Tag Archives: Delaware and Hudson Railway

photography

Hey now, Look at This: Something Old, Something Different.

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Guilford SD26 at Silver Springs, May 2, 1987.

I thought I try something different; so I reached into a Logan slide storage box on the shelf and fished out a slide. This is what I found!

Step back 27 years . . . Doug Eisele and I had started the morning on the old Erie Railroad near Attica, New York. When Conrail’s heavy BUOI (Buffalo to Oak Island) freight came growling upgrade we followed it on side roads to Silver Springs. Here it took the siding for a westbound.

The signals read ‘yellow-over-red-over-red’—approach. What came along was Delaware & Hudson’s East Binghamton to Buffalo freight with a freshly painted former Santa Fe SD26 trailing.

It was precisely 11:18 am on May 2, 1987 at Silver Springs, New York. Exposed with a Canon A1 with 50mm lens on Professional Kodachrome 25 slide film.
It was precisely 11:18 am on May 2, 1987 at Silver Springs, New York. Exposed with a Canon A1 with 50mm lens on Professional Kodachrome 25 slide film.

At the time I wasn’t especially impressed by the D&H train. It was rolling hard out of the sun on tangent track. But, I rarely let an opportunity get away, so I made this going away view to show the signals and the meet.

In retrospect, I find this photo fascinating. The signals that interested me then, are all the more interesting today; the SD26 and leading GE U23Bs are all long gone; and Conrail’s former Erie operations faded into Norfolk Southern fifteen years ago. So, it’s pretty neat to look back and see what has changed!

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Tomorrow: Ghost of the Northern Pacific!

 

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photography

New GE’s Roll East on the former Erie at Canaseraga, New York

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Conrail’s former Erie Route, April 1989.

NYS&W GE's.
Exposed on Kodachrome 25 (PKM) with a Leica M2 and 50mm Summicron.

While on the topic of the former Erie Railroad, I thought I would post this unpublished view of brand new New York, Susquehanna & Western Dash8-40Bs working a Delaware & Hudson freight on Conrail’s former Erie route between Hornell and Buffalo, New York.

The new units were ordered by NYS&W during its brief court-ordered operation of D&H between 1988 and 1990.

I started following this train earlier in the day. It was a typical western New York morning, with fits of sun bursting through a deck of thick gray clouds.

That’s the reason for this unusual composition: for a moment the sun emerged to flush the front of the bright yellow GE’s. I made a spot decision to photograph the train more distant than I’d originally intended.

At that time, Conrail was only maintaining the old number 2 track (eastward mainline) for 10 mph. Most traffic was routed on the number 1 main (traditionally the westward track) that was in much better condition. However, by Spring of 1989, Conrail’s Erie route was bursting with traffic. To avoid congestion, Conrail’s dispatcher opted to keep this D&H train bumping along at 10mph, while westward traffic stayed on the faster track.

East of Canaseraga, the Erie line was in characteristic grade separated arrangement that probably dated from Underwood-era improvements in the early 20th century. If I write my book on the Erie, I’ll be finally able to confirm this fact.

In the early 1990s, Conrail reconfigured this portion of the Erie. It replaced the traditional directional double-track with a single-track main and centralized traffic control-style system. The change resulted in abandonment of the number 1 main at this location, and spelled the end for the steam-era Union Switch & Signal Style-S upper quadrant semaphores.

Just for the record, I made several closer views of this train.

For more on the former Erie Railroad, see my earlier posts including: Vestiges of the Erie Railroad near Kenton, Ohio; Erie Code Lines—Horseheads, New York, October 5, 2009, and Erie October Morning.

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