Hojack Plow Photos

Conrail6467 wrote:
I'd like to find his collection. I have been searching alot and have found little to no pictures on the East portion from Rock Beach to Ontario. I've began construction of my first Hojack layout module.

PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING: (Admins please indulge me here) Poor Ted left us in the 1970's. I'm not sure if he even hit 20 years of age. He was working on his vehicle when a jack slipped, or something similar. I know far too many people who have met untimely ends like this. If you do your own mechanical work, please keep safety in mind always. Don't trust any one means of supporting a car if you are going to be under it - use at least 2 separate and unrelated means so if one fails, you have a backup. It may seem like like a PITA, but it could save your life.

"Using overkill is better than being under-kill!"

I don't know what became of Ted's photo collection. Anybody know where it went?

Regarding the Walker snow plow work extra:

Recall Jeff Baxter being there, as well.

A few days later the job was located standing near Barker. No activity at that location, however.

BR&P wrote:

Conrail6467 wrote:
I'd like to find his collection. I have been searching alot and have found little to no pictures on the East portion from Rock Beach to Ontario. I've began construction of my first Hojack layout module.

PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING: (Admins please indulge me here) Poor Ted left us in the 1970's. I'm not sure if he even hit 20 years of age. He was working on his vehicle when a jack slipped, or something similar. I know far too many people who have met untimely ends like this. If you do your own mechanical work, please keep safety in mind always. Don't trust any one means of supporting a car if you are going to be under it - use at least 2 separate and unrelated means so if one fails, you have a backup. It may seem like like a PITA, but it could save your life.

"Using overkill is better than being under-kill!"

I don't know what became of Ted's photo collection. Anybody know where it went?

I can't agree with these words enough, and will admit to being careless doing the same things when I worked on
my vehicles. I was also careless and reckless at times as a skilled machinist, trying to be a hero and overdoing it
as far as lifting heavy machine parts instead of asking for help. I ruined my spine as a result. Even non-fatal injuries
can affect a person's life.

To make this railroad-related, this shop I worked in for close to a decade bordered the west side of the Charlotte Runner
and I watched many 3-unit lashups of Conrail B23-7's hauling loaded coal-hoppers to Kodak!

Sorry for rambling on, folks. Even if BR&P's and these words help one person, then it made a difference. Back to your
regularly scheduled programming.

Charlie

TB Diamond wrote:Regarding the Walker snow plow work extra:

Recall Jeff Baxter being there, as well.

A few days later the job was located standing near Barker. No activity at that location, however.

Maybe it was Jeff I was thinking of instead of Jim. Whoever it was had to leave early to protect domestic harmony and missed the action.

As I recall (which may not be 100% after all this time) the CTA was snowed in at Kent or Carlton but may have cut the power off - I seem to remember cars but no engine, and they had used a payloader to remover the snow around them as best they could.

That whole deal was probably 2 weeks after the storm itself - originally that snow was probably 20 feet deep but in the intervening time it had settled and compacted. It probably would have been even more dramatic if they had plowed it while it was still light and fluffy.

Returning to the topic, I'm looking forward to the book. The farther back you go, the more the Rochester area had to offer rail-wise. Unfortunately, as the ease of photography and number of railfan photographers rose, there was a corresponding drop in what was available to see. These guys probably hit an optimum decade when there were good cameras and enough guys using them, but there was still a few of the industries and branches which have since vanished.

I know Morning Sun deals with color. It's too bad somebody years ago did not make a book from John Woodbury's B&W pics. He started in about the 1930's or so. And his negatives have been sold off far and wide to countless people.

Maybe the mods can extract the snowplow-on-the-Hojack stuff for a new thread - it's not my intent to hijack the discussion of the upcoming book release.

I found 6 slides I took that day.

1. Looking east at the cut through the snow, with the plow backed up about a quarter mile ready to make another run at it.
2. Brakeman Marty Jensen standing in the cut, arm over his head. He was not a short man but the snow where the plow pushed it is probably 5 feet over his upstretched hand.
3. From the cupola of the plow looking westward at unbroken snow drifts stretching as far as you can see.
4. Engineer Mickey Centrone in the PC 2340. The snow berm is about to the bottom of the engine cab window.
5. The front of plow NYC X618 sticking out from the cut at the crossing
6. The CTA snowed in at Carlton. This may have been taken a day or two later. No engine. The train was eastbound it appears, and was stopped just west of the road. 2 reefers ahead (from Waterport Cold Storage), a boxcar, then about a half dozen tank cars, then more cars I can't make out easily.

I know what box the movies are in. I guess I need to get them (and all the other movies) converted to a DVD before the film dies of old age, if it hasn't yet!

With regard to the missing photos, the most likey course would be to find any surviving family and contact them.

lvrr325 wrote:With regard to the missing photos, the most likey course would be to find any surviving family and contact them.

Agreed. I mentioned it here because as I recall Ted was in the NRHS, and maybe someone who knew him back then is a reader here and knows more details. I believe he was killed in about 1977.

It would be nice to obtain those old pictures.

Not just the Plow photos, but also the east end photos as well. I'm doing the West end which I know so it will be easier. The East end has nothing. I don't even have a track plan because there is so little available.

Reference East Hojack photos: Went through my negatives and found the following taken on 13 May 1974 of OS-1/SO-2 which had Penn Central Alco RS3 5238 for power:

1. & 2.) Departing Oswego Yard on the "Red Line".
3.) About to pass under Rt. 104.
4.) On high fill near Hannibal.
5.) Passing old grain elevator east of Sterling Station.
6.) Passing a large white house at Sterling Station.
7.) At Red Creek.
8.) Arriving at Wolcott.
9.) Serving customer at Wolcott.
10.) Departing Wolcott after running around train.
11.) Arriving at Red Creek.

Dark, overcast day so was utilizing Kodak Tri-X film.

Up until the early to mid 60's NYC used to keep a plow or plows at Charlotte. They Usually stayed in the North Yard. I guess that way they were handy whenever needed instead of having to send one down from Rochester. I have a slide from 1955, at which time there were 3 tracks there. Two of the tracks had one plow each, the third track had one caboose. The tracks themselves were longer, all 3 could have fit on one track easily.

TB Diamond wrote:Reference East Hojack photos: Went through my negatives and found the following taken on 13 May 1974 of OS-1/SO-2 which had Penn Central Alco RS3 5238 for power

I'd love to see those photos. I've hiked and cycled the old ROW (now a public trail), and it is a beautiful area.

Does anyone have photos of Webster?

SteelRail wrote:
I'd love to see those photos. I've hiked and cycled the old ROW (now a public trail), and it is a beautiful area.

It wasn't so wonderful about 2AM in the middle of a lake effect snowstorm!

FWIW NYC derailed a plow at Furniss about 1948. Not sure of details but I believe it was way more than just a couple wheels on the ground. Conductor was Sickercal (sp?) brakemen Suhr and Sweet.

Am amazed that two stations appearing in a few of my East Hojack photos remain extant: Wolcott and Red Creek.

Scanned a few of the photos and sent them to a person from the Sodus area who was going to author a book on railroads local to Sodus. Do not believe the book ever came out, however.

Went through my Walker slides and came up with the following:

1.) Plow hitting drift just west of NY Rt. 260. Snowplow on both ends of the train.
2.) Plow again hitting drift, 8-12' high at this point. Trailing plow now cut off and tied down east of NY Rt. 260.
3.) Plowing through drift about 100' further west.
4.) Plow stopped. Snow is level with plow side window.
5.) Plow striking drift at speed. Only flying snow visible.
6.) Plow at a crawl just a few seconds after last photo.
7.) Train standing just east of NY Rt. 260.

Also took b&w photos of the same activity. The next day, 13 February 1977, the job was caught at West Kendall Road (Not Barker as previously posted). The passage of almost 39 years does fade the memory. Thank goodness for my notes.