Outlaw speeders from 40 years ago

[BR&P]

Belfast on the Erie River Line?

JR

Well, that didn't take long!

Sorry Russ, not this time. But I may have some of those as well, I'll keep looking and sorting.

[RussNelson]

That was going to be my next guess.

[BR&P]

Time to poke this dormant thread back to life. A couple pics from 1979. Altho the River Line was out of service from River Jct to Cuba Jct, at the latter point CR had shoved some surplus cars into the siding for storage. Since some boxcars back then still had roofwalks, they made a nice vantage point for photography.

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[charlie6017]

Nice shots, Don! That must have been a fun speeder trip over the River Line. You wouldn't pay me enough to look down from those
two viaducts, though!

Charlie

[rhallock]

Did any of you videotape the line on your trip? I would love to see that.

[cjvrr]

Great stuff!

[BR&P]

Personally I did take some 8mm movies on a few of the trips but cannot recall whether this line was one of them. It's taken me this many years to start sorting out slides, I may need to live to 100 before I get to the action stuff!

I have pretty much lost touch with others who were there - at least one man in those pics - Henry Pape, with the white object in his hand in the second pic - passed away 35 years ago. But I'll put out a few feelers and see if I can come up with some.

I spoke of how it was a different world back then in terms of liability and enforcement. Another way things were different was we just didn't have the phone on our hip to take video - with sound - everywhere we went. I just wish we could take today's technology back in time for what we saw, but did not record.

[BR&P]

Well, I went looking for a couple River Line viaduct shots to tweak Charlie's vertigo but have not found them yet. But here's a couple from the Adirondack which might be interesting. The first is at Nehasane, Dr Webb's private station. Looks like at least 7 speeders in that photo. This was also the site of a nasty head-on between 2 freights in 1953 or so.

The second shot is in the woods at Brandreth, which used to be an old logging camp, and was the location of a fairly extensive rail operation for that industry. An old truck had been rolled down a hill as junk deep in the woods, and one of the speeder group noticed it still has a transmission which he could use. Tools were produced, and the tranny was rescued from an eternity of rusty oblivion. I know it's not a pic of rail equipment, but thought it shows some of the adventure which was enjoyed.

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[BR&P]

OK, here's the ones I was looking for, and it turns out they were taken by forum member Checkit. Slides processed in October 1978 so probably the previous summer for a timeframe. I believe the first shot was Fillmore, and the other 2 were Belfast but can't swear to it.

As a side note, the first time I ran that line there were only 2 of us, on one speeder. We got an early start and it was quite foggy in the valleys. We knew about Belfast, and knew we were not near it yet. Suddenly we rolled out onto a trestle and the earth just vanished in the clouds. Couldn't tell if we were up 50 feet or 5 miles! Eventually we reached the other side, but it was a bit unsettling for a little bit! That was my introduction to Fillmore!

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[charlie6017]

Those are some great photos.........I made sure to take some dramamine before viewing!

Enjoyed the story and pics of the old Adirondacks, too. That was a neat operation back in Webb's day. I'm
not sure if you have a copy of John Ham's and Timothy Mayers' book on the Adirondack Division, but it's worth
reading.

Charlie

[BR&P]

A few posts above, I showed some scavenging at Brandreth on the Adirondack line. I believe these are from that same trip, and show what was recovered from the old logging town site. Antique fans, note the toy steam shovel, bottles, and lanterns, including the bell bottom one hanging on the speeder! This was not the entire entourage for the weekend, just a few of the folks present.

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[charlie6017]

Cool stuff you guys gathered up.......even a few "old time" Genesee beer cans present!

Charlie

[tree68]

Unfortunately, Nehasane station looks nothing like that now...

[BR&P]

Unfortunately, Nehasane station looks nothing like that now...

Didn't they burn it down, to make room for about 3 more trees which were so urgently needed? Damn nut cases want to erase every trace of mankind in the whole park.

[tree68]

The lodge was burned down some time ago. As of October of 2016, the station was still there, such as it is.