Nostalgia & History > ABBA EL Set 1974

I had a chance to chase a quartet of EL F7's (configured as God intended), on the line from Northumberland to Rupert, Pa along the Susquehanna River. Photos at Northumberland, Danville and nearing Rupert. March 1974.

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Wow. Way nice.

Just a wee bit over powered for the one empty flat, but what a catch. Great photos!-BMT

Nice looking, well maintained right of way.

Hard to believe the EL has been gone 43 years.

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Terrific photos! ABBA sets were getting scarce in 1974.
Photo 2 is my favorite.
ALLEN

Very impressive! Were those units former Erie? I see there is no dynamic brakes.

Image three with the looking-down perspective is my favorite.
Thanks for sharing these.
Bob

HotWater Wrote:
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> Very impressive! Were those units former Erie? I
> see there is no dynamic brakes.

The lead unit is indeed ex Erie (first number 7 = ex Erie, first number 6 = ex D,L&W).  It was built with dynamic brakes but as they aged, Hornell removed them from many of the F units.

It looks like none of the units still has dynamics. IIRC, the Reading connection at Rupert was a source of traffic on this line and the Northumberland end was pretty light. That car looks sort of like a centerbeam flat. Any idea what it was used for?

Curious that none of the units have dynamic brake.

KG

Thanks for posting these! I grew up on this line. This line runs right behind my house. My dad used to be the CMO for the North Shore Railroad that now operates the line. I’d appreciate anymore picture you have of the area.

Alec

The ONE time we tried to chase this line in 1974, it was an A-B-GP9-A consist, which derailed (Plymouth might have been the location). Train in the other direction had a similar consist.

Thanks for that!

....and another ABBA group from 1974:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFk6-Mn-8yg

what;s not to LOVE about that proud and beautiful
look of the front of an F unit? Those are simply
stunning! Classy and elegant and proud! the Erie
paint scheme is nice, too -- looks good on them.
Thanks so much for capturing this beautiful set
of F units in the A-B-B-A configuration as, yes,
as God intended. Glorious!!

F units were so proud ad classy, no matter whose
paint scheme they wore.

Thanks so much for these great photos of some
wonderful locomotives!

kgmontreal Wrote:
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> Curious that none of the units have dynamic
> brake.
>
> KG

They were all built with dynamic brakes.  However, as they were withdrawn from road service, the feature was eliminated.  The long term outlook for the units was dim.  Had the EL survived, they would have been replace.  They had ordered 20 U23B's and 19 GP38-2's in 1974.  When they threw in the towel in January of 1975 (decided that they could not reorganize outside of Conrail) both orders were cancel.  The F's limped on but were largely in storage in Hornell by the end of 1975 early 1976.  Conrail reactivated some of them.

The Bloomsburg Branch (the line pictured here) had been covered by C424's until those units were transferred to Youngstown.  After the F's were stored, the "Bloom" was covered by sets of GP35's.  Traffic from the Reading interchange to Scranton was generally fairly heavy until the end. 

Do like a matched set of F's anytime I see them. But, revenue generation
on this train is nil. Or maybe they picked up a train later. Not very
financially efficient, that's for sure.

Nick Tharalson,
Marion, IA

ntharalson Wrote:
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> Do like a matched set of F's anytime I see them.
> But, revenue generation
> on this train is nil. Or maybe they picked up a
> train later. Not very
> financially efficient, that's for sure.
>
> Nick Tharalson,
> Marion, IA

At Rupert, PA, (were the last photo was taken) the train would make a big pickup from the Reading.  Traffic between Rupert to Northumberland could be light.