Eastern Railroad Discussion > Last B&LE unit standing...

With the recent departure of B&LE 905 for parts unknown, the last B&LE unit assigned to regular road service on it's home railroad is SD38AC 867 (it's sister 868 is assigned to the dock at Conenaut and rarely leaves the port). 867 still holds a semi regular assignment in the more or less thrice weekly L518/L519 south end local. With last Saturday giving a brief sunny respite from the spring rain, I made my way out to catch it returning to its home base in Shenango.
1. I knew the local was down at Butler finishing working at AK, and figured the daily ore train was likely in the picture as well, so I decided to stake out t the signal bridge on the doubletrack north of Branchton to see what would happen. I didn't have long to wait before the ore showed up behin the standard set of IC SD70's.
2. I mistakenly thought he was continuing south and decided I'd shoot him coming through the big cut at Euclid. What I failed to realize is they were stopping to meet the local which was now on its way north! I no sooner had parked the car at Euclid when the northbound local popped out out the cut of the summit of the grade from Butler with a decent sized train.
3. Unfortunatley, the meet would take place in a spot that can't be reached without a hike, so I jumped ahead to wait at the north end of the double track at Carter.

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4. Even though the B&LE has officially been gone for 15 years, other small reminders of the past are still to be found. WItness this small crossing identifier at the country road near Kelsey.
5 & 6. The L519 rolling through the junction at Kelsey, taking the "Low Line" towards Shenango.

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Your last photo is excellent and should is a strong candidate for Image Of The Day.

7. Having put the train away in the yard at Shehango, the power gets set to make a couple last moves before heading to the shops.
8. Change is eternal. What are purportedly new ore service hoppers have started arriving in Shenango. Rumors are circulating that these and future deliveries will replace the tired old B&LE steel hoppers currently in the service. The B&LE mark lives on though, and the recent announcement that US Steel is undertaking a massive modernization project at the Edgar Thomson works in Braddock (the destination of all the ore) would seem to indicate the operation of the railroad is pretty secure.

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Great photos, especially with the searchlight signals!

All great shots my friend!! Sad to see the orange and black slowly disappearing.

Jon

Posted from iPhone

Very nice shots!

Awesome shots!!

Dig those class lights!

Excellent coverage.
Bob

Great shots? Any idea why CN continues to hold onto this property, considering it is isolated from the rest of the CN system? Could it connect with CN if the W&LE were someday purchased?

Thank you in advance.

Nice photos; might be one of the last bastions of search light signals in the US (I'm assuming they are probably safe and that PTC isn't going to happen here?).

Curious, it looks like heavy duty CTC on this line, does the traffic levels now justify the CTC and double track?

spwolfmtn Wrote:
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> Nice photos; might be one of the last bastions of
> search light signals in the US (I'm assuming they
> are probably safe and that PTC isn't going to
> happen here?).
>
> Curious, it looks like heavy duty CTC on this
> line, does the traffic levels now justify the CTC
> and double track?

Thanks. The CTC is probably unnecessary at this point, honestly. B&LE obviously used to run a lot more trains "back in the day" but closures of most of the mills and coal sources it served have really curtailed traffic, and the SD70's have allowed them to run some longer trains, which cuts down on the overall number of trains they run (back in the SD40 era it wasn't unusual to see a second ore train a few days per week).. They pretty much run an ore train and corresponding empties each way every day, the local to Butler 3 days a week, and a few other miscellaneaous extra runs here and there, so its a pretty empty railroad. There really isn't much true double track main left, really just this section between Keisters and Carter. Most of the rest of the double track was pulled up in the early 90's, and they left CTC controlled sidings at enough other stretgic points for the rare meets that do occur.

Congratulations on Image Of The Day!

Very nice work and catches. Congrats on IOTD.

PQM

Nice series, thanks for posting.  

I understand this is the last unit on BLE rails, but what about the ones tht went to the DM&IR.  I photographed a couple of them
two years ago.  Are they still in BLE paint or have they gotten the black and red?  

Nick Tharalson,
Marion, IA

ntharalson Wrote:
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> Nice series, thanks for posting.  
>
> I understand this is the last unit on BLE rails,
> but what about the ones tht went to the DM&IR.  I
> photographed a couple of them
> two years ago.  Are they still in BLE paint or
> have they gotten the black and red?  
>
> Nick Tharalson,
> Marion, IA

I don’t really know about the others. i get the sense some are on the J, others are on the Missabe, and the rest just roam the system.

Posted from iPhone

Excellent series of photos. Thanks for sharing. Love the spring vibe, interesting light. 

Excellent photos and coverage DJ-12. Nice spot to hang out at that signal bridge north of Branchton.

Great work Mikey!  Your composition gets better and better.  Awesome stuff!

~RGDave