Well, as those who live in NH know, it was quite rainy and dreary at Conway today- some updates and scuttlebutt I overheard:
Apparently the 2ea GE's they picked up for the Notch train are in pretty poor shape. The master Mechanic, Courtney, has been working very hard to repair a nagging leak (not sure what kind of leak) with the unit still painted in Quincy Bay livery. It is in stall 1 on the roundhouse. The Conrail painted unit is still outside. The conversation I overheard from the conductor went something like "they could have bought 5 GP9's with dynamics for the money they spent on the GE's and the GE's are harder to get parts for and fix too" so we will see what happens
0-6-0 7470 is close to firing up, save to the cracked firebox which will <hopefully> be repaired this winter. With the new ownership committed to steam let's hope this comes to fruitition
Same conductor speculated that the 501 will be restored right after the 7470 is done. Let's see how long that takes.
The yellow 44T they picked up (the 350?) apparently has coupler problems at both ends where they stretch and slack excessively. This still needs to be worked out
F7A 4266,GP7 573,Alco S4 1055 and FP9's 6505 and 6516 were all out and running; the 4266 on helper, the 573 on the valley train (and helped us on the Sawyer river extra get back to Conway) and the 1055 was on freight extra duty, smoking all the way. 6505 and 6516 on the Notch train to Whitefield and back.
The train I was on was the Sawyer River passenger extra behing 44 Ton #15 and one passenger car, the Mount Willard. Courtney was at the throttle and expertly piloted the train, past Roger's crossing and past fourth Iron to the passing track at the former Sawyer River station house up the steep (at points) grade. Note that one of the engines in #15 is inoperable (blowing out antifreeze, when it DID run according to Court) and Courtney managed to make it up the grade with only 1ea 380 HP engine. "On a wing and a prayer" in his words. We then backtracked past Mountain junction and went on the newly rebuilt section of the former Maine Central Mountain Div, a few miles, backtracked to Mountain Jct; where the 573 coupled to us and pulled us back to N Conway.
All in all, save for the weather, a great experience. The 4 hr roundtrip ride was $15 and they guys earned the tips for sure.
Pictures @ photos.nerail.org under Dave Ricard
Apparently the 2ea GE's they picked up for the Notch train are in pretty poor shape. The master Mechanic, Courtney, has been working very hard to repair a nagging leak (not sure what kind of leak) with the unit still painted in Quincy Bay livery. It is in stall 1 on the roundhouse. The Conrail painted unit is still outside. The conversation I overheard from the conductor went something like "they could have bought 5 GP9's with dynamics for the money they spent on the GE's and the GE's are harder to get parts for and fix too" so we will see what happens
0-6-0 7470 is close to firing up, save to the cracked firebox which will <hopefully> be repaired this winter. With the new ownership committed to steam let's hope this comes to fruitition
Same conductor speculated that the 501 will be restored right after the 7470 is done. Let's see how long that takes.
The yellow 44T they picked up (the 350?) apparently has coupler problems at both ends where they stretch and slack excessively. This still needs to be worked out
F7A 4266,GP7 573,Alco S4 1055 and FP9's 6505 and 6516 were all out and running; the 4266 on helper, the 573 on the valley train (and helped us on the Sawyer river extra get back to Conway) and the 1055 was on freight extra duty, smoking all the way. 6505 and 6516 on the Notch train to Whitefield and back.
The train I was on was the Sawyer River passenger extra behing 44 Ton #15 and one passenger car, the Mount Willard. Courtney was at the throttle and expertly piloted the train, past Roger's crossing and past fourth Iron to the passing track at the former Sawyer River station house up the steep (at points) grade. Note that one of the engines in #15 is inoperable (blowing out antifreeze, when it DID run according to Court) and Courtney managed to make it up the grade with only 1ea 380 HP engine. "On a wing and a prayer" in his words. We then backtracked past Mountain junction and went on the newly rebuilt section of the former Maine Central Mountain Div, a few miles, backtracked to Mountain Jct; where the 573 coupled to us and pulled us back to N Conway.
All in all, save for the weather, a great experience. The 4 hr roundtrip ride was $15 and they guys earned the tips for sure.
Pictures @ photos.nerail.org under Dave Ricard
