On Tuesday I caught the Akron Barberton Cluster Railway local to Ravenna. Wheeling & Lake Erie No. 302, a former Denver & Rio Grande Western GP40 still lettered for that railroad powered the train.
In the photos above the train is shown switching at Kent, heading to Ravenna and on the turn trip at Ravenna
Article and Photographs by Todd Dillon
Two of this trio of locomotives pulling a stone train in Akron on Aug. 1, 2015, wear liveries that suggest they once worked for BNSF. SD40-2 No. 6388 wears Burlington Northern colors while the middle unit has a BNSF scheme. The train is shown on the CSX New Castle Subdivision.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
Wheeling & Lake SD40-2 No. 6995 and its train of stone tool along westbound on the CSX New Castle Subdivision in Akron on July 10, 2021.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
Here are two images of Wheeling and Lake Erie No. 2662 heading east in Navarre on Aug. 16, 2014. The top image is the full scene while the bottom image has been cropped.
Yes, you can lose some quality by cropping, but it can save some photos taken from farther away than you’d like perhaps because you have the wrong lens on your camera.
Photographs by Robert Farkas
Although Akron Barberton Cluster motive power typically has handled the ABC job that serves Kent and Ravenna, locomotives from parent Wheeling & Lake Erie often has pitched in to help when needed.
Such was the case on Nov. 4, 2005, when GP35 No. 2662 worked the job. Apparently the crew had not cars to take back to Akron on this day.
No. 2662, one of two locomotives to received this striking red and gold livery, is passing the former Erie Railroad passenger station in Kent.
Wheeling & Lake Erie GP35-3 No. 108 has been around a long time. It was built for the Southern in December 1964 and came to the Wheeling in 1990 when the modern iteration of the company began operations.
A motive power roster online maintained by Chris Toth shows No. 108 still looks the way it does in the photograph above.
It is capable of remote control operation and has Alco-type B trucks.
No. 108 is shown here working in Navarre on Aug. 21, 2013.
One interesting facet of the motive power fleet of the Wheeling & Lake Erie is that you can expect to get some variety.
The railroad is known for putting into service leased and newly purchased used locomotives still wearing their last livery.
Eventually the new units find their way to the paint booth to get the black and orange “Tiger” look but it can be years before some units arrive there.
The top image SD40-3 No. 3034 is westbound on CSX tracks in Akron on July 1, 2011. Trailing it is a former Union Pacific SD40-2 that looks like it is wearing primer paint.
In the bottom image, W&LE SD40-2 No. 6315 is in Akron on Oct. 21, 2009, still wearing its Wisconsin Central colors.
W&Lake Erie SD40-3 4001 is leading an eastbound stone train over the R.J. Corman diamond east of Brewster Yard in Brewster on May 2, 2018. Those stone hoppers are a pretty baby blue.
There is something about this scene that bring to mind the word “lonesome.”
Maybe that’s because we see a lone Wheeling & Lake Erie GP35-3 pulling a lone tank car.
At least I thought it was a lone tank car until I enlarged the photo and determined that there are actually two tank cars.
But the compression from the lens makes the train look quite shot.
The train is westbound on the CSX New Castle Subdivision tracks in Akron on March 27, 2012.
It’s not a true heritage unit, but Wheeling & Lake Erie GP35 No. 107 pays tribute to the Akron, Canton & Youngstown by bearing an AC&Y herald.
It is shown crossing the Ohio and Erie Canal in downtown Akron on Oct. 8, 2014, on a bridge that the AC&Y built several decades ago.
This unit, which is still active on the W&LE, was acquired by the railroad in 1990 when it got started.
It was built in February 1965 for the Southern Railway.
akronrrclub.wordpress.com 