Nostalgia & History > PA in Lowlight

Thought today's section needed some Eastern content and I haven't seen any lowlight pix lately for Lance so this takes care of both needs. 

1)  D&H PAs and Reading U30C in Hagerstown MD yard on Feb 6, 1972.  I was a passenger on the NRHS excursion pulled by Reading 4-8-4 #2102 that day that was making a circle trip on the Western Maryland from Baltimore to Hagerstown via Hanover PA, then back to Baltimore via the mainline.  The passenger cars from the excursion can be seen on the right.  Western Maryland just let all the passengers wander all around the Hagerstown engine facility, and the PAs were the featured guests!  I was shooting K25 with my old rangefinder Konica, so sharpness is not the primary feature of this shot, given the dwindling light. 

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The WM shop forces referred to all the fan-related & the classic loco activities at their shops as:
"Hagerstown Hobby Shop".  
With good reason.

Some momentous & memorable trips originated out of there.

Was a wonderful facility, and had very skilled and capable foremen
and workers.  We felt very welcomed there.

​W.

 

dwatry Wrote: > ... haven't seen any lowlight pix lately for Lance ...

With Don currently out of the Low Light loop (pun fully intended) I’ve been keeping a lowly-lit profile (pun fully intended). I’m sure we’ll proceed to get Low again, once he gets disentangled from the doctors...

Posted from iPhone

Never fear - I have tons of murky shots from my first few years using 35mm!

I also got less than perfect photos on that unfortgettable day. (My photo)

Art House

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And , We are still glad that you "shot" that power! 
Art (wag216)

I about fell out of my chair when I saw this first picture. This was probably the most memorable railfan trip I ever took
in my life. I have pretty much the exact slides. As a young teenager at the time, I couldn't believe my good fortune when
my parents allowed me to join my cousin in meeting up with a friend of his who was in the army at the time, and stationed 
near Baltimore.

My cousin's friend was associated with the group that was running the 2102; and when we arrived in Baltimore late that afternoon,
we spent about three hours aboard the 2102 that evening as he tended to keeping the fire hot. It was a bitter cold weekend, and I
remember the cab of the 2102 being just so completely warm and pleasant.

We chased the train that Saturday, and rode it on Sunday. Took the Southern Crescent back to NYC on Monday morning. And while
the 2102 was simply amazing, as were the FA's, and the Western Maryland Rwy in general, the icing on the cake was finally seeing
the PA's in person for the first time. They were just gorgeous engines, bar none.

I still enjoy the extensive tape recordings I made that weekend and the hundreds of slides I took. One recording has just the 
pair of FA helpers running ahead of the train. The sound of the double Nathan M's on those engines is still mesmerizing. No
question, the finest trip I ever experienced. Thanks for posting this.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/22/21 19:05 by Ondaora20.

My friend Brian and I rode the Silver Meteor up from Alexandria in the morning, and somehow made our way to Port Covington, where the excursion left from.  I have no recollection of whether we took a bus or what.  When the excursion got back to Baltimore, we had to somehow get back to Penn Station in a hurry, and we caught the last train of the evening (The Free State, I think it was) back to Washington.  We were both 16 so it was quite an adventurous day!