Nostalgia & History > Colonie, New York - 1975

A trio from a February, 1975 visit.

Delaware & Hudson ALCo C628 609 sits outside the shop at Colonie, New York.

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A small deadline with a pair of ALCo RS shells in primer and boxcar trucks, a Republic Steel centercab and another ALCo RS.

Colonie, New York.
February, 1975.

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D&H dome car 35, "Willsboro Point.

Watervliet, New York.
February, 1975.

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overniteman Wrote:
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> D&H dome car 35, "Willsboro Point.
>
> Watervliet, New York.
> February, 1975.

...which is really a Skyline dome on lease from the CP.  Prior to that, Amtrak had assigned ex-Wabash dome coaches which the D&H or NYDOT “localized” by repainting the red Amtrak stripe to yellow.

Dave

Those gray RS3 hulks are ex-B&M. D&H traded a pair of its RS3's for two B&M's with steam generators to substitute for the PA's when they were being sent to M-K to be rebuilt for the Adirondack. I don't know what the story was with the pair in your photo, though.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/12/19 08:34 by CPR_4000.

Great, thanks for posting.

Steve Sloan, San Jose, CA

Colonie was a railfan goldmine! I remember having to pay a dollar to get into the facility. Tey never knew it but I would have paid a lot more! Nice post.

Bill Rettberg
Bel Air, MD

These are great!! Thank you for sharing them.

overniteman Wrote:
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> A small deadline with a pair of ALCo RS shells in
> primer and boxcar trucks, a Republic Steel
> centercab and another ALCo RS.
>
> Colonie, New York.
> February, 1975.

The Republic Steel switcher was from the then closed Troy, NY Republic steel  plant.  It had a blast furnace and I believe, made mostly merchant pig iron that went to other Republic plants and buyers.  They also had Bessemer Converters on the site and produced steel in some form. I remember that along the tracks in many places in the Republic Steel yard, and the NYC yard, there were iron pigs lying around that seemed to have spilled from cars. 

For decades there was a huge long and  tall slag pile along the Hudson from that plant... The whole thing was shuttered in the early 70's or maybe even the late 60's....it was originally the Burden Iron Works..pieces of that survive as abandoned relics to this day....

I remember going to my grandparent's home in south Troy, which was a few streets east of the blast furnace...directly opposite it. You could hear the roar of the Bessemer converters when they ran them....my Dad used to take me to the Albany Station on wednesday nights when I was a kid, to pick up his paycheck (he worked for the NYC)....and if you took the Albany-Troy via Watervliet bus...(United Traction Co.) if you sit on the left side of the bus going south through Watervliet on the west side of the river (Troy is on the east side) , you could see the bright orange flame and sparks from the Bessemer Converter blowing on the opposite shore toward the river...The river was about 200 years wide there. 

Those Whitcomb, ex-Army Transportation Corps centercab switchers were frequently seein working  in steel mills...and industrial plants...now there..... is a fine HO model to make....

Bob