Steam & Excursion > No it's not Europe!

It is the Train Shed at Harrisburg, PA  with two ex-CPR engines, 1284 and 1278, for NRHS Special on May 18, 1969. Roger Puta photo.

Enjoy,
Marty Bernard

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MartyBernard Wrote:
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> It is the Train Shed at Harrisburg, PA  with two
> ex-CPR engines, 1284 and 1278, for NRHS Special on
> May 18, 1969. Roger Puta photo.
>
> Enjoy,
> Marty Bernard

Great photo as always Marty, thanks for sharing with all of us; however I do believe that the two ex-Canadian engines were 1286 and 1238 which at the time were owned by the Red Clay Valley organization.  These two locomotives pulled a special NRHS train from Baltimore, Maryland over what is now Amtrak's Northeast Corridor, northeast up to Perryville, Maryland where they turned and went up the Pennsylvania Railroad's "Port Road" to Harrisburg.  Along the way, the crews on these two engines had several problems including burning through the grate on engine 1286, then a piston packing blew out on engine 1238.  Keep in mind that there were Penn Central engineers running these engines along with the R.C.V. people.  This train limped into Harrisburg, and  once there and the supervisors examined the damages to both engines, a diesel engine was put on the front to help haul the train back to Baltimore.  In essence this trip was operated as a circle trip in that coming back to Baltimore the train operated over the former Northern Central Railroad back to Penn Station in Baltimore and unbeknownst to everyone, this turned out to be the last time steam engines operated over this entire line as in the spring of 1972, tropical storm Agnes devastated the region with major floods and the Northern Central was washed out in many places, so much so that Penn Central abandoned most of the route using only the immediate northern part for a few industries and from Baltimore up to Cockeysville, Maryland for the many industries on that portion of the line.  The State of Pennsylvania acquired their portion of the line and they rebuilt it down to New Freedom, Pennsylvania where the line is now operated by the non-profit group "Steam Into History."  This is a now famous excursion train that is operates using a recently built locomotive that represents the Civil War era. (See their web site www.steamintohistory.org for details).  Today the line just below Cockeysville has been rebuilt as part of the Baltimore Light Rail line.  There's a lot more history to this story but it would make this too long.
John in White Marsh, Maryland

Thanks John for all that.

Marty

At first glance a person would believe it was in Europe.

Roger must have had a heck of a step ladder for that shot.  Great angle.

TonyJ Wrote:
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> At first glance a person would believe it was in
> Europe.

I don't know about that, platform all the way to the left and at the end is very clearly an American car, not to mention train sheds in Europe look a tad different.

-Dave