Midweek Photos 9/6/2017

The Opening Ceremony took place at 10:00.  Steamtown Superintendent Debbie Conway welcomes everyone to the action. 

Next up is the color guard.  Looking over the years, we have had an interesting array of flag bearers.  Sometimes Civil War reenactors, other times World War II, last year the boy scouts.  This year it was University of Scranton ROTC. 

The National Anthem was sung by Kristal Rose, who has been singing this and other patriotic songs since the early days of Railfest.

In a program of many highlights, Debbie Conway signed a partnership agreement with the recently formed and approved Iron Horse Society of Steamtown.  This is a charitable foundation with express purpose of raising funds as a Steamtown partner.  In the black cap is Society president Norman Barrett, joined by VP Dominick Tardogno.  Both are longtime volunteers at Steamtown.

Grand Marshal for the 2017 Railfest is Tom Nemeth, who is publisher and one of the editors at Railpace Newsmagazine. 

The Lackawanna Historical Society awards a local person for taking an active role in historic preservation.  They call it the Alan Sweeney award.  This year, the award was received by president of the Lackawanna & Wyoming Valley Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society, Vee Pauli.  She was speechless. 

Amtrak's K9 unit from the Philadelphia railroad station came to demonstrate their prowess in sniffing out potential bombs.  

Part of Railfest is the excursion to Moscow, PA.  We hold a photo run-by at the station.  This is really cool when you compare the shots taken over the years.  Which locomotives are featured, the crowd's reaction and all that.

Steam stars of the past were highlighted in the roundhouse.  For several years, both Canadian National 3254 (left) and Canadian Pacific 2317 (center) held down all of the tasks for Steamtown trains.  2317 has sat idle since 2010 and 3254 has been quiet since 2012.  On the right is 0-6-0T no. 3 from the EJ Lavino construction company in Sheridan, PA.

That is it for me this week.  Next week, I will post some of my Sunday photos. 

Now for the very ordinary..

Labor Day at the CSX Keyser Yard.

Coal waits for crew to go east

3040 also has coal and another loco tied to her.

Look at 3040's cab..looks almost like fire damage. Wonder what happened.

That's the other three locos behind the first train in this post.

Kiss'in Cousins!

The 3021 sits almost where a B&O mike sat in an old B&O photo, that is with the outcrop on the hill in the background. 3021 sits in WVA, the outcrop, "Qeens Point" is in Maryland, with the Potomac in between.

And we close with this last shot. The tanks, for used motor oil and diesel fuel, is for maintenance  vehicles.

Nice to finally get out a little, and a very nice day.

As usual, click on photos for large version.

Ed

Visitor to the CSX main on a nice day in Pittsburgh, PA along the Ohio River.

Water-cooled wheels?

AVR GP40 4003 trails slug 405 and GP40 4005 on the southbound AVR-3 to Washington, PA. The train is crossing a private lane adjacent to Lutes Road. The ex-B&O telegraph poles still stand on this part of the line. 

A week later, 4003 now leads the train at the same location from the opposite side of the tracks. 

I didn't get a chance to edit these properly yet, but I have to share. Last Wednesday, the Allentown and Auburn Railroad officially became a freight railroad. We are going to be receiving at least one covered hopper a week to be shipped to the other end of the line to be transloaded. This was the first of many freight moves with what we figure is probably the oldest diesel locomotive in freight service in the US. As everyone wanted to be on crew for the first move, I stepped aside to take photos. Here are a few of them (quick edits, as I didn't have a chance to properly fix any of them, and the light was bad).

At our Topton shop. 

Crossing Kohler Rd at Swoyers. 

Passing the Kutztown Station and our Ex CNJ Coach #1161

Placing the car

The Santa Fe sign at IRMlast Saturday night; photo by my wife. It was installed for many years on the roof of the Railway Exchange Building on Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago. That's the trolley bus loop in the foreground.

Thank you, everyone for your contributions. Very interesting takes on the railroads around us.