Viscose #6 in Cooperstown
A Double Play...for Doubleday?
Hah, well if not for him...for me at least. To those that are even casual students of our National Pastime will know the name Abner Doubleday and the town of Cooperstown. The latter is a quaint upstate New York village beside Otsego Lake that is home of the Baseball Hall of fame. The former is the alleged inventor of the game of baseball in that very town in 1839, hence the choice to locate the hall of fame here in 1937. And while most historians believe the Mills Commision's assertions about Doubleday and Cooperstown are nothing but fiction, the legend still sticks here.
But to railfans there is more than just baseball in Cooperstown. The Cooperstown & Charlotte Valley operates a heritage railroad and museum along the historic line of the same name first opened in 1869. The original road came under D&H ownership in 1903 and was operated as branch of that Class 1 for 67 years. The branch was sold to the Delaware Otsego Corp in 1970 and freight trains continued to operate into the mid 1980s along with excursion trains. The last freight ran in 1987 and the line was completely moribund until being sold to the Leatherstocking Chapter of the NRHS in 1996. Incidentally, despite selling the branch the Delaware Otsego Corp (parent company of the NYS&W) retained ownership of the passenger depot in Cooperstown where they still maintain their corporate headquarters despite having no rail operations in town.
Despite having been in existence as a tourist railroad for more than two decades I'd never visited the operation. But in a twist of good fortune I made a totally unplanned trip to Binghamton chasing an NS train on the old D&H the day prior to this photo. While out that evening with an old railroader/railfan friend he told me that the CACV just happened to be celebrating the 150th anniversary of the opening of their railroad the very next day.
Based out of the small town of Milford south of Cooperstown they had a full weekend of special events and extra trains. The highlight of the event was the first steam locomotive to traverse these rails since the 1970s and included a bit of rare mileage almost into downtown Cooperstown.
Viscose Company #6 is an 0-4-0 saddle tank loco built by Baldwin in 1924. Originally assigned to the American Viscose Company plant in Roanoke, VA she was sold for scrap in the early 1960s. Never cut up she languished for decades in the yard of Gem City Iron & Metal Company in Pulaski, VA. Purchased by Scott Symans of Dunkirk, NY in 2004 and restored over the next three years she now travels by truck to shortlines and tourist railroads all over the country that do not have steam locomotives of their own.
She weighs 60,000 lbs and has a 17,360 lb tractive effort.
Here she is just starting to pull south from her photo op at the Cooperstown village welcome sign just north of here at Chestnut St. / Route 28 crossing.. This little bit is rare mileage as the normal northern limits of CACV operations is the runaround track a half mile south of this point and this crossing is clearly out of service and marked exempt.
So there you have it...a double hit of rare mileage and rare steam...and all totally unplanned!
Cooperstown, New York
Saturday July 13, 2019
Viscose #6 in Cooperstown
A Double Play...for Doubleday?
Hah, well if not for him...for me at least. To those that are even casual students of our National Pastime will know the name Abner Doubleday and the town of Cooperstown. The latter is a quaint upstate New York village beside Otsego Lake that is home of the Baseball Hall of fame. The former is the alleged inventor of the game of baseball in that very town in 1839, hence the choice to locate the hall of fame here in 1937. And while most historians believe the Mills Commision's assertions about Doubleday and Cooperstown are nothing but fiction, the legend still sticks here.
But to railfans there is more than just baseball in Cooperstown. The Cooperstown & Charlotte Valley operates a heritage railroad and museum along the historic line of the same name first opened in 1869. The original road came under D&H ownership in 1903 and was operated as branch of that Class 1 for 67 years. The branch was sold to the Delaware Otsego Corp in 1970 and freight trains continued to operate into the mid 1980s along with excursion trains. The last freight ran in 1987 and the line was completely moribund until being sold to the Leatherstocking Chapter of the NRHS in 1996. Incidentally, despite selling the branch the Delaware Otsego Corp (parent company of the NYS&W) retained ownership of the passenger depot in Cooperstown where they still maintain their corporate headquarters despite having no rail operations in town.
Despite having been in existence as a tourist railroad for more than two decades I'd never visited the operation. But in a twist of good fortune I made a totally unplanned trip to Binghamton chasing an NS train on the old D&H the day prior to this photo. While out that evening with an old railroader/railfan friend he told me that the CACV just happened to be celebrating the 150th anniversary of the opening of their railroad the very next day.
Based out of the small town of Milford south of Cooperstown they had a full weekend of special events and extra trains. The highlight of the event was the first steam locomotive to traverse these rails since the 1970s and included a bit of rare mileage almost into downtown Cooperstown.
Viscose Company #6 is an 0-4-0 saddle tank loco built by Baldwin in 1924. Originally assigned to the American Viscose Company plant in Roanoke, VA she was sold for scrap in the early 1960s. Never cut up she languished for decades in the yard of Gem City Iron & Metal Company in Pulaski, VA. Purchased by Scott Symans of Dunkirk, NY in 2004 and restored over the next three years she now travels by truck to shortlines and tourist railroads all over the country that do not have steam locomotives of their own.
She weighs 60,000 lbs and has a 17,360 lb tractive effort.
Here she is just starting to pull south from her photo op at the Cooperstown village welcome sign just north of here at Chestnut St. / Route 28 crossing.. This little bit is rare mileage as the normal northern limits of CACV operations is the runaround track a half mile south of this point and this crossing is clearly out of service and marked exempt.
So there you have it...a double hit of rare mileage and rare steam...and all totally unplanned!
Cooperstown, New York
Saturday July 13, 2019