Steamtown Lackawanna Railfest Nov. 2-4, 2007

Sorry to disappoint, Otto, but the NYO&W 116 isn't coming in. However, the pieces that are in are a very colorful addition to the complex, without taking away from the 2 operable steamers. I also noticed that the DL&W 426 and Reading 467 are getting a change of scenery for the event.

A few of us realized tonight that the Water Gap excursion will begin in near darkness with the sun hitting it almost as it reaches Tobyhanna. A very unusual occurance, since Daylight savings time is so late this year.

Here are some of my shots
30th Street at 7:10 AM
West Philly High Line
Juniata Terminal cars
Easton
Phillipsburg
Juniata Terminal Varnish
Martins Creek

Here are the E's going through Pottstown.

Len.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=hIE9-a7uEOk

Seeing as how I'm not going to make the Nov.3 festivities in Scranton, does anyone have an accurate departure time for the PRR E-8's on sunday morning. If possible, I'd like to catch them there before they leave!

Here is a nice story in the Pocono Record. Nice, focused and well framed video of the E-8's going through the Delaware Water Gap.

http://poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a ... /711030335

7:15 AM EST

I went to Railfest today.

I really enjoyed the visiting diesels. Kudos to the DL for putting the freshly painted S6 on display along with the twin paired RS3s.

D&H 7312 was on display along with the NY&GL loco and the two PRR engines.

The best part of the day was the trolley ride up to Montage. Very impressive and scenic...

I was a little surprised at the 7 wooden pieces of equipment that are just sitting out in the open with little or no protection. You can see right through the roofs of two passenger cars. The Claremont & Concord snowplow doesn't look very good. The StJ&LC caboose is in horrible shape with a big hole in the roof. Two Green Mountain cabooses are in rough shape along with the D&H flanger.

It looked like a couple of passenger cars derailed next to the Bridge 60 tower when I left at 7:45.

Be sure to vist the trolley museum. They had an HO railroad set up along with some vendors.

Chris

Bennett Levin wrote:7:15 AM EST

Mr. Levin, thank you for the departure time. Allow me to say that its an honor to be answered by you. I truly admire you and your contribution to railroading. We need more individuals such as yourself in this arena, particularly in New Jersey. Your magnificent E-8's are a wonderful memorial to the legacy of the PRR.

Unfortunately, 7:15am is a bit early for me considering I'm an hour and a half from Scranton. I hope to catch them on their return to Philadelphia.

Thank you!

Here are a few more pix.

John

http://jovos.smugmug.com/gallery/3764139

very nice photos. very well done.
Len.

I was up at Steamtown yesterday for the Delaware Water Gap Excursion, and though the train was late and had trouble making the trip back to scranton under steam alone, was probably one of my favorite trips of all time, although also one of the latest. The 10 car (excluding engines) train consisted of 7 coaches, 1 first, 1 buisness, and one privite car on the end carrying the superintendent of the park and was pulled to Battle point with 2 DL diesel engines assisted by steam engine 3254 facing westbound. At battlefield point, the steam engine was cut off the be inspected and the 2 diesel engines pulled us to delaware water gap. Up to this point everything was working fine and we came back to East Stroudsburg for a 2 hour Layover while the train went up to battlefield point to swich the private cars to the other end of the train, lose the diesels and attach the steam engine which was planned to pull the 10 car train unassisted all the way back to Scranton. When we all reboarded the train to head back to Cresco and Steamtown, the engine had quite a bit of trouble pulling our heavy train. So much so that we re posisioned our photo run by to Cresco station. As the train went by, it seemed to be moving very slow and it seemed questionable that we could make it back to scranton. We continued with our trip west until about 4 miles after cresco at which point our steam engine stalled and lost her grip on the track and, sadly we stopped for 30 minutes to call back the diesels to help pull us back. The diesels came and pulled us to Tobbyhana (we are now 1 hour late) and we stop again, at which point the passengers begin to get restless. 30 minutes later we are informed that the diesels went ahead and the steam engine was to pull us back alone again. At this point I was worried that our train would stall again and make us later. But we did make it back to scranton at 6:05 PM (about 1.5 hrs late) and we got off the train. Though the train was late and everyone was tired and wanted to go home and sleep, I was amazed at how the train crew performed in the situation and were able to remain in a happy, joking mood with the passenger's when they themselfs were tired and wanted to relax.

Overall even though everything went wrong, I would do it again.

A posting on another site advised that the train subsequently derailed when backing into the yard, and this blocked the yard throat. Anyone have further details on that report?

Apparently from a couple peoples stories is that it was setting up for the night shot and was going to backup so it went out the west side of the yard on the left track, and was going to backup onto the third set of rails. while backing up, the switch apparently threw itself back over so that the last car ended up on the 1st set of rails that it started on, there are drag marks to indicate that the train still was moving until the train crew saw that something was wrong as the second to last car was almost perpendicular to the Last car and the rest of the train. As of 1 pm on Sunday they might bring a crane in either monday or tuesday to lift Car # 550, Painted in the Lackawanna colors.

The Saturday steam trip was interesting to photograph even if the weather didn't cooperate. I followed the PRR E's from Scranton (they left right on the mark at 7:15- or pretty close to it) to Binghamton and as far west as Waverly before I decided to turn back. Visiting with some folks at ELDCPS and toured the City of Lima- nice looking car and the group should be proud of their efforts! We can expect more good things in the future.

I paid my admission to Steamtown even though I didn't stay long- anything to support the event and see what they can pull off for next year. It has to start somewhere.

I saw a lot of people that weekend, nice to get out into the Poconos again and see old friends!

Talk to you soon!

-otto-

The time change at 0200 Sunday allowed sufficient light to photograph the 0720 departure of the Susquehanna, shown at Steamtown station prior to departure.
moving out
passing DL Alco C425 2452 and the derailed Steamtown excursion train
passenger on Little Juniata Rapids photographing the derailment
Pennsylvania 120