Steam Trough Canada & Buffalo

Train through Hamburg at 12:05pm., spotted by my father in law, CSX power on the point.

Brooks

Steam through buffalo and beyond.

Here is a little bit about my day chasing the CP steam. This was my first time that I have never tried chasing a train period let alone a steam through CSX trackage in Buffalo and down to Ohio.

The day started with the CPR 2816 and SOO SD-60 6046 in the lead with 7 cars behind not counting the 2 tenders coming over the International Bridge. So I never got to shoot the steam under its own power. It was overcast with breaks of sun but it got worse as the day went on. CPR 2816 stopped just on the American side with the majority of the train on the swing bridge and the head end over River Road for about 10 minutes. Then I heard that the next stop would be at Delaware for a crew change, not CP Sycamore. So a group of us went from there to Del-Arrow plaza at the corner of Delaware Ave and Great Arrow Ave. Looking north onto the belt line, the consist was going across the bridge painted in original NYC lettering. The crew changed happened so the CPR Hudson and the 2 tenders were on the bridge. We got a few pictures here from standing in the median. The look on some of the faces of the cars going by was priceless.

Next we were off to the Stock Yard near Buffalo Central Terminal. After the CSX train cleared the interlocking at CP 437 that went into emergency, which later we learned from a break in the train, we got a nice couple of pictures there. After that we tried to catch it at the Ford plant, but missed it. What helped us in casing this is the speed restriction of 50 mph and the fact that it tripped every defect detector on the line. So the next stop was to Dunkirk where the train stopped for a little while to grease up. Now at this point I was out of fuel and out film and missed the photo ops at State Line and North East.

The final stop of the day was at the Conneaut (Ohio) station where there were about 100 people out to see this steam train come through. Now what happened here was great-- the clouds broke and there was beautiful sunshine and CPR 2816 stopped to grease up so I was able to take a number of pictures and hopefully they turn out nice. It was a valuable experience and really taught me a lot about railfanning with a number of people. For the entire trip the smallest crowd I saw was about 2 dozen people, and it helped with the principle of looking to see where people are and not to get into their shots. This was a great time and I can’t wait to do it again.

Chris

I waited 10 years to catch a steam engine on my day off and I missed it by 30 minutes. I wish I would have read that last post this morning instead of tonight. I heard (after the fact) that it even went past Central Terminal...........unreal.

-B in B

I can't sem to find a link on there web site, but this morning channel 4 (wivb) out of Buffalo did a terrific story on the train passing through Buffalo. Anybody else get a chance to see her??

Reported past me at Calumet Tower (Csx/IHB) at 3:17 pm and lookin good! Boy, its nice to see steam around here. Almost missed it though, so i followed it to barr yard and got some more video of it leaving after the crew change.

Looking to trade print photos through the US mail with anyone that got pic's of the steamer when it came through Buffalo. I've got lots of trains, ships, and industry shots from the Buffalo, Lackawanna, Tonawanda areas to trade in 4"X6" format. Let me know. Thanks. [email protected].

-Brian in Bflo.