S&NY engine #115 and train curves southbound at Marsh Hill on last week’s “Wordless Wednesday”. To the left is the S&NY Marsh Hill depot, and Marsh Hill yard is in the distance. The PRR’s Elmira Branch is directly behind the photographer, and the train will momentarily enter PRR territory and head south on the branch to Newberry, PA.
The #115 was sold and went to Providence, RI after abandonment, per Kaseman’s book. Disposition otherwise unknown.
Author’s Collection
Last week’s WW is a portrait of S&NY caboose #15 and train crew at Towanda, probably during the winter of 1941-42. #15 was the S&NY’s only 8-wheel caboose.
I do not know the origin of this piece of equipment, but after abandonment, the caboose was sold to the Arcade & Attica Railroad in New York state, and became the A&A’s #303. Miraculously, #15/303 still existed as of 2012 on static display in Attica, NY.
I would very interested in the identities of the men in the photo for completeness sake. Comparing with photos in Kaseman’s book, I believe the man at the far right is engineer Eli Chilton. The others, I have no clue.
Op session # 5 was held Saturday evening 3/21/15. We had 4 crew members attend, which was enough to give everyone a throttle, with your truly as informal dispatcher. (And question answerer / trouble-shooter)
The railroad ran better than I had hoped given that the last session was last November. The extremely cold winter and corresponding dry conditions caused the track to buckle in several spots that had never been an issue before, but I was able to cut new gaps and drop new feeders in the week prior to the session. The only major problems were a switch where I had completely forgotten to attach the feeders from the points to the main track bus, and a Tortoise with a suspected internal malfunction that caused a non-repairable short circuit at an important crossover in Newberry yard. Luckily, this problem occurred very late in the session and did not have a major impact aside from a 10-15 minute halt to operations while we tried to fix it.
While I did have paperwork ready to support formal TT&TO ops, the small number of operators resulted in a fairly relaxed session, so we ran under “verbal train orders” for lack of a better term.
Another small issue was that there were only 4 locomotives available as “home road” power. One engine, a re-motored PFM Ma&Pa 2-8-0 with a WOW steam decoder, developed a bind that I could not solve prior to the session. Don M. was able to bring several smaller steam engines to serve as temporary “leased power”, so all was well. It was neat to see a little 4-4-0 with a 2-6-0 pusher (both sound-equipped) working hard to get a 12 car train of loaded coal hoppers over the mountain.
Don M. works Newberry yard
No. 4 and No. 21 meet at Wheelerville.
No. 4 at Wheelerville
Leased Bessemer 4-4-0 leads westbound empties at Wheelerville.
All-in-all, a very satisfying evening, hopefully to be repeated in the near future.
Bill Caloroso – Cal’s Classics
Last week’s “Wordless Wednesday” is an elevated view of the S&NY/ LV interchange just south of the Lehigh Valley’s Towanda station. At left center, S&NY engine #119 heads a mixed freight toward the LV Towanda station, located to the viewer’s left rear. The LV bridge over the Susquehanna River is just out of view to the left. Behind the train is the remains of the LV’s coaling pier, replaced by a large concrete coaling tower north of the LV station ca. 1940. Visible in the right background is the building and turntable in “Wordless Wednesday #35”.
Bill Caloroso – Cal’s Classics
Last week’s “Wordless Wednesday” is a shot of the LV interchange at North Towanda. The Federal-style building in the distance is listed as a warehouse on my copy of a 1927 Sanborn map, and may date to the days of the Pennsylvania Canal. Note the long string of Lehigh Valley hoppers on the interchange tracks.
This area is now covered by local industry, though the S&NY tracks faintly seen at the far left along the Susquehanna River still exist as part of the former Towanda-Monroeton Shippers Lifeline rail line, now owned by the Reading and Northern Railroad.
Author’s Collection
“Wordless Wednesday #34” is an interesting shot of the engine service tracks and small yard at Towanda, PA. Engine #116 is simmers at the double-spouted water tank, and a cut of cars with a fascinating variety of pre-war equipment is standing in the yard. In the foreground, a rack of various tools used for cleaning the locomotive fires can be seen. To the right, an S&NY hopper is spotted at the ash pit.
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