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Back in the day my hometown was served by 5 class 1 railroads.  The Erie being one of them.

These two Steamers were long before my time but both unique in their own right.

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One of the other 5-roads was the P&LE.  In the day the P&LE pulled the "Steel King" passenger train three times a day from Pittsburgh to the P&LE's terminus point in my hometown.  There they handed off their consist to the Erie with an additional Erie consist to continue on to Cleveland.  This is were the Erie used Alco RS-2's to pull the consist.  As I said three times a day in both directions.  The RS-2 was fitted with call and marker lights welded to small structural steel brackets.  This train to Cleveland is how I got to see the Indian's play ball.  Unfortunately none of our toy train makers make a RS-2 so this RS-3 has to be close enough.

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Than a somewhat standard freight diesel.   This is probably similar to the power pulling a hot metal car through town when the load was dumped at a road crossing.  Wish Rich Melvin would jump in here with the details of that event.

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Ron

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@Paul Kallus posted:

I appreciate Erie Steam Power...and Erie models by MTH and Lionel make up a good part of the heavy steam on my railroad.

Here's one of the short videos I made of Erie Steam: https://youtu.be/84OZA8UM9LI

BTW: "Erie Steam" - volume I has some great double and triple-heading action of Erie steam back in the day.

 

Paul Easier to view

@bluelinec4 posted:

Will 

is that layout in Columbia nj

Yes it is, or was. Looking for photos of this, I found out that there were still operating sessions at least until 2018. But unfortunately Harold died last December at the ripe old age of 98. I don't think I had seen him or the layout since the 90s. I expect the house has been sold and the layout dismantled by now. Railroad Model Craftsman was also in NE New Jersey, so a lot of the top HO guys like Tony Koester would show up there.

@Will posted:

Where are you from? Back in the 90s, I had the opportunity to operate and make a few structures for Harold Werthwein's Erie layout. He modeled Port Jervis to Binghamton. The layout was featured in many publications and is considered one of the great prototypical layouts. Here is a photo by John Edwards from 2007. Erie001

Will:

     When my sister and I were small, our parents took us to The Glenwood Hotel in Mill Rift (now Millrift), PA. Mill Rift was a flag stop for vacationers who were staying at the hotel and wanted to get back to the city. When I was 6 or 7, the station master(?) handed me the flag to flag down the next train so that the train would stop and the vacationers could go home. He sent me out on the tracks and I waved the flag back and forth a few times and then QUICKLY got off the tracks as the Erie diesel approached. I don't think that any railroad official would have a 6 or 7 year old do anything like that today! Liability? Danger? Death?

    I would sit up on the hotel property with my mother and count the cars on the freight trains as they went by. 100 or more cars was common. We even have picture of a steamer on those tracks from the early 50's. I believe I got my love of trains from the 3-4 years we stayed in Mill Rift.

   An Erie RS-3 would take us from New Jersey up to Port Jervis and the hotel would pick us up at the station and bring us to the hotel some five miles away, across the river.

    John

Nice stuff. I have a place reserved in my affections for Erie engines... but not just any Erie engine. No sirree... THESE Erie engines:

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Yup, the lowly little Lionel cast-frame FA's. I know they're not accurate models, I know the paint scheme is a foobie... but they have such a handsome simplicity that I find very appealing.

Unfortunately, I no longer own the above pair of Erie FA's. They were sold off some time ago.

Andre

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