Passenger Trains > When Superdomes roamed the streets of Utica, NY

Just discovered a long-lost VHS tape from 1982 which had the attached on it - a New York, Susquehanna, and Western passenger special, sponsored by the Utica and Mohawk Valley Rail Historical Society between Utica (street boarding beside the West End/Utica Club/Saranac Brewery) and Sangerfield. The former Auto-Train superdomes promised a great ride (except on most of them the A/C was not fully functioning ... it was more pleasant in the cab where I was fireman for the day). Here are the slightly deteriorated images (time is not a friend of VHS tapes) of that day now long ago in another millennium. 

For those who do not know, the former DL&W tracks in Utica, after leaving Utica Union Station to the west, swung 90 degree south through their round house area, crossed NY 5S and several other streets at grade, and then did street running down Schuyler Street for about a mile before heading toward Binghamton.  That section of street running is still in service - lots of great videos of that current service on the Railroad Rambler site on YouTube,



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/06/21 06:06 by RevRandy.

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Tragically, pancreatic cancer killed Walter Rich, and the entire Central NY NYS&W passenger excursion operation, the Marathon Maple Festival train being the last to go. 

My father, office engineer at Utica, worked extenstively with Walter.  That was how I ended up firing on that special.

joemvcnj Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Tragically, pancreatic cancer killed Walter Rich,
> and the entire Central NY NYS&W passenger
> excursion operation, the Marathon Maple Festival
> train being the last to go. 

AC on the ex-AT domes was often a problem. 

I was on one of those runs! The AC was MIA and it was a very hot ride indeed up to Richfield Junction and back. Thanks for posting this video, Randy!

Posted from iPhone

Street boarding on Schuyler St. next to F.X. Matt.  It don't get any better.
/Ted

Around 1981 or 82, I rode an excursion from Binghamton to Syracuse State Fair. The consist was an ex-LIRR C420, 2 Santa Fe full length domes, some sort of snack car, and 2 ex-CNJ open window coaches. I spent little time in the dome cars - no AC. I think Susquehanna may have sold them to an entity in Alaska. Some of GN and ATSF cars around now have new AC compressor on the roof.