Farkas
Some of My Earliest Railroad Photographs
July 28, 2014
For Christmas 1966 my parents got me a 35mm Minoltina rangefinder camera and that was the beginning of my railroad photography career. Here are three local shots from my first two rolls of film.
Without Lightroom and Photoshop Elements, these images would be unviewable. Now they are acceptable because they contain area history not to be repeated.
The top image is a side-lit-from-the-back A&BB No. 28 and another Baldwin switcher sitting on the A&BB engine house tracks in Barberton in December 1966.
The middle image is a grubby-day shot of the cab end of AC&Y No. 503. This is a rare Fairbanks Morse H-20-44 end cab road switcher.
The bottom image shows the AC&Y engine facility in Akron on the same grubby day in December 1966. Shown is AC&Y No. 202 (a Fairbanks Morse H-16-44 roadswitcher) sitting outside the engine house. Other FMs were in both the yellow and black paint scheme, and the blue paint scheme are visible. While I only took a few railroad slides, I thought these might give a taste of Akron’s past.
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