by JT76
Anyone have pics or information on the EX BR&P locomotives that the B&O aquired when they took over the line in 1932? When were the last ones retired, I dont believe there are any survivors besides the 0-6-0 in Ohio (?)
Railroad Forums
scottychaos wrote:Balto,It came from William D. Edson's "Steam Locomotives of the Baltimore & Ohio - All-Time Roster", self-published by Edson in 1992. Bill was the country's premier locomotive roster guy, and knew his stuff well. This is pretty much the bible of B&O steam power, and also covers all the major acquired lines from their beginnings. The book lists each individual locomotive, and also includes diagrams of many classes. Bill died several years ago, unfortunately, and the book itself went out of print fairly quickly. In checking it on Google, though, it looks like there are a lot of used copies out there.
thanks for the BR&P list! (above)
Where did that data come from?
is it in a B&O book?
B&O grandson wrote:My Uncle who lives in Cleveland Ohio and grew up in a small coal mining town of Adrian Mines said to me that you have to remember that the BR&P never hauled freight.Hi Grandson,
Although they did haul freight for their company stores and they also had some sort of passenger service. Although the trolley which serviced the area around Punxsutawney - the Jefferson Traction Company probably went out of business in the 1920's and most trolleys were burned or scrapped when the modern bus came along.
The same is true with the steam locomotive.
Because the locomotive was used to haul coal, it was taken care of very well, but when the diesel electric locomotives came along, it was not economically feasible to keep up shops such as Altoona or Dubois or Salamanca and it was cheaper for them to run them into the ground and take them out of service and replace them with the newer diesel engines then to try to maintain the infrastructure needed for steam engines. Places such as Cloe Lake was still off limits to the public, even in the 1960's. Even though the locomotives were not in service, the railroad still owned the property and did not allow people on their property, even for the purpose of recreational fishing and camping and hiking.
As I explained to a local weatherperson - Joe Murgo of WTAJ. The reason why most towns along the line in the state of Pennsylvania were not more then 27 miles apart was due to the fact that - that was the distance that a locomotive could go on one tank of water. Most towns that were along a grade were 20 miles or less apart. When you went to a diesel, you could travel as far as you wanted on one tank of fuel and you did not have to stop until the end of the shift or until you got to your destination.
The coal tracks below my house were still there in the early 70's, until such a time as when the BR&P felt that they were not coming back. Then they tore them out and sold the rail to the Kovalchick Corporation and the right of ways were sold in the 80's to anyone that wanted to buy them. Kolvalchick's also got a lot of the right of ways in the deal when the tracks were removed.
Since many of the towns and mines were also purchased by the Kolvalchicks, it stands to reason that some of the engines that were in the possession of the B&O - also went to the Kolcalchicks and went to the scrap yards where they were cut into little pieces and sent to the steel mills to be processed into new steel.
The downfall of the BR&P railroad on paper was that it did not haul freight.
Since there was many paper railroads in the US back then, it also stands to reason that although the name changed to the B&O, the principal owners of the railroad was still the same people who owned the BR&P. If there was a profit to be made, they would have switched the name back to the BR&P faster then you could say Mississippi.
By the 1950's, when the price of coal was low enough that it was not profitable to mine it by hand, most operators went to the strip mine operation of mining coal, where they could remove it more cheaply with machinery then by hand and then with no reclamation laws on the books, they could just leave and it didn't cost them a dime to reclaim the land. Then when the government came out with the laws to reclaim the land, the coal operators were paid a second time to go back and reclaim the land and strip the coal a second time for free.
With coal being able to be moved easier by coal truck then by train, the day of the railroad came to a quick end. I can remember the B&O and Chessie System with new vehicles on railroad cars when I was a kid attending school in Punxsutawney at the junior high which was directly across from the train station in the middle of the town. The same holds true with that. When was the last time you saw new automobiles being hauled with the G&W or the B&P railroad?
As I explained to a local weatherperson - Joe Murgo of WTAJ. The reason why most towns along the line in the state of Pennsylvania were not more then 27 miles apart was due to the fact that - that was the distance that a locomotive could go on one tank of water.interesting theory!
The downfall of the BR&P railroad on paper was that it did not haul freight.not really..it hauled lots of freight.
Since there was many paper railroads in the US back then, it also stands to reason that although the name changed to the B&O, the principal owners of the railroad was still the same people who owned the BR&P. If there was a profit to be made, they would have switched the name back to the BR&P faster then you could say Mississippi.you are a little confused on names..
Places like Adrian, Walston, Kramer, Helevatia, Rossiter were all bought and paid for with railroad moneyKramer PA??