Steam & Excursion > High Iron--A Half Century Ago Today

A half century ago today: A High Iron Company steam special, behind former Nickel Plate 2-8-4 number 759, is seen coming and going at the Erie Lackawanna's Delaware River Bridge at Mill Rift, north of Port Jervis, N.Y., on May 30, 1970. The weekend run featured a Hoboken-Binghamton roundtrip, westbound on the former Erie Railroad mainline on Saturday, eastbound on Sunday over the former Lackawanna. (my photos)

Art House

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Thanks Art, they are nice photos and the 759 was a great locomotive.  I remember the Pullman "Clover Colony" when it was in Camden Station in Baltimore, Maryland.
John in White Marsh, Maryland

We had appropriate nick-names for a lot of Ross's cars...
An example was " LOVER COLONY"....account of all the bedrooms in the sleeper..

The open platform Obs ( ex-NYC) Ross named it: (for a while) "SPLENDID SPIRIT" 
We called it : ' Blended Spirits'...

Was glorious, fun & satirical times..
Ross exhibited a LOT of forebareance...
 
A really fine show for these trips was in leaving Scranton Station, with a full train..
The whole train was on a 2% grade,  'standing start', right out of the station...upgrade, all the way to Pocono Summit..
What a fight that always was, spectacular!! ... Nay Aug tunnel was less than a half mile away...up hill..

Never used a diesel in the consist out of there ....
Never had a cab-mounted, "diesel MU control-box"  on the 759...
Didn't need it..

Another 1970 memory ... a couple of weeks after the HorseShoe Curve Spectacular ....

Even with 19-20 passenger cars behind the tank, the cab bounced around like a "bob-tail tractor-trailer'.....
Later in 1970, we got to haul real, REAL, time-sensitive freight on the Wild Mary..AJ-1 & AJ-2...between
Hagerstown and Cumberland, Maryland.  

759 was grew into an entirely different engine  with 80 cars behind the tank...it steamed and practically 
fired itself..... sipped a little water, stoker screw was barely turning, ever so slowly... white hot firebox
and running with a 3/4 throttle, & short cut-off.  

Through the narrow places on the Potomac River valley, we were limited to 40, or under,
account of possible rock slides... unexpected stops were a constant threat.  So, it was like a walk in the park.  
The 759 rode as "smooth as a baby carriage", white hot and gently swaying on that cool September morning..
the loud "stack music" shattering the morning calm..

One sight l'll NEVER FORGET:   Departing Hagerstown that Monday morning , we had just crossed
the Potomac and were slightly up-grade, there was cool air and dense fog... it was a school day, and
we were cruising next to a parallel highway... a young boy, maybe 10 or 12 years old,  was waiting near
his house for a school bus, when we came thundering out of  the fog, Cumberland-bound..

He was all by himself as we pounded by him, standing there, jaw dropped in total astonishment 
as we cruised on-by.   I waved and pointed to him as we went by.  

He could never have convinced anyone of what he had just seen.. that early morning..
Over the years, I've often thought about that lad and the dream-like sequence, in that September
memory, in the early morning fog ..

Soon the sun burned through the fog and it turned a glorious autum day...
Hauling that freight was once in a lifetime memory for Ross and I, riding with the WM engine crew..
Thsnk you, George Lelich, for arranging tha wonderful outing...like " Haulin' Freight, on the Nickel Plate.."

​W.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/31/20 03:09 by wcamp1472.

Yes indeed Wes, we did it in style! A bit more robust than the live steam "Kawasaki Arrow", if you recall.

wcamp - Thanks for the AJ1 and AJ2 memories.  Wayne M and I followed it round trip, got some movies and recordings.  Great pacing along I70 EB.  IIRC there was a slow order to 25 mph just east of Hancock.  Listening to 759 go right back up to 50+ was something to hear.  What a day!!!

I'm glad you were there..
It's great that you captured the event... 
That was a wonderful day and experience....

I'm glad to have met you...who knew,  that we'd share that event, after all the years..?
How did you know it was going to happen ?
You musta' had the road to yourselves...!!

Wes

My buddy had all sort of conections with the WM folks in York and I believe that's where he learned about it. It was easy pacing, very little traffic. Not like today!!
I  checked out the recordings earlier today.  26 minutes worth (on CD now), not the best, but enough to relive the day a bit.