Grassroots Railroad Sports?

Original steam on the New York, Susquehanna & Western. Long before Walter Rich turned the NYS&W into a scrappy regional railroad that operated in three states and took on Conrail and won, the NYS&W was a weird red-headed stepchild subsidiary shortline of the Erie Railroad. The Erie foisted off a handful of their unloved Russian Decapods on the NYS&W and would lease them Ten-Wheelers and the rare Pacific. One of the NYS&W Decapods actually pulled the last passenger train to arrive in Sussex, New Jersey, although this may say more for the state of West Jersey passenger service than for any inherent qualities of these 52"-drivered 2-10-0. The #2484 is shown with a freight train at Pompton Lakes, NJ in December of 1940. The #2484 and her sisters' days are numbered: the NYS&W began guying Alco RS-1s in 1940 and was fully dieselized by 1945.

The #2484 with a eastbound 27-car freight train at a location west of Butler, NJ on November 25th, 1940. I've heard that the NYS&W actually had at least one of these Decapods set aside for preservation, but then decided to scrap it because the railroad was in need of the money. 

NYS&W #2435 near Hanford, NY with an honest-to-god mixed train. There's a single combination coach-RPO cut in behind the tender

NYS&W #2495 flying white flags and blasting a volcanic plume as it heads west through Green Pond Junction.

Leased Erie Railroad 4-6-0 #972 handling commuter service on the NYS&W, trailing those classic Erie arched-window, clerestory roof passenger cars at Ridgefield Park, NJ on June 21st, 1941. Commuter runs were so financially ruinous for the NYS&W, and pretty much every other railroad that operated in NJ, that in the '60s, the NYS&W offered $1000 to every commuter to stop using their trains in hopes of killing off service enough that the ICC would allow them to abandon the service. The NYS&W got it's wish in 1966 and passenger service came to an end.

The #2443 is shown at North Hawthorne, NJ in July of 1940. The #2443 was not permanently assigned to the NYS&W, as it is still wearing Erie lettering on the tender, but was likely either additional power for a traffic rush or put in service because the usual NYS&W Decapods are undergoing maintenance.

Erie Railroad 2-10-0 #2492 leading an eastbound NYS&W freight at Blairstown, NJ.

The western end of the original NYS&W tracks, from Sparta Junction to Hainesburg Junction, was originally supposed to be preserved as well. After the Lehigh & New England was abandoned there was little reason to keep this line, since that interchange with the L&NE was it's main traffic source. There was a trickle of online customers that continued to be served until the line was abandoned in August of 1962. There was an offer to buy this line by some of the people who eventually founded the Black River & Western. Their plan for the 26 miles of the NYS&W was steam tourist trains and remaining a common carrier for the existing customers. Unfortunately, the City of Newark made a superior offer for the right of way with the plan to use it for a pipeline to bring water from the massive project to dam the Delaware River at Tocks Island. The controversial Tocks Island Dam never happened and today the NYS&W west of Sparta Jct. is the Paulenskill Valley Trail.

That abandonment resulted in the NYS&W basically retreating entirely into NJ and becoming little more than a switching railroad. In 1976, the NYS&W went bankrupt and te bankruptcy court ordered that the railroad be abandoned and its assets sold. By then, the NYS&W was down to a 43-mile line from Croxton  and Edgewater through Paterson to Butler. The State of New Jersey, aware of Walter Rich and his Delaware-Otsego Corporation's reputation at rehabilitating short lines, asked them to take over the railroad. Walter Rich grew the railroad into the 400-mile Class III regional that it is today.

A fascinating bit of film looking at the wild crossing in Griffith, Indiana. A lot of interesting equipment; the EJ&E's big EMD-swapped centercab Baldwins, an EJ&E weed sprayer train with an RS-3, C&O SD18s which used Alco Tri-Mount trucks from trade-in RSD-5s, Erie-Lackawanna E-units on a passenger train.

A builder's photo of Elgin, Joliet & Eastern #100, the very first Baldwin DT-6-6-2000 transfer locomotive that Baldwin built. This photo were actually attached to a letter sent to the C&NW's chief mechanical officer by Baldwin in hopes of drumming up a sale. The C&NW, usually pretty adventurous in their motive power purchases, showed no real enthusiasm towards the big 2000hp, 6-axle centercab and passed. The #100 was unique in that it used two 608NA naturally-aspirated inline-8 De La Vergne engines and lacked walkways arond the ends of the locomotives. All later DT-6-6-2000s used a pair of the 606SC turbocharged, inline-6 engines, and due to the shorter engine length they were able to add walkways around the ends. While the EJ&E rebuilt their later DT-6-6-2000s to have EMD powerplants, the #100 stayed Baldwin-powered until it's retirement.

One of the later DT-6-6-2000s after being repowered with EMD 567s. Due to the fact that the De La Vergne engines were inline 6s and the EMD 567s were V12s, the hoods had to be widened, resulting in them having the angled lower edge where they met the frame and relocating the handrails outside the frame on angled stanchions. The radiators were also moved to the ends, with an EMD SW7-style grille shell and headlamp, and the tops of the hoods where they met the cab were also angled up. The repower added its own set off issues though. The old De La Vergne inline-6s made their horsepower at a much lower RPM than the EMD V12s, and a compromise had to be found between not overspeeding the bearings in the Westinghouse generators and not damaging the EMD engines by loading them at too low of a speed. The long frames of the DT-6-6-2000s were also known to have issues with cracking, and the twin 567 V12s only made it worse. Late in their lives, wherever the frame cracked, the EJ&E would set the locomotive out and torch it on the spot. By that point, their outdated air brake systems and lack of dynamic braking was starting to cause the EJ&E to look at retiring them. Not one to throw good parts away, the fairly new EMD engines were pulled and installed in secondhand switchers that the railroad had rebuilt.

Rolling past the depot at Griffith and about to rattle over the crossings. Nice '60 Chevy on the right.

Two of the EMD-repowered Baldwins at Griffith. The lead machine is in the earlier orange and green, while the second unit is in the simplified solid orange.

In reply to Appleseed :

That looks suspiciously like a bathtub Packard.

Taken in July of 1976, the #921 is the last man standing, soon to be retired itself. During the repowering process, the 606SC engines were actually reused, being installed in older Baldwin VO-1000s that the EJ&E had on their roster, replacing the 608NAs that the VO-1000s came with. 

EJ&E sharknosed DR-4-4-1500s #700A and #700B at Griffith, Indiana. Photo date says it was taken January of 1970, but that can't be right, because they were gone from The J by 1955, after just 5 years of service. For a railroad that was largely a switching railroad, carbody units didn't make much sense. The #700A and #700B, and sister units #700C and #700D, were the demonstrator sets for the revamped and restyled DR-4-4-1500s. After the poor sales and public derision of the Babyface styling, Baldwin took the custom sharknose styling that they had applied to the PRR's customer-ordered DR-6-4-2000s and applied it to the smaller, single-engined, 4-axle DR-4-4-1500. The EJ&E bought the four demonstrator units, while PRR ordered 34 of the production models. No one else ordered any, although it may have generated some of the interest in the RF-16 that replaced the DR-4-4-1500s. The EJ&E kept the two A-units and 2 B-units just 5 years before they booted them off the property. Baltimore & Ohio bought them and they joined the B&O's fleet of 31 RF-16s. Presumably if they had hung around on the EJ&E, they would have had their 608A powerplants replaced with EMD 567s.

As a kid I used to view the Baldwin center cabs switching the Wabash at Brisbane (IL).

IRM has the last of the big transfer locomotives, Minneapolis, Northfield & Southern #21, a Baldwin DT-6-6-2000. None of the Lima-Hamilton LT-2500 or Baldwin RT-624s escaped the torch. From what I understand, MN&S #21 is technically operational but has some issues with the air brakes that need attention, so it only makes very rare appearances.

Just a straight line across the face of a planet .......

In reply to 914Driver:

I'm going to guess Alberta?

Early Geeps belonging to the Grand Trunk Western hammer across the diamonds at Griffith.

A pretty rare catch even in 1972, an operating Baldwin and an operating Fairbanks-Morse in the same frame. I'm reminded of a tale from a guy who said he went on some railfan trip in the '70s that was supposed to hit every Baldwin holdout in a 4-state area, and years later he realized that not once, at any of the stops the trip made, did they actually see an operational Baldwin. That's MN&S DT-6-6-2000 #21 dragging a coal train into Glenwood Junction at Golden Valley, MN, while H12-44 #10 is working the yard. The rear angle of those Fairbanks-Morse end-cab switchers is fascinating with the multitude of rear windows and the big awning hanging out over the back of the cab.

A profile shot of DT-6-6-2000 #23, showing just how big these damn things were.