Correct. They called them GP20s. They were very thorough rebuilds. I've worked with both the Milwaukee engines and the Illinois Central engines, I think the Milwaukee ones were just a bit better. Randy
It's been renamed the New Hope Railroad and still hauls tourists and freight, but I don't know anything beyond that. Hopefully someone here might. The BR&W is still running, but the line from Ringoes to Lambertville has been out of service for decades now and is missing in places. I think the BR&W has added freight operations on some some regional branches, helping to reverse loss of freight customers on its original line in the Flemington area.
EJ&E's Train No. 6 at Barrington, IL makes its way back to Joliet with a pair of shiny new orange SD-38-2s. [1976] Another shot of 6, this time at Sutton, IL I think.
Each time I scroll past this Rondout tower picture, I can't help but to recall my late friend Bob Brown. He was third trick there for many, many years. Great guy. I have a few of his MILW train orders from there.
Salesman: "I know we usually sell you guys caboose windows but we're all out of them, right now. In fact, the only glass we have is some leftover portholes we sold to a boat builder and they didn't need all of them." Pennsy buyer: "We'll take 'em!" Doug
Nice memories to have. As you know, Rondout was a very busy place back in the day. Somewhere in my junk is a cassette tape I recorded in the late '70s featuring the Rondout tower op giving his MILW brothers a tongue-lashing for working some set out tracks without first communicating with him. They'd blocked a lead and were leaving cars that he knew nothing about, all while he was trying to keep the main and the Libertyville branch fluid for upcoming movements.
Oh, neat! I'll have to keep an eye out for that. Back in the '70s I think, MR did a nice story on Mayfair, another neat Chicagoland location. It's track arrangement always puzzled me until I read it. Another memory I have remains from listening to my railroad scanner in mid-70s Chicago, I'd often hear railroadmen refer to the MILW as the "Saint Paul", such as when switching I'd hear, "Put the Saint Pauls on the west end", referring to a cut of cars bound for MILW interchange.
Oops, I think I am confused and I am thinking of the Mayfair article. In fact, I'm almost sure of that, now. Sorry. I sure remember seeing quite a few references to Rondout, however. And, there was an article about a concrete block station at Skokie. Doug
A couple of shots from a trip to the Pueblo Railway Museum last month. Santa Fe 4-8-4 2912 Amtrak Coach 5410 (ex-ACL 218) BN Reefer 950413 (ex-NP) Santa Fe Reefer 8861 Amtrak Coach 5428 (ex-PRR 4048)
LOLOL!!! Probably not rare by any stretch of the imagination, this is a Frisco hopper in Montana. I think I'm near Shelby, 2008. Also near Shelby, MT, Amtrak 8, 2008 or so.
I get confused as well. When I was a kid riding the C&NW, I'd always look forward to crossing the MILW main at Mayfair. There were CN&W bridges close by that looked unused and the placement of the line was odd. It was only years later that I learned that it was once part of an alternate C&NW freight route called the Mayfair Cutoff which crossed the MILW main just south of Mayfair. It then entered a tight wye with its legs connecting with the C&NW main in each direction, with the western leg working through a crossover and escaping northwest to find a connection with the C&NW's mainline to Milwaukee. Whew -- VERY confusing. Some decades later, the Mayfair Cutoff was replaced with a new C&NW/MILW route to the west. Most of the Cutoff is gone today.
Grabbed these coupled together yesterday on the head end of a railroad North bound CSX Manifest freight out of New Orleans:
You can say that again. I have always thought the word that best describes the Santa Fe 4-8-4's is "Behemoth" and that includes the Bachmann model. BTW, great pictures, LegomanBill! Doug