Nostalgia & History > Last NYC steam @ Pleasantville NY

Last steam powered passenger train (#18) on NYC Harlem Division at Pleasantville. Sept. 11, 1952.(Scrapped shortly after). Engineer Arthur Barrett. Class K-11e built by Schenectady 1912.
rrChuck/Las Vegas

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So nice to see something from my own past life.

Originally from White Plains on the southern, electrified, portion of the Harlem Division, we used to ride up to Pleasantville to see steam in action. Now residing in Pleasanton, CA I regularly see UP and derivative equipment passing through town.

Hope they don't underground the line as they did in Pleasantville.

Interesting picture to see; I just passed through Pleasantville yesterday (I currently live about 15 minutes north on the Harlem)...sad that the Central killed steam so early, and the LIRR by 1955. The SP lasted until 1958 with the big Northerns on the last commute trains.

Go to Pleasantville today and all you'll see is shiny electric MU cars...and a few Genesis-hauled trains en route to Wassaic in the mornings and evenings.

-Ed Kelley
ON TRACK with Ed Kelley http://www.bjwrr.com/ontrack/

There really was a place named, Pleasantville?!!!! Recall the recent fantasy tv movie series called "Return to Pleasantville" or something similar?

Con

Still IS a place named Pleasantville! Used to be the home of Reader's Digest magazine.

Seeing NYC steam photos on this site is quite a treat. But this photo has a certain California style. Isn't that a Spanish tile roof on the passenger shed? Does tile shed snow?

OnTrackEd Wrote:
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Ed,
Yes, I keep track of MN (used to work on the Harlem in the 60's). Got pix of their new M-7 cars, etc. I will be posting some more old steam shots (some really, really old!).
Chuck/Las Vegas
>
> Go to Pleasantville today and all you'll see is
> shiny electric MU cars...and a few Genesis-hauled
> trains en route to Wassaic in the mornings and
> evenings.
>
> -Ed Kelley
> ON TRACK with Ed Kelley
> http://www.bjwrr.com/ontrack/

xtra1188w Wrote:
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> There really was a place named, Pleasantville?!!!!
> Recall the recent fantasy tv movie series called
> "Return to Pleasantville" or something similar?
>
You kidding?<G> Pleasantville New York, New Jersey, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Ohio...........

lowwater

The one in NJ is right outside of Atlantic City. It's the first town on the mainland if you leave AC on US40.

Thanks for sharing!

I'm sure this info may be available elsewhere, but how much remaining NYC steam is out there? I know of the 2 Mohawks, one in St. Louis and one in Elkhart, IN. Those are the 2 biggest survivors, any smaller members of the family?

Smaller NYC steam? There's a 2-8-0 in Fairview Oklahoma, a Michigan Central 4-4-2 at Greenfield Village in Dearborn Michigan and the 999 4-4-0 at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. There are also two 0-6-0s, one is at Connersville,Indiana and I forget where the other one is. There may also be an ancient 4-4-0 in South America. The Central Headlight magazine of the NYCSHS published a list in the past 20 years. The 0-6-0 that was at Hagerstown, Maryland is the one at Connersville. Is the other 0-6-0 still in Dayton?'

I believe the NKP 587 was also built for the LE&W while it was part of the New York Central Lines.

Edit:
I forgot to mention ex LS&MS 780/NYC 2-8-0 5780 in remote Northern Maine and former Chicago, Hammond & Western (IHB predecessor) 4-6-0 sitting right next to it. I saw and photographed both locos years ago when I went up there by canoe for a Trains magazine article on the last LS&MS loco (I wrote). I also photographed and recorded the boiler number on the 2-8-0 and it matched up with the late Bill Edson's federal boiler records. Despite, there are some Rutland fans that still think that one or both locos are former Rutland locos. Not true.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 08/28/11 20:56 by wabash2800.

As wmshawk mentions, the railroad was lowered through Pleasantville, although I don't know when. The station survives as the Iron Horse Grill; if you look at a mapping program, you'll see that the access to the lowered tracks is through stairs and an elevator right in front of the old station.

Also, as rrchuck says, Readers Digest was headquartered in Pleasantville. But not really. Its mailing address was Pleasantville, but the Readers Digest campus (it was a collection of buildings) is actually north of Pleasantville, on the north side of Chappaqua, the next train station north of Pleasantville. You can still see it on Bedford Rd., north of Chappaqua. The founder, DeWitt Wallace, believed firmly in positive thinking, and that effort permeated everything he did with the magazine, so the magazine's mailing address was listed as Pleasantville, NY.

That part of Westchester County just north of NYC, next to the Hudson River is very nice.
Know two Abq sisters whose big, family, colonial house on a hill is in nearby Briarcliff Manor.
The Clintons own a big old mansion in Chappaqua.
Sing Sing prison is between the Amtrak mainline to Albany and the river at Ossining.
An interesting area.