Rich Melvin posted:I fired the 765 on that move. Gary Bensman was the engineer. The move took place a few days after several F5 tornadoes swept through the area. Due to all the slow orders in place that day because of the storms, it took 19 hours to get from Youngstown, Ohio to Buffalo, New York. Long day...
Thank You Rich for your input on this topic. I've heard many stories about the terrible events of that tornado outbreak that devastated places along that trackage, such as Atlantic. Having admired the 765 and the Erie Lackawanna for years, it's neat to know that one of my favorite steam locomotives traveled one of my favorite pieces of railroad, in my own backyard.
As most know, the former Erie Lackawanna properties fared very, very poorly under Conrail. By 1985 most of the through traffic between Hornell and Youngstown was gone along with most of the on line customers (Steel Mills). The line would have only seen local freights, coal traffic, and the few remaining through freights such as the trains between Elkhart and Oak Island.
