From Easter I will be traveling for 3 weeks with the camper from Chicago to Boston. And I certainly hope to make many great railway photos. Especially I like to want to catch the last ALCO's. Are there any of them still in use in this region?
Thanks,
Carsten
The Delaware-Lackawanna Railroad in north-eastern Pennsylvania has a number of ALCO RS-3's plus some Century Series locomotives. don't know the address but I'm sure you can find it with an on-line search.
Morristown and Erie comes to mind, there are probably others. I'd look it up in an internet search.
Let me help you out a bit for the Delaware-Lackawanna.
Try www.gvtrail.com/dl.php for the story.
If south central and southeast PA are in your range of travel...I would recommend doing some railfanning around Harrisburg and Reading (NS and CSX) then a short trip northward from Reading to Hamburg and visit the Reading Company Technical and Historical Society. They have a restored Reading C630 with hi ad trucks and a few other Reading Alco's in the works.
I don't know how to set the link. Just key up www.readingrailroad.org
Mark H
Modeling in HO...Reading and Conrail together in an alternate history.
I would suggest that you investigate the Livonia, Avon, and Lakeville (and its subsidiaries) in Upstate NY (Rochester to points south; Painted Post to Cohocton in the Southern Tier; and Hornell to Meadville, PA.). It's all ALCOs all of the time. Google them for contact information. They are reasonably railfan friendly if you contact them first.
Poppyl
Olean and Vineland (Ever wonder where the mongrel LIRR FA's went?)
Western New York & Pennsylvania runs all Alco's and has PRR signals on most of the route.
WNYP eastbound at Niobe, NY
Good Lord, I can see why ALCO's were called "honorary steam engines."
The quote in question is from George W. Hilton in a review of John Rehor's "The Nickel Plate Story", which was generally favorable. He observed that not much was written or illustrated about NKP's diesels, with the exception of the "Bluebird" PA's, which seemed to have been given the status of "honorary steam locomotives".
They aren't always smokey. Here's a WNYP westbound at Lakewood, with a C630 and two C424s.
Oh certainly, the ALCO's weren't always smoky enough to give an EPA official the vapors. It's my understanding the heavy smoke was due to turbocharger lag, that is the turbo didn't come up to speed fast enough to keep up with the fuel comsumption. Once the turbo RPM's were where they were supposed to be everything was fine afterward.
Good evening all,
I know this thread has been inactive for a long time, but I wanted to share some recent experiences. Some time ago TRAINS had an article on the ALCOs under discussion. On our return trip home we had reservations in Olean for an overnight stay. I casually mentioned to the better half that ALCOs roamed this neck of the woods and that we might spend some time looking for one the next morning. As we approached the motel we drove right by the yard! It was too late to take pictures then but we drove there the next morning and (staying carefully OFF the railroad property) took several pictures including some of an RS-3 switching some tank cars. It was certainly one of the highlights of the trip for me. I hope everyone has a good day.
Keep on training,
Mike C. from Indiana
WAY too late for your trip to mention it now but I'm surpised no one thought to mention the Green Mountain RR (reporting mark GMRC - is a class III railroad operating in Vermont. The GMRC operates on ROW that had once been owned by the Rutland.) They still have, and maintain, an operational RS-1 (in beautiful condition) in regular service. .
It's too bad there are no active Alco's in California.
I would love to see one in action.
ATSFGuyIt's too bad there are no active Alcos in California.
To this very day the Wine Train people show this on their site:
Next best thing to a PA, and certainly more accessible than one. (And it doesn't need to be freight to have that special Alco magic...)
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