pajrr Firelock, I am right next door to you in Fair Lawn, The Bergen County Line. I had an exhibit on the Erie RR in the Fair Lawn Library in Oct.2016. Maybe you saw it?
Firelock, I am right next door to you in Fair Lawn, The Bergen County Line. I had an exhibit on the Erie RR in the Fair Lawn Library in Oct.2016. Maybe you saw it?
Unfortunately no, Lady Firestorm and I moved to Virginia thirty years ago, although it sure doesn't seem that long. We DO come back at least once a year to see how the place is getting along without us, also to get our diner and bakery fixes, we have neither in the part of Virginia where we live, at least not like Jersey has.
Lady Firestorm's brother "Big B" lives in Fair Lawn though. If you remember a big guy, about 6'2" who looks like a PO'd Santa Claus coming to your exhibit, guess what? That was him! You might also run into him at the Radburn station or in one of the towns bakeries.
We'll be back again this year, fourth week in May, so if you've got another exhibit going we'll be sure to come and see it!
Last time there I did take a walk over to the Radburn station to watch the Jersey Transit action, and that was fun. I was also amazed at how little the station has changed since it was built in 1914. Using the men's room was like being a time traveler!
Well thank you kgbw49. The fifth photo down of the 202 at Welland states 1961...that should be 1951...they were off the roster and scrapped in '53.
As I've mentioned before in other postings I grew up with these locomotive's. It is such a shame that one of the Hudson's was not saved. The Hudsons and Berks never even got a chance to be humiliated by standing in a dead line for a while. They were brought to the turntable on their last trip, not inside the roundhouse, their tenders removed immediately and there they stood tenderless on a spare roundhouse track. Quickly stripped of bells and whistles and lamps then off to the steel mills in Hamilton 10 minutes away. Parents NYC and CPR were ruthless. GP7's and a bit later torpedo tubed GP9's took over. Poof gone.
Comin' at ya, Miningman! (It would have been nice to see a 2-8-4 and 4-6-4 preserved in the Canadian Railway Museum.)
TH&B 2-8-4 201 at Montrose Ontario...
TH&B 2-8-4 201 on the ready track...
TH&B 2-8-4 201 on a string of outside-braced box cars...
TH&B 2-8-4 202...good-looking units...
TH&B 2-8-4 202 on a long string of manifest freight...
TH&B 4-6-4 501 in Toronto...
TH&B 501 gettin' the lead out...
TH&B 4-6-4 501 one more time...going somewhere in hurry...
TH&B 4-6-4 502 at St. Thomas Roundhouse - pristine condition...
Put this posting in the wrong thread...yeesh.
This is the right thread..sorry.
Firelock76- Yes that 40,000 number sounds right...thinking 100,000 was something I read years ago about total number of steam locos at the height during the '20's.
There were considerably less diesels replacing steam...certainly not one for one. Considering the savings in labour, maintainence, roundhouses, water and so forth it did not save them at all..especially in the East then the Central. Everything went to hell in a handbasket, not the diesels fault, all the positives wiped out pretty quickly.
Must have been quite the shock to see steam replaced so quickly and thoughouly as on the Erie, CNJ, New Haven, Lackawanna, Rock Island, Milwaukee, and so on.
Toronto, Hamilton and Buffalo Berkshires went into the blast furnaces 1953. The smaller roads up here dieselized real quick. CNR and CPR had an large uptick in business all through the fifities. Essentially being a "Union Pacific" and a "Santa Fe" with long transcon runs, CNR and CPR delayed a lot of scrapping becuase buisness was so good they were needed, not because diesels were not arriving on the property. In any case that gave me 7 or 8 more years of bliss. That all ended essentially in '59.
CSSHEGEWISCH Miningman Does anyone know, approximately, how many steam locomotives were scrapped between 1946-1956...100,000? In fairness, that number should be compared with the number of diesel locomotives built and placed in service during that period.
Miningman Does anyone know, approximately, how many steam locomotives were scrapped between 1946-1956...100,000?
Does anyone know, approximately, how many steam locomotives were scrapped between 1946-1956...100,000?
In fairness, that number should be compared with the number of diesel locomotives built and placed in service during that period.
Unlikely it was 100,000, at least in this country anyway. Forget where I read this but at the most there were about 40,000 steam locomotives here in the US around the World War Two era. I could be wrong on that though.
And PAJRR, where was your hometown in New Jersey? Just curious as I'm from Northern NJ myself, Paramus to be exact. Paramus didn't have any rail lines although the Erie did pass to the east and west of us.
We DID have a Public Service trolley line that was abandoned in the Thirties. It ran along (more or less) the present day Plaza Way just south of where the Garden State Plaza shopping mall is now.
And Miningman, at any rate all that scrapping was one hell of a massacre anyway you look at it. I wish some of those Erie units were saved, but what can you do?
The Erie had the largest fleet of Berkshires---105. As for the picture of Erie 2929, that train is stopped at my hometown train station in NJ. When the pic was taken those big K-5s had been demoted from long ditance trains to commuter trains. Diesels were handling all the long distance trains by then. Years later I would photograph several steam excursions coming through my town at the station-- NKP 765, C&O 614, BM&R 425 and Rdg 2102. Since 765 dates from the time that the Van Sweringens owned both NKP and Erie, 765 looked just like an Erie Berkshire when it stormed through town.
So many things go through your mind looking at those pictures.
When they say "those were the days" these pictures are the very definition.
Sigh
Thunder and lighting...miscellanous photos in no particular order...
3300s...2-8-4 Berkshires...
2900s...4-6-2 Pacifics...
Bat outa hell 1...
Bat outa hell 2...
Bat outa hell 3...
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