B&O Switcher in Benwood

Baltimore & Ohio SW900 No. 9418 is between assignments in Benwood, West Virginia, on Nov. 25, 1972. The EMD product was built in 1955.

Photograph by Robert Farkas

Candy Apple Red on the Corman

A northbound R.J. Corman train is about to crossing the Wheeling & Lake Erie Brewster Subdivision at Justus, about a mile east of Brewster.

Leading the train is a Railpower RP20BD with its bright red livery. The image was made on April 3, 2012.

The Baltimore & Ohio style position light signal gives a clue as to the heritage of this line.

Photograph by Robert Farkas

One Day at the Cleveland Steel Mills

At the time this photo was made, there was a public road that ran in front of this scene. Republic Steel 345, River Terminal 92, and Republic Steel 200 are in Cleveland on Oct. 10, 1983.

Photograph by Robert Farkas

A Conrail RoadRailer Memory

It’s a cloudless afternoon that is perfect for railroad photography. Conrail B36-7 No. 5010 leads a RoadRailer train out of Massillon on July 20, 1996.

Photograph by Robert Farkas

EL Monday: Westbound in Akron

A brace of Erie Lackawanna locomotives lead a westbound train through Akron in April 1973. On the point is U25B No. 2518. Other units in the motive power consist are the 2552, 7092, and 7123. The train is approaching Voris Street and ducking beneath Thornton Street.

Photograph by Robert Farkas

Early in the PC Era at Collinwood

You can’t tell from this angle but that is a former Pennsylvania Railroad FP7 sitting at the locomotive service rack at Collinwood Yard in Cleveland in either 1968 or 1969. That would make it a Penn Central locomotive although not but too long.

Photograph by Robert Farkas

Steam Saturday: 10 Years Ago This Week

It was 10 years ago Friday (Sept. 17, 2011) that Nickel Plate Road 2-8-4 No. 765 made its first and only foray to Canton pulling a Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad train.

Photographer Robert Farkas decided to try a technique that day that had been suggested to him by a friend who said that photographers of automobiles seek to use a dark background in an effort to get better images.

Bob tried that technique several times while chasing the 765 as it pulled what was billed as a total track tour that originated at Rockside Road station in Independence and covered all of the track used by the CVSR at that time.

The top and subsequent images were made in Peninsula. In the third image the 765 and its train are slowing for a stop near North Canton.

The fourth image shows the train leaving North Canton while the bottom image was made as the train ran southward in Canton.

The following year Ohio Central 4-5-2 No. 1293 made a trip that proved to be the last steam excursion to Canton via the CVSR.

CVSR suspended service to Canton in August 2013 and it has yet to return.

Photographs by Robert Farkas

Shades of the Illinois Terminal

If this appears to be an Illinois Terminal locomotive, well it is, sort of. This train has a pair of former IT units pulling it in Brewster in April 1982. That’s a long way from the service territory of the IT, but by now the Norfolk & Western has absorbed the one time Illinois Traction System. The two ex-IT units, Nos. 2963 and 2966 are SD39s, and two of six that IT had on its roster at one time.

Photograph by Robert Farkas

A Fascination With Steam in the Valley

Nickel Plate Road 2-8-4 No. 765 will conclude its visit to the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad this weekend with a series of excursions on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

It arrived on the CVSR during the first week of the month and has already pulled several trips that drew hundreds of passengers and spectators.

For many, the attraction of watching the big Berkshire-type locomotive in action is scenes like the one above of the 765 putting on a show for a photo runby.

This image was made on Sept. 14, 2014, at Boston Mill. That used to be where the photo runbys were staged.

Boston Mill has changed in the past two years with the CVSR station having been moved further south and a new visitors center having opened in a former apartment building.

If you’ve been following the story line this week of Ed Ribinskas’ series about steam at Boston Mill you’ve seen and read about those changes.

The 765 will be moving on soon although not before spending some time in Bellevue at the Mad River & NKP Railroad Museum later this month.

We probably can expect to see the 765 back in the Valley next year but those things are never guaranteed. Every time the 765 comes back you need to approach its visit as though it might be the last.

But, oh, the memories and photographs you’ll make that will always stay with you.

Photograph by Robert Farkas

When B&O Had That Chessie Look

The wayback machine has taken us back to Massillon on March 22, 1989, for another look at a Baltimore & Ohio geep in the Chessie System livery. It looks a little worn but that is to be expected.

Photograph by Robert Farkas