New Steam Coming

[ebtnut]

Here's a link to a pic from Railpictures.net at the Western Maryland Scenic RR shops.  Note in the background another loco - this is ex-Huntingdon and Broad Top Mountain No. 38, a 2-8-0 that in more recent years put in tourist time on the Knox and Kane and Gettysburg railroads.  http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=322088&nseq=20
The loco is now owned by the Everett RR out of Holidaysburg, PA.  It was in decent shape, despite minor damage in a shop fire.  From the looks of things, she may be not too far from being runable again.  Here's a link to No. 38 in service in 1953.  http://www.bbandbrr.com/hbtm/photographs/equipment/locomotives/hbtm_eng_38_000.aspx

BTW, this would be a nice prototype for a model of a medium size Consol.

[pdlethbridge]

I think this is the same #38 serving in the Rochester area before going to K and K

This is from the lakeville, avon and livonia rr site
At Conesus Lake Junction in August 1972, 2-8-0 No. 38 leads an eastbound passenger excursion toward Livonia while RS-1 No. 20 holds the Conesus Lake Branch.  This is what the track looked like at the time the railroad was acquired from Erie Lackawanna.  Since that time, LAL forces have made dramatic improvements to ties, surface, drainage, and brush clearance--resulting in today's modern, well-maintained railroad (Jim Crosby photo)

[jsmvmd]

Dear Nut,

Welcome news.  My boys and I routinely drive by the Duncansville office of the Everett RR to look at the stuff they have parked on the sidings.  Nice little business, 26 miles of track that serves local industries, e.g. Smith Trucking, local manufacturing, etc.  They also run local excursions spring, summer and fall.

http://www.trainweb.org/horseshoecurve-nrhs/excursions.htm

Good luck and if ever in Altoona, get in touch for some rail fanning or coffee.

jsmvmdataolperiodcom.

Jack

[Doneldon]

ebtnut-

Not too far from being runnable again?  Sounds like a Bachmann Connie to me!

     --D

[pipefitter]

Regarding the WM Scenic shop. I'm trying to remember if that shop was earlier where a gentleman and his daughter maintained two steamers they owned during the 70's - 80's. I can't remember their name or the loco types but that the engines were leased to other railroads for excursions.

I remember one of the engines pulling a Southern RWY excursion round trip between Alexandria and Lynchburg VA on the Southern main line. The Southern's excursion engine 4501 had been disabled and the railroad had restored the magnificent C&O Kanawa 2-8-4 2716 and planned to use it for years to come. (This was pre 1218 and 611). However after one of its first trips it was announced that 2716 would not lead any more excursions due to some serious damage that had happened on a trip. I was on that train and the loco ran just fine and did not reveal the hidden damage until a post trip inspection. I loved that engine and it was a real blow to hear of its loss.

Then the Southern arranged to lease one of the two Cumberland engines to cover the rest of the season's trips. The owner specified in the lease conditions under which his loco would be run including a limit on top speed. I was on the first run of that engine as well, on the Southern main to Lynchburg. Graham Claytor was at the throttle. I heard from someone who was in the cab that Claytor believed that the engine was in such good condition that it could run well above the speed limit specified in the lease. Way down the line he said something to the effect that "Let's see what this engine can do. Won't do any harm and how could the owner know?" Well the owner did know because he had agents all along the route to observe the operation of his engine. Using stopwatches they had timed the train and determined that it had been run at higher speed than the lease allowed. When the excursion arrived back at Alexandria, the engine's owner was waiting and exercised his rights under the lease terms to take back the engine from the Southern. The rest of the season's excursions operated behind a beautiful set of Virginia Green and White Southern F's. Disappointed some but also delighted first generation diesel lovers as well.

Robert

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?10,907178

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=252064&nseq=2

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=176215&nseq=4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGU2bXEQeDc

[J3a-614]

Robert,

That was Jack and Sally Showalter, and for a while they ran the Western Maryland Scenic as contractors, using the name Allegheny Central Railroad.  This was the same name they had used when operating their own road on a segement of the C&O's former Hot Springs branch that ran from Covington, Va. to Hot Springs, and had been noted as having a mixed train that handled Pullmans to Hot Springs from a set-out at the nearby division point of Clifton Forge as late as the time of the start of Amtrak in 1970!  Power was a pair of Canadian Pacific G5 4-6-2s, a light branchline engine built to a modern (1948) version of a 1910 design as a replacement for older power in the northland.  This engine type has about 35,000 lbs of tractive effort, comparable to that of a C&O F-15 4-6-2 (C&O's first 4-6-2 type, and almost the first of the type in America, built at about the same time as Missouri Pacific's engines that gave the wheel arrangement its name).

Later, after the Western Maryland and Southern times, the Showalters attempted a main line tourist road, again called the Allegheny Central, running on trackage rights over the Chessie System's former lines between Charlottesville and Clifton Forge and between Charlottesville and Gordonsville.  Sadly, this operation lasted less than a full season due to the first "insurance crisis" of the  mid-1980s.  The engines were stored in Staunton for some years, and now are on loan to the Science Museum of Virginia at Broad Street Station in Richmond, Va.

I got to ride the Allegheny Central/Western Maryland, and recall the pulsing that came through the floor that is so characteristic of of riding behind steam in the first car behind the tender, the loud exhaust as this relatively small locomotive worked its heart out on the final 3% approach to Frostburg, and the brake shoe smoke on the way back down.

Nothing else like mountain steam railroading. . .

http://donsdepot.donrossgroup.net/dr0601/jt82.jpg

http://donsdepot.donrossgroup.net/dr0701/ac1286.jpg

The photos above are from this page.

http://donsdepot.donrossgroup.net/dr012.htm

Some other photos:

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=76053&nseq=2

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=75154&nseq=4

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=86294&nseq=1

Enjoy.

[ebtnut]

For a brief time in the late 1970's or so, these little CP G-5's were the largest single class of operational steam locomotives in North America.  IIRC, these were all in steam at the same time:  1200 in Canada; 1238 and 1286 on the Allegheny Central; 1278 and 1293 at Steamtown.  Right now, I belive only 1293 is operable out in Ohio.  1278 infamously had a major firebox failure on the Gettysburg and was eventually acquired by the Ohio Central, probably for parts.  I think the 1200 is now stuffed and mounted.

[pipefitter]

That was Jack and Sally Showalter, and for a while they ran the Western Maryland Scenic as contractors, using the name Allegheny Central Railroad ...

For a brief time in the late 1970's or so, these little CP G-5's were the largest single class of operational steam locomotives in North America ...

Thank you gentlemen, for the information.

Robert