Nostalgia & History > Lets send the junk to Grafton.

Chessie was slowly becoming a GP40-2 haven in the late 70s, and older power was starting a slow decent into the history books. Cumberland was drowning in a sea of circus colors, but every now and then they could pull one out of their hats and put a "chase it to the top" combo. Most likey this photo is showing one of the products of a older geep removal of the day process in 1978. Figuring out horsepower to tonnage ratios for the old west end to Grafton  WVa., someone in the shop lashed 4 GP9s and 2 GP7s together, getting as much "junk" out of the terminal as they could. Once on the road, if everything was still working after going up and down four major grades on the way west, they would let the shop people at Grafton figure out how to get them back east. Train is just leaving the west end of the yard at Cumberland, and yes I did chase it to the top of Seventeen Mile grade, and yes they did get a helper at Keyser WVA. I assume they eventually saw Grafton.

Bill Rettberg
Bel Air, MD



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/12/19 03:12 by Roadjob.

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Classic stuff. That must have been quite an adventure for that crew!

Cool lashup! At that late date I can only wonder how many bells might have been ringing in that consist... ;^)

Lance/199

This is a beautiful example of photographic time travel. You caught the train in an interesting scene. From the houses on the hill that look like they are accessed by a dirt road to the plant with its unused siding and finally to the yard, there are so many details. An "A+" image.
Bob

There's no junk there. Keep sending them over . i would give anything to hear them again.

Randy

I bet the engineer loved having the db units back in the consist where he couldn't use them. Sure they were empties, but still, dynamics would have been nice to have.

What a great shot. No smoke at all, so MAYBE no problems.
JB

 Fantastic !  Yes, I would have chased that one too !  Bet it sounded pretty sweet on 17 Mile Grade.

What a power cocnsist for 1978!  A solid set of first generation GP's.
Actually, first two units are GP7's without dynamic brakes.  Would have thought they would have been in trailing positions. 
The last four units all have dynamic brakes.  Unit Three is B&O #6575, a GP9.  Unit Four is a WM GP9.
Unit Five & Unit Six - Cannot identify on my 10" screen.
ALLEN