Vintage Pre-Chessie B&O Slides - Digitized

[IronBeltKen]

I would like hear some of the recordings, as I am into the sounds of old EMD's. Any possibility of sending them to dropbox? I haven't tried posting sound files here but I don't think it will work.

Wish I woulda thought about this in my first reply to CGW-Tom: I don't have any of my OWN tapes, but here's somebody else's handiwork from 1975 on the WM (R.I.P.)...and they are the actual sounds, not dubbed-over!

 

[Bob]

Nice video! I especially like it since I've ridden over a portion of that line, including the famed "Helmstetter's Curve" on the Western Maryland Scenic RR.

 

[Bob]

I would like hear some of the recordings, as I am into the sounds of old EMD's. Any possibility of sending them to dropbox? I haven't tried posting sound files here but I don't think it will work.

You are correct, we don't support sound files posted directly. But you can do the same as video, post them elsewhere and then link to them.

I've seen people post sound files to Youtube by simply adding an image and then creating an MP4 file with the sounds.

Totally random sample: (Despite appearances, the video never changes)

 

[Bill Anderson]

I suspect everyone over the age of 60 has a favorite story of F units.

 

[IronBeltKen]

Dang, already 9:30 and I still haven't posted my next daily couple of slides! I've run out of the B&O original F-units, but there'll be a couple more C&O hand-me-downs later when I get to the 7000's.

Next one up is #5607, a freshly re-numbered [but NOT repainted] GP7 that I think was shifting Locust Point Yard. Notice how it still has remnants of the Sunburst scheme with the small Roman font "B&O" letters and the dotted sill stripe, but none of the actual sunburst pattern on the end. I caught it in late August 1972 - maybe a week or two before I went out to San Diego for Navy boot camp. [I couldn't really do much train-chasing there during those few months LOL!]

Here is a former C&O geep that kept its original [pre-B&O] number: #5936, working in Curtis Bay Yard. Still remarkably clean, I think all the B&O shop guys did was swap the large "C" on the side of the hood with a "B" and cover the C&O-for-Progress logo with a Capitol dome. Always liked how these units had their entire sill painted yellow, made them much more colorful IMHO:

...and this is another transplant from Huntington, #5981, with a standard B&O-style straight line sill stripe. One easy spotting feature back then was the distinctive "double-T" spark arrestors, so you could easily see her C&O heritage even if she approached you long-hood forward (without seeing the familiar bell above the short hood headlight).

G'nite gents, see you tomorrow!

 

[IronBeltKen]

Good evening, got some more geep photos; in fact, I'll be posting [1st-gen] geep pics for the next couple days because I've got more of those than any other loco type. Part of the reason for that is because, as older units, they had personality - very few of them looked exactly alike, after undergoing various patches, repairs and repaints. That's why I wanted to capture them on film if I had the opportunity.

Tonite I'll share what I've got of the 6400 series, starting with this rather tired-looking beast: #6402, a GP7 leading a work train at Point-of-Rocks, MD:

Here's a much cleaner unit, #6405 - which from this angle - looks like another typical B&O GP7:

...but go around to the short hood, and we see this:

The short hood headlight is mounted slightly above the middle, rather than at the top between the number boards. Not all of the 6400-thru-6424 units were this way, as you saw with 6402 [top photo]; but apparently there were a sizeable number of GP7's with the offset headlights; I saw a few of them on the C&O as well.

Now we're up to the GP9's. Here is what I call a "vanilla" B&O geep, #6458 with the 36-inch fans, triangular-capped spark arrestors, and the standard lettering and sill stripe; although maybe a tad dirtier than average. She was parked beside the roundhouse at Riverside:

A few weeks later I caught #6499 at Riverside, looking like she'd been in a wreck...but the motor was still idling:

(Hmmm, kinda resembles what us modelers refer to as a "floor model", something that made a four-foot dive from the layout to the concrete surface below!)

 

[IronBeltKen]

As I mentioned on Wednesday, there'll be more first-generation geep photos this evening - this time covering what I have of the 6500 series.

First up is #6503, parked beside the Riverside roundhouse. A somewhat non-descript unit, notable details include a nearly-full side "skirt" (similar to what most C&O geeps have) and a fully-enclosed headlight:

Next is another plain-Jane B&O geep, #6529 - this one looked like she'd been freshly repainted within the last week or two:

#6550 has no spotting features different from other typical B&O GP9's, but this side view is far enough away so one can easily see the four 36" fan covers and the "triangular mushroom" spark arrestors:

...and finally, here's one of the out-of-ordinary units: #6589, equipped with twin 48" radiator fans (instead of the usual four 36" fans) and still wearing what's left of her original paint scheme (pardon the mold damage). The spelled out "BALTIMORE AND OHIO" lettering is there, but barely discernible:

I painted and detailed a model of this unit, faithful to prototype except that I left most of the side lettering intact.

 

[IronBeltKen]

Yesterday we did the 6500's, tonight will be the 6600 series of B&O geeps.

First up is #6603, a "torpedo boat" GP9 with the air reservoirs on the roof to allow for a higher-capacity fuel tank.

These were initially used in passenger service and painted in the elegant blue-gray-black livery with Dulux Gold striping and lettering, similar to the F units. As the rail passenger business deteriorated throughout the Sixties, many had their steam generators removed and were relegated to freight use. And of course, they were repainted in the same dark blue with yellow trim as the other locos.

When I caught #6614 at Riverside, she had been repainted in the short-lived "sunburst" scheme, but after numerous trips thru the wash racks, the dark blue wore off and the earlier passenger colors became visible:

That wasn't the only interesting detail I noticed - there were also traces of Sunburst paint on the short-hood end:

Next, we have one of the earliest ~30 GP9 units adopted from the C&O - #6666 in solid Enchantment Blue with no yellow sill stripe:

...by far the least attractive of any of the dozen different paint schemes C&O applied to their 1st generation geeps!

The 6690-series were the GP7 "torpedo" units, which included #6697 - seen at Riverside in the fading sunlight, remarkably clean, in contrast to most of her sisters:

...and that's the last of the 1st-generation geeps in my slide collection. Next up will be the 6900's - the GP30's.







x

 

[Bruette]

Thanks Ken!

 

[Bill Anderson]

Thanks for the continuing photos. I only wish you had been around early enough to get photos of B&O Alco FA's and Baldwin Sharks.
Don't feel bad. I missed/passed up opportunities to photograph vintage units in the Northwest during my high school and college days in northern Idaho and eastern Washington in the late 60's - early 70's.

As the old song goes: "You don't know what you've got till its gone." (Big Yellow Taxi, Joni Mitchel)

 

[IronBeltKen]

Happy Saturday evening! Tonight I'll show you what I got of the 6900 series, e.g. the GP30's.

As I mentioned at the beginning of the thread, I was obsessed with finding as many of the first-generation locos as I could chase down. And for that reason, I didn't shoot very many pics of GP30s. I did notice however, that there were a few units that still had their Sunburst-era paint and lettering - the dashed-line sill stripes and small Roman letters for the "B&O" letters on the long hood. None of the ones I saw still had the sun rays on the nose - those had been painted over and replaced by the larger standard Capitol Dome decal.

Since by this time, the GP30s had already been around for ~10 years - many of them had accumulated a heavy patina of dust along the lower halves of their bodies...except for #6903, she was totally covered!

(That Bug at the far right of the image was mine; it appears in many of the slides I shot back in those days, sort of like a "wheres Waldo" object.)

On the far left you can also see the front of a Budd car parked in the Riverside roundhouse.

Same place, different unit: #6923 on the Riverside fueling track. At least here the yellow sill stripe still appeared...yellow!

The mold spot on the film make the image itself look as dirty as the loco...

Here is one of those rare occasions when I was able to capture a shot of a leading engine on a moving train - #6941, leading a Baltimore Terminal Drag toward the Howard Street Tunnel. Picture came out slightly out of focus - oh well...

It's amazing how time can really change one's perspective on things. In 1996 I was at the Contee Road grade crossing near Laurel, MD, watching an Eastbound CSX consist going by, and I saw - for the very first time - a former GP30 with no doors or vents on the long hood, nor radiator fans on the roof: a road slug. I felt kind of sad, knowing that it might have been one of the units I'd seen when they were all still in their prime.

That's it for today's set of photos, tomorrow will be the 7000 and 7400 series.

 

[IronBeltKen]

SInce this is Sunday - and the only day of the week where I can spend the entire day working on my layout, which is what I did - tonight's post will have to be a short one. It'll be about the 7000's, which include the B&O's "other" F units - those inherited from the C&O. You know how you tend to remember where you were and what you were doing when somebody broke some serious news to you, like telling you your job is being eliminated? Well my next story is about where I was when I learned, at age 16, a painful reality of the railroad business.

I was with my friend Joe S., my mentor on the B&O who basically taught me everything I knew about it up to this point. We were pulling into the station parking lot at Point-of-Rocks, MD, and I immediately caught sight of an ex-C&O F7 that was part of a helper consist covering the Old Main Line between PoR and Mount Airy. It was #7054 and had a lot of its original C&O yellow paint on the nose - in fact, it took me a few minutes before I discovered it was a B&O patch job. I asked Joe, "Is that C&O F unit being used in pool service?" "No, that one belongs to the B&O; C&O got rid of all their F units back in 1967." Say WHAT - a railroad without F units? Perish the thought! Joe continued: "The C&O got newer engines and unloaded all of their F7s on the B&O. In fact, even the B&O is phasing out their F units as they get more GP40's." I felt like I had just been told that a beloved family member had a terminal illness. (I won't bore you with the rest of the conversation...)

Anyway, about 15 months later, as I was coming down the driveway into Riverside, I saw what I thought was that unit (7054) - it had yellow on the nose. But as I got closer I saw it was NOT the one I saw in Point-of-Rocks, it didn't have as much yellow paint on the sides; in fact, there wasn't a whole lot of any color paint left on the body, period:

#7039 pretty much epitomized the Chessie attitude toward their cab units: "Don't waste any paint on 'em cuz they're not worth it anymore." It looked like something one would find at Streigel's or LTE, but she was fueled-up and idling - ready for more mainline use.

Earlier in the summer, during a road trip to the C&O loco shops at Huntington, WV, I saw a more typical hand-me-down F7 wearing the standard Enchantment Blue with a sill stripe: #7061. The only giveaway regarding this unit's heritage - aside from the number - was the dual headlight fixtures. The "double-T" spark arrestors had been replaced by the triangular mushroom covers:

Ironic how an engine discarded by the C&O wound up returning to its native property!

There's only one more slide in my collection with a number between 7000 and 7999, so I'll go ahead and throw that one in here. It's #7405, an SD35:

I'm not really sure what led me to photograph this unit, other than maybe the fact that she was a lone six-axle unit which was rarely seen on this region of the B&O. (OTOH, they were running them in four-unit consists as helpers over Seventeen Mile Grade in WV.) Ultimately, I did end up painting/decaling a model of this unit when Altas released a decent version of it 40 years later.

 

[Bill Anderson]

I recall a photo in Trains magazine from the late 70's or early 80's of a B&O unit sent to a former B&O shop to be repainted or relettered after a merger. Shop personnel managed to sneak it out of the shop with a new B&O paint job. Do you have a photo of the unit or more info on the story?

 

[IronBeltKen]

I recall a photo in Trains magazine from the late 70's or early 80's of a B&O unit sent to a former B&O shop to be repainted or relettered after a merger. Shop personnel managed to sneak it out of the shop with a new B&O paint job. Do you have a photo of the unit or more info on the story?

Haven't heard about that one; of course, after ~1973 I was away from Maryland due to my Navy enlistment, didn't really keep up with that sort of railfan news for the next 15 years. However, I do remember hearing that some Western Maryland shop employees snuck one of their Chessie-painted cabooses and repainted it in its original WM colors.

 

[IronBeltKen]

OOOOPs I missed a day , apologies to those of you who've been following the thread...

Today I have one slide of an 8000-series unit, then the rest of them will be from the 9000's.

First up is #8414, an SW-1. I was only 13 when I saw my very first one of these in downtown Baltimore - in the center of Pratt Street, pulling a few boxcars. My family had just moved to Maryland a few months earlier and this was our first visit to Charm City. Not sure about my parents, but I was certainly charmed by that street trackage!

4 years later, this time with camera in hand, I caught 8414 in Locust Point Yard:

Next, we're into the "Whistling Alco's", that's what their turbochargers made those switchers sound like to my untrained ears.

I caught S-4 #9079 at Riverside with an I-5d caboose #C2177, either newly arrived or waiting to depart to switch some local industries:

...and wouldn't you know it, a week later I saw one of her sisters, same place, same kind of consist: #9103 with I-5d #C2079:

That's all I've got time for tonight; tomorrow I'll post some S-2 shots.

 

[IronBeltKen]

More "whistling" Alco switchers today , this time S-2's.

Here's # 9115; those clouds of smoke are actually mold damage...but in a bizzarre way, they kind of add to the general atmosphere:

Looks like that body isn't fitting down properly onto the frame over the rear end. Reminds me of decoder installs where I would leave the wires too long and tangled, and couldn't snap the shell all the way onto the chassis...

Next one up is - coincidentally - #9116, at the Riverside fueling track.

Looks like she's within a few months of retirement, judging by the paint condition.

...and I caught #9138 "snoring" beside the Riverside roundhouse, probably the cleanest-looking unit I've seen among this local fleet of switchers:

That's it for tonite. Tomorrow I'll be showing some of the "oddball" motive power.

 

[IronBeltKen]

Happy Friday, forum dwellers! Now we've reached the upper-9000's of my personal collection.

First up is #9624A, the "cow" of a cow-and-calf TR4 switcher I caught on a cloudy evening beside the Riverside roundhouse:

Then we have the "calf" #9625, permanently MU'ed to 9624 in the preceding image:

...and of course, I had to show them together:

Next up is the Fairbanks-Morse switchers. Truth be told, I wasn't really interested in these - but a friend who was with me on this particular day urged me to go ahead and shoot them anyway, because "somebody might want to see them in the future, long after they're gone."

Even though I initially referred to them as "oddball" units, it's because they were unusual to me - I'd never actually seen them in action myself during the couple of years I'd been chasing trains, and I was accustomed to always seeing EMD power. All the FMs that I caught on film were mothballed; I doubt they ever ran again after I left the area. But many saw use around the Baltimore Terminal Division during the mid- to late 1960's.

Here is #9722, an H-12-44; with all those windows busted out, her prospects for returning to active use don't look very promising:

...and in this mold-damaged slide, we see two of her sisters: 9723 and 9726:

Next, we have #9743, an H-16-44 road switcher, nicknamed the "Baby Trainmaster". Back in the day, these were frequently used to power the terminal drags between the dozen yards located in and around Baltimore:

...and that completes the series of slides that I personally captured. Hope you enjoyed them. Barely a drop in the bucket among the thousands of B&O photos that other people have shot, many of which are viewable online at locations like George Elwood's excellent website, rr-fallenflags.org; also rrpicturearchives.net, and - for really high-quality photos - railpictures.net (but you'll need to use their built-in search engine to navigate to the B&O photos).

 

[Bill Anderson]

Next up is the Fairbanks-Morse switchers. Truth be told, I wasn't really interested in these - but a friend who was with me on this particular day urged me to go ahead and shoot them anyway, because "somebody might want to see them in the future, long after they're gone."

I'm glad you listened to your friend because FM units are among my favorite diesels. The mold damage reminds me of photos of the eruption of Mt. St. Helens with clouds of ash spreading as far east as Montana.