Most of our members can identify two people in this photo and a possible third. The fourth is a resident of this location. Name the location, town and state.
Photo forwarded by: Gary Ostlund.
Photo submitted by: Rick Bivins.
Year: 2017
Greetings fellow NRHS members, and here we find ourselves at the beginning of October! September was a good month for our group, we had an excellent September meeting at Bill and Angela Thomas’ home with hotdogs on the grill, Gauge One trains in the garden and a good time had by all. September also saw our annual outing to Crofton Kentucky trackside at the Veterans Park with a good day of train watching, food on the grill thanks to Bill Ferrall, fellowship and more trains. What could be better?
As I commented a month prior, October is our annual call for officers. In November we will hold elections for the upcoming 2018 calendar year. If you have an officer candidate in mind or if you would like to hold an office yourself, speak up at this meeting and get your name on the “official ballot”!
I look forward to a report from our Christmas show committee this meeting. We need to get the ball rolling on this. Last year we had an enjoyable time at the Parkway Plaza Mall with the modular layout as well as the other events we had. As I understand Bill and his gang have a bang up event planned for the 2017 Christmas season!
It has been discussed at several previous meetings that our group go on some sort of outing. Fall is a great time for this although a busy time for many. If you have a trip in mind be it long distance, short distance or what ever, by all means speak up. We need to become more vocal about this.
We should have several other items of business this month that we will touch on quickly in the business meeting. If you have other thoughts or ideas bring them forward, we will discuss them of course. Meanwhile, make plans to be at the meeting on Monday, October 16, 2017 and bring a guest, bring a show-n-tell item and bring a raffle item. I hope to see you there.
On October 8, 2017 Coopersville & Marne’s Great Pumpkin Train departs Coopersville, MI, behind SW9 7014. Coopersville – a northwest suburb of Grand Rapids – is the hometown of Del Shannon, whose hit “Runaway” propelled him to fame in 1961. Photo by Chris Dees.
What’s In A Number? 3985… 765… 611… while simple numbers have a different meaning to different people, for railfans a number can be magical. Although not living the fabulous life of some of her sisters in the realm of railroad history, former Canadian National 1395 is seen on October 8, 2017 at Coopersville, MI awaiting one of two fates… rust & scrapping, or perhaps restoration one of these days. The locomotive is part of the Coopersville & Marne Railway’s museum collection. Both photos by Chris Dees.
Go North Young Man – Great Lakes Central GP38-2 number 395 prepares to depart on the advertised with The Northern Arrow excursion train between Kalkaska and Petoskey, Michigan on October 8, 2017. Sister GP38-2 390 is on the other end to facilitate the return trip. Although rainy and overcast, passengers enjoyed the beautiful fall colors of the northern Lower Peninsula on the day long event. Photo by Chris Dees
Blazing New Trails – Marquette Rail GP38-2 2040 and sister 2044 get ready to depart Ludington, MI on October 8, 2017 with the Baldwin Blazer. Enroute, they will pick up cars from Manistee at Walhalla, MI before proceeding east. At Baldwin, it will meet with the Sparta-Baldwin road freight powered by SD40-2 3389. Marquette Rail is now a subsidiary of Genesee & Wyoming’s Orange Empire. Photo by Chris Dees
Former Tuscola & Saginaw Bay RS1 number 2394 rusts away at Coopersville & Marne Railway on October 8, 2017. The former “Corkpine Express” began her career in 1951 for the Rutland Railroad. Photo by Chris Dees
The 2018 NRHS convention will be held Tuesday-Sunday, Aug. 7-12, with headquarters in Cumberland, Md. The tentative schedule includes scenic rail trips through the countryside of West Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania, plus the annual meetings of the Society. The registration room for the convention will open in mid-afternoon on Tuesday, Aug. 7. The board meeting for the NRHS Fund Inc., will be held that evening.
The first trip is scheduled for Wednesday with an all-day outing to Cass, W.Va. to ride the Cass Scenic Railroad up to Spruce, W.Va. At that point, there will be a “cross platform transfer” from the Cass steam train to the Salamander diesel train to Elkins, W.Va. Lunch will be served on the Salamander. Once in Elkins, NRHS members will re-board the buses for the return trip to the hotel in Cumberland.
The tentative schedule for Thursday includes a charter train ride on the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad from the depot on Cumberland (three blocks from the hotel) to Frostburg, Md., behind the newly rebuilt steam engine No. 1309. Photo run-bys are scheduled for this trip. Cab rides will be offered in both directions with proceeds benefitting the NRHS.
To read more from the NRHS News, go to https://admin.nrhs.com/NRHSNews/NRHS_News_October_2017.pdf.
Below are the winning entries from our August 2017 Chapter Photo Contest from a field of nine entries. Our next and last contest of the year will run from November 1-31, 2017 with a Submission Deadline of December 7, 2017
CSX former Madisonville Hartford & Eastern, at Neelie Webb Rd. Anton, KY, looking east on September 9, 2017. Ricky Bivins, photo.
– Ricky Bivins shot this colorful locomotive at Mortons Gap, KY this month.
Not to be outdone by other Alco outposts in the Empire State, tourist railroad and shortline Arcade and Attica Railroad operates this ninety-seven year old Alco 2-8-0 on weekend excursions. Number 18 is the only regularly operating steam locomotive in the state of New York. Seen here during the mid-point layover at Curriers, New York, Photo by Chris Dees taken August 27, 2017.
American Locomotive Company will always be remembered as the birthplace of the Century line of locomotives. Thirty-two years after the last new locomotive rolled off the production line, Alco fans can still get their fix in The Empire State. Seen at Western New York & Pennsylvania Railroad’s shops in Olean, NY on August 27, 2017 are just a few examples: M636 number 643, C424 number 326, and RS3M number 406. Photos taken from public property by Chris Dees.
When I was a teenager, as now, I was very much involved in my church, First Baptist, Ellijay, GA. My church established a relationship with a small Baptist Church start in Logan, West Virginia about 1978. I was then fortunate to travel to the Logan area three consecutive summers for week-long mission trips there. I caught my first sight of a “Chessie” system paint scheme when we crossed the Big Sandy River on I-64, there around the Ashland production facility at the state line. I was pumped!
We arrived in Logan and I was wide-eyed! I’d never seen so many “diverging routes” in one place. Everywhere we went, there were tracks alongside the roads. Not just spindly 70 lb. rail, I mean nice looking track with signals!
As we went about our work, we set up at Rum Junction Baptist Church, just southeast of downtown Logan. Now a location named for a junction had to be a railroad hotspot – and it was. I’d never seen unit coal trains until then. Lots of C&O paint still around, a little B&O here and there, then those rainbow-like Chessie diesels with that oddball outline shape on the inside of the C. My only other view of these colorful creatures had been on the pages of a Christmas catalog. Did I mention there were lots of yellow cabooses??? With cupolas, not bay windows!
I don’t remember when I learned that strange shape in the C had it’s beginnings as an artistic logo for the C&O of Chessie the kitten. “Sleep like a kitten on the C&O.” Certainly my hometown L&N/Family Lines or the down-to-business sleek black and aluminum Southern locomotives paled in comparison to the Chessie. I do have some old photographs and pictures, but not nearly enough.
Seems I always get around to pontificating on the subject of taking more photos of the rail action around us. I guess it’s how I deal with the regret of not doing it enough when I had the chance. Seems I still love to take that worn-out shot trackside – totally uncreative. But, I hold out hope that it may prove beneficial in a historical way someday.
With the ease of seeing by satellite that area in West Virginia where friends and I created so many great memories of mission work and trains, I have lately discovered that many of those roadside tracks are gone and that most of the ones remaining dead-end into what looks to be inactive mining facilities. Peach Creak Yard holds many empty and possibly stored coal hoppers.
Now, here’s the benefit of having a network of friends with the same interests. Thanks to Fred Ripley and his knowledge of the C&O and connected rail lines, I know some of those trains passing through Rum Jct, were possibly bound for connection with the Virginian or N&W several miles south at Gilbert, WV. Sadly the C&O bridge that once connected the lines is out of service. I know where a lot of that coal from all those diverging routs was going and which direction.
SO, KEEP TAKING PICTUES, AND STAY IN TOUCH WITH YOUR RAILROAD BUDDIES! You never know what little enjoyable nuggets of information you might stumble across. See related photo on the following page in Photo Gallery.
Most of our members can identify two people in this photo and a possible third. The fourth is a resident of this location. Name the location, town and state.
Photo forwarded by: Gary Ostlund.
Photo submitted by: Rick Bivins.
The draft from a hard-working steam locomotive, in this case Union Pacific 4-6-6-4 No. 3985, draws sand from a scoop into the firebox and through the flues. The practice cleans the tubes of soot. Draft is created by the exhaust steam, still expanding, being forced through a nozzle directed to the stack. The force of the draft draws smoke, heat and gasses through the flues. More than one fireman lost his scoop to the firebox in the days without mechanical stokers.
There’s a tale about the rookie fireman, on a lunch break, cooking a steak on a shovel, (not an completely unusual event.) A trickster engineer opened the throttle wide, whereupon, there went the sirloin.
The 3985 was built as a coal burner, converted to oil like sister 4-8-4 UP 844 when they were saved from the scrapper and placed in excursion and executive service. The 3985 and 844 pull an occasional railfan excursion to this day. They will be joined by Big-boy 4-8-8-4, No 4014 in the relatively near future.
Credits: Pix by David Hoge / pix & text (partial) as seen in TRAINS Magazine special edition Steam Today – 2008.