Passenger Trains > Pine Tree Limited was Quite a Sight (AAPRCO)

I had a window of opportunity to catch the Pine Tree Limited, the inbound special movement en route to the American Association of Private Railroad Car Owners convention to be held next week in Portland, Maine.

The train departed Chicago on Thursday morning and got caught up in the NS congestion across Indiana and Ohio. It spent the night in Cleveland and was due to depart for Binghamton, N.Y., at oh six hundred. That is awfully early and still very dark.

So I picked up a friend and we headed for Conneaut. Interestingly, the former Nickel Plate Road route used by the special from Cleveland to Buffalo, N.Y., is about five minutes or less from my friend's home in Painesville and its trestle over the Grand River. But we thought it might still be fairly dark when the train passed that location and thus we headed to Conneaut in search of the sunrise.

As it turned out, it probably was light enough in Painesville when Amtrak 040 came through there. At any rate, we waited near Conneaut Creek to get these images of the train. It rumbled across the bridge here at about 9:08 a.m.

(Photo 1): The train was pulled by three Amtrak P42 locomotives with No. 44 in the lead. Trailing behind the power is ex-New York Central "Babbling Brook."

(Photo 2): Although I photographed all of the cars on the train in one way or another, I'll just post a few selections. The feature car is ex-Great Northern "City of Spokane" followed by a pair of domes.

(Photo 3): The silver car on the right is the "Mount Vernon," which I photographed earlier this year going westward on a very late Lake Shore Limited.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/19/14 11:28 by SDP40F600.

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(Photo 4): Of course I am going to show the Iowa Pacific car in the Illinois Central inspired livery given that the IC is my all-time favorite railroad. Look carefully and you'll seen a patron in the vestibule window photographing the valley. I was surprised that there were not more passengers on the porches of the open platform cars.

(Photo 5): Dome cars were well represented in the consist.

(Photo 6): And the "Georgia" brought up the rear.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/19/14 11:28 by SDP40F600.

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Thanks for showing these photos. A couple of questions, 1st how high is that trestle bridge? 2nd what is the speed limit over the trestle?
Thanks,
Robert.

Bridge is @85' high over the CN (Bessemer), and @95' over
Conneaut Creek. Speed limit, per the track chart is 50
as are the other similar bridges. However, at Conneaut,
the 20 mph limit for Conneaut Yard governs.

Thanks for the information.
Robert

Private cars shown in Photo 3 are (Left to Right) Cannonball, Dover Harbor, Dearing, Mount Vernon.
Great photos !

Kevin Moore, on board the Dearing

Posted from iPhone

question for the experts... why would you connect the first car backwards to the engine and waste the wonderful round seating and viewing that is there? Wouldn't it be a little better if in the normal direction? TIA

The "Chessie Dome" is extraordinary!!!! What a special car and I love the Orange name board. WELL DONE!

TrainRidingGal Wrote:
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> question for the experts... why would you connect
> the first car backwards to the engine and waste
> the wonderful round seating and viewing that is
> there? Wouldn't it be a little better if in the
> normal direction? TIA

My guess would be for passenger access to the rest of the train.