I am interested in finding out about the disposition of the D&H's Alco RS-3 #4118. Some sources say it was sold to the PA shortline Octoraro Railroad sometime in 1984. I have seen a picture of it and the slide is labeled to say it was working in East Greenville, PA, in August of 1983. The caption might be incorrect though.
I don't know if the D&H went to East Greenville as part of its PA operations or not. The Octoraro RR's had two branches that it operated, and one was an old Reading branch (formerly the Wilmington and Northern Railroad). I am not sure if East Greenville was on that branch, or another part of the Octoraro RR.
I model the D&H in May of 1984, and I am trying to determine if this engine should be included on my roster. But, I am not familiar with PA railroads at all. Hopefully, someone here can let me know which railroad East Greenville was part of (D&H or Octoraro).
Modeling the D&H in 1984: http://dandhcoloniemain.blogspot.com/
According to a northeast railroad atlas I've got published in 2007 it looks like East Greenville PA was served by the Reading, specifically the Reading's Perkiomen Branch. Unless the D&H happened to go there by trackage rights I wouldn't assume they were there at all.
Just to help you zero in, East Greenville's up by Pennsburg. The Perkiomen Branch is now abandoned south of same. I checked to see if maybe, possibly, that RS-3 might have been in transit to the Octoraro if it was in East Greenville in 1983, but no dice, the Perkiomen Branch was abandoned in 1978, so it couldn't go that way.
Here's a brief history of the Octoraro Railway. Doesn't look like they went anywhere near East Greenville either.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octoraro_Railway
Hope this helps.
The information I have indicates that the 4118 was still a D&H engine on the last "official" roster before Guilford took them over (early January 1984). The locomotive was sold, presumably by Guilford, to the Octararo later in 1984, and it appears to have survived there long enough to show up in the successor roster (Delaware Valley, 1994). At some point it was sold (perhaps through RMAX) to the Delaware-Lackawanna, where it remains today as far as I know.
For help in tracking this via more 'technical' diesel sites, the locomotive builder number is 80318, built 10/52 (for D&H).
If you are modeling the Guilford era D&H in "May 1984" you will need to find out the date Guilford conveyed the locomotive to Octararo, as only before then would it 'answer your purposes'; presumably it was operating for its new owner if you saw it in "Octararo country". It does occur to me that D&H may have had this engine assigned to dedicated 'older branch' duty by that point, and the 4118 chosen for the sale in part because it was close to wherever it would be 'handed over'.
I'm not real familiar with which railroads operated that line, but it definitely was neither the Octoraro nor the D&H.
This website says "BM&R" in the 1980s and 1990s, which would be Blue Mountain and Reading:
http://www.abandonedrails.com/Perkiomen_Branch
It could have still been ConRail before that. This link does say CR in 1980, 3rd post from the bottom:
http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=181&t=843&start=60
After BM&R I believe there were several small railroads that operated it for few years at a time. Most recently it's been the East Penn/ Penn Eastern.
- PDN.
Thank you all.
If it still was D&H in 1984, I wonder what it was doing in East Greenville PA in 1983? Perhaps the slide is mislabeled.
It was already operating under a PA state subsidy in 1970 (totally missing from the USRA preliminary and final system plans for what became the mess that became ConRail....everything points to Reading (Perkiomen RR (pre-1923 RDG Consolidation)) Only a mile and a half of the line ever became USRA LC-0332 on the south end at Oaks....something happened long before large pieces of it vanished in 1978 and PennDOT became owner/caretaker.
(I do see PDN's BM&R/ESPN references as lease operators for PennDOT... There is a web bage history on the Perkiomen Br by Charyna, but the bassackwards spam filter here has issues with it. )
Without a doubt it was the Perkiomen RR then Reading as MC says. I'm just not sure who the various operators were over the years.
Link to a Pennsylvania Historic Resource Survey Form for the Montgomery County portion of the line (12 pages) - does not address the details of the operators, though:
https://www.dot7.state.pa.us/CRGIS_Attachments/SiteResource/H128745_01D.pdf
MC will be amused by this quote from the bottom of Narrative Page 5 of 9 (8 of 12 of the PDF) about the ownership battle between the County (which thought it bought the ROW) and the adjoining property owners:
"In 1999, the Superior Court of Pennsylvania decided in favor of the property landowners - the old rail lines running through their property reverted to them."
Extensive discussion of the Perkiomen Branch can be found at:
https://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=181&t=843&start=45
This is the Reading & Northern's time line for the Perkiomen Branch:
Reading RR until Conrail; 4/1/1976
Conrail under subsidy until 1983; Perkiomen branch and 2 others were contracted in 1983 to Anthracite Railway, same investors owned Octoraro Rwy.
Anthracite left the Perkiomen in 10/1988, contract went to Blue Mountain & Reading until 6/30/1995; contract then awarded to East Penn.
The railroad.net forum post seems to give enough info to clear this up.
For some reason I can't access the Railroad.net thread. However, it sounds like it was the Octoraro Railway that the engine in 1983, which would likely mean that the D&H had sold the engine before 1984.
A few more thing "Perkiomen..."
Here's a video of the Reading and Northern's Reading T1 on an excursion along the unabandoned Perkiomen Branch from Emmaus to Pennsburg in 1991. Cool!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDJLsXhxwGs
A little history on the current Perkiomen Trail...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perkiomen_Trail
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.