The wayback machine has taken us back to Oct. 17, 1981, on the Cuyahoga Valley Line in Brecksville. On this glorious autumn day we witness former Grand Trunk Western 2-8-2 No. 4020 pulling a southbound train beneath the Ohio Route 82 bridge along the Cuyahoga River.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
Here is a pair of Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad FPA-4 No. 800, better known for its Baltimore & Ohio livery. The photographs were made on Sept. 6, 2013.
The views include passing under the Ohio Route 82 bridge in Brecksville and near Akron.
Photographs by Robert Farkas
Here are four photos I made at Brecksville station on July16. All the bikers came on the path over the Station Road bridge over the Cuyahoga River shortly before train time at 1:20 p.m. The baggage car definitely is needed for this popular option on the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad. Note that the locomotives on both ends of the train are leases from Horizon Rail.
Photographs by Edward Ribinskas
It is the classic Brecksville photograph. A train coming south on the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad, the Ohio Route 82 and the Cuyahoga River reflecting it all.
In this image, we’ve gone back to Oct. 2, 1982, when the CVSR was known as the Cuyahoga Valley Line and former Grand Trunk Western 2-8-2 No. 4070 was the main attraction.
The river and Route 82 bridge are still there but the 4070 lies disassembled in Cleveland undergoing what could best be termed a slow and long-term restoration to operating condition.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
The steam division of the wayback machine has us on the Ohio Route 82 bridge in Brecksville.
The Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad was then known as the Cuyahoga Valley Line and the motive power was former Grand Trunk Western 2-8-2 light Mikado No. 4070 operated by the Midwest Railway Preservation Society.
At the time this image was made the bridge had sidewalks on both sides.
The top image was made on the north side of the bridge of the southbound train. The bottom image was, of course, on the other side showing it going away.
It was made before the site has been transformed into a parking lot with a station although back in the day the Baltimore & Ohio had a depot here.
The bridge over the Cuyahoga River was on Station Road. The bridge is still in place and now part a trail leading from the Towpath Trail to the station.
The National Park Scenic departs from Peninsula station amid peak fall colors in early November.
Autumn is probably the favorite season of the year for the managers of the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroads.
It’s trains are stuffed full of leaf peepers wanting to get a look at the autumn foliage along the 25-mile route between Akron and Independence.
And just as soon as the foliage season is done the Polar Express season begins. The trains featuring the children’s Christmas tale account for 20 percent of the CVSR’s annual ridership.
Is it any wonder that the railroad looks forward to the end of the year?
I, took, look forward to autumn on the CVSR, but for a different reason. Some of my best images of that railroad have been made in October and early November.
And between runs of the National Park Scenic, there is autumn glory to photograph in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park.
Peninsula as already been decked out to become the North Pole for the Polar Express trains.
The first of three images of the southbound Scenic coming through an S curve north of Brecksville station.
Horizon Rail No. 8420 leads the National Park Scenic at Brecksville.
Passing the leaf-covered path to the Brecksville station.
CVSR 1822 is framed by an arch of the Ohio Route 82 bridge over the Cuyahoga Valley.
FPA-4 No. 6771 leads the last Ales on Rails train of the year through Brecksville.
The Baltimore & Ohio tribute FPA-4 No. 800 brings up the rear of the Ales on Rails train at Brecksville.
The chase of Nickel Plate Road No. 767 on Sunday, Sept. 25 began with a new location and a successful venture. The train is crossing the Cuyahoga River north of Peninsula.
Unlike the previous two days that I had spent chasing Nickel Plate Road 2-8-4 No. 767, Sunday, Sept. 25 dawned sunny and clear.
It was a beautiful day to chase a steam train and have an early autumn picnic in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park.
Twenty-seven Akron Railroad Club members and guests showed up to eat hamburgers and hot dogs along with snacks and desserts.
I began my third day chasing the 767 by walking the towpath trail to the culvert where the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad tracks cross over the trail north of Peninsula.
My objective was to get a shot I’d never done with any steam locomotive.
In 2015, I had photographed the 765 crossing the Cuyahoga from the west side of the bridge. But now I wanted to get the view from the east, something I had done just once with a CVSR train.
That image had been made, by coincidence, on the day of the ARRC’s October meeting.
The east side is a tougher shot than the west side because the angle is tighter. I had it all to myself.
Later, I arrived in Boston Mill just as the train was backing up for its first photo runby.
I made a few images, but got nothing of note. I walked to the east side of the crossing of Boston Mills Road with the idea of getting the 767, the Boston Mill station and the ski resort in the background. It worked out all right.
It was too early to do the goldenrod field shot, so I went to Jaite for a going away image that I ended up liking better than what I had made here the week before.
While at Jaite, I met ARRC member Steve Heister. I would see several ARRC members on this day and the number of photographers trackside on Sept. 24 and 25 was greater than what I had seen on Sept. 18. It must have been the good weather.
After Jaite, I went to Brecksville, which was quite crowded. I had to park on the access road, which wasn’t a bad thing because it would enable me to get a faster getaway. I would need that in order to get to Deep Lock Quarry in time.
My objective in Brecksville was to get the 767 and its train along the Cuyahoga River from the Old Station Road bridge.
There were dozens of people with cameras staking out their photo spot when I arrived at Brecksville station.
The woman standing to my immediate left had two dogs. She had arrived around 7:45 a.m. just as the ferry move to Akron was passing beneath her as she drove over the Ohio Route 82 bridge. Steam and smoke from the 767 below had risen to road level and it was quite foggy.
I immediately wished I had made my way to the Valley much earlier. I had not because I had been out all day on Saturday and got home late. I didn’t want to leave home early on Sunday.
Fog can make for some dramatic images. It was cool and that meant lots of steam. I should have gone for it.
I’ve seen some images made by other photographers of the ferry move and they were pretty good.
As I stood on Old Station Road bridge, it began sinking in that I would not be able to do all of the locations with the 767 that I had envisioned. There wasn’t enough time and opportunity.
The image I had gone to get at Brecksville turned out so-so. The better image was the wide view showing the river, the Route 82 bridge and the train. I wished I had stayed with that image longer than I did.
There was plenty of time to get to Deep Lock because the 767 made an unexpected stop north of Jaite when some daisy pickers ran across the tracks as the train neared their position.
The images I made at Deep Lock met my expectations. It was time to get to the ARRC picnic.
Marty and I had planned the picnic about two weeks before it was held. We had a complication when we gave the wrong name of the picnic site and the September meeting was moved back a week due to parking lot resurfacing at New Horizons Christian Church.
Helped by good weather and the lure of a steam locomotive, the turnout exceeded our expectations. We set up a photo line to catch the northbound move of the afternoon excursion out of Akron.
Many ARRC members stayed at the picnic site to get the southbound return to Akron about two hours later.
I photographed the first Boston Mill photo runby, but skipped the second one. Instead, I drove north on Riverview.
I saw Kyle Ori standing with his wonder pole next to the road near the Columbia Run Picnic Area.
The pole enables him to gain elevation of as much as 30 feet with his camera. He uses his smart phone to control the camera.
I decided to catch the northbound run of the steam train here rather than trying for the goldenrod field.
As the train went by, my camera lens began malfunctioning. It would not zoom past about 85 mm.
I twisted it a few times and finally got it out to 135 mm. But the auto focus wasn’t working properly and all of the images I made at my maximum focal length were blurry.
The same thing happened at the Chippewa Creek bridge where fellow ARRC members Ed Ribinskas and Jeff Troutman were already set up when I arrived.
This time the 135 mm images came out all right, but the wide angle images of the 767 crossing the bridge were blurry. This was not a good thing.
The remainder of the ARRC picnic gang was standing with their cameras in hand by the side of Riverview as I drove past.
My intent was to drive into Akron and get the train at milepost 43 in the Merriman Woods housing development. Riverview Road is closed south of Bath Road and the detour pointed west on Bath.
I’m unfamiliar with the roads west of the tracks so I decided to stay at Bath Road and go for the sure thing.
I had not photographed south of Indigo Lake during the two-week stay of NKP 767 and wanted to get something on the southern end.
I saw a small clump of wild black-eyed Susans next to the tracks and placed those in the foreground as I got a low angle of the 767. The autofocus function worked fairly well.
It was nearly 4:30 p.m. and I was feeling discouraged due to my camera issues. I still didn’t have the goldenrod shot but there was time to get it during the ferry move to the Fitzwater maintenance facility from Akron.
I elected instead to head home. I had done the goldenrod shot with the 765 and with my camera lens on the fritz I might not get the 767 in focus or get the focal length I desired.
I was tired and having a beer and a snack while watching the rest of the Sunday afternoon football games sounded enticing.
The next day I took my camera to Dodd Camera in Cleveland. The store manager removed the lens and shook it. We could hear something rattling inside. The lens was broken.
But this story has a happy ending. The estimated repair cost was $200 to $300 if the camera could be economically repaired. A comparable new zoom lens would cost between about $400 to $600.
I was elated when Dodd sent me an email with a repair cost of $177. The lens has been fixed and is back on my camera.
I didn’t know how my camera saga would end on that late Sunday afternoon of the last day of the NKP 767 in the valley.
I had the same thought that I always do after making my last images of the day. Will this be the final time that I see NKP 765, 767 or whatever they choose to number it on the CVSR?
Thus far the Berkshire-type 2-8-4 has returned every September since 2013. But one of these years it might not.
As was the case in 2015, I ended my 2016 chase feeling slightly unfulfilled. I had missed the goldenrod field shot along with a few other locations. I still regret not going for the ferry move on the last Sunday morning.
But if the NKP 765 never returns to the CVSR again, I’ll be satisfied with the body of work that I was able to produce of that locomotive running through the Cuyahoga River Valley.
I decided that I like this shot at Jaite better than a similar image I had made at this spot a week earlier.
Passing the south switch of Jaite siding. It almost looks like the locomotive is leading rather than trailing.
In the end, I thought this “preliminary” image that I made of NKP 767 along the Cuyahoga River in Brecksville is better than I the image I set had out to create here.
The opening between the trees and brush growing along the Cuyahoga River at Brecksville was not quite wide enough to fit all of the NKP 767.
Crossing the Cuyahoga River south of Peninsula in a duplication of an image I’ve made a few times with NKP 765. Oh, wait, this is NKP 765 but with a different number. This location never gets old with me.
Getting the wide angle view near Deep Lock Quarry. The towpath trail is just off the nose of NKP 767, which is crossing over the trail.
The lighting conditions at the ARRC picnic site were not as favorable as I expected when the NKP 767 and its train went north for the afternoon trip out of Akron. So I got creative with these leaves.
NKP 767 runs backward alongside Riverview Road near the Columbia Run Picnic Area. This shot turned out well, but a malfunction of my zoom lens meant that the telephoto shots I made here were blurry.
Fortunately, the autofocus and zoom functions of my lens were working when I made my last image of the NKP 767 on the CVSR. The train is approaching Bath Road. It was a good way to end my chase of the 767.
The first photo op of the day was along Riverview Road as the late morning Scenic headed northbound south of Peninsula.
What a difference a week makes. I had been on the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad on Sunday, Oct. 25 and the leaves were at their peak colors.
A week later, many of those leaves had not only lost their color, but also fallen to the ground.
There was still some color left and many leaves still on the trees had that golden brown that makes late autumn distinct.
It was a sunny day and the last time that the CVSR would operate the Scenic train with a pair of locomotives on the south end.
With this year’s pairing featuring two FPA-4 units running tail to tail, it might be the last opportunity to get this unusual coupling.
Fellow Akron Railroad Club member Roger Durfee and I set out to chase the late morning and middle trips of the day.
Here is a sample of what I was able to capture.
The day’s trips represented the last service to the stations at Botzum, Indigo Lake and Brecksville until next year. Starting Nov. 7, the Scenic shifts to Saturday and Sunday operation with the only intermediate stop being in Peninsula.
Not as much color as last week, but the view from the Ohio Route 82 bridge was still pretty fantastic.
Passengers wait on the platform with their bikes as an arch of the Route 82 bridge frames the nose of CVSR No. 800.
I got down on my stomach to get his shot at Brecksville station.
A small amount of gold is left in a tree next to the tracks just north of Boston Mill.
Is this the last time that FpA-4 Nos. 800 and 6771 run together as a pair? We’ll find out in autumn 2016, but much can change in a year’s time.
Around the curve lies the Boston Mill station.
Bearing down on milepost 43 in Akron.
The best color of the day was at milepost 43 in Akron behind a housing development.
Side lighting illuminates a stand of autumn gold as the train rumbles through Akron southbound.
We waited for the Scenic to go north out of Akron and then called it a day. The train is passing milepost 43.
The sunlight through the trees casts an interesting shadow pattern on the undisturbed snow as the northbound afternoon CVSR Scenic train approaches Brecksville.
There’s snow and then there’s deep snow. No sooner had I set out from the parking lot in Brecksville toward the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad tracks when I found myself ankle deep in it.
It wasn’t that long of a walk so I trudged ahead with the objective of photographing the northbound Scenic train crossing Chippewa Creek.
The snow was even deeper on the other side of the creek. I fell once when my mind was going in one direction but my body in another.
But it was worth it because the snow had not been spoiled by human footprints or other activity. It was as pure a scene as I could expect to find in Northeast Ohio and with little imagination reminiscent of being in an isolated spot in the woods of Minnesota, Michigan or Canada.
Another photographer also hiked through the snow, but he chose to photograph from the creek whereas I wanted to be able to get coming and going shots.
It was getting to be late afternoon and the sun was low enough that much of the track was in shadows. Yet the sun streaming through the trees created an interesting effect of shadows across the rails.
The bridge over Chippewa Creek was in open sunlight, which is probably why that other guy chose to go down to the water level. He would get a nicely lighted side view.
During the winter the Scenic doesn’t stop at Brecksville station, so I had to guess as to when it would arrive there. The only scheduled stop between Akron and Rockside Road in Independence is Peninsula.
I was happy to see a spot of yellow when the Scenic came into view. That meant that the black LTEX 1420 would not be on the lead. Try photographing that locomotive in shadows.
Instead, the 1822, an RS18u that had been built in May 1958 for Canadian Pacific, was on the point. The trailing unit was No. 800, the FPA-4 built in March 1959 for Canadian National, and painted in a Baltimore & Ohio livery.
I can only hope that this motive power consist combination will continue to run a little longer.
Seeing the 1822 on the point was a most welcome sight.
The 1822 passes a snow-covered hillside just before crossing Chippewa Creek. The horn is sounding and the bell ringing for the crossing at Brecksville station.
Crossing Chippewa Creek on a sunny day that made it feel warm.
The Ohio Route 82 bridge looms in the background as the 800 brings up the rear of the northbound Scenic at Brecksville.
The Scenic rounds a curve at Brecksville, thus enabling a side view of the entire train. Not the deep ruts cut by the train as it rolled through the snow.
Follow the smoke trail! Somewhere amid the trees is a steam train. Look carefully and you’ll spot the headlight of the Nickel Plate Road No. 765.
Last Sunday was a beautiful day in Northeast Ohio. The forecast called for mostly sunny skies and temperatures in the lower 70s. It would be a great day to chase Nickel Plate Road 765.
The 2-8-4 Berkshire owned by the Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society would be making its fourth appearance on the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad in the past five years. Last Saturday and Sunday it pulled a series of two-hour trips out of Brecksville.
I had in mind getting a perspective that I’ve never captured before, which was to photograph the steamer from atop the Ohio Route 82 bridge.
You’ve probably seen photographs of this iconic bridge from ground level. It is a graceful concrete arch bridge that forms the background for many “must have” photographs of CVSR operations. It spans the Cuyahoga River valley just to the north of the Brecksville station.
My original plan was to be on the bridge for the afternoon trips, which were scheduled out of Brecksville at 1:30 p.m. My thinking was by then the sun would have swung around enough to nicely illuminate the tracks and an oncoming train to the north.
The 765 excursions were being worked around the regularly scheduled CVSR Scenic trains, which meant that the 765 and its train would be stashed away north of Brecksville at the CVSR’s Fitzwater maintenance facility until after the southbound Scenic has passed.
I was driving across the Route 82 bridge en route to my first photo location for the 9:30 a.m. trip when I saw a guy with a camera who had parked his car on the bridge.
That prompted me to change my mind and seek to photograph from the bridge for the morning trip. I parked, though, off the bridge a short distance to the west.
That was a good thing because less than 10 minutes before the arrival of the 765 a Brecksville police officer told that railfan that parking wasn’t allowed on the bridge, which has wide shoulders on the both sides.
My decision to photograph the morning trip from the bridge turned out to be a good one. The temperatures were cool and that enhanced the smoke and steam from the 765, a phenomenon that I had observed on 765 trips in past years on cool September mornings.
The challenge of shooting from the bridge is that the tracks are surrounded by trees. This is, after all, a national park and the rangers are not into cutting down trees.
But there is an open area immediately next to the Cuyahoga River and that was my focus.
When I arrived on the bridge there was still some fog hugging the valley. But most of it had burned off by the time the 765 arrived. Still, some lingering fog lay just over the tree tops.
My chase of the morning excursion ended where it began on the Ohio Route 82 bridge. The return trip was pulled by LTEX No. 1420.
My idea was to photograph the 765 as it was going north to the Fitzwater shops. It was a good idea except I didn’t expect the 765 to be putting out this much smoke, which of course trailed behind the train and obscured the view.
I had been joined on the Route 82 bridge by fellow Akron Railroad Club members Edward Ribinskas and Roger Durfee. We decided to drive down the road to Steak ‘n Shake for lunch and to come back after 1 p.m. to be ready for the 765’s getting into position for its 1:30 p.m. trip.
We were ready in plenty of time to capture the ferry move of the 765 from the Fitzwater shops to Brecksville station.
The problem was that during the morning a lot of clouds had formed over the valley and we had to contend with the sun being in and out. It was out when we arrived, but had gone in by the time the 765 showed up.
That wasn’t what we wanted, but we worked with what we had. Then it was back to my car and off to my next photo location. But that is a story for another day.
Thank goodness for that opening along the river. The 765 is chugging its way toward the first station stop.
The opportunity to make this image is why I stood atop the Route 82 bridge. It doesn’t get much better than this.
Some residual fog lies just over the treetops as the 765 and its train eases to a stop at the Brecksville station.
The train has halted at Brecksville station and begun boarding passengers. That the Cuyahoga River to the left.
LTEX 1420 pulled the excursion train back to Brecksville. It is making the first of two stops to unload passengers.
For once we wished that the steam locomotive had been putting out a little bit less smoke. The 765 and its train is making its way back to Fitzwater shops to lay over until the early afternoon trip.
The 765 and its train snakes its way toward Brecksville station.
If only the Cuyahoga Valley National Park has one less tree this would be a perfect shot.
The crowd is lined up and getting its first glimpse of what it had come to see. It’s a living, breathing steam locomotive coming at them at the Brecksville station.
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