Here is a trip I've been trying to write up for weeks. I'll put the
pictures in place and then add the writing as time allows. The new Blogger software for uploading photos is a pain in the butt in some ways and a joy in others. It will be
a long string of photos with the writing in draft form for a while...
I started out for this particular "April Vacation" adventure on a Wednesday afternoon, intending to stop in Rutland, VT on the way to Altoona. I thought I'd check out the Connecticut River valley to see what had changed since my last visit in the 1990's.
A stop in St. Johnsbury reveals a new paint job on the yard office since the CP Rail days. Cleaner track too.
The scene looking north hasn't changed much in decades. Of course it's nice that the trackwork has been cleaned up considerably.
The trip south along Rt. 5 yielded a southbound Washington County train of considerable size. This was after about 4:30pm on a Thursday in case it's a normal time. I caught a chirp of the F.R.E.D. well south of the Passumpsic RR in Barnet.
I finally got ahead of the train at South Bradford. Open places along the track are few along the river so I got quite far ahead of the slow train.
I was quite pleased with the results of the long wait. The train was led by a Clarendon and Pittsford unit. That made it my first shot of anything from that end of the system. A WACR unit would have been better but this was a good second place catch for me. The last time I saw the trailing unit was many years ago headed for Bennington and it was pure gray primer then.
Thursday morning started with a quick recon of the Rutland area and then I was off to do the same thing in Whitehall and Saratoga. Nothing of note to place here but I did see a lot of fossils. The first train I was able to stop and photograph was near Sayre, PA. A local was sitting behind an Italian restaurant done up in a depot motif. Several cars and cabooses decorated the place.
I took Rt. 220 south to Tyrone. I followed some tracks here and there and found the end of the shortline south of Corning. But again nothing of note. The same was true for Williamsport and Lock Haven. Lots of tracks around but I wouldn't know where to start looking for trains. I made my phone calls when I arrived at Tyrone. I was in a lull of course but I did hear that something was near. I got this Maersk shot before the light gave out.
On Friday morning I was enjoying the usual Tunnel Inn hospitality on the deck when I made the snap decision to photograph a helper going by. The "throw down" camera took too long to focus but I got a shot of my lonely car sitting in the Inn parking lot next to the bridge. I was the only one home too. I needed to meet "The Guide" and "The Fidder" in Altoona, so I couldn't hang around to do better.
We got a little surprise when we got to the station. We would have gone over there anyway but a 'heads up' from the Fiddler gave it some urgency. I'd seen on Facebook that the last UP genset to be built at Juniata was ready. I'd also seen that the PRR heritage unit was ready too. Imagine our surprise when we saw both sitting ready to depart at the head end of 11A. We were able to take our time with photos and then head up the line to Brickyard crossing for a few more. Of course these things don't stay very quiet so there were plenty of other fans around for this occasion. Brickyard proved to be well lit at this early hour and the train was full of unusual cars.
We the 25Z as we arrived but as you can see, shiny new units got all of the attention.
With that excitement behind us we skipped ahead to Cresson and over to Lilly. We weren't going to see heritage units again but we caught other things. We caught a helper set heading west before this Baltimore bound 13M "bare tables" train rounded the bend. They looked good under the old signals on the west end of Lilly. The second unit is one of a group of former UP SD60's which will be rebuilt and used by NS. You can see that it's already received an NS "patch" on the cab.
Our next stop was CP W near South Fork. This is where there used to be a "fly over" for trains to enter and depart the South Fork Secondary. Now it's just the end of a siding. We saw helper sets pass and 10G came into the great light. We also caught 22W down the road at South Fork itself. From there "the Guide" surmised that we could catch west bound 65D "oil train" at the Jamestown bridge. This train usually had BNSF power and this guy didn't disappoint. We actually packed up to leave and along came an empty PPLX Shamokin coal train 641. At this point on the line you can see a spur heading off to the right. We could hear activity which turned out to be machinery near a coal loadout. It also turned out that there were some SD80MAC's loading a string of cars at Sonman's Tipple, but they weren't what we heard at the bridge. They weren't very accessible for photos but we could see them.
As usual a stop at Cassandra at the right time of day can be very busy. We saw 12 trains in 2 hours and several were meets. I think the two trains in the left photo are 26T and empty 861.
Here we see 947 "Roving Track Gang" with it's flat cars of equipment. Among the others we have eb ethanol 66Q.
We eventually found a break in the action so we could head east toward Altoona. We stopped for some wb's at the Rt. 53 bridge. 21M came by quickly and I later took the opportunity to try working with the old signal bridge for 23M.
We decided to catch Amtrak someplace unusual so we headed to Gallitzin for a tunnel shot. It also gave me a chance to drop by my room for a minute. We pretty much headed to Altoona after this shot. A swing by Slope and Brickyard gave us a chance to see 64J and 13G. We had dinner at a good Italian restaurant down by the Juniata shops and called it a night. "The Fiddler" had to return home at this point.
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| A P&W auto rack sneaks by. |
Saturday was overcast but not bad until later in the day. We started out by going right to Carney's Crossing west of Cresson. Unfortunately, I don't know what happened to my carefully typed up train log for the day. (Argh!)
I recall that we caught this first westbound and then stayed around for Amtrak. While we waited we had another pair of westbound trains. An intermodal on the middle track overtook the freight on track 3.
All this while we were waiting on the nearby Amtrak. Luckily they cleared the scene first. I had time to switch to the other side of the tracks to catch it on the curve. We would have seen Amtrak on track one but it would have been pretty crowded.
Our next stop was Portage. We pulled down in front of a small factory and waited for this eastbound ethanol train. We set up in front of the signals just as it started to rain. I managed to catch a decent shot of the helpers from the many poor ones I took.
Back at South Fork, a few trains were sneaking through. I wanted to try this angle from in town behind the convenience store. We headed to Summerhill after this. The rain was playing with us so we decided to sit under the bridge for westbounds. Naturally the first thing we get is a pair of eastbounds, but the rain had some mercy on us. We thought we had a eastbound near with time enough to head to the stone arch bridge. It turned out to be helpers but they were on the bridge. Thank heavens the leaves were not full yet.
Back to Summerhill for a variety of trains and helpers.
I found this grain train to be fairly photogenic.
Back to South Fork too for some rainy action.
Once we had seen all there is to see in Bartlett we head back to North Conway for a closer look at the Conway Scenic Ry. Along the way we see evidence of ballasting and track work going on up to the Notch. We would see more of this later in the day. We arrive at the depot as a Bartlett train is leaving with the 573 in the lead. This worked out well as it cleared the tracks to view the equipment scattered around. Here we see the former MEC GP38 traded from Pan Am and restored by the Waterville shop. Those people know how to paint a locomotive when they are allowed to. This guy is sharp in every exterior detail. The MEC style paint job is fantastic. No where do you see shoddy paint work sprayed over rough surfaces, rust or excess layers of old paint. Hopefully the interior is decent too. This and a high hood GP35 were traded to Pan Am for two former Canadian FP-9's. The other unit is also in MEC paint and seen in the yard.
Farther down the track by the roundhouse I had to grab this marginal shot of the restored former B&M F unit at the turntable. This is a recent restoration from what I understand. A sister unit is getting some cosmetic attention and may join up as some form of "dummy" unit. A bit farther back was this wooden flanger car. A car just like this one was parked at South Paris, ME on the Grand Trunk for years. It was the same color and lettered for Central Vermont. If I recall correctly, I saw both cars at the same time in the 1970's, so they are identical but not the very same.
Without much additional walking we came across this neat pair of BAR cars that I've recently acquired for my N scale empire. I was now familiar enough with the details to appreciate the features of these unusual cars. The tri-color Magor cars were unusual for their charcoal heaters and special vents. I had to photograph those details. The heater detail is here. I felt compelled to include the plate above the heater that denotes ownership. I took several other photos of the details but this really isn't the place for those things. They'll probably end up in another post where I compare them to my N scale replicas.
Though the orange reefer isn't that unique, the detail for the fan battery, drain spout and paint job are included here. 
I don't know why but I never noticed the swiveling downspouts that drained the melting ice inside the reefer. This was probably a common sight before mechanical reefers took over. The accessories for the electric fans inside the car were something I hadn't noticed before either.
From Conway we headed over the Kancamagus Highway to Lincoln to visit the Hobo RR. I knew they worked on and stored unusual railroad items we might see from their parking area. We were not disappointed. I had hoped we'd see the New Haven's Roger Williams train set. The two ends and one middle car were present as you can see here. The trailing parts were visible but not easy to photograph. I also took the opportunity to photograph the odds and ends in the area.
These two cabeese are quite obviously of Boston and Maine origin. The blue one is obvious but the other wild one from the MBTA is probably less obvious.
Former MEC and PT Alco's were prominent. Looking toward the shop we see a McGuiness painted RDC and the other end of the Roger Williams. Behind the cabooses we see a former Santa Fe car from the El Capitain. 
Here are the two Alco switchers. 958 was a former Maine Central switcher I've actually seen in operation in Auburn back in the 1970's. It went to the Maine Coast where a group of us actually witnessed it leave Brunswick for this destination. The other unit is a former Portland Terminal unit. I don't know if I'd seen it before or not. Alco's are just cool regardless.
I'm not entirely sure that this is a former New Haven RDC because of the Reading RR style drip edge under the headlight, but anything with the McGuiness NH logo gets my attention. I took the opportunity to photograph the depot too.
On the way out of the parking lot you pass through a mini-golf course that a wye cuts through. A former MBTA Geep was parked there. As it turns out it started life on the Northern Pacific and was picked up from the Burlington Northern. The MBTA gave it this B&M heritage paint job and added the Minute Man logos. They also dedicated the unit to a retiring engineer who operated it. Luckily it was picked up by the Hobo when it was retired. Only the railroad names have changed since then.
St. Johnsbury was now close enough that we could take a detour. Who knows if we might encounter the Washington County RR but we could scout the Passumpsic Ry anyway. We headed to Barnett first. This little line is a curiosity. There is almost no signage, no obvious parking area or even a good place to pull off the road. There's just a collection of railroad stuff next to Rt. 5.
A string of cars through St. J and little other activity wasn't very welcoming. We drove around to see what the WACR was up to and found little. I took a couple of shots of the remnants of the Mountain Division. This one useable shot is on the edge of town behind the maple syrup plant. As you can see the state of Vermont doesn't do much about trees on the right of way.
Over Rt. 2 to Lancaster and over to Whitefield to see what's left of the famous ball signal. Now that the Berlin line is pulled up and the old Mountain Division is idle, not much happens here anymore. I think it is still in place because of its potential. It does connect to the other junctions that in turn connect the all but idle NHVT to the SLR at Groveton. This means the Conway Scenic has an outlet to the rest of the world. It also means restoration of the Mountain Division is still possible. 
