EMD End Cab Switchers (No 30/60)
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ILSX 1378 stands ready to spot 50 loaded cars at the Hansen Mueller Elevator M in the East End of Superior. This former Boston and Maine SW1, sporting a monster of an RS5T, is rarely seen outside of the elevator.
An overview of Lehigh Valley’s Bethlehem Engine Terminal reveals a variety of power in various states of readiness. As an SW1 leaves the turntable and heads out to work, two RS-11’s are on one of the turntable tracks, and the cab of an RS-3 can be seen in the servicing area. Farther out on the servicing tracks, a set of C420’s is being reconfigured, while a Reading/B&O power set is on the ready track. This power came in on train NE-84, and will take NE-87 to Potomac Yard after it arrives in the Lehigh Valley.
After a career switching coaches for Amtrak, this SW1 ended up on the Anthracite Railway, pulling freight on the former Reading Perkiomen Branch. For one day, it was promoted to passenger duty for excursions between Pennsburg and Dillinger tunnel.
The ex-Delaware & Hudson RS3 4118 is gone, and the Anthracite Railway 1986 excursion are in the charge of an ex-Amtrak SW1. The train is seen crossing the trestle over the Hosensack Creek in Palm, Pennsylvania.
The 1986 edition of the Anthracite Railway’s Pennsburg – Dillingersville Tunnel excursion featured one of the road’s ex-Amtrak SW1’s for power. The train is seen here arriving at Pennsburg.
Two fresh-looking Boston and Maine EMD SW1’s are idle for the weekend at Lowell, Massachusetts. B&M 1118, with its early-style curved windows, was built in 1949, while later-version 1132 was produced four years later.
The Black River & Western Railway's excursion train is departing Flemington Station with Pennsylvania Railroad SW1 no. 9206 leading, as seen through the flowering trees near the station.
In a small town deep in the woods of Georgia exists a nearly-pristine ex-Southern Railway EMD SW1 in its Tuxedo black livery. The engine was built in LaGrange in 1950 for the Georgia and Florida Railway which was acquired by Southern in the 1960s. It was leased to the Louisville and Wadley, a local shortline operator, in the 1980s. Although the L&W operates a modest railcar business, the railroad itself hasn't turned a wheel in decades, and SOU #1004 has been left to rot in the weeds.
A trainload of satisfied passengers heads to their cars while the Anthracite Railway’s SW1 runs around its train.
Austere is the word to describe Conrail’s minimalist effort to patch this ex-Lehigh Valley SW1. All LV markings have been painted over, but there is no evidence that this is a Conrail engine anywhere. The number boards do carry the Conrail number 8415. The train is entering the small yard between JU and Steel Tower in Bethlehem. Judging by the short consist and the presence of a caboose, I would guess that the train is returning from the former CNJ Minsi Trail Branch, renamed the Preemansburg Industrial Track when the Lehigh Valley assumed operations in 1972.
Since moving to DC a year and a half ago, I've tried to find a way to shoot Amtrak 737, the 1941-built SW1 that is still used as a switcher in the Washington Terminal. These switchers can be rather elusive as they often do not stray from the Ivy City maintenance complex at all. Finally, this weekend I found it while waiting for CSX traffic at the 9th Street overpass. Those Acela sets in the background are almost 60 years newer than this former NYC unit.
Cargill SW1 No. 6751 was built in September 1940 by EMD as Baltimore & Ohio No. 213. It would later serve as an industrial switch engine for Arco Petroleum in Carson California.
By 1993, it moved to Utah where it shuffled covered hoppers at the Cargill elevator complex in West Ogden, Utah.
In April 2011, 6751 was replaced by a Trackmobile, and was donated by to the Utah State Railroad Museum at Ogden Union Station.
A good end to the day was nailing Southeast Farmer's Co-op's SW-1, originally C&NW, same number, and one of the last SW1's built, in 1953. How many rolls of K-25 would you have shot on this unit?
Excursions on the former Reading Perkiomen Branch between Emmaus and Pennsburg, Pennsylvania have been operated by three different railroads since the line was spun off by Conrail in the 1980’s. The first of these three was the Anthracite Railway, succeeded by the Blue Mountain & Reading, and then the East Penn. Here ATRW SW1 735, still wearing its Amtrak paint, leads a Pennsburg – Dillinger Tunnel trip through Zionsville.
Pennsylvania Railroad SW1 no. 9206 is seen running around its train at Flemington Station, pulling Black River & Western excursions for the day. In the background, the tower of the Liberty Village outlet mall still stands tall, though the complex is closed and demolition has begun. The site of the country's first outdoor outlet mall will be redeveloped into residential townhouses.
This replaces an earlier posting: a Rock Island SW1 (537) heads an eastbound local over Santa Fe Ave. In a little more than three years I'd work for two months as a switchman out of Harter Yard, to which this crew is probably headed to tie up. We had two jobs that headed west out of Harter in the morning, went by here and past Union Station, and then worked industries to the west of downtown OKC. The "West Yard" headed into an area that contained spurs off of what must have been the Rock's original mainline through OKC, before Union Station was built in 1931. The "OK Rail" went further west and then switched into a spur that went north to NW39th Street, and then headed east along 39th to industries including a lumber yard. I never asked about the origin of the name "OK Rail", but it appears from what I can find that those tracks were along the remains of the Oklahoma Railway, an interurban that had a pretty extensive reach in central Oklahoma into the '30s. And that nifty little Nash "Rambler" was an attempt by the Kenosha (Wisconsin) based auto manufacturer to break into - or more likely to INVENT - the compact car market. I believe this is about a 1950-model, and like many other older cars down there it was in great shape - no road salt in use.
In a view from the Polk Street overpass, Conrail EMD SW1 No. 8429 rattles through trackage approaching Chicago Union Station in May 1983. The elderly locomotive was built for New York Central in May 1949.
In the day’s last light, Anthracite Railway SW1 55 spots the one car that it has brought from the Conrail interchange at Pottstown on a siding in Boyertown, Pennsylvania. The switcher began life as PRR 9396, later becoming PC/Conrail 8556. The ATRW, not associated with the Anthracite Railroads Historical Society, shared common ownership with the Octoraro Railway. ATRW operated the former Pottstown & Colebrookdale Branch Pottstown – Boyertown, PA) and the upper end of the Perkiomen Branch (Emmaus – Red Hill, PA) when they were first spun off by Conrail. Today this line is the tourist hauler Colebrookdale Railroad.
Faded, and with yellow safety paint added to the handrails and journal box covers, this Reading SW1 looks otherwise the same as when it rolled out of LaGrange in 1941. It survived as one of the older members of the Conrail roster, but that distinction didn’t last for long. The prewar switcher is in the Altoona dead line on the second anniversary of Reading Company’s last day of existence.
The Pocono Northeast Railway served the Wyoming Valley in Pennsylvania from 1982 until 1994. Here two EMD switchers (an SW1 and an NW2) obtained from Conrail wait for Monday in the former Lehigh Valley Coxton yard.
SW1 has transferred to Garston for a 6-week trial; presumably its performance will affect what is ordered for the new 340 contract in September.
As you can see, it features the new-style blind design with redesigned fonts.
Arriva London,
Wright Streetdeck,
SW1, LK64DVV,
Route 258, South Harrow Station.
Milw SW1 on Durand branch. This was a weekend where the C&E wanted the day off. The Brakie,a good throttle man and went on to a long career in eng service,arranged this. So he and two of us off duty BN dispatchers ran the Durand job that day. Switched it in reasonable time too. All on the QT of course. Only the names were changed to protect the innocent. No way today.