Eastern Railroad Discussion > Delaware Lackawanna Office Car Special Saturday 9/13

From a couple weeks ago....

On Saturday, September 13, the owners of the Delaware-Lackawanna railroad operated an office car special to show off their recently repainted former Erie Lackawanna C425s.  Both units come to the DL in BC rail green in 1993, the 2461 (811) at that time, immediately received an EL-inspired painting at that time, while the 2452 (802) ran for about a year or so before getting its EL colors.   After 30 years of service (and some cosmetic touch-ups over the years) on the DL, the owners decided to repaint them in authentic EL colors, with the 2452 getting the 70;s look with the Erie Lackawanna lettering in yellow in the maroon stripe, which the 2461 got the mid-60s as deliver scheme with "Erie Lackawanna" in maroon above the stripe.

The 2452 had been out and about, including displayed at Steamtown's Railfest over Labor Day weekend, along with their recently heritage repainted D&H RS3 4068.

This trip was the 2461's debut, and the trainset, which included the recently restored Alco PA4 190 (Doyle McCormack's unit), started out from the DL's Von Storch shops / former-D&H Green Ridge yard, reversed to Steamtown where it headed east to East. Stroudsburg PA on the former DLW / EL line through the Pocono mountain range in PA.    The power was arranged to the 190 would lead east, and the 2452 would lead back west.   

I was tied up with other things in the morning, but I intercepted the return trip where the train was stopped at the former station in Cresco, PA for static photos and a run-by.   The first photo here is at Cresco, while the secnd and third are at Tobyhanna, PA. 

---

---

---

Next we see them popping out of Nay Aug tunnel back at Scranton, and finally back at the DL shops in the Green Ridge area of Scranton.

---

---

---

And finally, three videos from the same locations...

You must be a registered subscriber to watch videos. Join Today!

They sure do beautiful paint work! I guess you need to be on facebook to find out about these things today. I'm only a few hours away but only find out about this stuff afterwards. Same for those great trains in Salem NJ. Facebook just isn't an option for me.
I guess I'll get over it.
Thanks for the great posts!
Gonut

This one wasn't even 'advertised' on Facebook.    Private event for family and friends.   I didn't learn of it until the morning of the trip.

Gonut1 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> They sure do beautiful paint work! I guess you
> need to be on facebook to find out about these
> things today. I'm only a few hours away but only
> find out about this stuff afterwards. Same for
> those great trains in Salem NJ. Facebook just
> isn't an option for me.
> I guess I'll get over it.
> Thanks for the great posts!
> Gonut
 

Great stuff Sam! Nothing like the sight and sounds of Alco’s!!

The fresh paint sure does look great too!

Dan

Posted from iPhone

Sam,

Not sure why the stealth but disappointing for this big fan of D-L. I'm glad you are with the "In crowd" at least we get to see second hand. So sad really.
Little incentive today for me to railfan. I guess this is why I really stopped railfanning after my kids grew up, left home and my railfan friend passed away. It just seems so exclusive and unfriendly. It was bad enough when everything became trespassing when NS moved in.
I really hate the current railfanning environment but appreciated those who are still privileged to be able to "attend" and post these photos.
I never thought I'd be so excluded from railfanning as I feel today. I'm just not sure why it is but whatever. Thank you for sharing your option to share these exclusive events offered to you and those "special" others.
Again so sad for the general railfanning community.

Gonut
 

Very, very nice photos and videos.  Thanks for sharing them with all of us.
John in White Marsh, Maryland

2 EL road units together is a sight for sore eyes for this former EL employee.   The olher EL painted units are nice, but we almost never operated road trains with a single unit.   This is just really great to see, almost 50 years later.   And out on the road operating, not sitting in a museum. Hats off to those at the DL who made this possible.
 

Great coverage, and those units look wonderful to this unabashed Alco and EL fan.  One thing that stands out to me (and this is not in any way intended as a "nit pick") is that the horns have been relocated from the original (and most would say, "oddball") EL mounting location.  Here's the 2452 at Marion (OH) in NOV 72 for a comparison.  There is a discussion of the EL horn placement on George Ellwood's site, for those who might be interested: https://www.rr-fallenflags.org/el/ops/horns.html

mike woodruff
north platte ne

---

whether u intend to nit pick or not,  even mentioning the horn placement is nit picking.   Discretion is a good thing to learn. 

 

Gonut1 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Sam,
>
> Not sure why the stealth but disappointing for
> this big fan of D-L. I'm glad you are with the "In
> crowd" at least we get to see second hand. So sad
> really.
> Little incentive today for me to railfan. I guess
> this is why I really stopped railfanning after my
> kids grew up, left home and my railfan friend
> passed away. It just seems so exclusive and
> unfriendly. It was bad enough when everything
> became trespassing when NS moved in.
> I really hate the current railfanning environment
> but appreciated those who are still privileged to
> be able to "attend" and post these photos.
> I never thought I'd be so excluded from
> railfanning as I feel today. I'm just not sure why
> it is but whatever. Thank you for sharing your
> option to share these exclusive events offered to
> you and those "special" others.
> Again so sad for the general railfanning
> community.
>
> Gonut
I feel ya there. I worked at the DL some years ago so I'll always have a special spot for it. To this day I know two guys in T&E there and I knew nothing about this. Knowing the SOP, it was surely mandatory to keep it secret to keep the foamage down.
These days, and you're 100% correct, you have to be on FB and/or be an "in guy" with a crowd to find these things out in advance. Pretty damn sad state of affairs but I can say I always shared my knowledge over the years, that's just not how they do it anymore.

Amazing photos!! Even though we don't always like to photograph under overcast skies, I love how you were able to incorporate overcast views of the train as well. 

As I stated earlier, this was a private trip for the GVT chairman, family, and friends. I learned of it that morning and headed north in time to catch the return.

Andy Mueller has been known to do the same thing on the Reading and Northern with no public announcement, I'm sure it is done elsewhere.


Dispatcher68 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Gonut1 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Sam,
> >
> > Not sure why the stealth but disappointing for
> > this big fan of D-L. I'm glad you are with the
> "In
> > crowd" at least we get to see second hand. So
> sad
> > really.
> > Little incentive today for me to railfan. I
> guess
> > this is why I really stopped railfanning after
> my
> > kids grew up, left home and my railfan friend
> > passed away. It just seems so exclusive and
> > unfriendly. It was bad enough when everything
> > became trespassing when NS moved in.
> > I really hate the current railfanning
> environment
> > but appreciated those who are still privileged
> to
> > be able to "attend" and post these photos.
> > I never thought I'd be so excluded from
> > railfanning as I feel today. I'm just not sure
> why
> > it is but whatever. Thank you for sharing your
> > option to share these exclusive events offered
> to
> > you and those "special" others.
> > Again so sad for the general railfanning
> > community.
> >
> > Gonut
> I feel ya there. I worked at the DL some years ago
> so I'll always have a special spot for it. To this
> day I know two guys in T&E there and I knew
> nothing about this. Knowing the SOP, it was surely
> mandatory to keep it secret to keep the foamage
> down.
> These days, and you're 100% correct, you have to
> be on FB and/or be an "in guy" with a crowd to
> find these things out in advance. Pretty damn sad
> state of affairs but I can say I always shared my
> knowledge over the years, that's just not how they
> do it anymore.

Thank you for pointing that out and for sharing the link with additional background on clearance restrictions on the EL in Cleveland and on the former DL&W electrified lines. I had no idea about the clearance restriction in Cleveland, and there was some background on the clearance issues on the electrified lines that was new information for me.I'm sure it was an interesting challenge for Conrail to keep clearance-restricted locomotives off of some lines.

As an example of what can go wrong - 20 years ago, a former CP Alco C424 touched the trolley wire while being moved by SEPTA to the West Chester Railroad http://www.trainweb.org/phillynrhs/RPOTD050421.htmlThe photos at that link show the trolley wire resting atop the exhaust stack.

Does anyone know where the EL locomotives were rebuilt after leaving Conrail? On the British Columbia Railway these units had ditch lights in the short hood (the blanking plates are visible), and there might have been other electrical changes too. 



swaool Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Great coverage, and those units look wonderful to
> this unabashed Alco and EL fan.  One thing that
> stands out to me (and this is not in any way
> intended as a "nit pick") is that the horns have
> been relocated from the original (and most would
> say, "oddball") EL mounting location.  Here's the
> 2452 at Marion (OH) in NOV 72 for a comparison. 
> There is a discussion of the EL horn placement on
> George Ellwood's site, for those who might be
> interested: https://www.rr-fallenflags.org/el/ops
> /horns.html
>
> mike woodruff
> north platte ne

I love it.

*/ superauthentic mode ON

The quibbler in me does want to know if the paint shop matched the colors with the EL spec, and if there exists a Pantone equivalent.

*/ superauthentic mode OFF

TBH, like Mike, I'm just diggin' we have Alcos with fresh EL paint on the rails today.

Replicating paint colors made with processes and pigments that is unavailable today is a whole subject unto itself. There is a (very long) thread on Railway Preservation News that goes deep into the topic: https://www.rypn.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=41938&sid=d84ad13f7ed55cc22eba0926f615a374

Seeing these units on their home mainline like it is 1970 is amazing! Thank you to sscannella for being there to capture the moment to share with us!!!

KurtBWNews Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I love it.
>
> */ superauthentic mode ON
>
> The quibbler in me does want to know if the paint
> shop matched the colors with the EL spec, and if
> there exists a Pantone equivalent.
>
> */ superauthentic mode OFF
>
> TBH, like Mike, I'm just diggin' we have Alcos
> with fresh EL paint on the rails today.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/02/25 11:38 by rrhistorian.

Looks nice, but horns on the cab right above the Engineer are a pain in the ears, if not the butt, for the poor Engineer ! === === = === JLH