Working Riverside
A month since my last visit Vermont Railway has been continuing to use ancient Green Mountain Railroad Alco RS1 405 in daily freight service on the Bellows Falls switcher assignment (train DASW). For decades this unit has almost exclusively been used only for service on the VRS' passenger seasonal excursion trains and perhaps would see use on revenue freights once or twice a year at most. What is even more special is that this unit is very much on home rails having been built for the Rutland in November 1951. So that means she is approaching her 71st birthday in a few months and has never left the Green Mountain state!
So any time she's used for revenue service is special, and I'm hard pressed to think of anywhere else in the country an RS1 is used to haul freight anymore. For these reasons, I figured I should make the nearly 3 hr trip north to see her again!
Here she is going about her switching chores in the small yard as seen in this low angle view looking east from the Steamtown Road crossing at MP B2.5 on modern day VRS' Falls Running Track of the Bellows Falls Subdivision, the one time Rutland Railway Green Mountain mainline.
Rockingham, Vermont
Friday September 16, 2022
Working Riverside
A month since my last visit Vermont Railway has been continuing to use ancient Green Mountain Railroad Alco RS1 405 in daily freight service on the Bellows Falls switcher assignment (train DASW). For decades this unit has almost exclusively been used only for service on the VRS' passenger seasonal excursion trains and perhaps would see use on revenue freights once or twice a year at most. What is even more special is that this unit is very much on home rails having been built for the Rutland in November 1951. So that means she is approaching her 71st birthday in a few months and has never left the Green Mountain state!
So any time she's used for revenue service is special, and I'm hard pressed to think of anywhere else in the country an RS1 is used to haul freight anymore. For these reasons, I figured I should make the nearly 3 hr trip north to see her again!
Here she is going about her switching chores in the small yard as seen in this low angle view looking east from the Steamtown Road crossing at MP B2.5 on modern day VRS' Falls Running Track of the Bellows Falls Subdivision, the one time Rutland Railway Green Mountain mainline.
Rockingham, Vermont
Friday September 16, 2022