Endless Mountain Rails

There are Alcos on the point, plus a steam-locomotive. (Photo by Alex Mayes.)

The October 2010 issue of my National Railway Historical Society (NRHS) bulletin has a large report of their June convention in nearby Scranton, PA.
Every year the nationwide National Railway Historical Society, which I’m a member of, holds a national annual convention somewhere in the country.
It’s become a railfan event, rail excursions, and rare-mileage trips.
Rare mileage trips are over railroads that rarely see passenger service. Railfans pursue these trips to add to their mileage records. Of particular interest is riding railroads that never see passenger service, only freight.
I considered going to this convention. Scranton is only 5-6 hours away.
I’m a railfan, and have been since age 2 (I’m 66).
It includes Steamtown, a national park in the old Delaware, Lackawanna & Western (DL&W) roundhouse and yards.
Steamtown also has a few operating steam-locomotives.
I’ve ridden at least two Steamtown steam-locomotive excursions.
Restored antique diesel locomotives are nice, but there’s nothing like steam.
Sadly, Steamtown’s two operating excursion steam-locomotives are both Canadian, but an American steam-locomotive, Boston & Maine #3713, is being made operable there.
It’s not like the old days, when steam-locomotives were the norm. 3713 has been being restored for years.
“Endless Mountain Rails” pulled out all the stops.

Photo by Mike Salfi.

Lots of excursions were planned, and another restored steam locomotive was being brought in, ex Gulf, Mobile & Ohio Pacific (4-6-2) #425 (at left), now operated by Reading (“RED-ing;” not “REED-ing”), Blue Mountain & Northern, which operates many of the old Reading Railroad anthracite-coal branches in northeastern PA.
I didn’t go; too many unknowns.
As a stroke-survivor I can’t handle guessing-games.
I also know steam-locomotive excursions often go haywire.
I’ve done a few.
One got in at 3 a.m., six hours late.
Things can go wrong, and usually do.
Railfans are flexible, and can usually accept that.
But 3 a.m. was over-the-top.
And part of that was sitting dormant over two hours while a piddling single fire-hydrant filled two huge tenders of a steam-locomotive.
And at midnight the steam-locomotive ran out of coal.
We were in Erie, PA, and had to be rescued by diesel-locomotives from Buffalo.
And all that time we were kept in the dark. What little information I gleaned was from scanner-chatter; railroad radio scanners monitored by railfans.
To do Endless Mountain Rails I’d have to reserve hotel-space in an unknown city.
—Although the convention was gonna be based in Radisson Inn, the old DL&W Scranton station.
Plus, I’d have to find my way to railfan excursions, that might go haywire.
I chased trains in Altoona, PA (“al-TUNE-uh;” as in the name “Al”) that weekend with Phil Faudi (“FOW-dee;” as in “wow”) instead.
Phil is the railfan extraordinaire who supplied all-day train-chases for $125. —I did one two years ago, alone, and it blew my mind.
Faudi had his rail-scanner along, tuned to 160.8, the Norfolk Southern operating channel, and knew the whereabouts of every train, as the engineers called out the signals, and various lineside defect-detectors fired off.
He knew each train by symbol, and knew all the back-roads, and how long it took to get to various photo locations — and also what made a successful photo — lighting, drama, etc.
I let Phil do the monitoring. I had a scanner myself, but left it behind.
Phil knew every train on the scanner, where it was, and how long it took to beat it to a prime photo location.
Phil is gonna give it up; fear of liability suits, and a really nice car he’s afraid he’d mess up.
With Faudi I wasn’t in the unknown.
Plus it’s railfan overload on a Faudi Adventure-Tour.
Trains willy-nilly!
It was our wildest Adventure-Tour yet; and the weather was fabulous, sky of blue without a single cloud.
My best photograph was at Alto (“al-toe;” as in the name “Al”) Tower in Altoona (below) with Faudi, about 8 p.m., sun going down (it’s June).


(Photo by BobbaLew.)

So my bulletin was a let-down.
Look what I missed!
Yeah, I missed passenger-coaches with failed air-conditioning, sweating by windows that wouldn’t open, in air that wouldn’t move.
And trying to find our hotel-room with 700 others.
Dog in the slammer.
With trains frequently passing Faudi and I, him nailing every one.

• I had a stroke October 26, 1993.
• Steam-locomotives boil water to produce steam. That water is stored in a tender behind the locomotive. Restored excursion steam-locomotives often draw two tenders, due to the lack of line-side water-towers any more. Steam-locomotives usually burn coal to boil the water, but sometimes fuel-oil if coal’s not readily available.