Post your Bessemer and Lake Erie photos here!!!

Sam:

 

Here’s one of my not-so-common B&LE freight cars.

 

Bill

 

 

I got 4 of these babies!! Older pic showing 3 though...

I have many pieces of B&LE equipment. Several Custom.

Thom- love seeing your customs! I'm making a custom load for the Westinghouse gondola I picked up from you. I'll email you a pic when I'm done.

I did the Sand car,the engines I had done. I am not that good of a painter.

Nice to see, guys!

 

Anybody got this B&LE bridge on their layout?

 

 

 

George

Just waited for a southbound to go by at North Butler this evening.  I can't get used to seeing those CN units pulling the train.  While the B&LE is just over the hill from my home, I don't have any digital photos.  I need to scan some of mine.  

 

From my HO days. 

 

 

Unfortunately, I don't have any B&LE models. However, I do have some old photos of B&LE 643.  

bess gon a painted and lettered. at the mill !

A B&LE box i did right out of the shop !

Once upon a time I had these cars on our layout.

No models but lots of prototype photos and videos. i quit when CN took over. They run near my house but mostly at night.

I talked with Glen Campbell at a 2 rail show in November,2014, at which time he still owned the 643. Not sure that even he knows what will be her outcome.

 

I had an aunt and uncle that had a small farm near Grove City and my mother and I would visit for a week or so every summer. Their house was about 1/4 mile from the Bessemer main line. I was assigned the living room couch to sleep on which faced the tracks. Ore trains usually had one 2-10-4 on the front and either one or two 2-10-4 helpers on the rear.

 

Right alongside the tracks was a quarry used as a swimming hole, and one day a 2-10-4 went by with a short freight. I was used to seeing them from a distance and still recall how huge the one I saw close up was. Normally, I saw B&O and PRR 2-8-2's, 4-6-2's and 4-8-2's. The B&LE 2-10-4 was mammoth. I have a Sunset B&LE 2-10-4 to help recall those experiences.

I saw a couple of IC units parked in Butler this summer.  That is the first I saw.  I wondered if CN owns them.  Yes they were as drab as could be.

Here is a Weaver B&LE tofc custom run for Len's train Shop.  I believe there were either 4 or 6 different road numbers.  Sorry for the poor photos.  I also have a Sunset/3RD RAIL B&LE 2-10-4, number 643 but it's packed away right now.

 

Also shown is a Weaver 70 ton, 3 bay hopper.  There were either 6 or 12 different road numbers.

 

Nick

Back in the 80s and 90s the Bessemer would run their "mine run" every afternoon to North Bessemer. If I was working in the Allegheny Valley area I would wait and chase it from the west end of the bridge as far as I could depending on traffic etc. Have lots of videos of that. Did get some stills towards the end. CN wasn't very nice to people.

Anybody have a photo of the Lionel B&LE SD-38 from 1995?  I thought I had a photo but can’t find it and I no longer have that engine.  It was uncataloged and sold as a J.C. Penney special in 1995 so it came with a display case and stand.  It pre-dated TMCC which is why I sold it.

 

If nobody posts a photo, there’s at least one for sale on eBay.

 

Bill

Here some BLE hoppers I painted and lettered

 

My local LHS has some nice custom painted B&LE engines. Would like to get one- an old orange and black.

Very nice hoppers Mark.

In all the years I lived in Pittsburgh, I was only lucky enough to see 1 train on that bridge over the Allegheny.  But I'll bet it's a long way down from that cab! 

 

George

Ex URR.

 

 

Texas on TT

 

 

A few more.

 

 

 

A Lynn Sontum custom paint.

 

 

 

 

 

Malcolm Byrd caboose

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fantasy coil coach

 

 

 

 

 

 

3rd Rail Texas

 

Hello all,  Although my B&LE roster is not as prototypical as the last poster, I have quite a few items on my 1968-1970's layout, modeled when I worked on the B&LE.

14 Rust colored LIONEL ore cars ,13 orange LIONEL coal hoppers, 2 black custom gondolas, 2 custom black flatcars, 2 custom cabooses, an MTH AS 616 that I use as my yard switcher, 3 LIONEL SD38S, a custom FA&B with old B&LE winged herald. To go with my B&LE roster, I have added 2 MTH DMIR flatcars, one with a CN ISO tank....grrrrr,  2 custom Union RR gondolas (ex Lionel),and a custom Union RR flatcar. All items are O scale. My layout is old school, painted plywood with 0/27 trackage, and filled with many scratchbuilt and a few, storebought items. Mostly static, except for track power.

Just what I wanted to create !          Rick

As a followup, to my initial post, I also have a custom B&LE decorated Lionel 2-6-4 (ex Union Pacific) with tender, and 3 B&LE decorated ex Williams passenger cars I use as a scenic excursion train. The sides are decaled on opposite sides with Branchton, Greenville, Saxonburg, Albion, Conneaut Lake and Butler, making an illusion of having 6 different cars. I also have a custom B&LE coil car, and 2 MTH B&LE sand cars......

I always did marvel at their big bridge just NE of Pittsburgh.... then I noticed their tunnel constructed near Braddock...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Going way back...

 

Between Curtisville and Culmerville, ~ 1905

photo by Leonard Monnier

 

 

B&LE tunnel at Culmerville being removed, 1922

photo by B&LE RR

　

from:

A CENTURY AND A HALF OF PROGRESS

courtesy of:

The 150th Anniversary Committee of West Deer Township

 

Dave

Love it !!  The models and the photos !!  Knew the line from  Rt8 to North Bessemer very well.  Th crews grew to recognize me and I was never hassled while taking pictures, even standing at the end of the Allegheny R. bridge but never went out on it. Chased the western Allegheny more than once too.

We used the B&LE Bridge as the model with some modifications and a color change we wished we had the room to do it to scale

Sam,

 

Here is a short video of the latest tunnel motors from MTH.  These are 2 rail versions, with fixed pilots and Kadees, converted to 3R

 

Dave

 

Lionel 6-9769 B&LE Traditional size boxcar. This car has a stamped metal underframe and non-sprung plastic trucks.

 

 

Do not know if this is a prototype paint and lettering scheme for a B&LE single door boxcar?

 

 

I grew up in curtisville by the crossing and scale house I remember when my father took pictures of the "new" diesels wish I could find those pictures now,,,,anyway a few of my b&le  or as my uncle called it the bessamary (his wife was named mary)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

B&LE lives on, just in new colors. This tunnel motor was painted in June 2015, shown here at Madison, IL,  June 9, waiting to be sent back home after painting.

 

Dan

sorry to see the paint change,,but that's progress I reckon

 

I'm sorry to se it too.  Actually I am surprised it took this long.  At least they have BLE painted under the cab window.

If it ain't orange and black, it ain't a Bessemer !!   RIP old B&LE.