Blue Ridge Southern, Arden, NC on 03/05/2021, on former SOU line between Asheville and Hendersonville, once the Saluda Grade route.
From 1978 at Knoxville, TN, a fan favorite SD-45. The L&N was scrambling to handle an upsurge in utility coal loadings at the time and borrowed whatever it could.
Seems that I'm one of the few fans who admires the BL-2 and its sort of messy design amalgamation. The BL-2 is widely derided by writers in the railfan press and fans follow on. The design was a result of EMD's desire to create an F-based road switcher and it seems unkind to trash the teamwork of pre-Geep engineers who did their best with what they had. I found the 7171 (former WM 81) at work at Hagerstown, MD in July 1982. She has since been preserved at the B&O Museum in Baltimore.
Although I was not around when the BL-2 came out, when I finally became aware of it, I felt the "style" designers had too much influence. I felt they were trying to inject too much art deco into a locomotive intended for less glamorous roll than a passenger locomotive. Plus that style was on the way out at that time. I though that they ended up with something with less utility than the Alco road switchers they were trying to emulate. At the Kentucky Railway Museum in New Haven, Ky.
Yes they were. The Rock's BL-2s and some others were equipped with steam generators for passenger work. In tune with the BL-2's bemused design, the steam generator stack rose up between the front windows! I'd forgotten that the the Kentucky Railroad Museum had these operating. Thanks Russell!
I finally found the picture of the little Skokie, IL depot I have mentioned in the past. It is in the Fall, 1997 issue of "North Western Lines" magazine of the Chicago & North Western Historical Society. It was photographed by the late Joe Piersen on April 18, 1996. The depot was built in 1962 when the old depot was torn down. The panels (one with the mail slot in it) below the boarded-up windows, on the right side are turquoise-colored aluminum. It was (is?) across the tracks from the Farley Candy Company in the older part of Skokie: . My memories of this photo were all messed up. I remembered the depot as being a cinder block building (it's brick) with a flat top and I thought all those windows were to the left of the door! Doug
