Cool Chromes -- More Cabs

Cool Chromes is a semi-regular feature where we dig out some old slides and run them through the scanner.

Norfolk Southern; Vaughn, Va.; July 29, 1987

A few weeks ago in Cool Chromes we looked at "cab" units -- the streamlined four-axle F-units and six-axle E-units from the Electro-Motive Division of General Motors (other locomotive manufacturers had their own versions of cab units). Today we'll look at a few more, starting with a trio of Southern Railway FP7s at Vaughn, Va., on July 29, 1987. FP7s took the four-axle concept, usually used on freight locomotives, and added features to make them more usable on passenger trains (primarily a steam generator for steam heat for the coaches) -- thus the "P" in FP7. The photo above shows the three Southern units (at this time employed by Southern successor Norfolk Southern) hauling a trip to the National Railway Historical Society convention in Roanoke. This trip departed Alexandria and headed across northern Virginia on the former Southern "B" Line between Manassas and Front Royal, where it  diverged onto the Norfolk & Western's Shenandoah Line down to Lynchburg. The position light signals give this away as being on the N&W.

Metro North; Roa Hook (Peekskill), N.Y.; August 22, 1992

Up next we have the oddball cab unit -- the five-axle FL9. Designed with two axles in the front and three in the back, it was originally intended for long-distance passenger service in the west where a large tank for water for steam heat would be needed. It was never used in that service, however, and instead found a home on the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad in short-distance passenger service. The New Haven made them dual mode locomotives, capable of operating as conventional diesels most of the time, but equally capable of operating as electric locomotives off of third rail for use into New York City's Grand Central Terminal. where diesel fumes were not wanted in the terminal or the long Park Avenue tunnel leading to it. The duo above is seen in service of New Haven successor Metro North on the former New York Central above Peekskill, N.Y., at a location known as Roa Hook. That's the Hudson River off to the right.

Canadian Pacific; Old Ottertail (Field), British Columbia; September 2000

Next we'll head north of the border to the Canadian Pacific. Here we have FP7s again, but this time we have an FP7A and an FP7B -- the "A" has a cab for the locomotive crew, while the "B" is a cabless booster unit (normally, the "A" is implied when referring to cab units and is often dropped from the model designations). This train is the Royal Canadian Pacific, a luxury train that carried about two dozen passengers who were pampered by about two dozen crew members as the train did a multi-day tour of the Rockies and Selkirks of western Canada. The RCP no longer runs, but the trainset is still used by CPR for business purposes. The train is seen here at a classic CPR location known as Old Ottertail near Field, British Columbia, in September 2000.

Erie 834; Hoboken, N.J.; June 1991

We finish off our look at cab units with a set that has appeared on this page before. We see "Erie 834" at Hoboken Terminal after pulling an excursion for the United Railroad Historical Society of New Jersey in June 1991. No. 834 is an E8, but it never worked for the Erie in real life (it actually worked for the New York Central); it was painted by the URHS in the Erie scheme as a tribute to a railroad that once served the Garden State. As such, it and sister 835 (actually a former Pennsylvania Railroad unit) were given the next highest numbers after the E8s that the Erie actually operated (833 was the highest).

Adirondack Weekend

Adirondack Scenic; McKeever, N.Y.; September 2, 2012

For Labor Day weekend I was invited up to the Adirondack Scenic Railroad to conduct a night photo session in conjuction with a railfan weekend and the 20th Anniversary celebration of the railroad. With events on Saturday and Sunday on the long weekend, I headed north from New Jersey on Thursday night.

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After getting a night shot at Susquehanna, Penn., of a New York, Susquehanna & Western freight under a massive coaling tower (a shot I detailed in this blog post) I continued my scheduled all-nighter by going up to Harpursville, N.Y., on the former Delaware & Hudson (now Canadian Pacific, but seeing a lot of Norfolk Southern traffic) and setting up my strobes for whatever came along crossing the bridge there. I had set up a little before midnight, and got an eastbound train a little later. There was another angle I wanted, so I kept the lights set up and fell asleep in the front seat of the car, hopeful that either a horn or a radio transmission would wake me up if anything else showed.

It was a radio transmission that got my attention. A train went through a defect detector just west of the bridge and I cleared my sleep cobwebs, grabbed my camera and ran out onto the parallel highway bridge. A couple of cars went by, probably wondering what I was doing in the dark with a camera pointed at the bridge. I soon heard the train blowing for the crossing just off the west end of the bridge and the train rumbled into the scene.

Norfolk Southern on Canadian National (D&H); Harpursville, N.Y.; August 31, 2012

It was only then that I noticed it was 5:30 a.m. and the sun was just beginning to brighten the eastern sky. There wouldn't be time for another train before daybreak, so I tore down the lights, got about another hour of sleep and headed north.

The plan was to spend the day on the Water Level Route of the former New York Central (now CSX Transportation). I had never been to Little Falls, N.Y., and did some exploring there, but wound up spending much of the day near Utica. The railroad was absolutely hopping, with trains running non-stop. As the day came to an end, I was on the platforms at the Utica Amtrak station getting trains in the last afternoon light before heading to the Adirondack Scenic at Thendara. Lodging would be Van Auken's Inn, directly across the street from the Thendara depot.

Amtrak; Utica, N.Y.; August 31, 2012

The next morning I watched the crews put the displays for the railfan weekend together and visited some of the displays at the depot (including a locomotive simulator, where I stalled a train in a snowstorm on a steep grade). The 20th Anniversary speeches occurred when the morning train from Utica arrived, then I rode first class from Thendara down to Otter Lake on the rear platform of a Baltimore & Ohio business car. At Otter Lake the two F-units powering the train ran around to the north end, putting them up against the rear platform for the return trip.

Adirondack Scenic; Otter Lake, N.Y.; September 1, 2012

Returning to Thedara, we found a rap group making a video on one of the railfan weekend display locomotives -- Mohawk, Adirondack & Northern M420W No. 2045. We watched with amusement as the group danced and recorded on the running boards of the locomotive, then had the rapper and part of his posse pose for a "railroad publicity shot."

Mohawk, Adirondack & Northern; Thendara, N.Y.; September 1, 2012

That evening we did several shots at the Thendara depot for the night photo session. Don Chaudruc, the mastermind behind the railfan weekend, posed in several of the shots at the classic ex-New York Central depot.

Adirondack Scenic; Thendara, N.Y.; September 1, 2012

On Sunday morning I took a drive through the busy tourist town of Old Forge, just up the street from Thendara. The sun was in and out, but I decided to drive down to McKeever to the bridge to photograph the morning train from Utica behind the railroad's freshly painted RS18s. It was cloudy when I walked into the bridge, but a large hole opened up at just the right time and I got a decent shot of the train in full sunlight (see the top photo in this entry). 

It was time to start heading back towards New Jersey, so I bid farewell to the great folks at the Adirondack Scenic and drove south (but only after another crack at the locomotive simulator -- this time I took an Amtrak train up the grade, topped the hill and promptly ran away down the opposite side at 80 m.p.h. until I wrecked). The Water Level Route was shut down to all freight because of a bridge replacement project near Albany, but Amtrak was getting through. Among the passenger trains I shot, I got the Lake Shore Limited passing eastbound through Amsterdam, N.Y.

Amtrak; Amsterdam, N.Y.; September 2, 2012

I had wanted to get over to Mechanicville and check out the restored railroad interlocking tower there. XO Tower at one time protected the crossing of the Boston & Maine and Delaware & Hudson; today it's Pan Am Railway and Canadian Pacific that pass by. Upon getting there, the sun wasn't quite where I expected -- it favored a northbound train, preferably on the D&H. I had about an hour I could wait, so the odds were against me seeing anything shootable -- but just as it was time to leave the northbound signal near the tower lit up and I was rewarded with a northbound CPR train, complete with a locomotive from CP component railroad Iowa, Chicago & Eastern in the lead.

Canadian Pacific; Mechanicville, N.Y.; September 2, 2012

From here it was time to head home. A quick stop at the new-ish station at Rensselaer revealed the platforms were off-limits to all but ticket holders, so I packed it in and headed back to the Garden State, wrapping up another adventure.

Land O' Corn - Part 5

This is Part 5 of what started out as a four-part entry on a trip to the Midwest to visit Kansas City and St. Louis before heading on to the convention of the National Railway Historical Society in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. However, the week of the NRHS Convention produced so many great photos that we gave it its own entry and made this a five-part story. In Part 1 we headed west towards Kansas City and in Part 2 we took a look around K.C. In Part 3 we spent a day in St. Louis and then headed up to Chicagoland. In Part 4 we attended the NRHS Convention in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. In this part we'll look at a few other highlights of rail activity in Iowa, then head home.

Union Pacific; Clarence, Iowa; June 17, 2012

After chasing the NRHS Convention inbound trip on June 17 and getting it at Geneva and Nelson, Ill., (see last post) and once again at Calamus, Iowa, we broke off the chase in favor of hanging out on the Union Pacific (ex-Chicago & North Western) main line. An eastbound stack train came out of the setting sun at Clarence, but it had a Distributed Power Unit (helper locomotive) on the rear which we shot passing the Land O' Lakes Feeds elevator in Clarence. From there we headed into Cedar Rapids to check in for the convention.

The first day of the NRHS Convention went to Mount Pleasant, Iowa, to visit the Midwest Central Railroad and the Midwest Electric Railway. Mount Pleasant is on the route served by Amtrak's California Zephyr and during a break in the action we headed to the station in town to shoot the CZ as it made its stop.

Amtrak; Mount Pleasant, Iowa; June 18, 2012

As the events in Mount Pleasant wound down, we (my brother Bruce, Mike Burkhart and Frank Ferguson) headed east to Burlington, Iowa, where we found a lot of other photographers who had left the NRHS Convention trip to do the same thing we were doing -- waiting for the westbound California Zephyr to come snaking through the old industrial buildings not far from the Mississippi River.

Amtrak; Burlington, Iowa; June 18, 2012

Tuesday, June 19, was a busy day at the Convention, and we spent all day with activities there. But on Wednesday, June 20, the NRHS trip was running against the sun for most of the day so we chose to head out and do regular service trains on the Union Pacific. One of several trains we got included an eastbound stack train passing the elevators at Norway, Iowa.

Union Pacific; Norway, Iowa; June 20, 2012

Canadian National; Cedar Rapids, Iowa

A busy schedule of meetings the next couple of days kept me close to Cedar Rapids for the next couple of days, but there was a lot to see. Various industrial areas, mostly revolving around Iowa's prime export of corn, are located in and around Cedar Rapids. Down by the waterfront, near the sprawling Quaker Oats plant, one can find Union Pacific, Canadian National and Iowa Northern working the yards there, while nearby the Cedar Rapids & Iowa City and Iowa Interstate also work. Of special interest was CN, which had an SD38-2 from the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern working the yard (the EJ&E was merged into CN in 2009). We caught the unit working near the power plant on June 21.

While the Quaker Oats plant is large, even larger is the Archer Daniels Midland plant just south of Cedar Rapids. Served by the Cedar Rapids & Iowa City (CRANDIC), the plant also boasts its own small fleet of switchers. Unfortunately, ADM is pretty much off-limits to anyone -- especially photographers -- but fortunately the elevated right-of-way of U.S. 30 provides a nice view over the fences. The early morning of June 22 found us on the shoulder of the Lincoln Highway getting the elusive shot.

Archer Daniels Midland; Cedar Rapids, Iowa; June 22, 2012

We noticed the Quaker Oats plant was nicely illuminated at night, with the lights reflecting off the Cedar River. This made for a nice diversion for a night shot. Rail access is from the bridge at the left.

Quaker Oats; Cedar Rapids, Iowa; June 22, 2012

And, of course, that EJ&E locomotive was still hanging around on Canadian National over in the CN yard. Hard to let an opportunity like that slip by, so a quick visit to the yard was in order.

Canadian National; Cedar Rapids, Iowa; June 22, 2012

The rest of the Convention didn't allow for any non-Convention shooting, and soon it was time to head home. After shooting the outbound Convention trip between Cedar Rapids and Chicago at Morrison, Ill., (photo in last installment) on June 25 we took a more leisurely pace home and paused at the Rochelle Railroad Park in Rochelle, Ill. The ex-Chicago & North Western crosses the ex-Chicago, Burlington & Quincy on a diamond in the middle of town, and the city has established a park for train watching, complete with a pavilion, rest rooms and gift shop. A Union Pacific westbound train passed the park on the ex-C&NW.

Union Pacific; Rochelle, Ill.; June 25, 2012

The gift shop has a screen with ATCS Monitor running, which allows viewers to see what the railroad dispatchers are seeing on their screens. Thus, it was easy to anticipate which railroad would be running a train over the diamonds next, allowing for easy movement between the two railroads. BNSF Railway provided action on the ex-CB&Q, including a westbound passing under Rochelle's (non-railroad) water tower.

BNSF Railway; Rochelle, Ill.; June 25, 2012

Upon leaving Rochelle, we bypassed downtown Chicago and instead headed for the suburbs on the Indiana side of the Windy City. Our next stop would be at the Hammond-Whiting Amtrak station in Hammond, Ind. Here, in addition to Amtrak, Norfolk Southern has a heavy presence. Thus, we were a bit surprised when Canadian Pacific came westward under the signal bridge in the late afternoon light.

Canadian Pacific; Hammond, Ind.; June 25, 2012

The final day of the trip was Tuesday, June 26. With 4000 miles under our belts, the last blast home would feature a quick look at Cleveland. Norfolk Southern has two lines through the city, both crossing the Cuyahoga River on lift bridges. Our first train of the day was on the former Nickel Plate Road just east of the Cuyahoga River. Cleveland's famed Terminal Tower at the left was the main train station for the city.

Norfolk Southern; Cleveland, Ohio; June 26, 2012

We tried to find a few other angles of the ex-Nickel Plate bridge, but new highway construction had made the area into a battle zone of sorts. We heard a westbound train on the radio, and found an overhead bridge to shoot from. The bridge had a high chain link fence, but there was a small concrete wall under the chain linking that you could stand on if you grabbed the chain link and hoisted yourself up (then used your elbows at the top of the fence to anchor yourself). As the train appeared, the four of us grabbed the chain link fence and lifted ourselves up onto the wall. When we turned around, a Cleveland city cop was standing there. Fortunately he was more amused than anything else.

Norfolk Southern; Cleveland, Ohio; June 26, 2012

We stuck around on the same bridge for one final shot of Cleveland's light rail, which runs parallel to the ex-Nickel Plate in many places. After getting the last shot, we got into the car and started the final ten-hour segment of the trip back to New Jersey. From Kansas City to St. Louis to Iowa to Cleveland, this was one ambitious trip that turned out pretty good! (Oh, and in five days we'd be back in the car for a trip to the Norfolk Southern heritage unit Family Portrait in Spencer, N.C., but that's our next story).

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