Thursday, March 15, 2012

New Bachmann S-4 Arrives at Harlem Station


A new locomotive arrived at the PoNY Railroad's Erie Harlem Station with little fanfare but much appreciation today. With the 44 tonners down until a suitable decoder and sound system is found (I finally gave up on the LokSound I've been messing with for over a year now!), no. 514 (an Alco S-2) has been shouldering all of the duties by itself. The shiny new sound-equipped Alco S-4 no.529 is a welcomed site to the crews, and at under $100, the general accounting office couldn't complain.

I had already assumed I was going to have to change out the headlight since the double configuration seemed unusual, but again, another nice surprise that it is consistent with prototype. (Maybe all S-4s came this way?) Not sure how much closer I'm going to look, but I'm impressed with the out-of-the-box experience so far. Didn't even hesitate when I started him up. The crews should be happy.

Some prototype photos I've acquired lately of 529. Notice how close the first two photos were taken!

1970 at Jamestown, New York
A few milliseconds later in 1970 at Jamestown, New York
Post merger sometime/where

5 October 1971 at Croxton Yard, NJ



Delivered in October of 1952, no.529 was one of only 4 Alco S-4s (nos. 526-529) on the Erie who was a pretty good customer for Alco. I'm pretty sure they weren't bought because of the characteristic galopty-lop sound of the engines, but that is one reason why I like them.

Bonus material
An outtake from the 2 minute film session today. Even the simplest filming needs more than one take! The office crew got a laugh when no.529 moved in reverse instead of forward on the first take...



Saturday, March 3, 2012

Lehigh Valley Locomotives Plus...

LV no.120 at Bethlehem, PA, 4 December 1973

LV no.260

So what is occurring to me that might be an interesting challenge is to try to get photos for every locomotive that runs on the Port of New York Railroad. To that end, I have a couple of Lehigh Valley switchers that qualify now. Plus...

O&W caboose Middletown, NY, 6 September 1964

...a New York, Onterio and Western caboose. The O&W ran from Weehawken (basically to the Erie yard, I bellieve, over New York Central track) to Oswego, NY on Lake Ontario with branches to Scranton, Kingston, Port Jervis, etc.The Most interesting thing about the railroad from my perspective, is that several of its F-units sat in Croxton Yard after the bankruptcy of 1957. They were a promanent feature of the yard for many years as they rusted away on a storage track.

NY,O&W 804 at Croxton Yard, NJ