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A Rare Alco under a Dramatic Sky

The Alco S-6 switcher was an uncommon model. Just over 125 were built, and only a few survive in 2025.

Kris, Seamus-the-dog and I were driving around on summer evening. Clouds were starting to give way when we approached Middletown, Pennsylvania.

The old Middletown & Hummelstown was quiet, but Alco S-6 number 151 (dressed for the late Western Maryland) was parked near the railroad’s Middletown station.

I made a few photos using my Nikon Z7-II, looking for various ways to compose the same essential elements.

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Big Alcos at Bridge 60

I’ve always admired the contours of Alco’s Century-Series diesels.

We arrived at Steamtown in Scranton, Pa., as the sun was on the western horizon—late sun on November day. A set of Delaware-Lackawanna’s antique Big Alcos were catching the rays near Bridge 60.

In the mid-2000s, I traveled on some of these iconic diesels as part my research for various book projects. Those photos were all exposed on color slide film. By contrast the images presented here were all made digitally using my Nikon Z7-II. (However, for the sake of continuity I also exposed a few Ektachrome slides here.)

D-L C-636 No. 3642 was originally a Penn-Central unit, and later served as Conrail 6792. In the mid-1980s, I recall seeing Conrail C-636s among hundreds locomotives stored in the Selkirk, New York deadlines. I’ll need to go back to my black & white negatives and see if 3642 (nee 6792) was among the locomotives I photographed there.

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Interlude with Antique Alcos

On a recent visit to Scranton, Kris and I paused briefly at the Delaware-Lackawanna’s shop where a variety of antique diesels are kept.

I made these views of the Alco RS-3 diesels stored there. Three were former Delaware & Hudson units painted to resemble their as-built appearance.

Forty years ago, I recall visiting D&H’s Colonie Shops at Watervliet, NY, where some of these engines were maintained.

I find it remarkable that after all these years some of the old RS-3s survive.

Photos exposed using Nikon Z-series mirrror less digital cameras.

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Alco on Brown Street, Middletown, PA.

Street trackage offers great opportunities for placing the railroad in a cool setting.

Kris and I had just finished our lunch with Wayne Duffett, who was in Middletown to inspect bridges for the Middletown & Hummelstown Railroad.

While Wayne was making his arrangements, we watched as former Western Maryland Alco S-6 151 was fired up. This was going to make a run down Brown Street to collect a car from the Norfolk Southern interchange.

We set up about midway down the street. The Alco was preceded by a trainman with a flag as I exposed this group of digital photos using my Nikon Z7-II with 24-70mm lens.

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Visit to the Middletown & Hummelstown with Wayne.

Several weeks back, our friend Wayne Duffett had business on Pennsylvania’s Middletown & Hummelstown Railroad, a short line that operates a short segment of the former Reading Company. Wayne posed with the railroad’s vintage GE 65 ton diesel number 2. Later, we drove to Middletown, where we had lunch in the classic Brownstone Cafe on Union Street.

After lunch the railroad fired up its antque former Western Maryland Alco S6 switcher to do a little work. Stay tuned for views of the grand old Alco at work . . .

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Canadian Pacific Six-motor MLWs in Montreal.

Another classic from my files: this Kodachrome slide was exposed on my epic trip to Montreal with Tom Carver 30 years ago.

Among the inspirations for the trip was a tip that Tom received that CP Rail had placed back into freight service several of its ‘Bigs’- a nickname for its six-motor Montreal Locomotive Works diesels.

These classics had been stored owing to a downturn in traffic, but placed back into service in early 1993, which presented an opportunity to see and photograph these rare diesels at work. So, despite exceptional cold, Tom and I had braved winter in Montreal.

Only about a dozen or so of the six-motor MLWs were working at that time and mostly in relatively short-haul freight services. We followed one freight to the Port of Montreal. I made this view using Tom’s 28mm lens in Hochelaga neighborhood of Montreal on the afternoon of January 12, 1993.

Kodachrome 25 slide exposed with a Nikon F3T and borrowed Nikkor 28mm lens.

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Rare Diesels at Middletown, PA.

In March, Kris and I stopped by the Middletown & Hummelstown railroad yard in its namesake town.

My last visit here was in 2009.

I made a few photos of M&H’s rare diesel locomotives, which includes an Alco S-6 switcher, an Alco T-6 switcher (that was one of last diesels built by Alco before it exited the domestic locomotive market) and a GE 65-ton center cab.

While I exposed a handful of black & white photos on film, I also made these digital images with my Nikon Z6.

Middletown & Hummelstown Alco S-6 diesel switcher is painted for Western Maryland, the locomotive’s original owner.

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Big Alcos in northern Quebec.

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The other day, Adam Bartley and I were discussing railway operations and locomotives in Canada, which reminded me of an epic trip I took with George Pitarys and Bill Linley back in 1997.

We drove to Port Cartier, Quebec, a port on the Gulf of the St. Lawrence, and spent several days photographing the isolated Cartier Railway, which moved exceptionally heavy iron ore trains using vintage six-motor Alco and MLW diesels.

Tracks traversed a Canadian National park and this was as close to true wilderness as I’d been up to that time. Other than the railroad and a dirt road that ran parallel, there was virtually no other human activity. No houses, no towns, no restaurants, stores, or anything.

This view of a southward loaded train was exposed on Kodachrome 25 at milepost 21 (as measured from the port). At the time I was using a Nikon N90S with an f2.8 80-200mm Nikon zoom lens.

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Genesee & Wyoming Alco RS-1.

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Working with a Calumet 4x5in camera, I exposed this single frame of black & white film (probably Kodak Tri-X) at the Genesee & Wyoming shops in Retsof, New York on February 10, 1988.

The old RS-1 was stored out of service at the time in its bicentennial paint.

I tray processed the film in a diluted solution of Kodak D76.

Several years ago I scanned this image and dozens of other 4×5 black & white photos using an Epson V750 scanner.

This image, while scaled, represents the unadjusted 4×5 scan.

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